Combining Texts

All the ideas for 'On the spiritual perfection of life', 'Resurrecting Biological Essentialism' and 'The Quest for Certainty'

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

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6 ideas

2. Reason / C. Styles of Reason / 1. Dialectic

22102

Arguing with opponents uncovers truths, and restrains falsehoods [Aquinas]

9. Objects / D. Essence of Objects / 10. Essence as Species

17368

Essentialism concerns the nature of a group, not its category [Devitt]

17370

Things that gradually change, like species, can still have essences [Devitt]

11. Knowledge Aims / B. Certain Knowledge / 1. Certainty

21516

We want certainty in order achieve secure results for action [Dewey]

27. Natural Reality / G. Biology / 5. Species

17369

We name species as small to share properties, but large enough to yield generalisations [Devitt]

17367

Species are phenetic, biological, niche, or phylogenetic-cladistic [Devitt, by PG]