Combining Texts

All the ideas for 'fragments/reports', 'Thinking About Mechanisms' and 'Concluding Unscientific Postscript'

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29 ideas

1. Philosophy / D. Nature of Philosophy / 5. Aims of Philosophy / d. Philosophy as puzzles
7578 I conceived it my task to create difficulties everywhere [Kierkegaard]
1. Philosophy / D. Nature of Philosophy / 8. Humour
22047 Wherever there is painless contradiction there is also comedy [Kierkegaard]
3. Truth / A. Truth Problems / 2. Defining Truth
22092 Kierkegaard's truth draws on authenticity, fidelity and honesty [Kierkegaard, by Carlisle]
3. Truth / A. Truth Problems / 3. Value of Truth
15999 Pure truth is for infinite beings only; I prefer endless striving for truth [Kierkegaard]
3. Truth / A. Truth Problems / 8. Subjective Truth
20313 The highest truth we can get is uncertainty held fast by an inward passion [Kierkegaard]
7. Existence / B. Change in Existence / 2. Processes
16554 Activities have place, rate, duration, entities, properties, modes, direction, polarity, energy and range [Machamer/Darden/Craver]
8. Modes of Existence / C. Powers and Dispositions / 2. Powers as Basic
16556 Penicillin causes nothing; the cause is what penicillin does [Machamer/Darden/Craver]
11. Knowledge Aims / A. Knowledge / 2. Understanding
16562 We understand something by presenting its low-level entities and activities [Machamer/Darden/Craver]
14. Science / D. Explanation / 2. Types of Explanation / e. Lawlike explanations
16563 The explanation is not the regularity, but the activity sustaining it [Machamer/Darden/Craver]
14. Science / D. Explanation / 2. Types of Explanation / h. Explanations by function
16555 Functions are not properties of objects, they are activities contributing to mechanisms [Machamer/Darden/Craver]
14. Science / D. Explanation / 2. Types of Explanation / i. Explanations by mechanism
16529 Mechanisms are systems organised to produce regular change [Machamer/Darden/Craver]
16530 A mechanism explains a phenomenon by showing how it was produced [Machamer/Darden/Craver]
16553 Our account of mechanism combines both entities and activities [Machamer/Darden/Craver]
16559 Descriptions of explanatory mechanisms have a bottom level, where going further is irrelevant [Machamer/Darden/Craver]
16528 Mechanisms are not just push-pull systems [Machamer/Darden/Craver]
14. Science / D. Explanation / 3. Best Explanation / b. Ultimate explanation
16564 There are four types of bottom-level activities which will explain phenomena [Machamer/Darden/Craver]
15. Nature of Minds / C. Capacities of Minds / 3. Abstraction by mind
16561 We can abstract by taking an exemplary case and ignoring the detail [Machamer/Darden/Craver]
16. Persons / B. Nature of the Self / 2. Ethical Self
20742 The real subject is ethical, not cognitive [Kierkegaard]
23. Ethics / A. Egoism / 1. Ethical Egoism
3031 The greatest good is not the achievement of desire, but to desire what is proper [Menedemus, by Diog. Laertius]
23. Ethics / F. Existentialism / 1. Existentialism
7579 While big metaphysics is complete without ethics, personal philosophy emphasises ethics [Kierkegaard]
7581 Speculative philosophy loses the individual in a vast vision of humanity [Kierkegaard]
23. Ethics / F. Existentialism / 6. Authentic Self
20314 People want to lose themselves in movements and history, instead of being individuals [Kierkegaard]
7582 Becoming what one is is a huge difficulty, because we strongly aspire to be something else [Kierkegaard]
26. Natural Theory / D. Laws of Nature / 11. Against Laws of Nature
16558 Laws of nature have very little application in biology [Machamer/Darden/Craver]
28. God / A. Divine Nature / 2. Divine Nature
7586 God does not think or exist; God creates, and is eternal [Kierkegaard]
28. God / B. Proving God / 3. Proofs of Evidence / d. Religious Experience
20312 God cannot be demonstrated objectively, because God is a subject, only existing inwardly [Kierkegaard]
28. God / C. Attitudes to God / 2. Pantheism
7580 Pantheism destroys the distinction between good and evil [Kierkegaard]
29. Religion / D. Religious Issues / 1. Religious Commitment / e. Fideism
7584 Without risk there is no faith [Kierkegaard]
7583 Faith is the highest passion in the sphere of human subjectivity [Kierkegaard]