Combining Texts

All the ideas for 'On Being (frags)', 'The World' and 'Moral Luck'

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4 ideas

12. Knowledge Sources / B. Perception / 2. Qualities in Perception / d. Secondary qualities
Our sensation of light may not be the same as what produces the sensation [Descartes]
     Full Idea: There can be a difference between our sensation of light and what is in the objects that produce that sensation in us.
     From: René Descartes (The World [1631]), quoted by Ian Dunt - How to be a Liberal 1
     A reaction: Note only that they 'may' differ, and that he does not assert that they are entirely different. Secondary qualities give information, and are not just mental events.
22. Metaethics / C. The Good / 1. Goodness / i. Moral luck
If all that matters in morality is motive and intention, that makes moral luck irrelevant [Williams,B]
     Full Idea: The idea that one's whole life can be immune to luck has not prevailed (e.g. in Christianity), …but its place has been taken by the idea that moral value can be immune, …if it is motive that counts, and in actions it is not worldly changes but intention.
     From: Bernard Williams (Moral Luck [1976], p.20)
     A reaction: [compressed] That is, that Kant offers a way to make luck irrelevant to morality. Williams disagrees, but says at least Kant offers 'solace to a sense of the world's unfairness'.
26. Natural Theory / A. Speculations on Nature / 6. Early Matter Theories / f. Ancient elements
The Hot, Cold, Wet and Dry of the philosophers need themselves to be explained [Descartes]
     Full Idea: If you find it strange that in explaining these elements I do not use the qualities called Hot, Cold, Wet and Dry - as the philosophers do - I shall say to you that these qualities themselves seem to me to need explanation.
     From: René Descartes (The World [1631], 9:25-6), quoted by Robert Pasnau - Metaphysical Themes 1274-1671 1.3
     A reaction: Nice. I take pushing the boundaries of explanation back (or down) to be the basic driving force of all human thought, in metaphysics as well as in physics.
27. Natural Reality / A. Classical Physics / 1. Mechanics / b. Laws of motion
Descartes said there was conservation of 'quantity of motion' [Descartes, by Papineau]
     Full Idea: Descartes incorporated the conservation of what he called 'quantity of motion', by which he meant mass times speed.
     From: report of René Descartes (The World [1631]) by David Papineau - Thinking about Consciousness App 2
     A reaction: Mass times velocity is now called 'momentum'. Is this the first ever conservation law? There are now lots of them.