Combining Texts

All the ideas for 'Content Preservation', 'Proof of an External World' and 'Giordano Bruno and Hermetic Tradition'

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4 ideas

1. Philosophy / B. History of Ideas / 4. Early European Thought
The magic of Asclepius enters Renaissance thought mixed into Ficino's neo-platonism [Yates]
     Full Idea: The magic of Asclepius, reinterpreted through Plotinus, enters with Ficino's De Vita into the neo-platonic philosophy of the Renaissance, and, moreover, into Ficino's Christian Platonism.
     From: Frances A. Yates (Giordano Bruno and Hermetic Tradition [1964], Ch.4)
     A reaction: Asclepius is the source of 'Hermetic' philosophy. This move seems to be what gives the Renaissance period its rather quirky and distinctive character. Montaigne was not a typical figure. Most of them wanted to become gods and control the stars!
The dating, in 1614, of the Hermetic writings as post-Christian is the end of the Renaissance [Yates]
     Full Idea: The dating by Isaac Casaubon in 1614 of the Hermetic writings as not the work of a very ancient Egyptian priest but written in post-Christian times, is a watershed separating the Renaissance world from the modern world.
     From: Frances A. Yates (Giordano Bruno and Hermetic Tradition [1964], Ch.21)
     A reaction: I tend to place the end of the Renaissance with the arrival of the telescope in 1610, so the two dates coincide. Simply, magic was replaced by science. Religion ran alongside, gasping for breath. Mathematics was freed from numerology.
11. Knowledge Aims / B. Certain Knowledge / 2. Common Sense Certainty
I can prove a hand exists, by holding one up, pointing to it, and saying 'here is one hand' [Moore,GE]
     Full Idea: I can prove now that two human hands exist. How? By holding up my two hands, and saying, as I make a certain gesture with the right hand, 'Here is one hand', and adding, as I gesture with the left, 'and here is another'.
     From: G.E. Moore (Proof of an External World [1939], p.1)
     A reaction: The words need to be spoken, presumably, so that what he is doing fits into the linguistic conventions of what will normally be accepted as a proof. In fact, just holding the hand up seems enough. The proof begs the question of virtual reality.
13. Knowledge Criteria / C. External Justification / 1. External Justification
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.