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Ideas for 'fragments/reports', 'True in Theory, but not in Practice' and 'Unpublished Notebooks 1884-85'

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2 ideas

20. Action / C. Motives for Action / 3. Acting on Reason / a. Practical reason
General rules of action also need a judgement about when to apply them [Kant]
     Full Idea: A concept of the understanding, which contains the general rule, must be supplemented by an act of judgement whereby the practitioner distinguishes instances where the rule applies from those where it does not.
     From: Immanuel Kant (True in Theory, but not in Practice [1792], Intro)
     A reaction: This is Aristotle's phronesis, and Hart's 'rules of recognition' in law courts. So is the link between theory and practice an intellectual one, or a sort of inarticulate intuition? I like 'common sense' for this ability.
20. Action / C. Motives for Action / 4. Responsibility for Actions
Judging actions by intentions - like judging painters by their thoughts! [Nietzsche]
     Full Idea: To judge people by intentions! That would be like classifying artists, not according to their paintings, but according to their visions!
     From: Friedrich Nietzsche (Unpublished Notebooks 1884-85 [1884], 25[119])
     A reaction: What is wrong is to judge an action by any simple single principle. Our nuanced attitude to excuses shows the true complexity of it. 'I didn't mean to do that'.