Combining Texts

All the ideas for 'A Puzzle about Belief', 'What is the Basis of Moral Obligation?' and 'Resurrecting Biological Essentialism'

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9 ideas

1. Philosophy / D. Nature of Philosophy / 5. Aims of Philosophy / d. Philosophy as puzzles
In philosophy the truth can only be reached via the ruins of the false [Prichard]
9. Objects / D. Essence of Objects / 10. Essence as Species
Essentialism concerns the nature of a group, not its category [Devitt]
Things that gradually change, like species, can still have essences [Devitt]
18. Thought / B. Mechanics of Thought / 5. Mental Files
Puzzled Pierre has two mental files about the same object [Recanati on Kripke]
23. Ethics / C. Virtue Theory / 1. Virtue Theory / c. Particularism
I see the need to pay a debt in a particular instance, and any instance will do [Prichard]
The complexities of life make it almost impossible to assess morality from a universal viewpoint [Prichard]
23. Ethics / D. Deontological Ethics / 2. Duty
Seeing the goodness of an effect creates the duty to produce it, not the desire [Prichard]
27. Natural Reality / G. Biology / 5. Species
We name species as small to share properties, but large enough to yield generalisations [Devitt]
Species are phenetic, biological, niche, or phylogenetic-cladistic [Devitt, by PG]