Combining Texts

All the ideas for 'Thinking About Mechanisms', 'works' and 'The Later Works (17 vols, ed Boydston)'

expand these ideas     |    start again     |     specify just one area for these texts

25 ideas

1. Philosophy / D. Nature of Philosophy / 3. Philosophy Defined
22864 Philosophy is the study and criticsm of cultural beliefs, to achieve new possibilities [Dewey]
5. Theory of Logic / A. Overview of Logic / 5. First-Order Logic
22873 Liberalism should improve the system, and not just ameliorate it [Dewey]
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 / 1. Knowledge
22869 Knowledge is either the product of competent enquiry, or it is meaningless [Dewey]
11. Knowledge Aims / A. Knowledge / 2. Understanding
16562 We understand something by presenting its low-level entities and activities [Machamer/Darden/Craver]
11. Knowledge Aims / B. Certain Knowledge / 1. Certainty
22867 The quest for certainty aims for peace, and avoidance of the stress of action [Dewey]
11. Knowledge Aims / B. Certain Knowledge / 3. Fallibilism
22870 No belief can be so settled that it is not subject to further inquiry [Dewey]
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
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]
16528 Mechanisms are not just push-pull systems [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 / A. Nature of Mind / 1. Mind / a. Mind
22866 Mind is never isolated, but only exists in its interactions [Dewey]
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]
18. Thought / B. Mechanics of Thought / 6. Artificial Thought / b. Turing Machines
3193 Turing showed that logical rules can be specified computationally and mechanically [Turing, by Rey]
24. Political Theory / D. Ideologies / 6. Liberalism / a. Liberalism basics
22872 Liberals aim to allow individuals to realise their capacities [Dewey]
24. Political Theory / D. Ideologies / 7. Communitarianism / a. Communitarianism
22880 The things in civilisation we prize are the products of other members of our community [Dewey]
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]
28. God / A. Divine Nature / 2. Divine Nature
22879 'God' is an imaginative unity of ideal values [Dewey]
29. Religion / D. Religious Issues / 1. Religious Commitment / a. Religious Belief
22877 We should try attaching the intensity of religious devotion to intelligent social action [Dewey]
22878 Religions are so shockingly diverse that they have no common element [Dewey]