Combining Texts

Ideas for 'Causes and Counterfactuals', 'Essay Conc Human Understanding (2nd Ed)' and 'fragments/reports'

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9 ideas

2. Reason / A. Nature of Reason / 2. Logos
The Stoics distinguished spoken logos from logos within the mind [Stoic school, by Plotinus]
     Full Idea: The Stoics distinguished between logos prophorikos ('uttered reasoning') and logos endiathetos ('reason stored within').
     From: report of Stoic school (fragments/reports [c.200 BCE]) by Plotinus - The Enneads 5.1.03 n7
     A reaction: These seems required, since logos is often the 'giving of an account', but it is also the rational principle that rules nature.
Stoics study canons, criteria and definitions, in order to find the truth [Stoic school, by Diog. Laertius]
     Full Idea: They include the study of canons and criteria in order to discover the truth. This is to straighten out the differences among the presentations. And they also include the definitional part for the purposes of recognising the truth.
     From: report of Stoic school (fragments/reports [c.200 BCE]) by Diogenes Laertius - Lives of Eminent Philosophers 07.42
     A reaction: Might we call this categorisation, justifications and definitions? This is part of the study of logos, which comes first in the stoic view of philosophy.
Stoics believed that rational capacity in man (logos) is embodied in the universe [Stoic school, by Long]
     Full Idea: The Stoics believed the faculty in man which enables him to think, to plan and to speak - which they called 'logos' - is literally embodied in the universe at large.
     From: report of Stoic school (fragments/reports [c.200 BCE]) by A.A. Long - Hellenistic Philosophy 4 Intro
     A reaction: This is the stage where logos becomes something dramatically more grand than the logos found in Plato's 'Theaetetus' (but see Heraclitus). It is what is meant by St John's 'In the beginning was the logos' (which is straightforward stoicism).
2. Reason / A. Nature of Reason / 7. Status of Reason
Opposition to reason is mad [Locke]
     Full Idea: Opposition to reason deserves the name of madness.
     From: John Locke (Essay Conc Human Understanding (2nd Ed) [1694], 2.33.04)
     A reaction: This may just be a tautology, based on the meaning of the word 'madness', but it sounds more like a clarion call for the Englightenment.
2. Reason / C. Styles of Reason / 1. Dialectic
Dialectics is mastery of question and answer form [Stoic school, by Diog. Laertius]
     Full Idea: Dialectical knowledge is about conversing correctly in speeches of question and answer form.
     From: report of Stoic school (fragments/reports [c.200 BCE]) by Diogenes Laertius - Lives of Eminent Philosophers 07.42
     A reaction: The whole of ancient Greek philosophy seems to be aimed at speaking well.
2. Reason / D. Definition / 5. Genus and Differentia
Genus is a partial conception of species, and species a partial idea of individuals [Locke]
     Full Idea: In this whole business of genera and species, the genus, or more comprehensive, but a partial conception of what is in the species, and the species but a partial idea of what is to be found in each individual.
     From: John Locke (Essay Conc Human Understanding (2nd Ed) [1694], 3.06.32)
     A reaction: This is my feeling on the subject, that any definition that stops short of the individual, whence all categorisation flows, is inadequate.
2. Reason / D. Definition / 6. Definition by Essence
Maybe Locke described the real essence of a person [Locke, by Pasnau]
     Full Idea: Locke may have gone a long way towards describing the real essence of a person.
     From: report of John Locke (Essay Conc Human Understanding (2nd Ed) [1694], 2.27.09) by Robert Pasnau - Metaphysical Themes 1274-1671 30.5
     A reaction: Locke resisted the idea that we could know real essences, but this idea makes the point that if you give a good definition of something you can hardly fail to be invoking its essence.
2. Reason / F. Fallacies / 7. Ad Hominem
Ad Hominem: press a man with the consequences of his own principle [Locke]
     Full Idea: The Argumentum ad Hominem is to press a man with consequences drawn from his own principles or concessions.
     From: John Locke (Essay Conc Human Understanding (2nd Ed) [1694], 4.17.21)
     A reaction: This is a rather more plausible account of it than the alternative I have met, that it is just to attack to speaker instead of what they say. This version is at least an attempt to derive a contradiction, rather than mere abuse.
2. Reason / F. Fallacies / 8. Category Mistake / a. Category mistakes
Asking whether man's will is free is liking asking if sleep is fast or virtue is square [Locke]
     Full Idea: To ask whether man's will be free is as improper as to ask whether sleep be swift, or virtue square.
     From: John Locke (Essay Conc Human Understanding (2nd Ed) [1694], 2.21.14)
     A reaction: Beautiful illustrations of category mistakes, long before the actual phrase was coined.