Combining Texts

All the ideas for 'The Evolution of Modern Metaphysics', 'Bertrand Russell: Spirit of Solitude' and 'The soul's dependence on the body'

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10 ideas

1. Philosophy / D. Nature of Philosophy / 5. Aims of Philosophy / a. Philosophy as worldly

23269	Philosophy must start from clearly observed facts [Galen]
	Full Idea: True philosophers concern themselves first and foremost to take clearly observed facts as their point of departure.
	From: Galen (The soul's dependence on the body [c.170], Kiv.11.817)
	A reaction: I love this one, especially the desire that the facts be 'clearly observed'. That, thank goodness, eliminates quantum mechanics. If you don't love history and the physical sciences, you are not a philosopher. Oh, and reliable gossip.

1. Philosophy / E. Nature of Metaphysics / 1. Nature of Metaphysics

21959	Metaphysics is the most general attempt to make sense of things [Moore,AW]
	Full Idea: Metaphysics is the most general attempt to make sense of things.
	From: A.W. Moore (The Evolution of Modern Metaphysics [2012], Intro)
	A reaction: This is the first sentence of Moore's book, and a touchstone idea all the way through. It stands up well, because it says enough without committing to too much. I have to agree with it. It implies explanation as the key. I like generality too.

11. Knowledge Aims / C. Knowing Reality / 3. Idealism / b. Transcendental idealism

21958	Appearances are nothing beyond representations, which is transcendental ideality [Moore,AW]
	Full Idea: Appearances in general are nothing outside our representations, which is just what we mean by transcendental ideality.
	From: A.W. Moore (The Evolution of Modern Metaphysics [2012], B535/A507)

15. Nature of Minds / A. Nature of Mind / 1. Mind / c. Features of mind

23266	The spirit in the soul wants freedom, power and honour [Galen]
	Full Idea: The spirited part of the soul is desiderative of freedom, victory, power, authority, reputation, and honour.
	From: Galen (The soul's dependence on the body [c.170], Kiv.2.772)
	A reaction: This is the concept of 'thumos' [spirit], taken straight from Plato's tripartite account of the soul, in 'Republic'. Note that it includes a desire for freedom (in an age of slavery).

15. Nature of Minds / A. Nature of Mind / 8. Brain

23219	Stopping the heart doesn't terminate activity; pressing the brain does that [Galen, by Cobb]
	Full Idea: Even when an animals heart was stopped [by hand] it continued its muted whimpers, …but when the brain was pressed the animal stopped making a noise and became unconscious.
	From: report of Galen (The soul's dependence on the body [c.170]) by Matthew Cobb - The Idea of the Brain 1
	A reaction: It's not that the ancients didn't do science. It's that ancient people paid no attention to what their scientists discovered.

15. Nature of Minds / C. Capacities of Minds / 1. Faculties

23264	Philosophers think faculties are in substances, and invent a faculty for every activity [Galen]
	Full Idea: Philosophers conceive of faculties as things which inhabit 'substances' much as we inhabit houses, not realising that causes of events are conceived in relational terms. We therefore attribute as many faculties to a substance as activities.
	From: Galen (The soul's dependence on the body [c.170], Kiv.2.769)
	A reaction: This seems to demolish speculative faculties, but they were revived during the Enlightenment. I am happy to talk of 'philosophical faculties' where they are presumed to originate a type of thought, without commitment to any neuroscience.

17. Mind and Body / E. Mind as Physical / 1. Physical Mind

23220	The brain contains memory and reason, and is the source of sensation and decision [Galen]
	Full Idea: The brain is the principal organ of the psychical members. For within the brain is seated memory, reason and intellect, and from the brain is distributed the power, sensation and voluntary motion.
	From: Galen (The soul's dependence on the body [c.170]), quoted by Matthew Cobb - The Idea of the Brain 1
	A reaction: [not sure of ref] Interesting that he assigns the whole of mind to the brain, and not just some aspect of it. He had done experiments. Understanding the role of the brain was amazingly slow. Impeded by religion, I guess.

18. Thought / A. Modes of Thought / 5. Rationality / a. Rationality

23265	The rational part of the soul is the desire for truth, understanding and recollection [Galen]
	Full Idea: That part of the soul which we call rational is desiderative: …it desires truth, knowledge, learning, understanding, and recollection - in short, all the good things.
	From: Galen (The soul's dependence on the body [c.170], Kiv.2.772)
	A reaction: Truth is no surprise, but recollection is. Note the separation of knowledge from understanding. This is a very good characterisation of rationality. For the Greeks it has a moral dimension, of wanting what is good.

18. Thought / A. Modes of Thought / 6. Judgement / a. Nature of Judgement

7535	If all beliefs are propositional, then belief and judgement are the same thing [Monk]
	Full Idea: Whether the words 'belief' and 'judgement' mean the same thing is a moot point. Traditionally, a judgement is the assent of mind to a proposition. If one thinks that all beliefs are propositional, then beliefs and judgements are the same thing.
	From: Ray Monk (Bertrand Russell: Spirit of Solitude [1996], Ch.19 n6)
	A reaction: If I think I have put a bit too much toothpaste on my brush, that strikes me as a non-propositional judgement, even though it could be spelled out as a proposition. But it also strikes me as a belief.

25. Social Practice / D. Justice / 3. Punishment / a. Right to punish

23268	We execute irredeemable people, to protect ourselves, as a deterrent, and ending a bad life [Galen]
	Full Idea: We kill the irredeemably wicked, for three reasons: that they may no longer harm us; as a deterrent to others like them; and because it is actually better from their own point of view to die, when their souls are so damaged they cannot be improved.
	From: Galen (The soul's dependence on the body [c.170], Kiv.11.816)
	A reaction: The third one sounds like a dubious rationalisation, given that the prisoner probably disagrees. Nowadays we are not so quick to judge someone as irredeemable. The first one works when they run wild, but not after their capture.