A good summary article on intuitions in biology 21 Feb 2010 The Studia Philosophica Estonia is not a journal I regularly read, but this article – “The Role of Intuitions in Philosophy” – is a good introduction to the topic, and it’s free. I tend to think that “intuition” is an empty word, myself. I like the phrase “traditional faculty view” for its ambiguity – the authors mean “the traditional view that intuitions are a faculty of mind”, but I immediately thought of “intuitions come from faculty members” [of some philosophy department]. Philosophy
Evolution Notes on novelty 1: Introduction 14 Dec 201115 Jan 2012 Notes on Novelty series: 1. Introduction 2. Historical considerations – before and after evolution 3: The meaning of evolutionary novelty 4: Examples – the beetle’s horns and the turtle’s shell 5: Evolutionary radiations and individuation 6: Levels of description 7: Surprise! 8: Conclusion – Post evo-devo I like to take the most extreme view I can… Read More
History The founder of the history of ideas 18 Feb 2010 Gary Nelson has pointed me at this article on Arthur Lovejoy, the founder of the history of ideas movement that I count myself part of. It is an interesting take on what Lovejoy was doing, a kind of cultural evolution historiography. Read More
Epistemology Spirits and Souls 18 Jun 201122 Jun 2018 Does Calamities of Nature read this blog? Or just Sean Carroll? Read More
That reminded me of something I read today on Peter van Inwagen’s essay “Modal Epistemology”. I’ll quote: “[a philosopher who does ‘all sort or fanciful modal judgments’] is unaware that the modal beliefs he expresses or presupposes when he says ‘we’d have had more room if we’d moved the table up against the wall’… and the modal beliefs he gives such confident expression to in his writings… have quite different sources. The former have their source in our ordinary human powers of ‘modalization’… the latter have their source in his professional socialization, in ‘what his peers will let him get away with saying’.”
What philosophers these days mean by the word ‘intuition’ today is pretty close to what Descartes meant by ‘preconceived opinion’, except that the former has an honorific connotation.
Oops. Delete the redundant word ‘today’ from that. I wish that this site allowed editing or deletion of comments.