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Ideas for 'fragments/reports', 'Intro to 'Philosophical Essays'' and 'Principia Mathematica'

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2 ideas

1. Philosophy / D. Nature of Philosophy / 1. Philosophy
Philosophy must abstract from the senses [Newton]
     Full Idea: In philosophy abstraction from the senses is required.
     From: Isaac Newton (Principia Mathematica [1687], Def 8 Schol)
     A reaction: He particularly means 'natural philosophy' (i.e. science), but there is no real distinction in Newton's time, and I would say this remark is true of modern philosophy.
Philosophers working like teams of scientists is absurd, yet isolation is hard [Cartwright,R]
     Full Idea: The notion that philosophy can be done cooperatively, in the manner of scientists or engineers engaged in a research project, seems to me absurd. And yet few philosophers can survive in isolation.
     From: Richard Cartwright (Intro to 'Philosophical Essays' [1987], xxi)
     A reaction: This why Nietzsche said that philosophers were 'rare plants'.