9288
|
The magic of Asclepius enters Renaissance thought mixed into Ficino's neo-platonism [Yates]
|
|
Full Idea:
The magic of Asclepius, reinterpreted through Plotinus, enters with Ficino's De Vita into the neo-platonic philosophy of the Renaissance, and, moreover, into Ficino's Christian Platonism.
|
|
From:
Frances A. Yates (Giordano Bruno and Hermetic Tradition [1964], Ch.4)
|
|
A reaction:
Asclepius is the source of 'Hermetic' philosophy. This move seems to be what gives the Renaissance period its rather quirky and distinctive character. Montaigne was not a typical figure. Most of them wanted to become gods and control the stars!
|
9291
|
The dating, in 1614, of the Hermetic writings as post-Christian is the end of the Renaissance [Yates]
|
|
Full Idea:
The dating by Isaac Casaubon in 1614 of the Hermetic writings as not the work of a very ancient Egyptian priest but written in post-Christian times, is a watershed separating the Renaissance world from the modern world.
|
|
From:
Frances A. Yates (Giordano Bruno and Hermetic Tradition [1964], Ch.21)
|
|
A reaction:
I tend to place the end of the Renaissance with the arrival of the telescope in 1610, so the two dates coincide. Simply, magic was replaced by science. Religion ran alongside, gasping for breath. Mathematics was freed from numerology.
|
19724
|
Belief is knowledge if it is true, certain, and obtained by a reliable process [Ramsey]
|
|
Full Idea:
I have always said that a belief was knowledge if it was (i) true, (ii) certain, (iii) obtained by a reliable process.
|
|
From:
Frank P. Ramsey (Knowledge [1929]), quoted by Juan Comesaña - Reliabilism 2
|
|
A reaction:
Remarkable to be addressing the Gettier problem at that date, but Russell had flirted with the problem. Ramsey says the production of the belief must be reliable, rather than the justification for the belief. Note that he wants certainty.
|
5689
|
Freud and others have shown that we don't know our own beliefs, feelings, motive and attitudes [Freud, by Shoemaker]
|
|
Full Idea:
Freud persuaded many that beliefs, wishes and feelings are sometimes unconscious, and even sceptics about Freud acknowledge that there is self-deception about motive and attitudes.
|
|
From:
report of Sigmund Freud (works [1900]) by Sydney Shoemaker - Introspection p.396
|
|
A reaction:
This seems to me obviously correct. The traditional notion is that the consciousness is the mind, but now it seems obvious that consciousness is only one part of the mind, and maybe even a peripheral (epiphenomenal) part of it.
|