Category: Rationalism
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An Insufficient Argument against Sufficient Reason
This is an emended version of an entry that first saw the light of day on 21 May 2016. It is a set-up for a response to a question put to me by Tom Oberle. I'll try to answer Tom's question tomorrow. ………………………….. Explanatory rationalism is the view that there is a satisfactory answer to…
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Jonathan Bennett’s Argument Against Explanatory Rationalism
The topic of explanatory rationalism has surfaced in a previous thread. So it's time for a re-run of the following post (ever so slightly emended) from nearly three years ago. How time does pass when you're having fun. ……………… Explanatory rationalism is the view that there is a satisfactory answer to every why-question. Equivalently, it…
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Against Irrationalism
The problem is not that we conceptualize things, but that we conceptualize them wrongly, hastily, superficially. The problem is not that we draw distinctions, but that we draw too few distinctions or improper distinctions. Perhaps in the end one must learn to trace all distinctions back to the ONE whence they spring; but that is…
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Jonathan Bennett’s Argument Against Explanatory Rationalism
Explanatory rationalism is the view that there is a satisfactory answer to every why-question. Equivalently, it is the view that there are no brute facts, where a brute fact is a fact that neither has, nor can have, an explanation. Are there some truths which simply must be accepted without explanation? Consider the conjunction of all…