6521
|
Representative realists believe that laws of phenomena will apply to the physical world [Robinson,H]
|
|
Full Idea:
One thing which is meant by saying that the phenomenal world represents or resembles the transcendental physical world is that the scientific laws devised to apply to the former, if correct, also apply (at least approximately) to the latter.
|
|
From:
Howard Robinson (Perception [1994], IX.3)
|
|
A reaction:
This is not, of course, an argument, or a claim which can be easily substantiated, but it does seem to be a nice statement of a central article of faith for representative realists. The laws of the phenomenal world are the only ones we are going to get.
|
6522
|
Phenomenalism can be theistic (Berkeley), or sceptical (Hume), or analytic (20th century) [Robinson,H]
|
|
Full Idea:
It is useful to identify three kinds of phenomenalism: theistic, sceptical and analytic; the first is represented by Berkeley, the second by Hume, and the third by most twentieth-century phenomenalists.
|
|
From:
Howard Robinson (Perception [1994], IX.4)
|
|
A reaction:
In Britain the third group is usually represented by A.J.Ayer. My simple objection to all phenomenalists is that they are intellectual cowards because they won't venture to give an explanation of the phenomena which confront them.
|
6513
|
Would someone who recovered their sight recognise felt shapes just by looking? [Robinson,H]
|
|
Full Idea:
Molyneux's Problem is whether someone who was born blind and acquired sight would be able to recognise, on sight, which shapes were which; that is, would they see which shape was the one that felt so-and-so?
|
|
From:
Howard Robinson (Perception [1994], VIII.7)
|
|
A reaction:
(Molyneux wrote a letter to John Locke about this). It is a good question, and much discussed in modern times. My estimation is that the person would recognise the shapes. We are partly synaesthetic, and see sharpness as well as feeling it.
|
6494
|
If objects are not coloured, and neither are sense-contents, we are left saying that nothing is coloured [Robinson,H]
|
|
Full Idea:
If there are good reasons for thinking that physical objects are not literally coloured, and one also refuses to attribute them to sense-contents, then one will have the bizarre theory (which has been recently adopted) that nothing is actually coloured.
|
|
From:
Howard Robinson (Perception [1994], 1.7)
|
|
A reaction:
It seems to me that objects are not literally coloured, that the air in between does not become coloured, and that my brain doesn't turn a funny colour, so that only leaves colour as an 'interior' feature of certain brain states. That's how it is.
|
6500
|
If secondary qualities match senses, would new senses create new qualities? [Robinson,H]
|
|
Full Idea:
As secondary qualities are tailored to match senses, a proliferation of senses would lead to a proliferation of secondary qualities.
|
|
From:
Howard Robinson (Perception [1994], III.1)
|
|
A reaction:
One might reply that if we experienced, say, magnetism, we would just be discerning a new fine grained primary quality, not adding something new to the ontological stock of properties in the world. It is a matter of HOW we experience the magnetism.
|
6511
|
If there are only 'modes' of sensing, then an object can no more be red or square than it can be proud or lazy. [Robinson,H]
|
|
Full Idea:
If only modes of sensing are ostensively available, ..then it is a category mistake to see any resemblance between what is available and properties of bodies; one could as sensibly say that a physical body is proud or lazy as that it is red or square.
|
|
From:
Howard Robinson (Perception [1994], VII.5)
|
|
A reaction:
This is an objection to the 'adverbial' theory of perception. It looks to me like a devastating objection, if the theory is meant to cover primary qualities as well as secondary. Red could be a mode of perception, but not square, surely?
|
6517
|
If all possibilities are equal, order seems (a priori) to need an explanation - or does it? [Robinson,H]
|
|
Full Idea:
The fact that order requires an explanation seems to be an a priori principle; ..we assume all possibilities are equally likely, and so no striking regularities should emerge; the sceptic replies that a highly ordered sequence is as likely as any other.
|
|
From:
Howard Robinson (Perception [1994], IX.3)
|
|
A reaction:
An independent notion of 'order' is required. If I write down '14356', and then throw 1 4 3 5 6 on a die, the match is the order; instrinsically 14356 is nothing special. If you threw the die a million times, a run of six sixes seems quite likely.
