Combining Texts

All the ideas for 'fragments/reports', 'History of Ancient Art' and 'Human Freedom and the Self'

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10 ideas

7. Existence / A. Nature of Existence / 3. Being / d. Non-being
Not-Being obviously doesn't exist, and the five modes of Being are all impossible [Gorgias, by Diog. Laertius]
16. Persons / F. Free Will / 4. For Free Will
If actions are not caused by other events, and are not causeless, they must be caused by the person [Chisholm]
16. Persons / F. Free Will / 5. Against Free Will
For Hobbes (but not for Kant) a person's actions can be deduced from their desires and beliefs [Chisholm]
If free will miraculously interrupts causation, animals might do that; why would we want to do it? [Frankfurt on Chisholm]
19. Language / F. Communication / 1. Rhetoric
Gorgias says rhetoric is the best of arts, because it enslaves without using force [Gorgias, by Plato]
Destroy seriousness with laughter, and laughter with seriousness [Gorgias]
20. Action / C. Motives for Action / 4. Responsibility for Actions
Desires may rule us, but are we responsible for our desires? [Chisholm]
Responsibility seems to conflict with events being either caused or not caused [Chisholm]
21. Aesthetics / B. Nature of Art / 4. Art as Expression
Art aims only at beauty, of form, of idea, and (above all) of expression [Winckelmann, by Tolstoy]
26. Natural Theory / C. Causation / 8. Particular Causation / b. Causal relata
Causation among objects relates either events or states [Chisholm]