Combining Texts

Ideas for 'Stipulation, Meaning and Apriority', 'Political Philosophy (3rd ed)' and 'Necessity, Essence and Individuation'

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2 ideas

2. Reason / D. Definition / 13. Against Definition
How do we determine which of the sentences containing a term comprise its definition? [Horwich]
     Full Idea: How are we to determine which of the sentences containing a term comprise its definition?
     From: Paul Horwich (Stipulation, Meaning and Apriority [2000], §2)
     A reaction: Nice question. If I say 'philosophy is the love of wisdom' and 'philosophy bores me', why should one be part of its definition and the other not? What if I stipulated that the second one is part of my definition, and the first one isn't?
2. Reason / E. Argument / 7. Thought Experiments
We seem to base necessities on thought experiments and imagination [Sidelle]
     Full Idea: Judgments of necessity seem always to be based on thought experiments and appeals to what we can imagine.
     From: Alan Sidelle (Necessity, Essence and Individuation [1989], Ch.1)
     A reaction: That is, the denial of this thing seems inconceivable. I would say that they are also based on coherence. The idea that we can think without imagination is nonsense.