Combining Texts

All the ideas for 'fragments/reports', 'The Metaphysics of Space-Time Substantivalism' and 'The Problem of the Essential Indexical'

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9 ideas

11. Knowledge Aims / A. Knowledge / 4. Belief / b. Elements of beliefs

12149	Indexicals are a problem for beliefs being just subject-proposition relations [Perry]
	Full Idea: The essential indexical is a problem for the view that belief is a relation between subjects and propositions conceived as bearers of truth and falsity.
	From: John Perry (The Problem of the Essential Indexical [1979], 'Intro')
	A reaction: My immediate reaction would be that it depends on how you conceive of 'propositions'. If they are objective, you have a problem. I take them to be subjective events in brains, and the indexical meaning to be evident within the proposition.

15. Nature of Minds / A. Nature of Mind / 1. Mind / d. Location of mind

5987	Alcmaeon was the first to say the brain is central to thinking [Alcmaeon, by Staden, von]
	Full Idea: Alcmaeon apparently was the first Greek to assign central cognitive and biological functions to the brain.
	From: report of Alcmaeon (fragments/reports [c.490 BCE]) by Heinrich von Staden - Alcmaeon
	A reaction: The name of Alcmaeon should be remembered with honour. This was 200 years before Aristotle, who still hadn't worked it out. I presume Alcmaeon inferred the truth from head injuries, which is overwhelming evidence, if you notice it.

19. Language / C. Assigning Meanings / 9. Indexical Semantics

12151	If we replace 'I' in sentences about me, they are different beliefs and explanations of behaviour [Perry]
	Full Idea: If I leave a trail of sugar, and realise 'that I am making a mess', ...when we replace the word 'I' with other designations of me, we no longer have an explanation of my behaviour, or an attribution of the same belief, so it is an 'essential indexical'.
	From: John Perry (The Problem of the Essential Indexical [1979], 'Intro')
	A reaction: [compressed] A famous observation of Perry's, which leads him to challenge traditional accounts of belief and of propositions. I don't think I see a problem, if we have a thoroughly non-linguistic account of essentially unambiguous propositions.

18412	Indexicals individuate certain belief states, helping in explanation and prediction [Perry]
	Full Idea: We use sentences with indexicals or relativized propositions to individuate belief states, for the purposes of classifying believers in ways useful for explanation and prediction.
	From: John Perry (The Problem of the Essential Indexical [1979], 'Obvious')
	A reaction: He goes on to apparently connect this with some sort of moral integrity involved in 'owning up' to the fact that the person in question is you (who has spilled the sugar etc.).

19. Language / D. Propositions / 6. Propositions Critique

12150	Indexicals reveal big problems with the traditional idea of a proposition [Perry]
	Full Idea: The problem of the essential indexical reveals that something is badly wrong with the traditional doctrine of propositions.
	From: John Perry (The Problem of the Essential Indexical [1979], 'Prob')
	A reaction: See the reaction to 12149. The traditional view of propositions, or at least Russell's view, seems to be that they are same as facts, which strikes me as daft. I take propositions to be brain events, probably expressed in mentalese.

27. Natural Reality / C. Space / 4. Substantival Space

19035	General Relativity allows substantivalism about space-time - that it has independent properties [Hoefer]
	Full Idea: General Relativity describes space-time in a way that allows it to exist with determinate properties not reducible to the properties and relations of its material contents. Hence nearly all physicists and philosophers writing on GR are substantivalists.
	From: Carl Hoefer (The Metaphysics of Space-Time Substantivalism [1996], p.5), quoted by Barbara Vetter - Potentiality 7.3
	A reaction: I'm encouraged by this, as I instinctly favour substantivalism. Imagine removing all the objects from space-time, one by one. What happens as you approach the end of the task? Once they are removed, can they be replaced?

27. Natural Reality / D. Time / 2. Passage of Time / c. Tenses and time

15203	Tense is essential for thought and action [Perry, by Le Poidevin]
	Full Idea: Tense plays a crucial role in thought and action.
	From: report of John Perry (The Problem of the Essential Indexical [1979]) by Robin Le Poidevin - Past, Present and Future of Debate about Tense 3 a
	A reaction: This is important, because much of our metaphysics is dominated by a detached 'scientific' description of reality, which is given a rather passive character. If processes take centre stage, which they should, then our own processes are part of it.

15204	Actual tensed sentences cannot be tenseless, because they can cite their own context [Perry, by Le Poidevin]
	Full Idea: In the new tenseless theory, no tensed token sentence can be equivalent to a tenseless token, because the former, unlike the latter, draws attention to the context in which it is tokened.
	From: report of John Perry (The Problem of the Essential Indexical [1979]) by Robin Le Poidevin - Past, Present and Future of Debate about Tense 3 a
	A reaction: So the problem about indexicals was worrying fans of the tenseless B-series view of time (and so it should). I'm inclined to translate sentences containing indexicals into their actual propositions, which tend to avoid them. 'Time/person of utterance'.

29. Religion / D. Religious Issues / 2. Immortality / b. Soul

24043	Soul must be immortal, since it continually moves, like the heavens [Alcmaeon, by Aristotle]
	Full Idea: Alcmaeon says that the soul is immortal because it resembles immortal things and that this affection belongs to it because it is always in movement, like divine things, such the moon, the sun, the stars and the whole heaven.
	From: report of Alcmaeon (fragments/reports [c.490 BCE], DK 24) by Aristotle - De Anima 405a30
	A reaction: Hm. Fish and rivers seem to be continually moving too. Presumably we are like gods, but then Greek gods seem awfully like humans. I don't know the history of belief in immortality; an interesting topic.