Combining Texts

All the ideas for 'Particulars in Particular Clothing', 'works' and 'Letters to Mersenne'

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5 ideas

1. Philosophy / G. Scientific Philosophy / 3. Scientism
My Meditations are the complete foundation of my physics [Descartes]
     Full Idea: My six Meditations contain all the foundations of my physics, …and their principles destroy those of Aristotle.
     From: René Descartes (Letters to Mersenne [1640], 1641.01.28)
3. Truth / A. Truth Problems / 2. Defining Truth
Truth is such a transcendentally clear notion that it cannot be further defined [Descartes]
     Full Idea: Truth is such a transcendentally clear notion that it cannot be further defined.
     From: René Descartes (Letters to Mersenne [1640], 1642), quoted by Pascal Engel - Truth Intro
     A reaction: This is the view endorsed by Davidson. It is tempting to take basic concepts as axiomatic, but philosophers can't make that move every time they are in trouble. I have to say, though, that truth is a good candidate.
8. Modes of Existence / B. Properties / 13. Tropes / a. Nature of tropes
Internal relations combine some tropes into a nucleus, which bears the non-essential tropes [Simons, by Edwards]
     Full Idea: Simons's 'nuclear' option blends features of the substratum and bundle theories. First we have tropes collected by virtue of their internal relations, forming the essential kernel or nucleus. This nucleus then bears the non-essential tropes.
     From: report of Peter Simons (Particulars in Particular Clothing [1994], p.567) by Douglas Edwards - Properties 3.5
     A reaction: [compression of Edwards's summary] This strikes me as being a remarkably good theory. I am not sure of the ontological status of properties, such that they can (unaided) combine to make part of an object. What binds the non-essentials?
22. Metaethics / A. Ethics Foundations / 2. Source of Ethics / e. Human nature
There are two sides to men - the pleasantly social, and the violent and creative [Diderot, by Berlin]
     Full Idea: Diderot is among the first to preach that there are two men: the artificial man, who belongs in society and seeks to please, and the violent, bold, criminal instinct of a man who wishes to break out (and, if controlled, is responsible for works of genius.
     From: report of Denis Diderot (works [1769], Ch.3) by Isaiah Berlin - The Roots of Romanticism
     A reaction: This has an obvious ancestor in Plato's picture (esp. in 'Phaedrus') of the two conflicting sides to the psuché, which seem to be reason and emotion. In Diderot, though, the suppressed man has virtues, which Plato would deny.
29. Religion / D. Religious Issues / 2. Immortality / b. Soul
I can't prove the soul is indestructible, only that it is separate from the mortal body [Descartes]
     Full Idea: I don't know how to demonstrate that God cannot annihilate the soul, but only that it is entirely distinct from the body, and consequently that it is not naturally subject to die with it, which is all that is required to establish religion.
     From: René Descartes (Letters to Mersenne [1640], 1640.02.24)