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question:is-it-not-likely-then-that-this-sense-of-more-life-or-less-life-in-things-is-a-private-idiosyncratic-judgment-without-firm-empirical-content

Is it not likely, then, that this sense of more life or less life in things is a private, idiosyncratic judgment without firm empirical content?

Rhetorical question that gates the claim of shared, objective judgment.

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Claims (1)

claim

The judgment about life is widely shared and not idiosyncratic; it is roughly consistent from person to person.
gates
Contrasts with the worry that such feelings are purely private.

Related by similarity (8)

cosine ≥ 0.65 · no typed edge

Entities in the same semantic neighborhood but without a typed relation to this one — candidates for new edges or unrecognized duplicates.

The feeling that there is more life in one case than another is correlated with a structural difference in the things themselves, which can be made precise and measured.claim0.825
Forward‑looking claim that the life quality has an objective basis, to be demonstrated later.
We seem to have a fundamental observation - so far unexplained - that among pairs of events, bits of space, places, and particles of existence, we can usually judge that one has a greater degree of life and the other less, at least according to our feeling.quote0.797
Summarizes the empirical bedrock of the whole argument.
The life which seems best in our world comes from efforts that are uncensored, natural and straightforward, from impulses close to our emotions and joy.claim0.789
Alexander's opening assertion about the character of true modern life.
When we find out the things we really like, we are also more in touch with all that is.claim0.784
Final point suggesting that deep liking connects us with universal reality.
Almost any social process can have a relatively more living character, or have a relatively less living character.claim0.779
The difference in degree of life is inherent in the thing itself, not just a personal value judgment.claim0.774
Ontological claim that the life quality resides in the object, not the observer.
What is truly liked may be different from what is apparently liked; this is a matter of judgment and knowledge, not opinion.claim0.772
The epistemological distinction crucial to the argument.
Which one has more life?question0.772
The central empirical question Alexander repeatedly asked himself during twenty years of observation, and which he invites readers to ask when comparing any two artifacts or buildings