|
6481
|
If intentional states are intrinsically about other things, what are their own properties? [Robinson,H]
|
|
Full Idea:
Intentional states are mysterious things; if they are intrinsically about other things, what properties, if any, do they possess intrinsically?
|
|
From:
Howard Robinson (Perception [1994], 1.1)
|
|
A reaction:
A very nice question, which I suspect to be right at the heart of the tendency towards externalist accounts of the mind. Since you can only talk about the contents of the thoughts, you can't put forward a decent internalist account of what is going on.
|
6503
|
Physicalism cannot allow internal intentional objects, as brain states can't be 'about' anything [Robinson,H]
|
|
Full Idea:
It is generally conceded by reductive physicalists that a state of the brain cannot be intrinsically about anything, for intentionality is not an intrinsic property of anything, so there can be no internal objects for a physicalist.
|
|
From:
Howard Robinson (Perception [1994], V.4)
|
|
A reaction:
Perhaps it is best to say that 'aboutness' is not a property of physics. We may say that a brain state 'represents' something, because the something caused the brain state, but representations have to be recognised
|
6248
|
Reason is too slow and doubtful to guide all actions, which need external and moral senses [Hutcheson]
|
|
Full Idea:
We boast of our mighty reason above other animals, but its processes are too slow, too full of doubt, to serve us in every exigency, either for our preservation, without external senses, or to influence our actions for good without the moral sense.
|
|
From:
Francis Hutcheson (Treatise 2: Virtue or Moral Good [1725], §VII.III)
|
|
A reaction:
This idea was taken up by Hume, and it must have influence Hume's general scepticism about the importance of reason. What this idea misses is the enormous influence of prior reasoning on our quick decisions.
|
6239
|
We dislike a traitor, even if they give us great benefit [Hutcheson]
|
|
Full Idea:
Let us consider if a traitor, who would sell his own country to us, may not often be as advantageous to us, as an hero who defends us: and yet we can love the treason, and hate the traitor.
|
|
From:
Francis Hutcheson (Treatise 2: Virtue or Moral Good [1725], §I.VI)
|
|
A reaction:
A nice example, which certainly refutes any claim that morality is entirely and directly self-interested. High-minded idealism, though, is not the only alternative explanation. We admire loyalty, but not loyalty to, say, Hitler.
|
6240
|
The moral sense is not an innate idea, but an ability to approve or disapprove in a disinterested way [Hutcheson]
|
|
Full Idea:
The moral sense is not an innate idea or knowledge, but a determination of our minds to receive the simple ideas of approbation or condemnation, from actions observed, antecedent to any opinions of advantage or loss to redound to ourselves.
|
|
From:
Francis Hutcheson (Treatise 2: Virtue or Moral Good [1725], §I.VIII)
|
|
A reaction:
This may claim a pure moral intuition, but it is also close to Kantian universalising of the rules for behaviour. It is also a variation on Descartes' 'natural light' of reason. Of course, if we say the ideas are 'received', where are they received from?
|
6242
|
We cannot choose our moral feelings, otherwise bribery could affect them [Hutcheson]
|
|
Full Idea:
Neither benevolence nor any other affection or desire can be directly raised by volition; if they could, then we could be bribed into any affection whatsoever toward any object.
|
|
From:
Francis Hutcheson (Treatise 2: Virtue or Moral Good [1725], §II.IV)
|
|
A reaction:
Of course, notoriously, the vast mass of people have often been bribed to love a politician, by low taxes, or bread and circuses. Still, you cannot choose to love or admire someone, you just do. Not much free will there.
|
6244
|
Human nature seems incapable of universal malice, except what results from self-love [Hutcheson]
|
|
Full Idea:
Human nature seems scarce capable of malicious disinterested hatred, or an ultimate desire of the misery of others, when we imagine them not pernicious to us, or opposite to our interests; ..that is only the effect of self-love, not disinterested malice.
|
|
From:
Francis Hutcheson (Treatise 2: Virtue or Moral Good [1725], §II.VII)
|
|
A reaction:
I suppose it is true that even the worst criminals brooding in prison don't wish the entire population of some foreign country to die in pain. Only a very freakish person would wish the human race were extinct. A very nice observation.
|
6243
|
As death approaches, why do we still care about family, friends or country? [Hutcheson]
|
|
Full Idea:
How comes it that we do not lose, at the approach of death, all concern for our families, friends, or country?
