Combining Texts

All the ideas for 'fragments/reports', 'Thinking About Mechanisms' and 'Straw Dogs'

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21 ideas

1. Philosophy / D. Nature of Philosophy / 3. Philosophy Defined
23367 Even pointing a finger should only be done for a reason [Epictetus]
1. Philosophy / D. Nature of Philosophy / 7. Despair over Philosophy
9271 Human knowledge may not produce well-being; the examined life may not be worth living [Gray]
7. Existence / B. Change in Existence / 2. Processes
16554 Activities have place, rate, duration, entities, properties, modes, direction, polarity, energy and range [Machamer/Darden/Craver]
8. Modes of Existence / C. Powers and Dispositions / 2. Powers as Basic
16556 Penicillin causes nothing; the cause is what penicillin does [Machamer/Darden/Craver]
11. Knowledge Aims / A. Knowledge / 2. Understanding
16562 We understand something by presenting its low-level entities and activities [Machamer/Darden/Craver]
13. Knowledge Criteria / C. External Justification / 9. Naturalised Epistemology
9275 Knowledge does not need minds or nervous systems; it is found in all living things [Gray]
14. Science / D. Explanation / 2. Types of Explanation / e. Lawlike explanations
16563 The explanation is not the regularity, but the activity sustaining it [Machamer/Darden/Craver]
14. Science / D. Explanation / 2. Types of Explanation / h. Explanations by function
16555 Functions are not properties of objects, they are activities contributing to mechanisms [Machamer/Darden/Craver]
14. Science / D. Explanation / 2. Types of Explanation / i. Explanations by mechanism
16528 Mechanisms are not just push-pull systems [Machamer/Darden/Craver]
16529 Mechanisms are systems organised to produce regular change [Machamer/Darden/Craver]
16530 A mechanism explains a phenomenon by showing how it was produced [Machamer/Darden/Craver]
16553 Our account of mechanism combines both entities and activities [Machamer/Darden/Craver]
16559 Descriptions of explanatory mechanisms have a bottom level, where going further is irrelevant [Machamer/Darden/Craver]
14. Science / D. Explanation / 3. Best Explanation / b. Ultimate explanation
16564 There are four types of bottom-level activities which will explain phenomena [Machamer/Darden/Craver]
15. Nature of Minds / C. Capacities of Minds / 3. Abstraction by mind
16561 We can abstract by taking an exemplary case and ignoring the detail [Machamer/Darden/Craver]
16. Persons / F. Free Will / 5. Against Free Will
9276 The will hardly ever does anything; most of our life just happens to us [Gray]
25. Social Practice / A. Freedoms / 5. Freedom of lifestyle
9278 Nowadays we identify the free life with the good life [Gray]
26. Natural Theory / D. Laws of Nature / 11. Against Laws of Nature
16558 Laws of nature have very little application in biology [Machamer/Darden/Craver]
27. Natural Reality / G. Biology / 4. Ecology
9280 Over forty percent of the Earth's living tissue is human [Gray]
29. Religion / B. Monotheistic Religion / 4. Christianity / a. Christianity
9272 Without Christianity we lose the idea that human history has a meaning [Gray]
9279 What was our original sin, and how could Christ's suffering redeem it? [Gray]