Combining Texts

All the ideas for 'Intro to Positive Philosophy', 'Philosophical Implications of Mathematical logic' and 'The Blank Slate'

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25 ideas

1. Philosophy / B. History of Ideas / 1. History of Ideas
12104 All ideas must be understood historically [Comte]
12105 Our knowledge starts in theology, passes through metaphysics, and ends in positivism [Comte]
1. Philosophy / E. Nature of Metaphysics / 6. Metaphysics as Conceptual
12112 Metaphysics is just the oversubtle qualification of abstract names for phenomena [Comte]
1. Philosophy / G. Scientific Philosophy / 2. Positivism
12111 Positivism is the final state of human intelligence [Comte]
12106 Positivism gives up absolute truth, and seeks phenomenal laws, by reason and observation [Comte]
1. Philosophy / G. Scientific Philosophy / 3. Scientism
12114 Science can drown in detail, so we need broad scientists (to keep out the metaphysicians) [Comte]
12116 Only positivist philosophy can terminate modern social crises [Comte]
5. Theory of Logic / C. Ontology of Logic / 1. Ontology of Logic
22329 Logic is highly general truths abstracted from reality [Russell, by Glock]
7. Existence / C. Structure of Existence / 2. Reduction
7508 Good reductionism connects fields of knowledge, but doesn't replace one with another [Pinker]
12. Knowledge Sources / D. Empiricism / 2. Associationism
7510 Connectionists say the mind is a general purpose learning device [Pinker]
12. Knowledge Sources / D. Empiricism / 4. Pro-Empiricism
12108 All real knowledge rests on observed facts [Comte]
12. Knowledge Sources / E. Direct Knowledge / 4. Memory
7513 Is memory stored in protein sequences, neurons, synapses, or synapse-strengths? [Pinker]
14. Science / A. Basis of Science / 1. Observation
12109 We must observe in order to form theories, but connected observations need prior theories [Comte]
14. Science / D. Explanation / 2. Types of Explanation / e. Lawlike explanations
12107 Positivism explains facts by connecting particular phenomena with general facts [Comte]
15. Nature of Minds / C. Capacities of Minds / 5. Generalisation by mind
21569 It is good to generalise truths as much as possible [Russell]
16. Persons / C. Self-Awareness / 3. Limits of Introspection
12115 Introspection is pure illusion; we can obviously observe everything except ourselves [Comte]
16. Persons / F. Free Will / 5. Against Free Will
7509 Roundworms live successfully with 302 neurons, so human freedom comes from our trillions [Pinker]
17. Mind and Body / E. Mind as Physical / 4. Connectionism
7511 Neural networks can generalise their training, e.g. truths about tigers apply mostly to lions [Pinker]
7512 There are five types of reasoning that seem beyond connectionist systems [Pinker, by PG]
22. Metaethics / A. Ethics Foundations / 2. Source of Ethics / e. Human nature
7505 Many think that accepting human nature is to accept innumerable evils [Pinker]
26. Natural Theory / C. Causation / 7. Eliminating causation
12113 The search for first or final causes is futile [Comte]
26. Natural Theory / D. Laws of Nature / 8. Scientific Essentialism / e. Anti scientific essentialism
12110 We can never know origins, purposes or inner natures [Comte]
27. Natural Reality / G. Biology / 2. Life
7516 In 1828, the stuff of life was shown to be ordinary chemistry, not a magic gel [Pinker]
27. Natural Reality / G. Biology / 3. Evolution
7515 All the evidence says evolution is cruel and wasteful, not intelligent [Pinker]
7514 Intelligent Design says that every unexplained phenomenon must be design, by default [Pinker]