Good question. One way is to assess the ethical implications of the differences we find. Another would be to examine and explore why people get so str...
That looks like an idea that would explain why the temptation exists. No doubt there's more to say, but the desire for certainty would explain why the...
Some questions:- I don’t see continuing the series as at all the same thing as extending a word or concept into new contexts. In the former, we say th...
Yes. You seem to have it about right. The only issue now is what concepts we can attribute when explaining what animals that do not have human languag...
I don't contest the point that there are beliefs that we could not develop without language. All I'm suggesting is that linguistic and non-linguistic ...
Of course one cannot philosophize without language. One of the big puzzles in Berekeley's writing is that he is very clear that his immatierialism doe...
Surely, thought that involves trees and cats is involved in the behaviour that involves trees and cats. I don't see what you are getting at. I'm incli...
You may remember that earlier in this thread there was some discussion of Timothy Pennings' claim that his corgi could do calculus. See Excerpts from ...
I'm a bit torn about this. Philosophers often generalize beyond what seems appropriate to me. "Everything exists" would be one example (not that I cou...
I had not thought about the relationship with TLP. In that context, it is striking that he thinks that solipsism is a matter of "notation" - of how to...
It's quite a change from the old (Cartesian) scientific opinion. Perhaps there's some hope for the world. Quite so. And the behaviours that do not inv...
Thought etc. in creatures lacking human language is expressed and available to us in their behaviour. The same is true in human beings, but, of course...
But I don't think anyone is trying to explain the human condition away. The only thing that might be in dispute is what is and what is not a part of i...
Well, those are indeed different questions, though they are also related. Yes, I've a lot of time for Cavell. But doesn't he also raise the question o...
Aren't you are citing the ideals that science tries to achieve? In practice science is always provisional and restricted in its scope, not certain at ...
Yes, I see. I wasn't clear whether you were talking first-person view or third. I agree that creatures who do not have human language do experience fe...
Oh, I agree that that argument plays out through the work and beyond! 1. But it seems to me that further clarification is needed about "more logical, ...
I'm not clear why you call it an ethical standard. It looks to me more like a method - no, an approach - designed to clarify the use(s) of the terms a...
I did and I didn't. That is, I was expecting references to some of the critiques of Gettier's article, rather than Gettier's selection from existing f...
This is a side-issue, but who are the three defenders you are thinking of? I may have misinterpreted "prior". I was treating it as meaning "presuppose...
This reminds me of the reaction to Berkeley's "removal" of matter or the entire physical world. A modern case is the outrage caused by "illusionism". ...
OK. So it's over. :smile: There are various points that I would qualify or put differently, but fundamentally this seems to me to apply to all thought...
Thanks. However, I'm a bit hesitant about taking this up again. I didn't intend to upset you before, so I'm concerned that I might do so again. I shal...
Are those the two mistakes in your headline for this section? I mean the temptation to follow the grammar of language (as opposed to philosophical gra...
You are right that our discussioin has become unproductive and annoying. We aren't making progress. That's a shame but it's probably best if we leave ...
Yes. I had read all that when I posted. My problem is quite simple, Normally, we would say, when I calculate using pen and paper, that I am calculatin...
This is an extra ordinary remark. Thinking is a paradigm of a mental activity. Surely, what he needs to argue is that mental activities, in particular...
If it was the "is" of identity, everything that is true of the person would also be true of the animal and of the machine. Which is not the case. The ...
Where does he say that? Now I'm confused. Are discussing the wickedness of Descartes or of the Inquisition? Perhaps you just mean that they are a para...
That's fair enough. There's a nasty gap, however, in how one assesses the worthiness of the goal or what's a problem, rather than a feature. But let's...
Some people think that there are number of factors working together. That seems a very likely possibility. Our bipedalism allowed our front feet to de...
But there is no external object, so there is nothing to verify. There is no "flower itself" to be the ground of our judgement, so there is no ground f...
So I've learnt something to-day. Thank you for the link. I have looked through it, but not read it carefully yet. I'm losing my grip on what our disag...
Yes, but without the flower, judgements about it are meaningless. Some blind people have visual images - it depends whether they have had vision earli...
Yes, quite so. I realized after I signed off that I was wide open to that. If economics is about allocation of resources in a system, then an economy ...
Yes, for the purposes of biology, h. sapiens is just another species. But it would be absurd to apply economic theory to a hive of bees or termintes. ...
Well, if you said that Galileo was a hypocrite, I would agree on the basis that it was, technically, but justified on the basis that being tortured or...
That's exactly right. So the question becomes why it matters, one way or the other. One obvious candidate is the belief in some version of the immorta...
But I asked you to bring me the flower itself. The criteria are only a means to an end. "Have in mind" is a problematic phrase in this context. Let's ...
Yes, that's why I'm suggesting that scepticism/certainty is not the only issue in play in this text. BTW, I'm a bit puzzled by "all states of affairs"...
I'm sorry, I don't see your point. Of course there are a lot of assumptions and background conditions. Of course, things go wrong sometimes. The point...
That's true. It's a common problem with philosophical ideas, because, at least in logical positivism they are (supposed to be) logically analytic, whi...
That's fair enough. I actually agree about the suffering. It's just that I doubt that he and his colleagues made much practical difference. It's not a...
I see our language capability as a hyper-development of abilities that (all? most?) animals have to a greater or less extent. Other species have hyper...
H'm. You seem to really have it in for Descartes. He is iconic and takes a lot of stick. But he wasn't the one who invented God, or even the argument ...
Oddly enough, I am convinced of Descartes' sincerity. It is Galileo who gets himself into a morally complicated situation. (I mean that he could be ac...
Comments