Combining Texts

All the ideas for 'Two Problems of Epistemology', 'God in Plato' and 'Whitehead: process and cosmology'

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4 ideas

1. Philosophy / C. History of Philosophy / 2. Ancient Philosophy / c. Classical philosophy

23889	Among the Greeks Aristotle is the only philosopher in the modern style [Weil]
	Full Idea: In Greece, Aristotle is perhaps the only philosopher in the modern sense, and he is entirely outside the Greek tradition.
	From: Simone Weil (God in Plato [1942], p.45)
	A reaction: She sees Plato as embodying the true tradition. Everything Aristotle writes is 'peri phusis' (about nature), and that is a standard topic of philosophy right from the start. She emphasises Plato long historical roots. Pythagoras is key.

1. Philosophy / E. Nature of Metaphysics / 3. Metaphysical Systems

15390	Metaphysics attempts to give an account of everything, in terms of categories and principles [Simons]
	Full Idea: Metaphysics, the noblest of philosophic enterprises, is an attempt to give an account of everything. ...Its job is to provide a universal framework (of categories and principles) within which anything whatever can take its place.
	From: Peter Simons (Whitehead: process and cosmology [2009], 'Speculative')
	A reaction: Bravo! I take metaphysics to be entirely continuous with science, but operating entirely at the highest level of generality. See Westerhoff on categories, though. The enterprise may not be going too well.

14. Science / A. Basis of Science / 6. Falsification

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.

28. God / B. Proving God / 3. Proofs of Evidence / b. Teleological Proof

23892	The only legitimate proof of God by order derives from beauty [Weil]
	Full Idea: The only legitimate proof [of God's existence] from the order of the world is the proof from the beauty of the world.
	From: Simone Weil (God in Plato [1942], p.89)
	A reaction: She finds this proof in Plato. Hume's critique never (I think) mentions beauty, although in the 18thC love of the sublime could play that role. For me, the human experience of beauty doesn't have such cosmic significance.