19729
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'Modal epistemology' demands a connection between the belief and facts in possible worlds [Black,T]
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Full Idea:
In 'modal epistemologies' a belief counts as knowledge only if there is a modal connection - a connection not only to the actual world, but also to other non-actual possible worlds - between the belief and the facts of the matter.
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From:
Tim Black (Modal and Anti-Luck Epistemology [2011], 1)
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A reaction:
[Pritchard 2005 seems to be a source for this] This sounds to me a bit like Nozick's tracking or sensitivity theory. Nozick is, I suppose, diachronic (time must pass, for the tracking), where this theory is synchronic.
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5880
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Xenocrates held that the soul had no form or substance, but was number [Xenocrates, by Cicero]
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Full Idea:
Xenocrates denied that the soul had form or any substance, but said that it was number, and the power of number, as had been held by Pythagoras long before, was the highest in nature.
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From:
report of Xenocrates (fragments/reports [c.327 BCE]) by M. Tullius Cicero - Tusculan Disputations I.x.20
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A reaction:
This shows how strong the Pythagorean influence was in the Academy. This is not totally stupid. Dawkins holds that the essence of DNA is information, which can be expressed mathematically. Xenocrates was a functionalist.
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