Combining Texts

All the ideas for 'On the Moral and Legal State of Abortion', 'Of the standard of taste' and 'Teplitz Fragments'

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4 ideas

12. Knowledge Sources / D. Empiricism / 5. Empiricism Critique

19590	Empiricists are passive thinkers, given their philosophy by the external world and fate [Novalis]
	Full Idea: An empiricist is one whose way of thinking is an effect of the external world and of fate - the passive thinker - to whom his philosophy is given.
	From: Novalis (Teplitz Fragments [1798], 33)
	A reaction: Novalis goes on to enthuse about 'magical idealism', so he rejects empiricism. This is an early attack on the Myth of the Given, found in Sellars and McDowell.

16. Persons / A. Concept of a Person / 1. Existence of Persons

20618	Persons must be conscious, reasoning, motivated, communicative, self-aware [Warren, by Tuckness/Wolf]
	Full Idea: Suggested characteristics of personhood: consciousness (esp. of pain); reasoning and problem solving; self-motivated activity; varied communication on many topics; self-concepts and self-awareness.
	From: report of Mary Anne Warren (On the Moral and Legal State of Abortion [1973], p.55) by Tuckness,A/Wolf,C - This is Political Philosophy 8 'Standing'
	A reaction: [a 'famous' article] A number of non-human animals come very close to passing these tests. I suspect the complex communication is only in there to disqualify them from getting the full certificate. (But she wrote on animal rights).

21. Aesthetics / A. Aesthetic Experience / 2. Aesthetic Attitude

18552	Forget about beauty; just concentrate on the virtues of delicacy and discernment admired in critics [Hume, by Scruton]
	Full Idea: Hume suggest we get away from the fruitless discussion of beauty, and simply concentrate on the qualities we admire, and ought to admire, in a critic - qualities such as delicacy and discernment.
	From: report of David Hume (Of the standard of taste [1757]) by Roger Scruton - Beauty: a very short introduction 6
	A reaction: We might wonder how you can admire 'discernment' without some view of the thing being discern, which is in danger of being beauty. How do you judge delicacy and discernment without judging the objects of the critic's taste? Mere authority?

21. Aesthetics / A. Aesthetic Experience / 3. Taste

6608	Strong sense, delicate sentiment, practice, comparisons, and lack of prejudice, are all needed for good taste [Hume]
	Full Idea: Strong sense, united to delicate sentiment, improved by practice, perfected by comparison, and cleared of all prejudice, can alone entitle critics to the valuable character of having 'taste'.
	From: David Hume (Of the standard of taste [1757]), quoted by Robert Fogelin - Walking the Tightrope of Reason Ch.6
	A reaction: I agree entirely with this, but then I am a very politically incorrect elitist when it comes to taste. It just seems screamingly obvious that professional wine-tasters have a better appreciation of wine than me, and so on for the rest of the arts.