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All the ideas for 'Classical Cosmology (frags)', 'Against Euthanasia' and 'Languages of Art (2nd edn)'

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7 ideas

21. Aesthetics / B. Nature of Art / 1. Defining Art

20440	Art is a referential activity, hence indefinable, but it has a set of symptoms [Goodman]
	Full Idea: No definition of art is possible (since it is a referential activity), …but the symptoms of art are syntactic density, semantic density, syntactic repleteness, exemplificationality, and multiple and complex reference.
	From: Nelson Goodman (Languages of Art (2nd edn) [1968], p.22-255), quoted by Alessandro Giovannelli - Nelson Goodman (aesthetics) 4
	A reaction: I wish these labels were more self-explanatory. Goodman seems to want to assimilate art to his earlier interests in linguistic anti-realism and mereology. I wouldn't have thought he now had many followers.

21. Aesthetics / B. Nature of Art / 5. Art as Language

20439	Artistic symbols are judged by the fruitfulness of their classifications [Goodman, by Giovannelli]
	Full Idea: Artistic symbols are to be judged for the classifications they bring about, for how novel and insightful those classifications are, for how they change our world perceptions and relations.
	From: report of Nelson Goodman (Languages of Art (2nd edn) [1968]) by Alessandro Giovannelli - Nelson Goodman (aesthetics) 4
	A reaction: This seems to be an awfully long way from our normal experience of art. I understand 'symbols' in early Flemish art, but not in Mondriaan, or even Rembrandt.

21. Aesthetics / B. Nature of Art / 7. Ontology of Art

20438	A performance is only an instance of a work if there is not a single error [Goodman]
	Full Idea: The most miserable performance without actual mistakes does count as an instance of a work, …but the most brilliant performance with a single wrong note does not.
	From: Nelson Goodman (Languages of Art (2nd edn) [1968], p.186), quoted by Alessandro Giovannelli - Nelson Goodman (aesthetics)
	A reaction: Mereological essentialism applied to art! You need to be a highly theoretical and technical philosopher (which Goodman was) to maintain such a weird and contrary-usage proposal.

21. Aesthetics / C. Artistic Issues / 2. Copies of Art

20437	A copy only becomes an 'instance' of an artwork if there is a system of notation [Goodman]
	Full Idea: Paintings and sculptures do not work within a notation; hence, there is no copying of an original that would preserve its originality. A copy of a painting is a copy, not an instance of the original.
	From: Nelson Goodman (Languages of Art (2nd edn) [1968], p.212), quoted by Alessandro Giovannelli - Nelson Goodman (aesthetics) 2
	A reaction: Sounds conclusive, but isn't. Is a poetry manuscript a 'notation' or an original? Why is an etching plate a notation, but painting on canvas is an original? Can I create a painting specifically so that it can be copied (by my students)? Intention matters.

25. Social Practice / F. Life Issues / 2. Euthanasia

4050	We only allow voluntary euthanasia to someone who is both sane and crazed by pain [Kamisar]
	Full Idea: It seems that voluntary euthanasia can only be carried out by someone who is both sane, and crazed by pain.
	From: Yale Kamisar (Against Euthanasia [1958], p.77)
	A reaction: A fair point, despite its obvious exaggeration. How much pain must someone experience before we permit them to choose euthanasia?

4051	People will volunteer for euthanasia because they think other people want them dead [Kamisar]
	Full Idea: In the process of voluntary euthanasia we will sweep up some who are not really tired of life, but think others are tired of them.
	From: Yale Kamisar (Against Euthanasia [1958], p.78)
	A reaction: We could permit such choices. Or set up systems to eliminate such cases.

27. Natural Reality / E. Cosmology / 1. Cosmology

5994	Is the cosmos open or closed, mechanical or teleological, alive or inanimate, and created or eternal? [Robinson,TM, by PG]
	Full Idea: The four major disputes in classical cosmology were whether the cosmos is 'open' or 'closed', whether it is explained mechanistically or teleologically, whether it is alive or mere matter, and whether or not it has a beginning.
	From: report of T.M. Robinson (Classical Cosmology (frags) [1997]) by PG - Db (ideas)
	A reaction: A nice summary. The standard modern view is closed, mechanistic, inanimate and non-eternal. But philosophers can ask deeper questions than physicists, and I say we are entitled to speculate when the evidence runs out.