Combining Texts

All the ideas for 'Knowledge', 'Conceptions of Truth' and 'fragments/reports'

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3 ideas

2. Reason / D. Definition / 12. Paraphrase
The idea of 'making' can be mere conceptual explanation (like 'because') [Künne]
     Full Idea: If we say 'being a child of our parent's sibling makes him your first cousin', that can be paraphrased using 'because', and this is the 'because' of conceptual explanation: the second part elucidates the sense of the first part.
     From: Wolfgang Künne (Conceptions of Truth [2003], 3.5.2)
     A reaction: Fans of truth-making are certainly made uncomfortable by talk of 'what makes this a good painting' or 'this made my day'. They need a bit more sharpness to the concept of 'making' a truth.
13. Knowledge Criteria / C. External Justification / 3. Reliabilism / a. Reliable knowledge
Belief is knowledge if it is true, certain, and obtained by a reliable process [Ramsey]
     Full Idea: I have always said that a belief was knowledge if it was (i) true, (ii) certain, (iii) obtained by a reliable process.
     From: Frank P. Ramsey (Knowledge [1929]), quoted by Juan Comesańa - Reliabilism 2
     A reaction: Remarkable to be addressing the Gettier problem at that date, but Russell had flirted with the problem. Ramsey says the production of the belief must be reliable, rather than the justification for the belief. Note that he wants certainty.
20. Action / B. Preliminaries of Action / 2. Willed Action / d. Weakness of will
Some reasonings are stronger than we are [Philolaus]
     Full Idea: Some reasonings are stronger than we are.
     From: Philolaus (fragments/reports [c.425 BCE]), quoted by Aristotle - Eudemian Ethics 1225a33
     A reaction: This endorses the Aristotle view of akrasia (as opposed to the Socratic view). This isolated remark seems to imply that we are more clearly embodiments of will than of reason.