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Ideas for 'The Evolution of Logic', 'Philosophy of Nature (Encylopedia II)' and 'Causes and Counterfactuals'

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4 ideas

1. Philosophy / C. History of Philosophy / 4. Later European Philosophy / c. Eighteenth century philosophy
13466 We are all post-Kantians, because he set the current agenda for philosophy [Hart,WD]
     Full Idea: We are all post-Kantians, ...because Kant set an agenda for philosophy that we are still working through.
     From: William D. Hart (The Evolution of Logic [2010], 2)
     A reaction: Hart says that the main agenda is set by Kant's desire to defend the principle of sufficient reason against Hume's attack on causation. I would take it more generally to be the assessment of metaphysics, and of a priori knowledge.
1. Philosophy / D. Nature of Philosophy / 5. Aims of Philosophy / d. Philosophy as puzzles
13477 The problems are the monuments of philosophy [Hart,WD]
     Full Idea: The real monuments of philosophy are its problems.
     From: William D. Hart (The Evolution of Logic [2010], 2)
     A reaction: Presumably he means '....rather than its solutions'. No other subject would be very happy with that sort of claim. Compare Idea 8243. A complaint against analytic philosophy is that it has achieved no consensus at all.
1. Philosophy / E. Nature of Metaphysics / 6. Metaphysics as Conceptual
22077 Metaphysics is the lattice which makes incoming material intelligible [Hegel]
     Full Idea: Metaphysics means nothing other than the range of general determinations of thought, the diamond lattice, as it were, into which we bring all material and thereby first make it intelligible.
     From: Georg W.F.Hegel (Philosophy of Nature (Encylopedia II) [1817], §3), quoted by Stephen Houlgate - Hegel p.95
     A reaction: This sounds to me like a perfect summary of Kant's transcendental view. Metaphysics is the a priori deconstruction of our conceptual scheme. But for Kant it is fixed, and for Hegel it is dynamic.
1. Philosophy / F. Analytic Philosophy / 6. Logical Analysis
13515 To study abstract problems, some knowledge of set theory is essential [Hart,WD]
     Full Idea: By now, no education in abstract pursuits is adequate without some familiarity with sets.
     From: William D. Hart (The Evolution of Logic [2010], 10)
     A reaction: A heart-sinking observation for those who aspire to study metaphysics and modality. The question is, what will count as 'some' familiarity? Are only professional logicians now allowed to be proper philosophers?