Combining Texts

All the ideas for 'fragments/reports', 'Penses' and 'Ontological Relativity'

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25 ideas

2. Reason / A. Nature of Reason / 9. Limits of Reason
6675 The heart has its reasons of which reason knows nothing [Pascal]
5. Theory of Logic / G. Quantification / 4. Substitutional Quantification
21642 If quantification is all substitutional, there is no ontology [Quine]
7. Existence / A. Nature of Existence / 6. Criterion for Existence
1633 Absolute ontological questions are meaningless, because the answers are circular definitions [Quine]
7. Existence / D. Theories of Reality / 11. Ontological Commitment / d. Commitment of theories
18964 Ontology is relative to both a background theory and a translation manual [Quine]
9. Objects / F. Identity among Objects / 1. Concept of Identity
18965 We know what things are by distinguishing them, so identity is part of ontology [Quine]
12. Knowledge Sources / C. Rationalism / 1. Rationalism
22011 The first principles of truth are not rational, but are known by the heart [Pascal]
13. Knowledge Criteria / E. Relativism / 5. Language Relativism
1634 Two things are relative - the background theory, and translating the object theory into the background theory [Quine]
19. Language / B. Reference / 1. Reference theories
8470 Reference is inscrutable, because we cannot choose between theories of numbers [Quine, by Orenstein]
19. Language / F. Communication / 1. Rhetoric
6681 We only want to know things so that we can talk about them [Pascal]
19. Language / F. Communication / 3. Denial
1554 Contradiction is impossible, since only one side of the argument refers to the true facts [Prodicus, by Didymus the Blind]
19. Language / F. Communication / 6. Interpreting Language / b. Indeterminate translation
18963 Indeterminacy translating 'rabbit' depends on translating individuation terms [Quine]
21. Aesthetics / C. Artistic Issues / 3. Artistic Representation
6676 Painting makes us admire things of which we do not admire the originals [Pascal]
22. Metaethics / A. Ethics Foundations / 2. Source of Ethics / j. Ethics by convention
6680 It is a funny sort of justice whose limits are marked by a river [Pascal]
22. Metaethics / B. Value / 1. Nature of Value / d. Subjective value
6677 Imagination creates beauty, justice and happiness, which is the supreme good [Pascal]
22. Metaethics / C. The Good / 2. Happiness / d. Routes to happiness
6678 We live for the past or future, and so are never happy in the present [Pascal]
23. Ethics / F. Existentialism / 3. Angst
20732 If man considers himself as lost and imprisoned in the universe, he will be terrified [Pascal]
24. Political Theory / D. Ideologies / 5. Democracy / a. Nature of democracy
6682 Majority opinion is visible and authoritative, although not very clever [Pascal]
25. Social Practice / A. Freedoms / 5. Freedom of lifestyle
6679 It is not good to be too free [Pascal]
28. God / B. Proving God / 2. Proofs of Reason / d. Pascal's Wager
7455 Pascal knows you can't force belief, but you can make it much more probable [Pascal, by Hacking]
7457 Pascal is right, but relies on the unsupported claim of a half as the chance of God's existence [Hacking on Pascal]
7456 The libertine would lose a life of enjoyable sin if he chose the cloisters [Hacking on Pascal]
6684 If you win the wager on God's existence you win everything, if you lose you lose nothing [Pascal]
28. God / B. Proving God / 3. Proofs of Evidence / c. Teleological Proof critique
1555 People used to think anything helpful to life was a god, as the Egyptians think the Nile a god [Prodicus]
28. God / C. Attitudes to God / 5. Atheism
535 The gods are just personified human benefits [Prodicus]
1543 He denied the existence of the gods, saying they are just exaltations of things useful for life [Prodicus]