Combining Texts

All the ideas for 'Content Preservation', 'works' and 'Two letters on mind'

unexpand these ideas     |    start again     |     specify just one area for these texts

4 ideas

1. Philosophy / H. Continental Philosophy / 4. Linguistic Structuralism
23123 Basic to human culture are binary oppositions, such as eating raw or cooked [Levi-Strauss, by Green,TH]
     Full Idea: Lévi-Strauss made canonic to French structuralism the idea that human culture could be understood through a series of binary oppositionsn - the difference between what could be eaten raw and what cooked being one of the most fundamental.
     From: report of Claude Lévi-Strauss (works [1950]) by T.H. Green - Prolegomena to Ethics 1
     A reaction: My guess is that such oppositions can often be illuminating, but will always be eventually judged as too simplistic.
8. Modes of Existence / C. Powers and Dispositions / 2. Powers as Basic
16635 Incorporeal substances are powers or forces [Descartes, by Pasnau]
     Full Idea: In one of his last letters Descartes describes incorporeal substances as 'powers or forces'.
     From: report of René Descartes (Two letters on mind [1649], Feb 1649) by Robert Pasnau - Metaphysical Themes 1274-1671 08.4
     A reaction: Only a glimmer, but I really like this idea. (Ellis flirts with it somewhere). Minds are deeply and intrinsically active things. Try ceasing to think for five minutes. Apparently 12th century Cistercian authors were keen on the idea.
13. Knowledge Criteria / C. External Justification / 1. External Justification
9382 Subjects may be unaware of their epistemic 'entitlements', unlike their 'justifications' [Burge]
     Full Idea: I call 'entitlement' (as opposed to justification) the epistemic rights or warrants that need not be understood by or even be accessible to the subject.
     From: Tyler Burge (Content Preservation [1993]), quoted by Paul Boghossian - Analyticity Reconsidered §III
     A reaction: I espouse a coherentism that has both internal and external components, and is mediated socially. In Burge's sense, animals will sometimes have 'entitlement'. I prefer, though, not to call this 'knowledge'. 'Entitled true belief' is good.
26. Natural Theory / A. Speculations on Nature / 7. Later Matter Theories / c. Matter as extension
16684 Impenetrability only belongs to the essence of extension [Descartes]
     Full Idea: It is demonstrated that impenetrability belongs to the essence of extension and not to the essence of any other thing.
     From: René Descartes (Two letters on mind [1649], More, Apr 1649), quoted by Robert Pasnau - Metaphysical Themes 1274-1671 15.5
     A reaction: I'm not sure that I understand how pure extension can be impenetrable.