Ideas of Bas C. van Fraassen, by Theme
[American, b.1941, Professor at Princeton University.]
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1. Philosophy / D. Nature of Philosophy / 7. Despair over Philosophy
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Philosophy is a value- and attitude-driven enterprise
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1. Philosophy / E. Nature of Metaphysics / 2. Possibility of Metaphysics
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Is it likely that a successful, coherent, explanatory ontological hypothesis is true?
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1. Philosophy / F. Analytic Philosophy / 1. Nature of Analysis
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Analytic philosophy has an exceptional arsenal of critical tools
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2. Reason / A. Nature of Reason / 6. Coherence
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We may end up with a huge theory of carefully constructed falsehoods
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10. Modality / A. Necessity / 11. Denial of Necessity
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Empiricists deny what is unobservable, and reject objective modality
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11. Knowledge Aims / A. Knowledge / 4. Belief / c. Aim of beliefs
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To 'accept' a theory is not to believe it, but to believe it empirically adequate [Bird]
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14. Science / B. Scientific Theories / 2. Aim of Science
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To accept a scientific theory, we only need to believe that it is empirically adequate
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14. Science / D. Explanation / 3. Best Explanation / c. Against best explanation
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Why should the true explanation be one of the few we have actually thought of? [Bird]
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12769
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Inference to best explanation contains all sorts of hidden values
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14. Science / D. Explanation / 4. Explanation Doubts / a. Explanation as pragmatic
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An explanation is just descriptive information answering a particular question [Salmon]
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We accept many scientific theories without endorsing them as true
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