Combining Texts

All the ideas for 'Confessions of a Philosopher', 'Scientific Realism' and 'works'

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3 ideas

8. Modes of Existence / B. Properties / 5. Natural Properties
Scientific properties are defined by the laws that embody them [Psillos, by Ladyman/Ross]
     Full Idea: For Psillos, properties in mature science are defined by the laws in which they feature.
     From: report of Stathis Psillos (Scientific Realism [1999]) by J Ladyman / D Ross - Every Thing Must Go 3.5
     A reaction: This is a perfect example of the Humean approach getting everything the wrong way round. Laws are not primitives from which we derive our account of nature - they are generalisations built up from the behaviour of prior properties.
16. Persons / C. Self-Awareness / 3. Limits of Introspection
Why don't we experience or remember going to sleep at night? [Magee]
     Full Idea: As a child it was incomprehensible to me that I did not experience going to sleep, and never remembered it. When my sister said 'Nobody remembers that', I just thought 'How does she know?'
     From: Bryan Magee (Confessions of a Philosopher [1997], Ch.I)
     A reaction: This is actually evidence for something - that we do not have some sort of personal identity which is separate from consciousness, so that "I am conscious" would literally mean that an item has a property, which it can lose.
22. Metaethics / A. Ethics Foundations / 2. Source of Ethics / c. Ethical intuitionism
The forefather of modern intuitionism is Richard Price [Price,R, by Dancy,J]
     Full Idea: The forefather of modern intuitionism is Richard Price.
     From: report of Richard Price (works [1760]) by Jonathan Dancy - Intuitionism