Combining Texts

All the ideas for 'Mahaprajnaparamitashastra', 'Causality and Explanation' and 'Introduction to German Philosophy'

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6 ideas

2. Reason / A. Nature of Reason / 1. On Reason

20955	Art can make reason more all-inclusive, by articulating what seemed inexpressible [Bowie]
	Full Idea: The early German Romantics argued that art pointed to a more all-inclusive conception of reason, which can offer ways of articulating what is not conceptually accessible.
	From: Andrew Bowie (Introduction to German Philosophy [2003], 5 'Reason')
	A reaction: [This is Novalis, F.Schlegel, Schleiermacher, and Hölderlin] I'm in favour of expanding reason, to include assessment of situations and coherence, rather than just stepwise reasoning. Not sure that art 'articulates' something new.

11. Knowledge Aims / C. Knowing Reality / 3. Idealism / d. Absolute idealism

20950	German Idealism says our thinking and nature have the same rational structure [Bowie]
	Full Idea: German Idealism aims to demonstrate that our thinking relates to a nature which is intelligibly structured in the same way as our thinking is structured.
	From: Andrew Bowie (Introduction to German Philosophy [2003], 3 'Limits')
	A reaction: Now that's an idealism I might buy into. Frege thought his logic was mapping rational reality. My angle is that we are a product of this 'reality', so we should expect our thinking to be similarly structured. Reason is derived from nature.

14. Science / D. Explanation / 2. Types of Explanation / i. Explanations by mechanism

16557	Salmon's mechanisms are processes and interactions, involving marks, or conserved quantities [Salmon, by Machamer/Darden/Craver]
	Full Idea: For Salmon mechanisms are composed of processes and interactions. The interactions are identified in terms of transmitted marks and statistical relations, or (more recently) exchanges of conserved quantities.
	From: report of Wesley Salmon (Causality and Explanation [1998], 3.1) by Machamer,P/Darden,L/Craver,C - Thinking About Mechanisms 3.1
	A reaction: They say that Salmon has too little to say about the activities that constitute a mechanism. A 'mark' doesn't sound too promising, but I quite like the exchange of conserved quantities, which gets into the guts of what is going on.

16. Persons / E. Rejecting the Self / 2. Self as Social Construct

20942	Nazis think race predetermines the self [Bowie]
	Full Idea: The Nazi idea is that the self is predetermined primarily by its race.
	From: Andrew Bowie (Introduction to German Philosophy [2003], Intro)
	A reaction: I suspect that I occasionally encounter this view, in very patriotic people. But then you meet people who feeling that their self is mainly determined by support of a football team. Note, though, 'pre-'determined. Hegel makes this idea possible?

19. Language / F. Communication / 1. Rhetoric

20946	Rhetoric is built into language, so it cannot be stripped from philosophy [Bowie]
	Full Idea: The attempt to rid philosophy of rhetoric falls prey precisely to that fact that what is involved in rhetoric is inherent in what is built into all natural languages by their genesis in the real historical world.
	From: Andrew Bowie (Introduction to German Philosophy [2003], 2 'Hamann')
	A reaction: Rhetoric can range from charming to bullying, and it is the latter which is the problem. The underlying issue is dogma versus dialectic. Some analytic philosophers have a good shot at being non-rhetorical.

23. Ethics / C. Virtue Theory / 3. Virtues / a. Virtues

7903	The six perfections are giving, morality, patience, vigour, meditation, and wisdom [Nagarjuna]
	Full Idea: The six perfections are of giving, morality, patience, vigour, meditation, and wisdom.
	From: Nagarjuna (Mahaprajnaparamitashastra [c.120], 88)
	A reaction: What is 'morality', if giving is not part of it? I like patience and vigour being two of the virtues, which immediately implies an Aristotelian mean (which is always what is 'appropriate').