Combining Texts

All the ideas for 'fragments/reports', 'The Blank Slate' and 'Environmental Politics: very short intro'

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21 ideas

7. Existence / C. Structure of Existence / 2. Reduction
Good reductionism connects fields of knowledge, but doesn't replace one with another [Pinker]
12. Knowledge Sources / D. Empiricism / 2. Associationism
Connectionists say the mind is a general purpose learning device [Pinker]
12. Knowledge Sources / E. Direct Knowledge / 4. Memory
Is memory stored in protein sequences, neurons, synapses, or synapse-strengths? [Pinker]
16. Persons / F. Free Will / 5. Against Free Will
Roundworms live successfully with 302 neurons, so human freedom comes from our trillions [Pinker]
17. Mind and Body / E. Mind as Physical / 4. Connectionism
Neural networks can generalise their training, e.g. truths about tigers apply mostly to lions [Pinker]
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
Many think that accepting human nature is to accept innumerable evils [Pinker]
24. Political Theory / C. Ruling a State / 4. Changing the State / b. Devolution
The environment needs localised politics, with its care for the land [Dobson]
24. Political Theory / D. Ideologies / 1. Ideology
An ideology judges things now, and offers an ideal, with a strategy for reaching it [Dobson]
24. Political Theory / D. Ideologies / 6. Liberalism / g. Liberalism critique
Ecologism is often non-liberal, by claiming to know other people's best interests [Dobson]
24. Political Theory / D. Ideologies / 8. Socialism
Socialism can be productive and centralised, or less productive and decentralised [Dobson]
24. Political Theory / D. Ideologies / 12. Feminism
Difference feminists say women differ fundamentally from men [Dobson]
24. Political Theory / D. Ideologies / 13. Green Politics
For the environment, affluence and technology matter as much as population size [Dobson]
Ecologism says growth must be reduced, and efficiency is not enough [Dobson]
A million years is a proper unit of political time [Dobson]
We currently value the present fourteen times more highly than the future [Dobson]
25. Social Practice / E. Policies / 5. Education / b. Education principles
Learned men gain more in one day than others do in a lifetime [Posidonius]
27. Natural Reality / D. Time / 1. Nature of Time / d. Time as measure
Time is an interval of motion, or the measure of speed [Posidonius, by Stobaeus]
27. Natural Reality / G. Biology / 2. Life
In 1828, the stuff of life was shown to be ordinary chemistry, not a magic gel [Pinker]
27. Natural Reality / G. Biology / 3. Evolution
All the evidence says evolution is cruel and wasteful, not intelligent [Pinker]
Intelligent Design says that every unexplained phenomenon must be design, by default [Pinker]