Ideas of David Roochnik, by Theme

[American, fl. 1990, Professor at Iowa State University.]

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1. Philosophy / D. Nature of Philosophy / 1. Philosophy

1606	You have to be a Platonist to debate about reality, so every philosopher is a Platonist

1. Philosophy / D. Nature of Philosophy / 5. Aims of Philosophy / b. Philosophy as transcendent

1595	Philosophy aims to satisfy the chief human desire - the articulation of beauty itself

2. Reason / A. Nature of Reason / 2. Logos

1571	'Logos' ranges from thought/reasoning, to words, to rational structures outside thought

1592	Logos cannot refute the relativist, and so must admit that it too is a matter of desire (for truth and agreement)

1593	Human desire has an ordered structure, with logos at the pinnacle

1603	Logos is not unconditionally good, but good if there is another person willing to engage with it

1572	In the seventeenth century the only acceptable form of logos was technical knowledge

1573	The hallmark of a person with logos is that they give reasons why one opinion is superior to another

2. Reason / A. Nature of Reason / 4. Aims of Reason

1598	We prefer reason or poetry according to whether basics are intelligible or not

2. Reason / A. Nature of Reason / 8. Naturalising Reason

1584	Modern science, by aiming for clarity about the external world, has abandoned rationality in the human world

2. Reason / A. Nature of Reason / 9. Limits of Reason

1599	Attempts to suspend all presuppositions are hopeless, because a common ground must be agreed for the process

1591	Unfortunately for reason, argument can't be used to establish the value of argument

7. Existence / D. Theories of Reality / 3. Reality

1605	Reality can be viewed neutrally, or as an object of desire

13. Knowledge Criteria / E. Relativism / 6. Relativism Critique

1577	Relativism is a disease which destroys the possibility of rational debate

19. Language / F. Communication / 1. Rhetoric

1578	If relativism is the correct account of human values, then rhetoric is more important than reasoning

1596	Reasoning aims not at the understanding of objects, but at the desire to give beautiful speeches