Combining Texts

All the ideas for 'Causes and Counterfactuals', 'The Sentiment of Rationality' and 'The Web of Belief'

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24 ideas

1. Philosophy / A. Wisdom / 1. Nature of Wisdom
22659 It is wisdom to believe what you desire, because belief is needed to achieve it [James]
1. Philosophy / D. Nature of Philosophy / 1. Philosophy
22657 All good philosophers start from a dumb conviction about which truths can be revealed [James]
1. Philosophy / E. Nature of Metaphysics / 3. Metaphysical Systems
22647 A complete system is just a classification of the whole world's ingredients [James]
1. Philosophy / F. Analytic Philosophy / 1. Nature of Analysis
8460 Philosophers have given precise senses to deduction, probability, computability etc [Quine/Ullian]
2. Reason / A. Nature of Reason / 5. Objectivity
22648 A single explanation must have a single point of view [James]
2. Reason / B. Laws of Thought / 6. Ockham's Razor
22644 Our greatest pleasure is the economy of reducing chaotic facts to one single fact [James]
7. Existence / E. Categories / 2. Categorisation
22649 Classification can only ever be for a particular purpose [James]
14. Science / A. Basis of Science / 1. Observation
22655 Scientific genius extracts more than other people from the same evidence [James]
14. Science / A. Basis of Science / 6. Falsification
22658 Experimenters assume the theory is true, and stick to it as long as result don't disappoint [James]
14. Science / C. Induction / 3. Limits of Induction
22654 We can't know if the laws of nature are stable, but we must postulate it or assume it [James]
14. Science / C. Induction / 6. Bayes's Theorem
22656 Trying to assess probabilities by mere calculation is absurd and impossible [James]
14. Science / D. Explanation / 2. Types of Explanation / j. Explanations by reduction
22646 We have a passion for knowing the parts of something, rather than the whole [James]
15. Nature of Minds / A. Nature of Mind / 1. Mind / b. Purpose of mind
22652 The mind has evolved entirely for practical interests, seen in our reflex actions [James]
15. Nature of Minds / A. Nature of Mind / 7. Animal Minds
22651 Dogs' curiosity only concerns what will happen next [James]
18. Thought / A. Modes of Thought / 5. Rationality / a. Rationality
22650 How can the ground of rationality be itself rational? [James]
18. Thought / A. Modes of Thought / 5. Rationality / b. Human rationality
22643 It seems that we feel rational when we detect no irrationality [James]
22. Metaethics / A. Ethics Foundations / 2. Source of Ethics / d. Biological ethics
22660 Evolution suggests prevailing or survival as a new criterion of right and wrong [James]
26. Natural Theory / C. Causation / 1. Causation
8430 Causal statements are used to explain, to predict, to control, to attribute responsibility, and in theories [Kim]
26. Natural Theory / C. Causation / 8. Particular Causation / d. Selecting the cause
22645 Understanding by means of causes is useless if they are not reduced to a minimum number [James]
26. Natural Theory / C. Causation / 9. General Causation / c. Counterfactual causation
8396 Many counterfactuals have nothing to do with causation [Kim, by Tooley]
8429 Counterfactuals can express four other relations between events, apart from causation [Kim]
8428 Causation is not the only dependency relation expressed by counterfactuals [Kim]
26. Natural Theory / D. Laws of Nature / 9. Counterfactual Claims
4781 Many counterfactual truths do not imply causation ('if yesterday wasn't Monday, it isn't Tuesday') [Kim, by Psillos]
29. Religion / B. Monotheistic Religion / 4. Christianity / a. Christianity
22653 Early Christianity says God recognises the neglected weak and tender impulses [James]