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| 24215 | We call experience 'objective' when it seems necessary |
| Full Idea: Everything we call 'objective' in experience is what appears in it as necessary. | |||
| From: Simone Weil (Lect 2: Discovery of Mind [1933], p.112) | |||
| A reaction: An interesting thought. The obvious problem is that what seems necessary to me may not seem so to you. Which comes first in experience, the objectivity or the necessity? |
| 24214 | Pragmatists are right that science is action on nature - but it must be methodical |
| Full Idea: One might say, with the pragmatists, that all science reduces itself to a process of action on nature, but it is necessary to add the word methodical. | |||
| From: Simone Weil (Lect 2: Discovery of Mind [1933], p.111) | |||
| A reaction: This seems to be a sort of hybrid pragmatism, where the required success is not achieved by mere blind trial-and-error - which sounds obvious. Theory is needed - but that too can be explained pragmatically. |
| 24213 | Explanations always concern how one thing changes into another |
| Full Idea: Every intelligible explanation is a matter of understanding how one thing changes into another. | |||
| From: Simone Weil (Lect 2: Discovery of Mind [1933], p.111) | |||
| A reaction: That seems tantamount to saying that all explanations are causal. But there also seem to be structural or situational explanations, and explanations of why a thing fails to change into another. |