10 ideas
| 18776 | Contextual definitions eliminate descriptions from contexts [Linsky,B] |
| Full Idea: A 'contextual' definition shows how to eliminate a description from a context. | |
| From: Bernard Linsky (Quantification and Descriptions [2014], 2) | |
| A reaction: I'm trying to think of an example, but what I come up with are better described as 'paraphrases' than as 'definitions'. |
| 18774 | Definite descriptions, unlike proper names, have a logical structure [Linsky,B] |
| Full Idea: Definite descriptions seem to have a logical structure in a way that proper names do not. | |
| From: Bernard Linsky (Quantification and Descriptions [2014], 1.1.1) | |
| A reaction: Thus descriptions have implications which plain names do not. |
| 4045 | Children may have three innate principles which enable them to learn to count [Goldman] |
| Full Idea: It has been proposed (on the basis of observations) that young children have three innate principles of counting - one-to-one correspondence of number to item, stable order for numbers, and cardinality (which labels the nth item counted). | |
| From: Alvin I. Goldman (Phil Applications of Cognitive Science [1993], p.60) | |
| A reaction: I like the idea of observed patterns as central (which is the one-to-one principle). But the other two principles are plausible, and show why pure empiricism won't work. |
| 4044 | Rat behaviour reveals a considerable ability to count [Goldman] |
| Full Idea: Rats can determine the number of times they have pressed a lever up to at least twenty-four presses,…and can consistently turn down the fifth tunnel on the left in a maze. | |
| From: Alvin I. Goldman (Phil Applications of Cognitive Science [1993], p.58) | |
| A reaction: This seems to encourage an empirical view of maths (pattern recognition?) rather than a Platonic one. Or numbers are innate in rat brains? |
| 4048 | Infant brains appear to have inbuilt ontological categories [Goldman] |
| Full Idea: Infant behaviour implies inbuilt ontological categories of thing, place, event, path, action, sound, manner, amount and number. ...There is an algebra of relationships between them. | |
| From: Alvin I. Goldman (Phil Applications of Cognitive Science [1993], p.109) | |
| A reaction: Interesting. We would expect the categories in infant brains to have instrumental value, but we don't have to accept them as true. Adults (even Aristotle) are big infants. |
| 4043 | Elephants can be correctly identified from as few as three primitive shapes [Goldman] |
| Full Idea: An elephant may be fully represented by nine primitive shapes ('geons'), but it may require as few as three geons in appropriate relations to be correctly identified. | |
| From: Alvin I. Goldman (Phil Applications of Cognitive Science [1993], p.7) | |
| A reaction: Encouraging the idea of the mind as a maker of maps and models |
| 4049 | The way in which colour experiences are evoked is physically odd and unpredictable [Goldman] |
| Full Idea: A unique yellow experience may be evoked with monochrome light of 580nm, or a mixture of 540nm and 670nm. ..Our interpretation of colour experience is a highly idiosyncratic artefact of our visual system. | |
| From: Alvin I. Goldman (Phil Applications of Cognitive Science [1993], p.117) | |
| A reaction: This confirms what I have always thought - that colour (as qualia) is strictly a feature of minds, not of the world. |
| 4047 | Gestalt psychology proposes inbuilt proximity, similarity, smoothness and closure principles [Goldman] |
| Full Idea: Gestalt psychology claims that there are at least four unlearned factors in perceptual grouping - the principles of proximity (close things), of similarity, of good continuation (extending lines in a smooth course), and closure (which completes figures). | |
| From: Alvin I. Goldman (Phil Applications of Cognitive Science [1993], p.103) | |
| A reaction: This offers a bridge between Hume's associationism and rationalist claims of innate ideas |
| 16713 | Philosophers are the forefathers of heretics [Tertullian] |
| Full Idea: Philosophers are the forefathers of heretics. | |
| From: Tertullian (works [c.200]), quoted by Robert Pasnau - Metaphysical Themes 1274-1671 20.2 |
| 6610 | I believe because it is absurd [Tertullian] |
| Full Idea: I believe because it is absurd ('Credo quia absurdum est'). | |
| From: Tertullian (works [c.200]), quoted by Robert Fogelin - Walking the Tightrope of Reason n4.2 | |
| A reaction: This seems to be a rather desperate remark, in response to what must have been rather good hostile arguments. No one would abandon the support of reason if it was easy to acquire. You can't deny its engaging romantic defiance, though. |