Combining Texts

All the ideas for 'fragments/reports', 'Aspects of the Theory of Syntax' and 'works'

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3 ideas

19. Language / C. Assigning Meanings / 1. Syntax
Chomsky's 'interpretative semantics' says syntax comes first, and is then interpreted [Chomsky, by Magidor]
     Full Idea: Chomsky and his followers (whose position was labelled 'interpretative semantics') claimed that a sentence is first assigned a syntactic structure by an autonomous syntactic module, and this structure is then provided as input for semantic interpretation.
     From: report of Noam Chomsky (Aspects of the Theory of Syntax [1965]) by Ofra Magidor - Category Mistakes 1.3
     A reaction: This certainly doesn't fit the experience of introspecting speech, but then I suppose good pianists focus entirely on the music, and overlook the finger movements which have obvious priority. But I don't know the syntax of the sentence when I begin it.
21. Aesthetics / C. Artistic Issues / 7. Art and Morality
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?
23. Ethics / F. Existentialism / 6. Authentic Self
Sartre gradually realised that freedom is curtailed by the weight of situation [Sartre, by Daigle]
     Full Idea: Sartre evolved from a notion of absolute freedom to one that truly takes into account the weight of situation.
     From: report of Jean-Paul Sartre (works [1950]) by Christine Daigle - Jean-Paul Sartre 2.3
     A reaction: This change seems to have come much later, in the 1960s. The main influence seems to have been Marxism, which claims that consciousness is created by society, rather than by free individuals.