|
|
From:
Francis Hutcheson (Treatise 2: Virtue or Moral Good [1725], §II.V)
|
|
A reaction:
A nice question. No doubt some people do cease to care, but on the whole it raises the 'last round' problem in social contract theory, which is why fulfil your part of a bargain if it is too late to receive the repayment afterwards?
|
6241
|
Contempt of danger is just madness if it is not in some worthy cause [Hutcheson]
|
|
Full Idea:
Mere courage, or contempt of danger, if we conceive it to have no regard to the defence of the innocent, or repairing of wrongs or self-interest, would only entitle its possessor to bedlam.
|
|
From:
Francis Hutcheson (Treatise 2: Virtue or Moral Good [1725], §II.I)
|
|
A reaction:
If many criminals would love to rob a bank, but only a few have the nerve to attempt it, we can hardly deny that the latter exhibit a sort of courage. The Greeks say that good sense must be involved, but few of them were so moral about courage.
|
6245
|
That action is best, which procures the greatest happiness for the greatest number [Hutcheson]
|
|
Full Idea:
That action is best, which procures the greatest happiness for the greatest number; and that worst, which, in like manner, occasions misery.
|
|
From:
Francis Hutcheson (Treatise 2: Virtue or Moral Good [1725], §III.VIII)
|
|
A reaction:
The first use of a phrase taken up by Bentham. This is not just an anticipation of utilitarianism, it is utilitarianism, with all its commitment to consequentialism (but see Idea 6246), and to the maximising of happiness. It is a brilliant idea.
|
6251
|
The loss of perfect rights causes misery, but the loss of imperfect rights reduces social good [Hutcheson]
|
|
Full Idea:
Perfect rights are necessary to the public good, and it makes those miserable whose rights are thus violated; …imperfect rights tend to the improvement and increase of good in a society, but are not necessary to prevent universal misery.
|
|
From:
Francis Hutcheson (Treatise 2: Virtue or Moral Good [1725], §VII.VI)
|
|
A reaction:
This is a very utilitarian streak in Hutcheson, converting natural law into its tangible outcome in actual happiness or misery. The distinction here is interesting (taken up by Mill), but there is a very blurred borderline.
|
6519
|
Locke's solidity is not matter, because that is impenetrability and hardness combined [Robinson,H]
|
|
Full Idea:
Notoriously, Locke's filler for Descartes's geometrical matter, solidity, will not do, for that quality collapses on examination into a composite of the dispositional-cum-relational propery of impenetrability, and the secondary quality of hardness.
|
|
From:
Howard Robinson (Perception [1994], IX.3)
|
|
A reaction:
I would have thought the problem was that 'matter is solidity' turns out on analysis to be a tautology. We have a handful of nearly synonymous words for matter and our experiences of it, but they boil down to some 'given' thing for which we lack words.
|
6249
|
If goodness is constituted by God's will, it is a tautology to say God's will is good [Hutcheson]
|
|
Full Idea:
To call the laws of the supreme Deity good or holy or just, if these be constituted by laws, or the will of a superior, must be an insignificant tautology, amounting to no more than 'God wills what he wills' or 'His will is conformable to his will'.
|
|
From:
Francis Hutcheson (Treatise 2: Virtue or Moral Good [1725], §VII.V)
|
|
A reaction:
This argues not only against God as the source of morality, but also against any rules, such as those of the Categorical Imperative. Why should I follow the Categorical Imperative? What has value must dictate the rules. Is obedience the highest value?
|
20713
|
God must be fit for worship, but worship abandons morally autonomy, but there is no God [Rachels, by Davies,B]
|
|
Full Idea:
Rachels argues 1) If any being is God, he must be a fitting object of worship, 2) No being could be a fitting object of worship, since worship requires the abandonment of one's role as an autonomous moral agent, so 3) There cannot be a being who is God.
|
|
From:
report of James Rachels (God and Human Attributes [1971], 7 p.334) by Brian Davies - Introduction to the Philosophy of Religion 9 'd morality'
|
|
A reaction:
Presumably Lionel Messi can be a fitting object of worship without being God. Since the problem is with being worshipful, rather than with being God, should I infer that Messi doesn't exist?
|