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    Carmelics

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    LoyalLoyalJusticeJustice
    Made withinDC&Austin
    Statements
    321,452
    Perspectives
    108,905
    Topics
    42
    Home/Original/inverse
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    Inverse View

    It is not the case that Spinoza argued that clarity and distinctness are themselves constituted by coherence within a system, making the criterion circular rather than self-warranting.

    ?Set your confidence on the premises below to see your aggregate.

    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
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    • 1.Two internally coherent but contradictory systems could both satisfy Spinoza's criterion, yet both cannot be true—coherence alone underdetermines truth.
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    • 2.Spinoza distinguishes adequate ideas from inadequate ones; this distinction itself seems to require a non-coherential standard to ground it.
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    • 3.Coherence explains consistency but not correctness; a system coherent with false axioms produces coherent falsehoods, not knowledge.
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    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
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    • 1.Spinoza's system treats ideas as internal to nature; coherence among them reflects genuine ontological relations, not mere logical circularity.
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    • 2.Self-evidence requires some standard; coherence within a unified system provides better warrant than appeals to intuition or external correspondence.
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    • 3.A coherent system can be self-correcting; internal tensions force revision, preventing arbitrary closure that simple circularity would allow.
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