Combining Philosophers

All the ideas for Damon, Geoffrey Gorham and Berys Gaut

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


16 ideas

14. Science / A. Basis of Science / 6. Falsification
Why abandon a theory if you don't have a better one? [Gorham]
If a theory is more informative it is less probable [Gorham]
14. Science / B. Scientific Theories / 1. Scientific Theory
Is Newton simpler with universal simultaneity, or Einstein simpler without absolute time? [Gorham]
Structural Realism says mathematical structures persist after theory rejection [Gorham]
Structural Realists must show the mathematics is both crucial and separate [Gorham]
14. Science / B. Scientific Theories / 3. Instrumentalism
Theories aren't just for organising present experience if they concern the past or future [Gorham]
For most scientists their concepts are not just useful, but are meant to be true and accurate [Gorham]
14. Science / D. Explanation / 2. Types of Explanation / d. Consilience
Consilience makes the component sciences more likely [Gorham]
21. Aesthetics / A. Aesthetic Experience / 2. Aesthetic Attitude
Maybe literary assessment is evaluating the artist as a suitable friend [Gaut]
21. Aesthetics / B. Nature of Art / 2. Art as Form
Formalists say aesthetics concerns types of beauty, or unity, complexity and intensity [Gaut]
21. Aesthetics / C. Artistic Issues / 7. Art and Morality
'Moralism' says all aesthetic merits are moral merits [Gaut]
Musical performance can reveal a range of virtues [Damon of Ath.]
Good ethics counts towards aesthetic merit, and bad ethics counts against it [Gaut]
If we don't respond ethically in the way a work prescribes, that is an aesthetic failure [Gaut]
Good art does not necessarily improve people (any more than good advice does) [Gaut]
26. Natural Theory / A. Speculations on Nature / 1. Nature
Aristotelian physics has circular celestial motion and linear earthly motion [Gorham]