Combining Texts

All the ideas for 'Scientific Explanation', 'The Tragedy of Reason' and 'Reference and Essence (1st edn)'

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23 ideas

1. Philosophy / D. Nature of Philosophy / 1. Philosophy
1606 You have to be a Platonist to debate about reality, so every philosopher is a Platonist [Roochnik]
1. Philosophy / D. Nature of Philosophy / 5. Aims of Philosophy / b. Philosophy as transcendent
1595 Philosophy aims to satisfy the chief human desire - the articulation of beauty itself [Roochnik]
2. Reason / A. Nature of Reason / 2. Logos
1571 'Logos' ranges from thought/reasoning, to words, to rational structures outside thought [Roochnik]
1572 In the seventeenth century the only acceptable form of logos was technical knowledge [Roochnik]
1573 The hallmark of a person with logos is that they give reasons why one opinion is superior to another [Roochnik]
1592 Logos cannot refute the relativist, and so must admit that it too is a matter of desire (for truth and agreement) [Roochnik]
1593 Human desire has an ordered structure, with logos at the pinnacle [Roochnik]
1603 Logos is not unconditionally good, but good if there is another person willing to engage with it [Roochnik]
2. Reason / A. Nature of Reason / 4. Aims of Reason
1598 We prefer reason or poetry according to whether basics are intelligible or not [Roochnik]
2. Reason / A. Nature of Reason / 8. Naturalising Reason
1584 Modern science, by aiming for clarity about the external world, has abandoned rationality in the human world [Roochnik]
2. Reason / A. Nature of Reason / 9. Limits of Reason
1591 Unfortunately for reason, argument can't be used to establish the value of argument [Roochnik]
1599 Attempts to suspend all presuppositions are hopeless, because a common ground must be agreed for the process [Roochnik]
2. Reason / D. Definition / 11. Ostensive Definition
18889 Ostensive definitions needn't involve pointing, but must refer to something specific [Salmon,N]
2. Reason / F. Fallacies / 4. Circularity
9355 One sort of circularity presupposes a premise, the other presupposes a rule being used [Braithwaite, by Devitt]
4. Formal Logic / D. Modal Logic ML / 3. Modal Logic Systems / h. System S5
14627 S4, and therefore S5, are invalid for metaphysical modality [Salmon,N, by Williamson]
7. Existence / D. Theories of Reality / 3. Reality
1605 Reality can be viewed neutrally, or as an object of desire [Roochnik]
9. Objects / D. Essence of Objects / 7. Essence and Necessity / a. Essence as necessary properties
18888 Essentialism says some properties must be possessed, if a thing is to exist [Salmon,N]
13. Knowledge Criteria / E. Relativism / 6. Relativism Critique
1577 Relativism is a disease which destroys the possibility of rational debate [Roochnik]
19. Language / B. Reference / 1. Reference theories
18886 Frege's 'sense' solves four tricky puzzles [Salmon,N]
19. Language / B. Reference / 3. Direct Reference / a. Direct reference
18887 The perfect case of direct reference is a variable which has been assigned a value [Salmon,N]
19. Language / F. Communication / 1. Rhetoric
1578 If relativism is the correct account of human values, then rhetoric is more important than reasoning [Roochnik]
1596 Reasoning aims not at the understanding of objects, but at the desire to give beautiful speeches [Roochnik]
26. Natural Theory / B. Natural Kinds / 5. Reference to Natural Kinds
18891 Nothing in the direct theory of reference blocks anti-essentialism; water structure might have been different [Salmon,N]