Combining Texts

Ideas for 'The Metaphysics of Scientific Realism', 'Principles of Philosophy of the Future' and 'The Problem of the Soul'

unexpand these ideas     |    start again     |     choose another area for these texts

display all the ideas for this combination of texts

4 ideas

22. Metaethics / A. Ethics Foundations / 1. Nature of Ethics / e. Ethical cognitivism
5355 Cognitivists think morals are discovered by reason [Flanagan]
     Full Idea: Cognitivists think morals are discovered by reason.
     From: Owen Flanagan (The Problem of the Soul [2002], p.301n)
     A reaction: I take cognitivism to be (strictly) the view that morals are knowable in principle. Our intellects might not be up to the task (and so we might have to ask the gods what is right). There is also the possibility that morals might be known by intuition.
22. Metaethics / A. Ethics Foundations / 2. Source of Ethics / d. Biological ethics
6924 Plotinus was ashamed to have a body [Feuerbach]
     Full Idea: Plotinus, according to his biographers, was ashamed to have a body.
     From: Ludwig Feuerbach (Principles of Philosophy of the Future [1843], §29)
     A reaction: When Feuerbach draws our attention to this, we see what an astonishing state it is for a human being to have got into. Modern thought is appalled by it, but it also has something heroic about it, like swimming all the time because you want to be a fish.
22. Metaethics / B. Value / 2. Values / a. Normativity
5336 Ethics is the science of the conditions that lead to human flourishing [Flanagan]
     Full Idea: Ethics is the normative science that studies the objective conditions that lead to flourishing of persons.
     From: Owen Flanagan (The Problem of the Soul [2002], p. 17)
     A reaction: This is a nice slogan for the virtue theory account of the nature of ethics. I think it is the view with which I agree. I am intrigued that he has smuggled the word 'science' in, which is a nice challenge to conventional views of science.
22. Metaethics / B. Value / 2. Values / g. Love
6927 If you love nothing, it doesn't matter whether something exists or not [Feuerbach]
     Full Idea: To him who loves nothing it is all the same whether something does or does not exist.
     From: Ludwig Feuerbach (Principles of Philosophy of the Future [1843], §33)
     A reaction: This seems to me to be quite a good motto for the aim of education - just get them to love something, no matter what (well, almost!). Loving something, even if it is train-spotting, seems a good route to human happiness.