Combining Texts

All the ideas for 'The Sign of Four', 'Reference and Reflexivity' and 'The Pragmatist Account of Truth'

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5 ideas

2. Reason / B. Laws of Thought / 3. Non-Contradiction

22642	Man has an intense natural interest in the consistency of his own thinking [James]
	Full Idea: After man's interest in breathing freely, the greatest of all his interests (because it never fluctuates or remits….) is his interest in consistency, in feeling that what he now thinks goes with what he thinks on other occasions.
	From: William James (The Pragmatist Account of Truth [1908], 'Seventh')
	A reaction: People notoriously contradict themselves all the time, but I suspect that it is when they get out of their depth in complexities such as politics. They probably achieve great consistency within their own expertise, and in common knowledge.

7. Existence / D. Theories of Reality / 8. Facts / c. Facts and truths

22641	Realities just are, and beliefs are true of them [James]
	Full Idea: Realities are not true, they are; and beliefs are true of them.
	From: William James (The Pragmatist Account of Truth [1908], 'Fourth')
	A reaction: At last, a remark by James about truth which I really like. For 'realities' I would use the word 'facts'.

13. Knowledge Criteria / B. Internal Justification / 5. Coherentism / b. Pro-coherentism

22640	We find satisfaction in consistency of all of our beliefs, perceptions and mental connections [James]
	Full Idea: We find satisfaction in consistency between the present idea and the entire rest of our mental equipment, including the whole order of our sensations, and that of our intuitions of likeness and difference, and our whole stock previously acquired truths.
	From: William James (The Pragmatist Account of Truth [1908], 'Fourth')
	A reaction: I like this, apart from the idea that the criterion of good coherence seems to be subjective 'satisfaction'. We should ask why some large set of beliefs is coherent. I assume nature is coherent, and truth is the best explanation of our coherence about it.

14. Science / C. Induction / 1. Induction

22200	If you eliminate the impossible, the truth will remain, even if it is weird [Conan Doyle]
	Full Idea: When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.
	From: Arthur Conan Doyle (The Sign of Four [1890], Ch. 6)
	A reaction: A beautiful statement, by Sherlock Holmes, of Eliminative Induction. It is obviously not true, of course. Many options may still face you after you have eliminated what is actually impossible.

18. Thought / A. Modes of Thought / 9. Indexical Thought

16391	Indexical thoughts are about themselves, and ascribe properties to themselves [Perry, by Recanati]
	Full Idea: Perry's newer token-reflexive framework says indexical thoughts have token-reflexive content, that is, thoughts that are about themselves and ascribe properties to themselves. …They relate not to the subject, but to the occurrence of a thought.
	From: report of John Perry (Reference and Reflexivity [2001]) by François Recanati - Mental Files 18.1
	A reaction: [There seem to be four indexical theories: this one, Recanati's, the earlier Kaplan-Perry one, and Lewis's] Is Perry thinking of second-level thoughts? 'I'm bored' has the content 'boredom' plus 'felt in here'? How does 'I'm bored' refer to 'I'm bored'?