6
votes
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Have I got Saussure's distinction between the form and substance right?
Saussure is playing with two traditional dicotomies : the aristotelian : form/matter (their union is the substance) and the "(traditional) linguistic : form/content.
See CLG, Ch.4:
[ page 156 ] La ...
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6
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What did Dostoyevski mean with his character saying "Without God and the afterlife, all things are allowed"?
No Dostoevsky's character said that. Nor did they say "If there is no God, then everything is permitted", which is Sartre's surmise of Karamazov Brothers that became a meme, see Zizek and ...
- 42.5k
5
votes
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What is the relation between interpretation and explanation in social sciences?
The topic you've raised is intricate indeed. Except for the two approaches you mention towards the social sciences - interpretation (advocated by anti-naturalists) and (nomological) explanation (...
- 1,685
4
votes
Accepted
Thus spoke Zarathustra, "Even the wisest among you is only a conflict and mix of plant and ghost"
You won't find a definite, unambigious answer. Here's my stab at it.
Context: in the third prologue, Zarathustra is teaching the people about the Übermesch. A human is somewhere between a monkey and ...
- 1,098
4
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Accepted
How are you intended to interpret x.R and x.S in Davidson "Truth and Meaning"?
The phrase x̂(x=x) means 'the x such that x=x'. This is just a way of forming a singular term that refers to something. The . is conjunction ('and').
So x̂(x=x.R)=x̂(x=x) is logically equivalent to ...
- 6,466
4
votes
Why forgive philosophers for bad writing skills?
Why do we excuse the engineer who can't write well enough to document their code? Why do we excuse the scientist who is too messy to find their own data? Why do we excuse the artist who can't sell ...
- 17.5k
4
votes
What are some movements and schools inspired by Wittgenstein's philosophy?
Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations indeed is a foundation for a school of thought in sociology, called social constructionism (or constructivism). One field in sociology is identity question,...
- 3,657
3
votes
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What is the philosophical status of interpretations of a scientific theory?
Aside from minimal interpretations, which simply relate theoretical abstractions to empirical/practical procedures, interpretations are typically treated as philosophy/metaphysics. As such they can be ...
- 42.5k
3
votes
What is the philosophical status of interpretations of a scientific theory?
An interpretation of a theory, in particular quantum theory, is said to be an account of what that theory is saying about the world that can be cleanly separated from the theory's predictions. People ...
- 7,420
3
votes
What does this quote mean about Plato's Cave?
"Does [Selfish desire has no place in the pure aesthetic experience] mean that purity comes with the consequence of selflessness? That if one is clean and pure they must be selfless?"
No, no, no. the ...
- 3,657
3
votes
Accepted
What did Parmenides mean when he argued that there can be no change and no time?
It is curious that Parmenides's argument seems wrong today while back in the day someone as expert as Plato thought that it was obviously right. Indeed, one of the drives behind Plato's system was ...
- 42.5k
3
votes
Does Art require an Audience?
The rejection of everything outside of the present is a theme in Nietzche's thinking. He believed in those "quarter hours" of sublime introspection when all diversions are forgone in pursuit of ...
3
votes
How does one avoid getting bogged down in minutiae when reading philosophy
My suggestion is to try to read proactively. If you're getting bogged down and taking overly copious notes, that tells me that you're reading passively: taking each passage as it arrives on the page, ...
- 18.5k
3
votes
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What did Dostoyevski mean with his character saying "Without God and the afterlife, all things are allowed"?
"If God does not exist, anything is permissible" was uttered by Ivan in 'Brothers Karamazov'.
Dostoyevsky is a controversial author, and he saw western Europe as a civilization of nihilism, ...
- 1,255
3
votes
Accepted
Does Kant think that an evil God is a contradiction?
I think your starting point is already off amd based on a misunderstanding.
Apostles become or can be seen as evil spirits in the sense of being, establishing, and institutionalising "...
- 13.5k
2
votes
Accepted
How should one interpret Camus' quote about the "vanity of experience"?
This is an example of what can be called associative narration, that is common in the texts of continental tradition in philosophy to which Camus belongs. Its aim is to foster understanding rather ...
- 42.5k
2
votes
Thus spoke Zarathustra, "Even the wisest among you is only a conflict and mix of plant and ghost"
Even the wisest=everybody
plant=being tied to physical world, man is partly on the remorse of his surroundings
ghost=individual's quest and need for meaning; expressing and cultivating inborn ...
- 91
2
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Does Art require an Audience?
I am not familiar with Nietzsche's concept of monological art, but purely on the basis of the question, I find it either obscure or patently absurd. If anything, an overreaction to Wagner's ...
- 13.3k
2
votes
What did Parmenides mean when he argued that there can be no change and no time?
I am not familiar with the research literature, but the given interpretation does not make sense to me. And this for two reasons.
First, the opinion of the so called "mortals" is an entirely marginal ...
- 7,311
2
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Introspection to look for what I'm missing
Without knowing anything more about your life, I would agree with you that your life has many of the external features of "good life": you are busy, you are fit, you are productive, your relationships ...
- 4,063
2
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Nietzsche: Beyond Good and Evil: Aphorism 89
The German original reads:
Fürchterliche Erlebnisse geben zu raten, ob der, welcher sie erlebt, nicht etwas Fürchterliches ist.
The translation is not bad as such. Maybe a better possibility to put ...
- 13.5k
2
votes
What does the emergence of different interpretations of Wittgenstein signify?
If you want to understand the situation around Wittgenstein's work, you are going to have to study it. I put a list of resources, and introductory remarks to his work, in this post here: Introductory ...
- 20.5k
2
votes
Accepted
What does the emergence of different interpretations of Wittgenstein signify?
What does the emergence of different interpretations of Wittgenstein signify?
I'm going to answer the question from a different angle: the competition of interpretations have nothing to do with ...
- 22.9k
2
votes
Accepted
Sentential Interpretation in P. Suppes (1957)
Suppes is using some rather dated terminology here. It is not so common today to speak of sentential interpretations in the way Suppes defines them. In particular, Suppes is not using the term '...
- 22.9k
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