Combining Texts

Ideas for 'Through the Looking Glass', 'Coming-to-be and Passing-away (Gen/Corr)' and 'How Things Persist'

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2 ideas

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

21360	Unobservant thinkers tend to dogmatise using insufficient facts [Aristotle]
	Full Idea: Those whom devotion to abstract discussions has rendered unobservant of the facts are too ready to dogmatise on the basis of a few observations.
	From: Aristotle (Coming-to-be and Passing-away (Gen/Corr) [c.335 BCE], 316a09)
	A reaction: I totally approve of the idea that a good philosopher should be 'observant'. Prestige in modern analytic philosophy comes from logical ability. There should be some rival criterion for attentiveness to facts, with equal prestige.

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

16227	Philosophers are good at denying the obvious [Hawley]
	Full Idea: Philosophers are skilled at resisting even the most inviting thoughts.
	From: Katherine Hawley (How Things Persist [2001], 5)
	A reaction: Not exactly 'despair', but it does show how far philosophers are able to stray from common sense. Monads, real possible worlds, real sets… Thomas Reid, the philosopher of common sense, might be the antidote.