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Single Idea 3352

[filed under theme 1. Philosophy / F. Analytic Philosophy / 7. Limitations of Analysis ]

Full Idea

Analytical philosophy excels in the piecemeal analysis of causation, perception, knowledge and so on, but there is a striking poverty of any synoptic vision of these independent studies.

Clarification

'Synoptic' means pulling the parts together into a whole

Gist of Idea

Analytical philosophy analyses separate concepts successfully, but lacks a synoptic vision of the results

Source

José A. Benardete (Metaphysics: the logical approach [1989], Ch.22)

Book Ref

Benardete,José A.: 'Metaphysics: The Logical Approach' [OUP 1989], p.172


The 26 ideas from José A. Benardete

Metaphysics focuses on Platonism, essentialism, materialism and anti-realism [Benardete,JA]
Why should packed-together particles be a thing (Mt Everest), but not scattered ones? [Benardete,JA]
The clearest a priori knowledge is proving non-existence through contradiction [Benardete,JA]
In the ontological argument a full understanding of the concept of God implies a contradiction in 'There is no God' [Benardete,JA]
If slowness is a property of walking rather than the walker, we must allow that events exist [Benardete,JA]
Early pre-Socratics had a mass-noun ontology, which was replaced by count-nouns [Benardete,JA]
If a soldier continues to exist after serving as a soldier, does the wind cease to exist after it ceases to blow? [Benardete,JA]
There are the 'is' of predication (a function), the 'is' of identity (equals), and the 'is' of existence (quantifier) [Benardete,JA]
Absolutists might accept that to exist is relative, but relative to what? How about relative to itself? [Benardete,JA]
Maybe self-identity isn't existence, if Pegasus can be self-identical but non-existent [Benardete,JA]
Presumably the statements of science are true, but should they be taken literally or not? [Benardete,JA]
Set theory attempts to reduce the 'is' of predication to mathematics [Benardete,JA]
The set of Greeks is included in the set of men, but isn't a member of it [Benardete,JA]
Negatives, rationals, irrationals and imaginaries are all postulated to solve baffling equations [Benardete,JA]
Greeks saw the science of proportion as the link between geometry and arithmetic [Benardete,JA]
Rationalists see points as fundamental, but empiricists prefer regions [Benardete,JA]
Natural numbers are seen in terms of either their ordinality (Peano), or cardinality (set theory) [Benardete,JA]
The standard Z-F Intuition version of set theory has about ten agreed axioms [Benardete,JA, by PG]
If we know truths about prime numbers, we seem to have synthetic a priori knowledge of Platonic objects [Benardete,JA]
Appeals to intuition seem to imply synthetic a priori knowledge [Benardete,JA]
Logical positivism amounts to no more than 'there is no synthetic a priori' [Benardete,JA]
Assertions about existence beyond experience can only be a priori synthetic [Benardete,JA]
Could a horse lose the essential property of being a horse, and yet continue to exist? [Benardete,JA]
One can step into the same river twice, but not into the same water [Benardete,JA]
If there is no causal interaction with transcendent Platonic objects, how can you learn about them? [Benardete,JA]
Analytical philosophy analyses separate concepts successfully, but lacks a synoptic vision of the results [Benardete,JA]