4 ideas
8658 | For there was never yet philosopher/ That could endure the toothache patiently [Shakespeare] |
Full Idea: For there was never yet philosopher/ That could endure the toothache patiently. | |
From: William Shakespeare (Much Ado About Nothing [1600], V.i) | |
A reaction: You can't argue with that. I do think that people who have studied philosophy at length are more likely to be 'philosophical' when faced with human misery, but only up to a point. |
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. |
16210 | Humean supervenience says the world is just a vast mosaic of qualities in space-time [Lewis] |
Full Idea: Humean supervenience says the world is a vast mosaic of local matters of particular fact. We have a geometry of external relations of spatio-temporal distance between points, and local qualities at points. …In short: we have an arrangement of qualities. | |
From: David Lewis (Introduction to Philosophical Papers II [1986], p.ix-x) | |
A reaction: [compressed] This is the key fundamental tenet of David Lewis's philosophy. He names it after Hume because it contains no necessary connections. It is 'supervenient' because all worldly truths reduce to and depend on the mosaic. His thesis is contingent. |
9426 | The world is just a vast mosaic of little matters of local particular fact [Lewis] |
Full Idea: The world is a vast mosaic of local matters of particular fact, just one little thing and then another. | |
From: David Lewis (Introduction to Philosophical Papers II [1986]) | |
A reaction: Basing laws on this picture is what Lewis calls 'Humean Supervenience'. |