Ian:
Hi Ron, good question
To the previouse statement:
> Platt., Marsha,
> How would you say SOL provides greater explanatory power?
This of course is hung up on what "explantion" means - I was hoping we
could get there ever since DMB made some complaints about scientific
reductionism - and get off this interminable Bo, Platt, Marsha SOLAQI
treadmill.
Ron:
I've been reading Aristotle and he had some pretty interesting things to say
about explanation
Book Alpha
2
" The most intelligible matters are first principles and basic reasons, since
it is by and through them that any given subject becomes intelligible, not vice
versa."
"In view of all that has been said, then, the knowledge we are seeking can all
have
the same name; for this science is the theory of first principles and reasons,
among
which is good or the wherefor.
That this science, moreover, is not one of production is clearly illustrated
in those who first began
to philosophize. For it was their curiosity that first led men to philosophize
and still leads them."
Ron:
Then I ran into a part that sounded familiar, right after he explained the
problems with materialistic
explanations, that they neglected the good and the beautiful. Then he spoke
about those who
said that mind was present, as a crucial factor for acounting for all order,
"they spoke like sound
minded men". "those then, who grasped these things in this way posited both
that the answer to
the question of what explains the beautiful is also a principle explaning the
being of things and that
it is this sort of principle which explains the source of movement in things."
He maintained that quality is what made one explanation better than another it
is what we mean
when we say that one explanation is truer than another.
Ian
Moq_Discuss mailing list
Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc.
http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org
Archives:
http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/
http://moq.org/md/archives.html
Moq_Discuss mailing list
Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc.
http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org
Archives:
http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/
http://moq.org/md/archives.html
