Combining Texts

All the ideas for 'Scientific Explanation', 'Thinking About Mechanisms' and 'Environmental Politics: very short intro'

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23 ideas

2. Reason / F. Fallacies / 4. Circularity
9355 One sort of circularity presupposes a premise, the other presupposes a rule being used [Braithwaite, by Devitt]
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]
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]
24. Political Theory / C. Ruling a State / 4. Changing the State / b. Devolution
23429 The environment needs localised politics, with its care for the land [Dobson]
24. Political Theory / D. Ideologies / 1. Ideology
23424 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
23426 Ecologism is often non-liberal, by claiming to know other people's best interests [Dobson]
24. Political Theory / D. Ideologies / 8. Socialism
23427 Socialism can be productive and centralised, or less productive and decentralised [Dobson]
24. Political Theory / D. Ideologies / 12. Feminism
23428 Difference feminists say women differ fundamentally from men [Dobson]
24. Political Theory / D. Ideologies / 13. Green Politics
23422 For the environment, affluence and technology matter as much as population size [Dobson]
23425 Ecologism says growth must be reduced, and efficiency is not enough [Dobson]
23430 A million years is a proper unit of political time [Dobson]
23423 We currently value the present fourteen times more highly than the future [Dobson]
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]