Combining Texts

All the ideas for 'Particulars in Particular Clothing', 'Preface to Universal Characteristic' and 'The Very Idea of a Conceptual Scheme'

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6 ideas

1. Philosophy / D. Nature of Philosophy / 2. Invocation to Philosophy

2118	All other human gifts can harm us, but not correct reasoning [Leibniz]
	Full Idea: Although people can be made worse off by all other gifts, correct reasoning alone can only be for the good.
	From: Gottfried Leibniz (Preface to Universal Characteristic [1679])
	A reaction: How about a kind heart? Not everyone would agree with the remark, but philosophers should.

3. Truth / B. Truthmakers / 12. Rejecting Truthmakers

19044	Saying truths fit experience adds nothing to truth; nothing makes sentences true [Davidson]
	Full Idea: The notion of fitting the totality of experience ...adds nothing intelligible to the simple concept of being true. ....Nothing, ...no thing, makes sentences and theories true: not experience, not surface irritations, not the world.
	From: Donald Davidson (The Very Idea of a Conceptual Scheme [1974], p.11), quoted by Willard Quine - On the Very Idea of a Third Dogma p.39
	A reaction: If you don't have a concept of what normally makes a sentence true, I don't see how you go about distinguishing what is true from what is false. You can't just examine the sentence to see if it has the 'primitive' property of truth. Holism is involved....

8. Modes of Existence / B. Properties / 13. Tropes / a. Nature of tropes

18431	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?

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

6400	Without the dualism of scheme and content, not much is left of empiricism [Davidson]
	Full Idea: The third dogma of empiricism is the dualism of scheme and content, of organizing system and something waiting to be organized, which cannot be made intelligible and defensible. If we give it up, it is not clear that any distinctive empiricism remains.
	From: Donald Davidson (The Very Idea of a Conceptual Scheme [1974], p.189)
	A reaction: The first two dogmas were 'analyticity' and 'reductionism', as identified by Quine in 1953. Presumably Hume's Principles of Association (Idea 2189) would be an example of a scheme. A key issue is whether there is any 'pure' content.

13. Knowledge Criteria / E. Relativism / 6. Relativism Critique

6398	Different points of view make sense, but they must be plotted on a common background [Davidson]
	Full Idea: Different points of view make sense, but only if there is a common co-ordinate system on which to plot them.
	From: Donald Davidson (The Very Idea of a Conceptual Scheme [1974], p.184)
	A reaction: This seems right to me. I am very struck by the close similarities between people from wildly differing cultural backgrounds, as seen, for example, at the Olympic Games.

19. Language / F. Communication / 6. Interpreting Language / b. Indeterminate translation

6399	Criteria of translation give us the identity of conceptual schemes [Davidson]
	Full Idea: Studying the criteria of translation is a way of focusing on criteria of identity for conceptual schemes.
	From: Donald Davidson (The Very Idea of a Conceptual Scheme [1974], p.184)
	A reaction: This is why it was an inspired idea of Quine's to make translation a central topic in philosophy. We must be cautious, though, about saying that the language is the conceptual scheme, as that leaves animals with no scheme at all.