Combining Texts

Ideas for 'fragments/reports', 'Animal Rights and Wrongs' and 'Number Determiners, Numbers, Arithmetic'

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2 ideas

15. Nature of Minds / B. Features of Minds / 1. Consciousness / d. Purpose of consciousness

4271	There is consciousness whenever behaviour must be explained in terms of mental activity [Scruton]
	Full Idea: There is consciousness whenever behaviour must be explained in terms of mental activity.
	From: Roger Scruton (Animal Rights and Wrongs [1996], p.23)
	A reaction: Not a point that would trouble an eliminativist, as it sounds suspiciously circular or question-begging.

15. Nature of Minds / C. Capacities of Minds / 4. Objectification

10004	Our minds are at their best when reasoning about objects [Hofweber]
	Full Idea: Our minds mainly reason about objects. Most cognitive problems we are faced with deal with particular objects, whether they are people or material things. Reasoning about them is what our minds are good at.
	From: Thomas Hofweber (Number Determiners, Numbers, Arithmetic [2005], §4.3)
	A reaction: Hofweber is suggesting this as an explanation of why we continually reify various concepts, especially numbers. Very plausible. It works for qualities of character, and explains our tendency to talk about universals as objects ('redness').