Combining Texts

All the ideas for 'fragments/reports', 'fragments/reports' and 'Explanation - Opening Address'

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22 ideas

1. Philosophy / C. History of Philosophy / 2. Ancient Philosophy / b. Pre-Socratic philosophy
5988 Anaximander produced the first philosophy book (and maybe the first book) [Anaximander, by Bodnár]
2. Reason / A. Nature of Reason / 6. Coherence
17070 Coherence is consilience, simplicity, analogy, and fitting into a web of belief [Smart]
17072 We need comprehensiveness, as well as self-coherence [Smart]
2. Reason / B. Laws of Thought / 2. Sufficient Reason
1496 The earth is stationary, because it is in the centre, and has no more reason to move one way than another [Anaximander, by Aristotle]
7. Existence / A. Nature of Existence / 1. Nature of Existence
14874 Anaximander saw the contradiction in the world - that its own qualities destroy it [Anaximander, by Nietzsche]
9. Objects / E. Objects over Time / 8. Continuity of Rivers
579 Cratylus said you couldn't even step into the same river once [Cratylus, by Aristotle]
13. Knowledge Criteria / B. Internal Justification / 3. Evidentialism / a. Evidence
17073 I simply reject evidence, if it is totally contrary to my web of belief [Smart]
13. Knowledge Criteria / D. Scepticism / 1. Scepticism
578 Cratylus decided speech was hopeless, and his only expression was the movement of a finger [Cratylus, by Aristotle]
14. Science / D. Explanation / 1. Explanation / c. Direction of explanation
17077 The height of a flagpole could be fixed by its angle of shadow, but that would be very unusual [Smart]
17078 Universe expansion explains the red shift, but not vice versa [Smart]
14. Science / D. Explanation / 2. Types of Explanation / c. Explanations by coherence
17074 Explanations are bad by fitting badly with a web of beliefs, or fitting well into a bad web [Smart]
17076 Deducing from laws is one possible way to achieve a coherent explanation [Smart]
17061 Explanation of a fact is fitting it into a system of beliefs [Smart]
14. Science / D. Explanation / 2. Types of Explanation / d. Consilience
17071 An explanation is better if it also explains phenomena from a different field [Smart]
14. Science / D. Explanation / 2. Types of Explanation / g. Causal explanations
17062 If scientific explanation is causal, that rules out mathematical explanation [Smart]
14. Science / D. Explanation / 2. Types of Explanation / j. Explanations by reduction
17075 Scientific explanation tends to reduce things to the unfamiliar (not the familiar) [Smart]
26. Natural Theory / A. Speculations on Nature / 6. Early Matter Theories / d. The unlimited
405 The essential nature, whatever it is, of the non-limited is everlasting and ageless [Anaximander]
13222 The Boundless cannot exist on its own, and must have something contrary to it [Aristotle on Anaximander]
1495 Anaximander introduced the idea that the first principle and element of things was the Boundless [Anaximander, by Simplicius]
404 Things begin and end in the Unlimited, and are balanced over time according to justice [Anaximander]
27. Natural Reality / B. Modern Physics / 1. Relativity / b. General relativity
17063 Unlike Newton, Einstein's general theory explains the perihelion of Mercury [Smart]
27. Natural Reality / E. Cosmology / 2. Eternal Universe
1746 The parts of all things are susceptible to change, but the whole is unchangeable [Anaximander, by Diog. Laertius]