Paul Nervy Notes
“Jokes, poems, stories, and a lot of philosophy, psychology, and sociology.”


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Philosophy, history of.  ---  .This section is about the history of philosophy.  ---  1/24/2006


Philosophy, history of.  ---  (1) Cannons: academic, Paul's, other.  (2) Criticism: academic, Paul's, other.  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, history of.  ---  (1) Idea: how good, powerful, original, and important?  (2) Communication of ideas: how said, and how well said?  Clear, concise, economical, complete, effective, powerful, truthful, important.  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, history of.  ---  (1) Ideas that were top in their day, but now outmoded, vs. ideas that were top in their day, and still hold up well.  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, history of.  ---  (1) Methods of doing philosophy of a philosopher.  (2) Structure of a philosopher's universe.  Category system he/she used.  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, history of.  ---  (1) The contributors: how new, and how good.  (2) The repeaters: the popularizers, and the academics, surveying, summing up, and conglomerizing.  (3) The criticizers of others.  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, history of.  ---  A philosophical school or system.  A stand in one branch or subject often leads logically to a stand in other branches or subjects (ex. metaphysics yields epistemology yields ethics yields aesthetics).  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, history of.  ---  Approaching philosophy of history by (1) Branch of philosophy (metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, aesthetics).  (2) Subject matter.  (3) Chronological period.  (4) Geographic area.  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, history of.  ---  Change in emphasis in 20th century philosophy: from logic, to language, to literary criticism.  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, history of.  ---  Chronological and geographical approach.  (1) Prehistoric/primitive, ancient, medieval, modern.  (2) West and east.  East: Arab, India, Hindu, China: Buddhist, Taoist, Confucianism.  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, history of.  ---  Criticism (see also art criticism, lit criticism).  Analysis (description) and judgment (evaluation).  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, history of.  ---  Doers of philosophy, vs. studiers of philosophy done.  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, history of.  ---  Eastern philosophy is essentially eastern religion.  Tao, Confucianism, Zen, Hindu and their metaphysics, epistemology, ethical and aesthetic views.  At what point in history were they ahead of the west (less wrong in their views)?  Are they still ahead of us today in any area?  ---  12/30/1995


Philosophy, history of.  ---  Eastern philosophy.  (1) Has the East thought of anything good that the west hasn't?  (2) Did they think of anything first, before we did?  (3) Did the West borrow it, or did the West think of it independently later?  (4) Does the West give the East credit?  (5) Is there enough good stuff to justify studying Eastern philosophy on its own?  ---  10/15/1993


Philosophy, history of.  ---  Eastern philosophy.  Zen, Tao, Buddhism.  (1) What ideas of value did they contribute?  (A) Harmony with nature.  (B) Mental awareness and calm.  (C) Ethics?  (2) What ideas from the east are untrue and harmful?  ---  03/01/1993


Philosophy, history of.  ---  For any philosophy school (ex. phenomenology and existentialism).  (1) Do they have any use for the common man?  In what forms do their views seep down into mainstream culture?  (2) Do they have any historical value?  How powerful were their ideas in their own time?  How powerful are their ideas today?  ---  08/10/1993


Philosophy, history of.  ---  History of philosophical schools.  (1) English.  Micro, analytic, small details.  (2) French.  Synthetic, big picture.  (3) Russian.  Marxist, historical.  (4) Eastern.  Japanese, Indian.  Mystical, non-dualistic.  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, history of.  ---  History of study of history of philosophy.  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, history of.  ---  How good is it compared to (1) his time and place, (2) his time worldwide, (3) all time, (4) now?  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, history of.  ---  How many ideas on how many subjects did the philosopher have?  How new and original were the philosopher's ideas?  How true were the philosopher's ideas?  How important the subject and view on it?  How healthy, how powerful?  Implications of view.  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, history of.  ---  I do not believe in trying to figure out philosophy's logical structure from its historical structure.  I believe in tacking philosophy's historical structure onto its logical structure.  Why?  Because ultimately, what someone says (the logical idea) is more important than who said it (the historical details).  Philosophy is about surveying all areas, not so much all time.  The historical approach to philosophy is a hindrance and mistake.  ---  3/3/2001


