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    Carmelics

    A reasoning platform. Break down any belief into clear reasons, explore both sides, and weigh the evidence honestly.

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    Made withinDC&Austin
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    Perspectives
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    Home/Original/inverse
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    Inverse View

    It is not the case that The human mind can only know the external world through species (mental representations) that resemble external things.

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

    Reasons For

    2 perspectives
    Reason for 1 of 2
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    • 1.William of Ockham argues that the intellect can cognize external particulars directly via intuitive cognition without any resembling intermediary.
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    • 2.If direct acquaintance with a singular is possible, the species is an unnecessary ontological posit violating parsimony.
      ?

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    • 3.A resembling intermediary would make the external thing itself unknowable, since we would cognize the species rather than the thing it represents.
      ?

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    Reason for 2 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Thomas Reid demonstrates that resemblance is not a necessary condition for representation, since signs can represent without resembling their objects.
      ?

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    • 2.If a mental state can refer to an external thing through causal or functional relations rather than likeness, the species theory's resemblance requirement is unmotivated.
      ?

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    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
    ?
    • 1.Roger Bacon's theory holds that causal influence is transmitted through species multiplied from one thing to another.
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    • 2.A species is a likeness of its cause with a lesser or equal mode of being.
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    • 3.Applying this causal model to epistemology, perception of external things must proceed through intermediate mental likenesses.
      ?

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    Strongest counterpoint
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