Combining Texts

All the ideas for 'The Gettier Problem', 'There is no a Priori' and 'Introduction of 'Essence of Christianity''

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12 ideas

12. Knowledge Sources / A. A Priori Knowledge / 4. A Priori as Necessities
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.
12. Knowledge Sources / A. A Priori Knowledge / 9. A Priori from Concepts
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.
12. Knowledge Sources / A. A Priori Knowledge / 11. Denying the A Priori
9356 The idea of the a priori is so obscure that it won't explain anything [Devitt]
     Full Idea: The whole idea of the a priori is too obscure for it to feature in a good explanation of our knowledge of anything.
     From: Michael Devitt (There is no a Priori [2005], §3)
     A reaction: I never like this style of argument. It would be nice if all the components of all our our explanations were crystal clear. Total clarity about anything is probably a hopeless dream, and we may have to settle for murky corners in all explanations.
13. Knowledge Criteria / A. Justification Problems / 2. Justification Challenges / b. Gettier problem
19699 A Gettier case is a belief which is true, and its fallible justification involves some luck [Hetherington]
     Full Idea: A Gettier case contains a belief which is true and well justified without being knowledge. Its justificatory support is also fallible, ...and there is considerable luck in how the belief combnes being true with being justified.
     From: Stephen Hetherington (The Gettier Problem [2011], 5)
     A reaction: This makes luck the key factor. 'Luck' is a rather vague concept, and so the sort of luck involved must first be spelled out. Or the varieties of luck that can produce this outcome.
18. Thought / A. Modes of Thought / 5. Rationality / a. Rationality
19451 When absorbed in deep reflection, is your reason in control, or is it you? [Feuerbach]
     Full Idea: When, submerged in deep reflection, you forget both yourself and your surroundings, is it you who controls reason, or is it rather reason that controls and absorbs you?
     From: Ludwig Feuerbach (Introduction of 'Essence of Christianity' [1841], I)
     A reaction: A delightful question, even if it looks like a false dichotomy. I'm not sure what to make of 'me', if my reason can be subtracted from it. Aquinas was one the same wavelength here.
22. Metaethics / C. The Good / 1. Goodness / b. Types of good
19450 Reason, love and will are the highest perfections and essence of man - the purpose of his life [Feuerbach]
     Full Idea: Reason, love and power of will are perfections of man; they are his highest powers, his absolute essence in so far as he is man, the purpose of his existence. Man exists in order to think, love and will.
     From: Ludwig Feuerbach (Introduction of 'Essence of Christianity' [1841], I)
     A reaction: Feuerbach was a notable atheist, but adopts a religious style of language which modern atheists would find rather alien. Personally I love talk of ideals and perfections. Ideals have been discredited in modern times, but need a revival.
27. Natural Reality / G. Biology / 5. Species
19448 Consciousness is said to distinguish man from animals - consciousness of his own species [Feuerbach]
     Full Idea: What constitutes the essential difference between man and animal? The most simple, general, and most widely held answer to this question is consciousness. Consciousness is given only in the case of a being to whom his species ...is an object of thought.
     From: Ludwig Feuerbach (Introduction of 'Essence of Christianity' [1841], I)
     A reaction: Rather speculative. Since other species cohabit and breed only with their fellow species members, one might have thought they were aware of them.
28. God / A. Divine Nature / 6. Divine Morality / b. Euthyphro question
19454 A God needs justice, kindness and wisdom, but those concepts don't depend on the concept of God [Feuerbach]
     Full Idea: The concept of God depends on the concepts of justice, kindness and wisdom - a God who is not kind, not just, and not wise is no God. But these concepts do not depend on the concept of God. That a quality is possessed by God does not make it divine.
     From: Ludwig Feuerbach (Introduction of 'Essence of Christianity' [1841], II)
     A reaction: This is part of Feuerbach's argument for atheism, but if you ask for the source of our human concepts of justice, kindness and wisdom, no one, I would have thought, could cite God for the role.
28. God / C. Attitudes to God / 4. God Reflects Humanity
19452 The nature of God is an expression of human nature [Feuerbach]
     Full Idea: God is the manifestation of man's inner nature, his expressed self.
     From: Ludwig Feuerbach (Introduction of 'Essence of Christianity' [1841], II)
     A reaction: Even if you are a deeply committed theist, you have to concede some of this point. The perfections attributed to God are usually of human qualities. Leibniz, though, says that God has an infinity of perfection, mostly unknown to us.
28. God / C. Attitudes to God / 5. Atheism
19453 If love, goodness and personality are human, the God who is their source is anthropomorphic [Feuerbach]
     Full Idea: If love, goodness, and personality are human determinations, the being which constitutes their source and ...their presupposition is also an anthropomorphism; so is the existence of God.
     From: Ludwig Feuerbach (Introduction of 'Essence of Christianity' [1841], II)
     A reaction: It is certainly a struggle for the imagination to grasp a being which is characterised by idealised versions of human virtues, and yet has an intrinsic nature which is utterly different from humanity.
29. Religion / D. Religious Issues / 1. Religious Commitment / a. Religious Belief
19449 Religion is the consciousness of the infinite [Feuerbach]
     Full Idea: Religion is the consciousness of the infinite.
     From: Ludwig Feuerbach (Introduction of 'Essence of Christianity' [1841], I)
19455 Today's atheism will tomorrow become a religion [Feuerbach]
     Full Idea: What is regarded as atheism today will be religion tomorrow.
     From: Ludwig Feuerbach (Introduction of 'Essence of Christianity' [1841], II)
     A reaction: Modern critics of atheism frequently accuse it of being a new religion. I doubt whether Feuerbach is right, but it is a nice provocative idea.