3 ideas
| 22457 | If the aim is good outcomes, why are killings worse than deaths? [Scheffler, by Foot] |
| Full Idea: It is not clear why, in the measurement of the goodness of states of affairs or total outcomes, killings for instance should count so much more heavily than deaths. | |
| From: report of Samuel Scheffler (The Rejection of Consequentialism [1982], pp.108-12) by Philippa Foot - Utilitarianism and the Virtues p.61 | |
| A reaction: Or drunken drivers worse than careless drivers. Or stolen bracelets than lost bracelets. The point is that morality is about the behaviour of people, and not about consequences. |
| 15877 | The aim of science is just to create a comprehensive, elegant language to describe brute facts [Poincaré, by Harré] |
| Full Idea: In Poincaré's view, we try to construct a language within which the brute facts of experience are expressed as comprehensively and as elegantly as possible. The job of science is the forging of a language precisely suited to that purpose. | |
| From: report of Henri Poincaré (The Value of Science [1906], Pt III) by Rom Harré - Laws of Nature 2 | |
| A reaction: I'm often struck by how obscure and difficult our accounts of self-evident facts can be. Chairs are easy, and the metaphysics of chairs is hideous. Why is that? I'm a robust realist, but I like Poincaré's idea. He permits facts. |
| 7489 | Joshua said, Sun, stand thou still [Anon (Josh)] |
| Full Idea: Then Joshua spake to the Lord, and he said in the sight of Israel, Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon; and the Sun stood still. | |
| From: Anon (Josh) (06: Book of Joshua [c.540 BCE], 10.12) | |
| A reaction: This verse became highly significant during the controversies from Copernicus to Galileo about the heliocentric universe. |