Combining Texts

Ideas for 'Parmenides', 'Fragments from 1885-1886' and 'Davidson on himself'

unexpand these ideas     |    start again     |     choose another area for these texts

display all the ideas for this combination of texts


2 ideas

15. Nature of Minds / A. Nature of Mind / 1. Mind / a. Mind
There are no such things as minds, but people have mental properties [Davidson]
     Full Idea: There are no such things as minds, but people have mental properties.
     From: Donald Davidson (Davidson on himself [1994], p.231)
     A reaction: I think this is right. It fits with Searle's notion of consciousness as a property, like the liquidity of water. I don't panic if I think "I have no mind, but I have extraordinary properties".
15. Nature of Minds / A. Nature of Mind / 1. Mind / b. Purpose of mind
The mind is a simplifying apparatus [Nietzsche]
     Full Idea: The intellect and the senses are above all a simplifying apparatus.
     From: Friedrich Nietzsche (Unpublished Notebooks 1885-86 [1886], 34[046])
     A reaction: Very plausible, and not an idea I have met elsewhere. There's a PhD here for someone. It fits with my view as universals in language (which is most of language), which capture diverse things by ironing out their differences.