Combining Texts

All the ideas for 'Letters to Oldenburg', 'Straw Dogs' and 'Natural Minds'

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16 ideas

1. Philosophy / D. Nature of Philosophy / 7. Despair over Philosophy
Human knowledge may not produce well-being; the examined life may not be worth living [Gray]
12. Knowledge Sources / B. Perception / 2. Qualities in Perception / d. Secondary qualities
The taste of chocolate is a 'finer-grained' sensation than the taste of sweetness [Polger]
13. Knowledge Criteria / C. External Justification / 9. Naturalised Epistemology
Knowledge does not need minds or nervous systems; it is found in all living things [Gray]
16. Persons / B. Nature of the Self / 1. Self and Consciousness
The mind and the self are one, and the mind-self is a biological phenomenon [Polger]
16. Persons / F. Free Will / 5. Against Free Will
The will hardly ever does anything; most of our life just happens to us [Gray]
17. Mind and Body / C. Functionalism / 5. Teleological Functionalism
Teleological functions explain why a trait exists; causal-role functions say what it does [Polger]
17. Mind and Body / E. Mind as Physical / 1. Physical Mind
Identity theory says consciousness is an abstraction: a state, event, process or property [Polger]
22. Metaethics / A. Ethics Foundations / 1. Nature of Ethics / f. Ethical non-cognitivism
Whether nature is beautiful or orderly is entirely in relation to human imagination [Spinoza]
25. Social Practice / A. Freedoms / 5. Freedom of lifestyle
Nowadays we identify the free life with the good life [Gray]
26. Natural Theory / A. Speculations on Nature / 3. Natural Function
A mummified heart has the teleological function of circulating blood [Polger]
Teleological notions of function say what a thing is supposed to do [Polger]
27. Natural Reality / G. Biology / 4. Ecology
Over forty percent of the Earth's living tissue is human [Gray]
28. God / A. Divine Nature / 3. Divine Perfections
God is a being with infinite attributes, each of them infinite or perfect [Spinoza]
28. God / B. Proving God / 3. Proofs of Evidence / e. Miracles
Trying to prove God's existence through miracles is proving the obscure by the more obscure [Spinoza]
29. Religion / B. Monotheistic Religion / 4. Christianity / a. Christianity
Without Christianity we lose the idea that human history has a meaning [Gray]
What was our original sin, and how could Christ's suffering redeem it? [Gray]