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Ideas for 'Parmenides', 'Knowledge by Agreement' and 'works'

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18. Thought / D. Concepts / 1. Concepts / a. Nature of concepts
Infinities expand the bounds of the conceivable; we explore concepts to explore conceivability [Cantor, by Friend]
     Full Idea: Cantor (in his exploration of infinities) pushed the bounds of conceivability further than anyone before him. To discover what is conceivable, we have to enquire into the concept.
     From: report of George Cantor (works [1880]) by Michèle Friend - Introducing the Philosophy of Mathematics 6.5
     A reaction: This remark comes during a discussion of Husserl's phenomenology. Intuitionists challenge Cantor's claim, and restrict what is conceivable to what is provable. Does possibility depend on conceivability?
Our experience may be conceptual, but surely not the world itself? [Kusch]
     Full Idea: I am unconvinced by McDowell's arguments in favour of treating the world as itself conceptual. Granted that our experience is conceptual in quality; it still does not follow that the world itself is conceptual.
     From: Martin Kusch (Knowledge by Agreement [2002], Ch. 9)
     A reaction: I would take Kusch's point to be a given in any discussion of concepts, and McDowell as a non-starter on this one. I am inclined to believe that we do have non-conceptual experiences, but I take them to be epistemologically useless.