9354
|
Why should necessities only be knowable a priori? That Hesperus is Phosporus is known empirically [Devitt]
|
|
Full Idea:
Why should we accept that necessities can only be known a priori? Prima facie, some necessities are known empirically; for example, that water is necessarily H2O, and that Hesperus is necessarily Phosphorus.
|
|
From:
Michael Devitt (There is no a Priori [2005], §2)
|
|
A reaction:
An important question, whatever your view. If the only thing we can know a priori is necessities, it doesn't follow that necessities can only be known a priori. It gets interesting if we say that some necessities can never be known a priori.
|
9353
|
We explain away a priori knowledge, not as directly empirical, but as indirectly holistically empirical [Devitt]
|
|
Full Idea:
We have no need to turn to an a priori explanation of our knowledge of mathematics and logic. Our intuitions that this knowledge is not justified in some direct empirical way is preserved. It is justified in an indirect holistic way.
|
|
From:
Michael Devitt (There is no a Priori [2005], §2)
|
|
A reaction:
I think this is roughly the right story, but the only way it will work is if we have some sort of theory of abstraction, which gets us up the ladder of generalisations to the ones which, it appears, are necessarily true.
|
21378
|
We clearly feel responsible for our deeds, because we are quite certain that we did them [Schopenhauer]
|
|
Full Idea:
Another fact of consciousness ...is the wholly clear and certain feeling of responsibility for what we do, of the accountability of our actions, which rests on the unshakable certainty that we ourselves are the doers of our deeds.
|
|
From:
Arthur Schopenhauer (On the Freedom of the Will [1841], p.93-4), quoted by Christopher Janaway - Schopenhauer 7 'Freedom'
|
|
A reaction:
The point is that we have this feeling even if we do not believe in free will. I am struck by the fact that responsibility is very obvious in our own case, even if it is not when we objectively consider other people. Even villains can feel guilty.
|