Combining Texts

Ideas for 'fragments/reports', 'The Philosophy of Philosophy' and 'Letters to De Vries'

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2 ideas

9. Objects / B. Unity of Objects / 3. Unity Problems / e. Vague objects

9602	Common sense and classical logic are often simultaneously abandoned in debates on vagueness [Williamson]
	Full Idea: The constraints of common sense and classical logic are often simultaneously abandoned in debates on vagueness.
	From: Timothy Williamson (The Philosophy of Philosophy [2007], After)
	A reaction: Wiliamson has described himself (in my hearing) as a 'rottweiller realist', but presumably the problem of vagueness interests a lot of people precisely because it pushes us away from common sense and classical logic.

9. Objects / D. Essence of Objects / 14. Knowledge of Essences

4869	Experience does not teach us any essences of things [Spinoza]
	Full Idea: Experience does not teach us any essences of things.
	From: Baruch de Spinoza (Letters to De Vries [1664], 1664?)
	A reaction: This, along with Leibniz's claim that experience cannot reveal necessities, may constitute a striking criticism of empiricism, but it invites the obvious reply 'so much the worse for essences'. An essence seems to be a theoretical concept, not a priori.