Combining Texts

All the ideas for 'fragments/reports', 'Nonexistent Objects' and 'Phenomenology of Perception'

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4 ideas

9. Objects / A. Existence of Objects / 4. Impossible objects
18948 There is an object for every set of properties (some of which exist, and others don't) [Parsons,T, by Sawyer]
     Full Idea: According to Terence Parsons, there is an object corresponding to every set of properties. To some of those sets of properties there corresponds an object that exists, and to others there corresponds an object that does not exist (a nonexistent object).
     From: report of Terence Parsons (Nonexistent Objects [1980]) by Sarah Sawyer - Empty Names 5
     A reaction: This I take to be the main source of the modern revival of Meinong's notorious view of objects (attacked by Russell). I always find the thought 'a round square is square' to be true, and in need of a truthmaker. But must a round square be non-triangular?
10. Modality / A. Necessity / 8. Transcendental Necessity
490 Everything happens by reason and necessity [Leucippus]
     Full Idea: Nothing happens at random; everything happens out of reason and by necessity.
     From: Leucippus (fragments/reports [c.435 BCE], B002), quoted by (who?) - where?
11. Knowledge Aims / B. Certain Knowledge / 4. The Cogito
21862 Consciousness is based on 'I can', not on 'I think' [Merleau-Ponty]
     Full Idea: Consciousness is in the first place not a matter of 'I think' but of 'I can'.
     From: Maurice Merleau-Ponty (Phenomenology of Perception [1945], p.159), quoted by Beth Lord - Spinoza's Ethics 2 'Sensation'
     A reaction: The point here (quoted during a discussion of Spinoza) is that you can't leave out the role of the body, which seems correct.
12. Knowledge Sources / B. Perception / 5. Interpretation
20750 The mind does not unite perceptions, because they flow into one another [Merleau-Ponty]
     Full Idea: I do not have one perception, then another, and between them a link brought about by the mind. Rather, each perspective merges into the other [against a unified background].
     From: Maurice Merleau-Ponty (Phenomenology of Perception [1945], p.329-30), quoted by Kevin Aho - Existentialism: an introduction 3 'Perceptual'
     A reaction: I take this to be another piece of evidence pointing to realism as the best explanation of experience. A problem for Descartes is what unites the sequence of thoughts.