Combining Texts

All the ideas for 'The Origin of the Work of Art', 'From Stimulus to Science' and 'On Simple Theories of a Complex World'

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4 ideas

1. Philosophy / D. Nature of Philosophy / 5. Aims of Philosophy / b. Philosophy as transcendent

15585	Later Heidegger sees philosophy as more like poetry than like science [Heidegger, by Polt]
	Full Idea: In his later work Heidegger came to view philosophy as closer to poetry than to science.
	From: report of Martin Heidegger (The Origin of the Work of Art [1935], p.178) by Richard Polt - Heidegger: an introduction 5 'Signs'

2. Reason / B. Laws of Thought / 3. Non-Contradiction

6564	To affirm 'p and not-p' is to have mislearned 'and' or 'not' [Quine]
	Full Idea: To affirm a compound of the form 'p and not-p' is just to have mislearned one or both of these particles.
	From: Willard Quine (From Stimulus to Science [1995], p.23), quoted by Robert Fogelin - Walking the Tightrope of Reason Ch.1
	A reaction: Quoted by Fogelin. This summarises the view of logic developed by the young Wittgenstein, that logical terms are 'operators', rather than referring terms. Of course the speaker may have a compartmentalised mind, or not understand 'p' properly.

14. Science / B. Scientific Theories / 1. Scientific Theory

21687	It seems obvious to prefer the simpler of two theories, on grounds of beauty and convenience [Quine]
	Full Idea: It is not to be wondered that theory makers seek simplicity. When two theories are equally defensible on other counts, certainly the simpler of the two is to be preferred on the score of both beauty and convenience.
	From: Willard Quine (On Simple Theories of a Complex World [1960], p.255)
	A reaction: A simple application of Ockham's Razor. Quine goes on to nicely deconstruct what is involved in simplicity, and identify a certain amount of dubious prejudice in the concept.

21688	There are four suspicious reasons why we prefer simpler theories [Quine]
	Full Idea: We prefer simpler theories through wishful thinking, or a bias which slants the data, or a bias where the simpler hypothesis is more open to confirmation, or simpler hypotheses tolerating wider deviations in score-keeping.
	From: Willard Quine (On Simple Theories of a Complex World [1960], p.258)
	A reaction: [a compression of his summary of the paper] Quine is not dismissing our preference for simpler theories, but just very nicely inviting us to focus of aspects about which we should be cautious.