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Ideas for 'Analyzing Modality', 'talk' and 'works'

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6 ideas

11. Knowledge Aims / C. Knowing Reality / 2. Phenomenalism
A philosopher and his wife are out for a drive... [Sommers,W]
     Full Idea: A philosopher and his wife are out for a drive in the country. 'Oh look!' she says, 'Those sheep have been shorn.' 'Yes', says the philosopher, 'on this side'.
     From: Will Sommers (talk [2019])
11. Knowledge Aims / C. Knowing Reality / 3. Idealism / c. Empirical idealism
Dear Sir, Your astonishment's odd.... [Sommers,W]
     Full Idea: (reply to 12403) Dear Sir, Your astonishment's odd:/ I am always about in the Quad./ And that's why the tree/ Will continue to be,/ Since observed by Yours faithfully, God.' [anon]
     From: Will Sommers (talk [2019])
There once was a man who said: 'God... [Sommers,W]
     Full Idea: There once was a man who said: 'God/ Must think it exceedingly odd/ If he finds that this tree/ Continues to be,/ When there's no-one about in the Quad.' [Ronald Knox] (reply in 12404)
     From: Will Sommers (talk [2019])
..But if he's a student of Berkeley... [Sommers,W]
     Full Idea: (continued from 12401) ..But if he's a student of Berkeley,/ One thing will emerge, rather starkly,/ That he ought to believe/ What his senses perceive,/ No matter how dimly or darkly. [Leslie Johnson]
     From: Will Sommers (talk [2019])
The philosopher Berkeley once said.. [Sommers,W]
     Full Idea: The philosopher Berkeley once said/ In the dark to a maid in his bed:/ 'No perception, my dear,/ Means I'm not really here,/ But only a thought in your head.' [P.W.R. Foot]
     From: Will Sommers (talk [2019])
11. Knowledge Aims / C. Knowing Reality / 3. Idealism / d. Absolute idealism
All knowledge rests on a fundamental unity between the knower and what is known [Green,TH, by Muirhead]
     Full Idea: All knowledge is seen on ultimate analysis to rest upon the idea of a fundamental unity between subject and object, between the knower and that which there is to be known.
     From: report of T.H. Green (works [1875]) by John H. Muirhead - The Service of the State III
     A reaction: I don't really understand this thought, but I think it embodies the essence of Hegelian idealism. If I know a tree in the wood, any 'unity' between us strikes as merely imaginary. If the tree isn't separate, what does 'knowing' it mean?