12 ideas
3158 | Theories of intentionality presuppose rationality, so can't explain it [Dennett] |
Full Idea: Intentional theory is vacuous as psychology because it presupposes and does not explain rationality or intelligence. | |
From: Daniel C. Dennett (Brainstorms:Essays on Mind and Psychology [1978], p.15?) | |
A reaction: Virtually every philosophical theory seems to founder because it presupposes something like the thing it is meant to explain. I agree that 'intentionality' is a slightly airy concept that would probably reduce to something better. |
4020 | The modern self has disengaged reason, self-exploration, and personal commitment [Taylor,C] |
Full Idea: The modern notion of the self is defined by disengaged reason (with its associated freedom and dignity), by self-exploration, and by personal commitment. | |
From: Charles Taylor (Sources of the Self [1989], §13.1) | |
A reaction: Taylor makes a good case that this broader view of how the self is seen is as important as narrow debates about personal identity. |
4002 | My aim is to map the connections between our sense of self and our moral understanding [Taylor,C] |
Full Idea: My entire way of proceeding involves mapping connections between the sense of the self and moral visions, between identity and the good. | |
From: Charles Taylor (Sources of the Self [1989], Pref) | |
A reaction: An interesting project. Modern brain research supports the idea that emotions and values are tightly integrated into al thought. |
4006 | I can only be aware of myself as a person who changes by means of my personal history [Taylor,C] |
Full Idea: As a being who grows and becomes I can only know myself through the history of my maturations and regressions, overcomings and defeats. | |
From: Charles Taylor (Sources of the Self [1989], §2.3) | |
A reaction: An important insight. My immediate sense of self makes my personal history central, not an extra. But a history must be a history OF something. |
3159 | Beliefs and desires aren't real; they are prediction techniques [Dennett] |
Full Idea: Intentional systems don't really have beliefs and desires, but one can explain and predict their behaviour by ascribing beliefs and desires to them. This strategy is pragmatic, not right or wrong. | |
From: Daniel C. Dennett (Brainstorms:Essays on Mind and Psychology [1978], p.7?) | |
A reaction: If the ascription of beliefs and desires explains behaviour, then that is good grounds for thinking they might be real features of the brain, and even if that is not so, they are real enough as abstractions from brain events, like the 'economic climate'. |
4003 | Selfhood and moral values are inextricably intertwined [Taylor,C] |
Full Idea: Selfhood and the good, or in another way selfhood and morality, turn out to be inextricably intertwined. | |
From: Charles Taylor (Sources of the Self [1989], §1.1) | |
A reaction: This seems an inevitable convergence of three centuries of thought about personal identity and morality. |
4021 | Willingness to risk life was the constitutive quality of the man of honour [Taylor,C] |
Full Idea: Willingness to risk life was the constitutive quality of the man of honour. | |
From: Charles Taylor (Sources of the Self [1989], §13.1) | |
A reaction: Which is why war is required. The growth of civil society meant the inevitable rise of other virtues. |
4005 | To have respect for people, you must feel their claims, or their injustices, or hold them in awe [Taylor,C] |
Full Idea: If you want to discriminate more finely what makes humans worthy of respect, you must call to mind the claim of human suffering, or what is repugnant about justice, or the awe you feel about human life. | |
From: Charles Taylor (Sources of the Self [1989], §1.1) | |
A reaction: A persuasive part of the claim that such feelings are inseparable from thinking about people in any way at all. |
4004 | Consistency presupposes intrinsic description [Taylor,C] |
Full Idea: The issue of consistency presupposes intrinsic description. | |
From: Charles Taylor (Sources of the Self [1989], §1.1) | |
A reaction: This may be the key criticism of Kant. The so-called 'maxim' of an action can be almost infinitely re-expressed to suit the agent. |
4010 | In later utilitarianism the modern stress on freedom leads to the rejection of paternalism [Taylor,C] |
Full Idea: In mature utilitarianism , the stress on modern freedom emerges in the rejection of paternalism. | |
From: Charles Taylor (Sources of the Self [1989], §3.3) | |
A reaction: This seems good; it is the beginnings of a rejection of paternalism. What is better, happiness or freedom? What is the value of freedom? |
5470 | The idea of laws of nature arose in the Middle Ages [Hall,AR, by Ellis] |
Full Idea: According to A.R. Hall, the idea that nature is governed by laws does not appear to have existed in the ancient Greek, Roman or Far Eastern traditions of science, but arose from religious, philosophical and legal ideas in medieval Europe. | |
From: report of A.R. Hall (The Scientific Revolution 1500-1800 [1954]) by Brian Ellis - The Philosophy of Nature: new essentialism Ch.5 | |
A reaction: This is a very illuminating point, which gives good circumstantial support for questioning the existence of external laws which are imposed on a passive nature. Modern essentialism suggest the 'laws' are the intrinsic results of properties. |
4009 | Nominalists defended the sovereignty of God against the idea of natural existing good and evil [Taylor,C] |
Full Idea: Late medieval nominalism defended the sovereignty of God as incompatible with there being an order in nature which by itself defined good and bad. | |
From: Charles Taylor (Sources of the Self [1989], §3.3) | |
A reaction: Part of their attack on Platonism. But what made them place such a high value on the sovereignty of God? |