Combining Texts

Ideas for 'Thinking About Mathematics', 'Philosophy of Mind' and 'Introduction to German Philosophy'

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3 ideas

19. Language / F. Communication / 1. Rhetoric
Rhetoric is built into language, so it cannot be stripped from philosophy [Bowie]
     Full Idea: The attempt to rid philosophy of rhetoric falls prey precisely to that fact that what is involved in rhetoric is inherent in what is built into all natural languages by their genesis in the real historical world.
     From: Andrew Bowie (Introduction to German Philosophy [2003], 2 'Hamann')
     A reaction: Rhetoric can range from charming to bullying, and it is the latter which is the problem. The underlying issue is dogma versus dialectic. Some analytic philosophers have a good shot at being non-rhetorical.
19. Language / F. Communication / 6. Interpreting Language / c. Principle of charity
If someone says "I do and don't like x", we don't assume a contradiction [Kim]
     Full Idea: If someone says "I do and I don't like x", we do not take her to be expressing a literally contradictory belief.
     From: Jaegwon Kim (Philosophy of Mind [1996], p.135)
     A reaction: It might mean 'one minute I like it, and the next minute I don't', where there seems to be a real contradiction, with a time factor. You can't sustain both preferences with conviction.
We assume people believe the obvious logical consequences of their known beliefs [Kim]
     Full Idea: We attribute to a subject beliefs that are obvious logical consequences of beliefs already attributed to him.
     From: Jaegwon Kim (Philosophy of Mind [1996], p.135)
     A reaction: Depends what you mean by 'obvious'. Presumably they must be judged obvious to the believer, but only if they have thought of them. We can't believe all the simple but quirky implications of our beliefs.