9283
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Our ancient beliefs can never be overthrown by subtle arguments [Euripides]
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Full Idea:
Teiresias: We have no use for theological subtleties./ The beliefs we have inherited, as old as time,/ Cannot be overthrown by any argument,/ Nor by the most inventive ingenuity.
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From:
Euripides (The Bacchae [c.407 BCE], 201)
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A reaction:
[trans. Philip Vellacott (Penguin)] Compare Idea 8243. While very conservative societies have amazing resilience in maintaining traditional beliefs, modern culture eats into them, not directly by argument, but by arguments at fifth remove.
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6456
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Sense-data are neutral uninterpreted experiences, separated from objects and judgements [Angeles]
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Full Idea:
Sense-data are that which is given to us directly and immediately such as colour, shape, smell, without identification of them as specific material objects; they are usually thought to be devoid of judgment, interpretation, bias, preconception.
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From:
Peter A. Angeles (A Dictionary of Philosophy [1981], p.254)
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A reaction:
This definition makes them clearly mental (rather than being qualities of objects), and they sound like Hume's 'impressions'. They are not features of the external world, but the first steps we make towards experience.
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