Combining Texts

All the ideas for 'Idealism: a critical survey', 'Representative Government' and 'Philosophical Insignificance of A Priori Knowledge'

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11 ideas

1. Philosophy / G. Scientific Philosophy / 3. Scientism
All worthwhile philosophy is synthetic theorizing, evaluated by experience [Papineau]
7. Existence / D. Theories of Reality / 11. Ontological Commitment / e. Ontological commitment problems
Our best theories may commit us to mathematical abstracta, but that doesn't justify the commitment [Papineau]
12. Knowledge Sources / A. A Priori Knowledge / 9. A Priori from Concepts
A priori knowledge is analytic - the structure of our concepts - and hence unimportant [Papineau]
12. Knowledge Sources / E. Direct Knowledge / 2. Intuition
Intuition and thought-experiments embody substantial information about the world [Papineau]
13. Knowledge Criteria / B. Internal Justification / 5. Coherentism / b. Pro-coherentism
We can no more expect a precise definition of coherence than we can of the moral ideal [Ewing]
13. Knowledge Criteria / B. Internal Justification / 5. Coherentism / c. Coherentism critique
If undetailed, 'coherence' is just a vague words that covers all possible arguments [Ewing]
19. Language / A. Nature of Meaning / 5. Meaning as Verification
Verificationism about concepts means you can't deny a theory, because you can't have the concept [Papineau]
24. Political Theory / D. Ideologies / 5. Democracy / b. Consultation
How people vote should be on public record, so they can be held accountable [Mill, by Wolff,J]
Voting is a strict duty, like jury service, and must only be aimed at the public good [Mill]
24. Political Theory / D. Ideologies / 5. Democracy / c. Direct democracy
Direct democracy is inexperience judging experience, and ignorance judging knowledge [Mill]
24. Political Theory / D. Ideologies / 5. Democracy / d. Representative democracy
People can only participate in decisions in small communities, so representatives are needed [Mill]