Philosophy, history of.  ---  Interpretation of a philosophical text depends heavily on, and is influenced greatly by, (1) the reader's existing mental concept structure, (2) the readers knowledge, (3) readers IQ, and (4) readers biases and prejudices and values.  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, history of.  ---  Interpretation of physical evidence.  Interpretation of a said thing.  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, history of.  ---  Interpretations of work: what a work explicitly says vs. what a work implicitly says.  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, history of.  ---  Mainstream current views vs. frontiers and cutting edge.  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, history of.  ---  Mentality of a philosopher: abstract vs. practical.  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, history of.  ---  My two favorites.  Nietzche and Wittgenstein.  Why?  They are the two most alive (emotional?), human (fallible?  frail?), and wide ranging.  Neurotic, and tormented, but rising above it.  Heroes?  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, history of.  ---  Philosophers: major and minor.  Works: major and minor.  How important/good are they, and why?  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, history of.  ---  Philosophers.  List philosophers in chronological order or alphabetical order.  List their works in chronological order (books and articles).  What were their most important works?  (1) What was the main contributions of the individual?  What the philosopher says and means.  What do they not say and mean?  Why the philosopher was an advance in their day?  How their work holds up today.  Has it been superseded?  Alternately, is it still viable?  What is right and wrong with the philosophers views?   Who are the defenders of the views.  Who gives criticisms of the views?  (2) My views of what the philosopher means, and why its important.  Questions that I have about what the philosopher means.  ---  7/14/2004


Philosophy, history of.  ---  Prehistoric philosophy.  (1) Evidence and interpretation of it.  (2) How well did they think before writing?  (3) What geniuses lived but were never able to write their ideas down because writing had not been invented yet?  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, history of.  ---  Pros vs. cons, strengths vs. weaknesses, of a philosopher, philosophical position, or philosophical statement.  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, history of.  ---  School's most important philosopher, philosopher's most important work, and work's most important chapter, paragraph, and sentence.  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, history of.  ---  Schools and authors.  (1) Ideas on subject x.  (2) Subject of concentration, and subject of contribution.  (3) Quantity and quality of questions asked and answers given.  (4) Communication style (see communication and writing) and media.  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, history of.  ---  Schools, authors, and works.  When written.  Subjects, issue and question, view, evidence, and interpretation of evidence.  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, history of.  ---  Scope of a philosophers work: limited vs. vast.  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, history of.  ---  The epistemology of the history of philosophy.  (1) Historical empirical evidence and proof vs. (2) Interpretive arguments (see also lit theory).  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, history of.  ---  The height of popularity of a philosopher or a philosophical idea.  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, history of.  ---  The man who easily produces great work, is he superior to the man who labors intensely to produce mediocrity?  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, history of.  ---  The philosophical problems the ancients thought of and debated were not always the most important problems, concepts, and arguments.  A lot of energy was wasted on creating and retracing theoretical bullshit, by the dogmatism of traditional philosophical schools.  The best thing you can do is see things fresh and new and more important.  ---  08/04/1993


Philosophy, history of.  ---  The Structural approach.  (1) Branch, subject, school, and ideas (general to specific).  (2) People who hold these views, their works, arguments and conclusions.  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, history of.  ---  The work produced vs. the effort that went into it: (1) Time worked, (2) Psychological effort: intellectual, and emotional turmoil, (3) How tough a life; things sacrificed like money/stuff, like/lust, and everything else he could have done instead.  Was it worth it?  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, history of.  ---  Two views of the ancients.  (1) They figured everything out.  (2) They were idiots really, considering all the stuff they missed.  (3) I adhere to the second view.  ---  11/10/1993


Philosophy, history of.  ---  Use or applications of a philosopher's views.  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, history of.  ---  View.  Who held it (chronological)?  How did they say it (key passages)?  Who said it first vs. who said it best?  ---  09/15/1993


Philosophy, history of.  ---  Ways to do history of philosophy (see also history, methods of doing history).  (1) Marxism, social, political, economic, history.  (2) Psychological/biographical (Freud etc.).  (3) Literary criticism, textual hermeneutics, etc.  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, history of.  ---  What a philosopher did vs. what a philosopher wanted to do, or thought he was doing.  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, history of.  ---  What did he implicitly and explicitly believe, not believe, and not have a position on?  ---  06/30/1993


Philosophy, history of.  ---  What is history of philosophy?  Three definitions: (1) What actually happened vs. (2) The study of what happened vs. (3) The study of the study of what happened (metaphysics).  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, history of.  ---  What they said (proving its authentic, not forged) vs. what they meant.  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, history of.  ---  Who said what, when, where, why, and how do we know?  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, history of.  ---  Why do history philosophy?  Why study history of philosophy?  How to do history of philosophy: (proof, evidence, lit criticism, etc.).  How study history of philosophy?  ---  12/30/1992




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Paul Nervy Notes. Copyright 1988-2007 by Paul Nervy.