Combining Texts

All the ideas for 'fragments/reports', 'First Things First' and 'Foucault: a very short introduction'

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7 ideas

1. Philosophy / C. History of Philosophy / 4. Later European Philosophy / d. Nineteenth century philosophy
Since Kant, self-criticism has been part of philosophy [Gutting]
     Full Idea: Philosophy after Kant has involved a continuing critique of its own project.
     From: Gary Gutting (Foucault: a very short introduction [2005], 6)
     A reaction: I'm struck by many modern philosophers in the analytic tradition who write as if Kant had never existed. I don't know if that is a conscious decision, but it may be a good one.
1. Philosophy / H. Continental Philosophy / 4. Linguistic Structuralism
Structuralism describes human phenomena in terms of unconscious structures [Gutting]
     Full Idea: Structuralism in the 1960s was a set of theories which explained human phenomena in terms of underlying unconscious structures, rather than the lived experience described by Phenomenology.
     From: Gary Gutting (Foucault: a very short introduction [2005], 6)
     A reaction: Hence the interest in Freud and Marx, and Foucault's interest in history, each offering to unmask what is hidden in consciousness. The unmasking is a basically Kantian project. Cf. Frege's hatred of 'psychologism'.
13. Knowledge Criteria / B. Internal Justification / 3. Evidentialism / b. Evidentialism
Evidentialism is not axiomatic; the evidence itself inclines us towards evidentialism [Conee]
     Full Idea: Evidentialism does not support beginning epistemology by taking for granted that evidentialism is true. ...Rather, what potentially justifies belief in intial epistemic data and initial procedures of inquiry is the evidence itself.
     From: Earl Conee (First Things First [2004], 'Getting')
     A reaction: This sounds good. I much prefer talk of 'evidence' to talk of 'perceptions', because evidence has been licked into shape, and its significance has been clarified. That is the first step towards the coherence we seek.
13. Knowledge Criteria / C. External Justification / 3. Reliabilism / b. Anti-reliabilism
If pure guesses were reliable, reliabilists would have to endorse them [Conee]
     Full Idea: Reliabilism would count pure guesses as good reasons if guessing were properly reliable.
     From: Earl Conee (First Things First [2004], 'Getting')
     A reaction: See D.H. Lawrence's short story 'The Rocking Horse Winner'. This objection strikes me as being so devastating that it is almost conclusive. Except that pure guesses are never ever reliable, over a decent period of time.
More than actual reliability is needed, since I may mistakenly doubt what is reliable [Conee]
     Full Idea: Sheer reliability does not justify belief. ...It may be, for instance, that we have strong though misleading reason to deny the method's reliability.
     From: Earl Conee (First Things First [2004], 'Circles')
     A reaction: That is, we accept a justification if we judge the method to be reliable, not if it IS reliable. I can disbelieve all the reliable information that arrives in my mind. People do that all the time! Hatred of experts! Support for internalism?
Reliabilism is poor on reflective judgements about hypothetical cases [Conee]
     Full Idea: An unrefined reliability theory does a poor job at capturing reflective judgements about hypothetical cases
     From: Earl Conee (First Things First [2004], 'Stroud's')
     A reaction: Reliability can only be a test for tried and tested ways. No one can say whether imagining a range of possibilities is reliable or not. Is prediction a reliable route to knowledge?
13. Knowledge Criteria / E. Relativism / 2. Knowledge as Convention
By nature people are close to one another, but culture drives them apart [Hippias]
     Full Idea: I regard you all as relatives - by nature, not by convention. By nature like is akin to like, but convention is a tyrant over humankind and often constrains people to act contrary to nature.
     From: Hippias (fragments/reports [c.430 BCE]), quoted by Plato - Protagoras 337c8