Combining Texts

Ideas for 'Unconscious Cerebral Initiative', 'Mind, Brain and the Quantum' and 'Representation and Reality'

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2 ideas

1. Philosophy / D. Nature of Philosophy / 5. Aims of Philosophy / a. Philosophy as worldly

2352	The job of the philosopher is to distinguish facts about the world from conventions [Putnam]
	Full Idea: It is the job of the philosopher to distinguish what is fact and what is convention in our theorising about the world.
	From: Hilary Putnam (Representation and Reality [1988], §7 p.112)
	A reaction: This may well be the entire truth about philosophy. It begins with the Nomos-Physis debate in ancient Athens, and it turns out to be the key issue in almost every area of metaphysics, epistemology, aesthetics and morality.

1. Philosophy / D. Nature of Philosophy / 7. Despair over Philosophy

2956	There is nothing so obvious that a philosopher cannot be found to deny it [Lockwood]
	Full Idea: There is nothing so obvious that a philosopher cannot be found to deny it.
	From: Michael Lockwood (Mind, Brain and the Quantum [1989], p.73)
	A reaction: [Idea of Varro] Just as unreliable witnesses are the bane of a murder enquiry, so bad philosophers throw a cloud of obscurity roundphilosophy. If 9999 people thought 2+2=4, but there is always one who thinks something different.