PHIL 008 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Moe Williams, Boeotia, Mathematical Beauty
29 Oct 2020
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Document Summary
134-139 contains discussion of explanation and what amounts to a critique of science and defense of philosophy. To answer a why" question is to cite a cause. Plato suggests that science (represented by anaxagoras) only appeals to two types of causes in their answers: (1) material stuff: e. g. sinews, neurons, limbs, rocks, hcl (2) causal processes and forces: e. g. pushing, pulling, tensing, addition, subtraction, attraction, repulsion. The problem: these types of causes don"t seem suited to answering all questions (like those on the previous slide). Again, he would mention other such causes for my talking to you: sounds and air and hearing, and a thousand other such things, but he would neglect to mention the true causes, that, after the. Athenians decided it was better to condemn me, for this reason it seemed best to me to sit here and more right to remain and to endure whatever penalty they ordered.
