4 ideas
6841 | Some continental philosophers are relativists - Baudrillard, for example [Baudrillard, by Critchley] |
Full Idea: There are philosophers in the continental tradition who are relativists - Baudrillard, for example. | |
From: report of Jean Baudrillard (works [1976]) by Simon Critchley - Interview with Baggini and Stangroom p.192 | |
A reaction: This remark is in the context of Critchley denying that most continental philosophers are relativists. |
16669 | Everything that exists is either a being, or some mode of a being [Malebranche] |
Full Idea: It is absolutely necessary that everything in the world be either a being or a mode [manière] of a being. | |
From: Nicolas Malebranche (The Search After Truth [1675], III.2.8.ii), quoted by Robert Pasnau - Metaphysical Themes 1274-1671 13.4 |
18284 | Particulars can be verified or falsified, but general statements can only be falsified (conclusively) [Popper] |
Full Idea: Whereas particular reality statements are in principle completely verifiable or falsifiable, things are different for general reality statements: they can indeed be conclusively falsified, they can acquire a negative truth value, but not a positive one. | |
From: Karl Popper (Two Problems of Epistemology [1932], p.256), quoted by J. Alberto Coffa - The Semantic Tradition from Kant to Carnap 18 'Laws' | |
A reaction: This sounds like a logician's approach to science, but I prefer to look at coherence, where very little is actually conclusive, and one tinkers with the theory instead. |
12726 | In a true cause we see a necessary connection [Malebranche] |
Full Idea: A true cause is one in which the mind perceives a necessary connection between the cause and its effect. | |
From: Nicolas Malebranche (The Search After Truth [1675], 1.649 (450)), quoted by Daniel Garber - Leibniz:Body,Substance,Monad 5 | |
A reaction: Presumably Hume was ignorant of 'true' causes, since he says he never saw this connection. But then is the perception done by the mind, or by the senses? |