Combining Texts

All the ideas for 'Particulars in Particular Clothing', 'Action, Intention and Reason' and 'Letters'

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6 ideas

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?

20. Action / C. Motives for Action / 3. Acting on Reason / c. Reasons as causes

20064	Actions are not mere effects of reasons, but are under their control [Audi,R]
	Full Idea: An action for a reason is one that is, in a special way, under the control of reason. It is a response to, not a mere effect of, a reason.
	From: Robert Audi (Action, Intention and Reason [1992], p.177), quoted by Rowland Stout - Action 6 'Alien'
	A reaction: This modifies Davidson's 'reasons are causes'. Audi has a deviant causal chain which causes trouble for his idea, but Stout says he is right to focus on causal 'processes' (an Aristotelian idea) rather than causal 'chains'.

21. Aesthetics / C. Artistic Issues / 1. Artistic Intentions

23903	When we admire a work, we see ourselves as its creator [Weil]
	Full Idea: It is impossible to admire a work of art without thinking oneself, in a way, its creator and without, in a sense, becoming so.
	From: Simone Weil (Letters [1940], 1940-03c)
	A reaction: This rings true for me. You almost see yourself making the brush strokes, or writing the phrase, or penning the chords. It is engagment which is essential for artistic experience. So all art lovers want to be artists?

25. Social Practice / B. Equalities / 1. Grounds of equality

23901	Relationships depend on equality, so unequal treatment kills them [Weil]
	Full Idea: I conceive human relations solely on the plane of equality; therefore, so soon as someone begins to treat me as an inferior, human relations between us become impossible in my eyes.
	From: Simone Weil (Letters [1940], 1936-03)
	A reaction: Love that. This is precisely where equality starts. I fear that the problem is that people who don't treat others as equals don't want relationships with them, which particularly occurs in a competitive or hierarchical culture.

29. Religion / B. Monotheistic Religion / 5. Bible

23904	The cruelty of the Old Testament put me off Christianity [Weil]
	Full Idea: I have always been kept away from Christianity by its ranking the Old Testament stories, so full of pitiless cruelty, as sacred texts.
	From: Simone Weil (Letters [1940], 1941-01)
	A reaction: After 1938 she was a devout and intense Christian, but of a highly individual and platonist kind. Her religion is dominated by love and beauty.

29. Religion / D. Religious Issues / 2. Immortality / a. Immortality

23902	I attach little importance to immortality, which is an undecidable fact, and irrelevant to us [Weil]
	Full Idea: You attach great importance to the reasoning about immortality. I myself attach little. It is a factual question, which cannot be decided in advance by any reasoning. And what does it matter to us?
	From: Simone Weil (Letters [1940], 1937-04c)
	A reaction: I love 'what does it matter to us?'. The idea that our future bliss or misery depends on how we live now is an utterly wicked fiction, which derails attempts to live a proper life.