Combining Texts

Ideas for 'works', 'Morality, Action, and Outcome' and 'Logical Atomism'

unexpand these ideas     |    start again     |     choose another area for these texts

display all the ideas for this combination of texts


15 ideas

1. Philosophy / D. Nature of Philosophy / 1. Philosophy
Derrida focuses on other philosophers, rather than on science [Derrida]
     Full Idea: We should focus on other philosophers, and not on science.
     From: Jacques Derrida (works [1990]), quoted by Barry Stocker - Derrida on Deconstruction
1. Philosophy / D. Nature of Philosophy / 3. Philosophy Defined
Philosophy is just a linguistic display [Derrida]
     Full Idea: Philosophy is entirely linguistic, and is a display.
     From: Jacques Derrida (works [1990]), quoted by Barry Stocker - Derrida on Deconstruction
1. Philosophy / D. Nature of Philosophy / 5. Aims of Philosophy / e. Philosophy as reason
Philosophy aims to build foundations for thought [Derrida, by May]
     Full Idea: Derrida points out that the project of philosophy consists largely in attempting to build foundations for thought.
     From: report of Jacques Derrida (works [1990]) by Todd May - Gilles Deleuze 1.04
     A reaction: You would first need to be convinced that there could be such a thing as foundations for thinking. Derrida thinks the project is hopeless. I think of it more as building an ideal framework for thought.
1. Philosophy / D. Nature of Philosophy / 7. Despair over Philosophy
Philosophy is necessarily metaphorical, and its writing is aesthetic [Derrida]
     Full Idea: All of philosophy is necessarily metaphorical, and hence aesthetic.
     From: Jacques Derrida (works [1990]), quoted by Barry Stocker - Derrida on Deconstruction
1. Philosophy / F. Analytic Philosophy / 1. Nature of Analysis
Philosophy is logical analysis, followed by synthesis [Russell]
     Full Idea: The business of philosophy, as I conceive it, is essentially that of logical analysis, followed by logical synthesis.
     From: Bertrand Russell (Logical Atomism [1924], p.162)
     A reaction: I am uneasy about Russell's hopes for the contribution that logic could make, but I totally agree that analysis is the route to wisdom, and I take Aristotle as my role model of an analytical philosopher, rather than the modern philosophers of logic.
1. Philosophy / F. Analytic Philosophy / 6. Logical Analysis
A logical language would show up the fallacy of inferring reality from ordinary language [Russell]
     Full Idea: We are trying to create a perfectly logical language to prevent inferences from the nature of language to the nature of the world, which are fallacious because they depend upon the logical defects of language.
     From: Bertrand Russell (Logical Atomism [1924], p.159)
     A reaction: Wittgenstein seems to have rebelled against this idea, so that one strand of his later philosophy leads to 'ordinary language' philosophy, which is exactly what Russell is criticising. Wittgenstein seems to have seen 'logical language' as an oxymoron.
1. Philosophy / G. Scientific Philosophy / 3. Scientism
Philosophy should be built on science, to reduce error [Russell]
     Full Idea: We would be wise to build our philosophy upon science, because the risk of error in philosophy is pretty sure to be greater than in science.
     From: Bertrand Russell (Logical Atomism [1924], p.160)
     A reaction: If you do very little, it reduces the 'risk of error'. I agree that philosophers should start from the facts, and be responsive to new facts, and that science is excellent at discovering facts. But I don't think cognitive science is the new epistemology.
1. Philosophy / H. Continental Philosophy / 3. Hermeneutics
Interpretations can be interpreted, so there is no original 'meaning' available [Derrida]
     Full Idea: Because interpretations of texts can be interpreted, they can therefore have no 'original meaning'.
     From: Jacques Derrida (works [1990]), quoted by Barry Stocker - Derrida on Deconstruction
Hermeneutics blunts truth, by conforming it to the interpreter [Derrida, by Zimmermann,J]
     Full Idea: Derrida worried that hermeneutics blunts the disruptive power of truth by forcing it conform to the interpreter's mental horizon.
     From: report of Jacques Derrida (works [1990]) by Jens Zimmermann - Hermeneutics: a very short introduction 3 'The heart'
     A reaction: Good heavens - I agree with Derrida. Very French, though, to see the value of truth in its disruptiveness. I tend to find the truth reassuring, but then I'm English.
Hermeneutics is hostile, trying to overcome the other person's difference [Derrida, by Zimmermann,J]
     Full Idea: Derrida described the hermeneutic impulse to understand another as a form of violence that seeks to overcome the other's particularity and unique difference.
     From: report of Jacques Derrida (works [1990]) by Jens Zimmermann - Hermeneutics: a very short introduction App 'Derrida'
     A reaction: I'm not sure about 'violence', but Derrida was on to somethng here. The 'hermeneutic circle' sounds like a creepy process of absorption, where the original writer disappears in a whirlpool of interpretation.
1. Philosophy / H. Continental Philosophy / 4. Linguistic Structuralism
Structuralism destroys awareness of dynamic meaning [Derrida]
     Full Idea: Structuralism destroys awareness of dynamic meaning.
     From: Jacques Derrida (works [1990]), quoted by Barry Stocker - Derrida on Deconstruction
1. Philosophy / H. Continental Philosophy / 6. Deconstruction
The idea of being as persistent presence, and meaning as conscious intelligibility, are self-destructive [Derrida, by Glendinning]
     Full Idea: The tradition of conceiving being in terms of persisting presence, and meaning in terms of pure intelligibility or logos potentially present to the mind, finds itself dismantled by resources internal to its own construction.
     From: report of Jacques Derrida (works [1990]) by Simon Glendinning - Derrida: A Very Short Introduction 6
     A reaction: [compressed] Glendinning says this is the basic meaning of de-construction. My personal reading of this is that Aristotle is right, and grand talk of Being is hopeless, so we should just aim to understand objects. I also believe in propositions.
Sincerity can't be verified, so fiction infuses speech, and hence reality also [Derrida]
     Full Idea: Sincerity can never be verified, so fiction infuses all speech, which means that reality is also fictional.
     From: Jacques Derrida (works [1990]), quoted by Barry Stocker - Derrida on Deconstruction
Sentences are contradictory, as they have opposite meanings in some contexts [Derrida]
     Full Idea: Sentences are implicitly contradictory, because they can be used differently in different contexts (most obviously in 'I am ill').
     From: Jacques Derrida (works [1990]), quoted by Barry Stocker - Derrida on Deconstruction
We aim to explore the limits of expression (as in Mallarmé's poetry) [Derrida]
     Full Idea: The aim is to explore the limits of expression (which is what makes the poetry of Mallarmé so important).
     From: Jacques Derrida (works [1990]), quoted by Barry Stocker - Derrida on Deconstruction