Combining Texts

All the ideas for 'Two Problems of Epistemology', 'fragments/reports' and 'Foucault: a very short introduction'

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4 ideas

1. Philosophy / C. History of Philosophy / 4. Later European Philosophy / d. Nineteenth century philosophy

21943	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

21944	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'.

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.

15. Nature of Minds / A. Nature of Mind / 2. Psuche

5880	Xenocrates held that the soul had no form or substance, but was number [Xenocrates, by Cicero]
	Full Idea: Xenocrates denied that the soul had form or any substance, but said that it was number, and the power of number, as had been held by Pythagoras long before, was the highest in nature.
	From: report of Xenocrates (fragments/reports [c.327 BCE]) by M. Tullius Cicero - Tusculan Disputations I.x.20
	A reaction: This shows how strong the Pythagorean influence was in the Academy. This is not totally stupid. Dawkins holds that the essence of DNA is information, which can be expressed mathematically. Xenocrates was a functionalist.