Quotes by Tim Crane

Tim Crane

A lot of humanists treat religion as if it were simply a kind of rival cosmological hypothesis, and that this is all it is. My view is that to the extent that religions are cosmological hypotheses, this is not the only important thing about them, and we – atheists- will never get a proper understanding of what religion is if we focus too much on the cosmology.

Focus

Important

Understanding

A real naturalistic approach, I would claim, should take the reality of mental representation as a natural fact. A lot can be said about this fact, but there is no need to say it all in terms of necessary and/or sufficient conditions which are stated in non-intentional terms. The idea that naturalism might require that all the truths should be stated in a particular kind of vocabulary now strikes me as a very peculiar one.

Kind

Natural

Real

Although a lot of my work on the mind has been rather abstract and philosophical, I’m interested in psychology and neuroscience and I don’t think there are any principled distinctions between the kind of knowledge we get from science and the knowledge we get from philosophy.

Philosophical

Philosophy

Thinking

Catholicism is the most philosophical branch of Christianity.

Branches

Christianity

Philosophical

Even if we ignore the ‘non-theoretical’ knowledge which we acquire through experience (such as the knowledge of what something tastes like) and concentrate on theoretical knowledge, there is no good reason to think that physics can literally give the theory of everything. Here I want to be really pedantic. Although everything may be subject to physical law, not everything can be explained or described in physical terms. Physics has literally nothing to say about society, morality and the mind, for example – but of course these are parts of ‘everything’.

Giving

Mind

Thinking

I do not claim to have any developed or sophisticated views in political philosophy, but I think that one of the lessons of the last few hundred years of history is that the greatest threat to human prosperity and well-being is fanaticism and intolerance, even in the name of apparently laudable goals.

Goal

Philosophy

Thinking

I do think it’s important to distinguish between intentionalism about consciousness and externalism about consciousness. Intentionalism says that consciousness is a form of intentionality – the representation of things to the mind. Externalism says that these things have to exist in order for them to be represented, or presented. These are different views.

Order

Thinking

Views

I do think that if you are trying to think empirically about the relationship between conscious experience and the underlying physical reality, wine provides an excellent practical example. Winemakers manipulate the chemicals they are dealing with in a way that is very sensitive to the kinds of effects it will have on the subjective experience of tasters – this is not an accident.

Reality

Thinking

Wine

I do think that philosophy and science are very different intellectual enterprises, but that does not mean that when we get knowledge from philosophy it is a different kind of knowledge.

Mean

Philosophy

Thinking

I had abandoned Catholicism, but even during my short militant atheist period I maintained an interest in western religious art and music.

Art

Atheist

Religious

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Aesthetic

Ambition

Art

Artifacts

Atheist

Attention

Attitude

Believe

Branches

Christian

Christianity

Consciousness

Country

Different

Emotion

Etc

Focus

Followers

Giving

Goal

Historical

Important

Independent

Intellectual

Judgement

Kind

Made

Materialism

May

Mean

Men

Metaphysical

Mind

Natural

Naturalist

Obstacles

Order

People

Philosopher

Philosophical

Philosophy

Progress

Real

Reality

Religious

Risk

Silly

Stupid

Taken

Term

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Quotes by Tim Crane

Tim Crane

Although a lot of my work on the mind has been rather abstract and philosophical, I’m interested in psychology and neuroscience and I don’t think there are any principled distinctions between the kind of knowledge we get from science and the knowledge we get from philosophy.

Catholicism is the most philosophical branch of Christianity.

I do think that philosophy and science are very different intellectual enterprises, but that does not mean that when we get knowledge from philosophy it is a different kind of knowledge.

I had abandoned Catholicism, but even during my short militant atheist period I maintained an interest in western religious art and music.

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