Combining Texts

All the ideas for 'Mahaprajnaparamitashastra', 'Brandom on Social Practices and Representations' and 'works'

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4 ideas

1. Philosophy / D. Nature of Philosophy / 7. Despair over Philosophy

19090	If we can't check our language against experience, philosophy is just comparing beliefs and words [Rorty]
	Full Idea: If we cannot check our language against non-linguistic awareness, then philosophy can never be more than a discussion of the utility and compatibility of beliefs - and, more particularly, of the various vocabularies in which those beliefs are formulated.
	From: Richard Rorty (Brandom on Social Practices and Representations [1998], iii.127), quoted by Danielle Macbeth - Pragmatism and Objective Truth p.178
	A reaction: I'm amazed at how many people I encounter in philosophy circles (compared with none at all outside those circles) who seem to think that we cannot check our language against our non-linguistic awareness. Rorty is their guru. Weird.

23. Ethics / C. Virtue Theory / 3. Virtues / a. Virtues

7903	The six perfections are giving, morality, patience, vigour, meditation, and wisdom [Nagarjuna]
	Full Idea: The six perfections are of giving, morality, patience, vigour, meditation, and wisdom.
	From: Nagarjuna (Mahaprajnaparamitashastra [c.120], 88)
	A reaction: What is 'morality', if giving is not part of it? I like patience and vigour being two of the virtues, which immediately implies an Aristotelian mean (which is always what is 'appropriate').

27. Natural Reality / A. Classical Physics / 2. Thermodynamics / b. Heat

20645	Heat is a state of vibration, not a substance [Joule]
	Full Idea: We consider heat not as a substance but as a state of vibration.
	From: James Joule (works [1870]), quoted by Peter Watson - Convergence 01 'Nature's'
	A reaction: The puzzle is that giving accurate accounts of vibrations, heat and movement require a quantitative substance, energy. But all we have here is movement, and the denial of a substance. Energy is 'nature's currency system'.

20972	Joule showed that energy converts to heat, and heat to energy [Joule, by Papineau]
	Full Idea: James Joule established the equivalence of heat and mechanical energy, in the sense of showing that a specific amount of heat will always be produced by the expenditure of a given amount of energy, and vice versa.
	From: report of James Joule (works [1870]) by David Papineau - Thinking about Consciousness App 4.2
	A reaction: This was a major step towards the law of conservation of energy.