Combining Texts

All the ideas for 'Through the Looking Glass', 'The Poetics' and 'Spheres of Justice'

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6 ideas

7. Existence / A. Nature of Existence / 3. Being / e. Being and nothing

21982	I only wish I had such eyes as to see Nobody! It's as much as I can do to see real people. [Carroll,L]
	Full Idea: "I see nobody on the road," said Alice. - "I only wish I had such eyes," the King remarked. ..."To be able to see Nobody! ...Why, it's as much as I can do to see real people."
	From: Lewis Carroll (C.Dodgson) (Through the Looking Glass [1886], p.189), quoted by A.W. Moore - The Evolution of Modern Metaphysics 07.7
	A reaction: [Moore quotes this, inevitably, in a chapter on Hegel] This may be a better candidate for the birth of philosophy of language than Frege's Groundwork.

10. Modality / B. Possibility / 1. Possibility

22518	The actual must be possible, because it occurred [Aristotle]
	Full Idea: Actual events are evidently possible, otherwise they would not have occurred.
	From: Aristotle (The Poetics [c.347 BCE], 1451b18)
	A reaction: [quoted online by Peter Adamson] Seems like common sense, but it's important to have Aristotle assert it.

21. Aesthetics / B. Nature of Art / 8. The Arts / b. Literature

16566	Poetry is more philosophic than history, as it concerns universals, not particulars [Aristotle]
	Full Idea: Poetry is something more philosophic and of graver import than history, since its statements are rather of universals, whereas those of history are singulars.
	From: Aristotle (The Poetics [c.347 BCE], 1451b05)
	A reaction: Hm. Characters in great novels achieve universality by being representated very particularly. Great depth of mind seems required to be a poet, but less so for a historian (though there is, I presume, no upward limit on the possible level of thought).

24. Political Theory / A. Basis of a State / 4. Original Position / b. Veil of ignorance

20595	You can't distribute goods from behind a veil, because their social meaning is unclear [Walzer, by Tuckness/Wolf]
	Full Idea: Walzer says behind the veil of ignorance there would be no way to know how a particular good should be distributed, because we would not know the social meaning of the good in question.
	From: report of Michael Walzer (Spheres of Justice [1983]) by Tuckness,A/Wolf,C - This is Political Philosophy 4 'Communitarian'
	A reaction: Is Rawls actually proposing to decide details of distribution from behind the veil? There is just the maximin principle. What that means in practice would surely come once the society was under way.

25. Social Practice / B. Equalities / 2. Political equality

20592	Complex equality restricts equalities from spilling over, like money influencing politics and law [Walzer, by Tuckness/Wolf]
	Full Idea: Complex equality tries to keep advantages in one area (such as money) from translating into advantages in politics or before the law.
	From: report of Michael Walzer (Spheres of Justice [1983]) by Tuckness,A/Wolf,C - This is Political Philosophy 3 'Complex'
	A reaction: Put like that, Walzer's complex equality becomes very interesting, and pinpoints a major problem of our age, where discrepancies of wealth have become staggeringly large at the top end.

25. Social Practice / B. Equalities / 4. Economic equality

20549	Equality is complex, with different spheres of equality where different principles apply [Walzer, by Swift]
	Full Idea: Michael Walzer argues for 'complex equality', saying different goods belong to different distributive 'spheres', each with its own distributive principles.
	From: report of Michael Walzer (Spheres of Justice [1983]) by Adam Swift - Political Philosophy (3rd ed) 3 'Egalitarian'
	A reaction: Sounds interesting. Equality seems to make different demands when it concerns basic food for survival, or fine wines. You can spend your money freely, but hording in a crisis is frowned on.