Combining Texts

Ideas for 'fragments/reports', 'True in Theory, but not in Practice' and 'Equality and Partiality'

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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 / 5. Action Dilemmas / c. Omissions
Noninterference requires justification as much as interference does [Nagel]
     Full Idea: Noninterference requires justification as much as interference does.
     From: Thomas Nagel (Equality and Partiality [1991], Ch.10)
     A reaction: I'm not convinced by this, as a simple rule. If I spend my whole life doing just the minimum for my own survival, I don't see why I should have to justify that, and I don't see a state is obliged to justify it either.