Combining Texts

All the ideas for 'fragments/reports', 'Philosophy without Intuitions' and 'Causality: Production and Propagation'

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6 ideas

2. Reason / E. Argument / 7. Thought Experiments

20183	So-called 'though experiments' are just philosophers observing features of the world [Cappelen]
	Full Idea: What are called 'thought experiments' in philosophy are in effect just philosophers drawing our attention to interesting features of the world.
	From: Herman Cappelen (Philosophy without Intuitions [2012], 11.3)
	A reaction: Thought experiments are said to rely (perhaps excessively) on 'intuition', but Cappelen says intuition is irrelevant, because we are merely making judgements. It think they ARE experiments, if one feature varies while the rest is held steady.

12. Knowledge Sources / E. Direct Knowledge / 2. Intuition

20182	The word 'intuitive' often plays not role at all in arguments, and can be removed [Cappelen]
	Full Idea: Careful study of uses of 'intuitive' will reveal that it often plays no significant argumentative role, and that removal will improve overall argumentative transparency.
	From: Herman Cappelen (Philosophy without Intuitions [2012], 04.1)
	A reaction: This is a key part of Cappelen's argument that 'intuition' is a rather empty concept, and that philosophers do not really rely on it. In effect, he is consigning it to mere rhetoric. He gives lots of examples in support.

21. Aesthetics / C. Artistic Issues / 7. Art and Morality

468	Musical performance can reveal a range of virtues [Damon of Ath.]
	Full Idea: In singing and playing the lyre, a boy will be likely to reveal not only courage and moderation, but also justice.
	From: Damon (fragments/reports [c.460 BCE], B4), quoted by (who?) - where?

26. Natural Theory / C. Causation / 4. Naturalised causation

8412	A causal interaction is when two processes intersect, and correlated modifications persist afterwards [Salmon]
	Full Idea: When two processes intersect, and they undergo correlated modifications which persist after the intersection, I shall say that the intersection is a causal interaction. I take this as a fundamental causal concept.
	From: Wesley Salmon (Causality: Production and Propagation [1980], §4)
	A reaction: There may be a problem individuating processes, just as there is for events. I like this approach to causation, which is ontologically sparse, and fits in with the scientific worldview. Change of properties sounds precise, but isn't. Stick to processes.

26. Natural Theory / C. Causation / 5. Direction of causation

8413	Cause must come first in propagations of causal interactions, but interactions are simultaneous [Salmon]
	Full Idea: In a typical cause-effect situation (a 'propagation') cause must precede effect, for propagation over a finite time interval is an essential feature. In an 'interaction', an intersection of processes resulting in change, we have simultaneity.
	From: Wesley Salmon (Causality: Production and Propagation [1980], §8)
	A reaction: This takes the direction of time as axiomatic, and quite right too. Salmon isn't addressing the real difficulty, though, which is that the resultant laws are usually held to be time-reversible, which is a bit of a puzzle.

26. Natural Theory / C. Causation / 8. Particular Causation / b. Causal relata

8411	Instead of localised events, I take enduring and extended processes as basic to causation [Salmon]
	Full Idea: I propose to approach causality by taking processes rather than events as basic entities. Events are relatively localised in space and time, while processes have much greater temporal duration, and, in many cases, much greater spatial extent.
	From: Wesley Salmon (Causality: Production and Propagation [1980], §2)
	A reaction: This strikes me as an incredibly promising proposal, not just in our understanding of causation, but for our general metaphysics and understanding of nature. See Idea 4931, for example. Vague events and processes blend into one another.