Rhyme Without Reason

Bondicons, Heroes And Ideology

Bertrand Russell History Of Western Philosophy (pp 21-2):

Throughout this long development, from 600 BC to the present day, philosophers have been divided into those who wished to tighten social bonds and those who wished to relax them.  With this difference, others have been associated.   

The disciplinarians have advocated some system of dogma, either old or new, and have therefore been compelled to be, in greater or lesser degree, hostile to science, since their dogmas could not be proved empirically.  They have almost invariably taught that happiness is not the good, but that ‘nobility’ or ‘heroism’ is to be preferred.  They have had a sympathy with irrational parts of human nature, since they have felt reason to be inimical to social cohesion.   

The libertarians, on the other hand, with the exception of the extreme anarchists, have tended to be scientific, utilitarian, rationalistic, hostile to violent passion, and enemies of all the more profound forms of religion.   

This conflict existed in Greece before the rise of what we recognise as philosophy, and is already quite explicit in the earliest Greek thought.  In changing forms, it has persisted down to the present day, and no doubt will persist for many ages to come.

Promotion Material

Evidence-Based vs "Evidence-Based"

The 'Transcendent' vs 'Immanent' Views of Meaning Explained

The 'transcendent' view of meaning holds that there is meaning outside of language and other semiotic systems.

The 'immanent' view of meaning holds that all meaning is within language and other semiotic systems.

To illustrate, imagine the scenario of a person seeing a cat in a backyard.

From the 'transcendent' perspective, 'a cat in a backyard' is meaning that is outside of language. Only if the person says 'there is a cat in the backyard' is the meaning inside language, in which case, it is said to refer to meanings outside semiotic systems. Reality is outside language, and language refers to it.

From the 'immanent' perspective, 'a cat in a backyard' is meaning that is inside language: a mental projection of meaning (rather than a verbal projection of wording). This entails a token-value relation between meanings of perceptual systems and the meanings of linguistic systems: perceptual tokens realise linguistic values. The meanings of perceptual systems are construed as the meanings of linguistic systems. Reality is what language construes of what perceptual systems construe.

Playing The System