5 ideas
20643 | Consilience is a common groundwork of explanation [Whewell] |
Full Idea: Consilience is the jumping together of knowledge by the linking of facts and fact-based theory across disciplines to create a common groundwork of explanation. | |
From: William Whewell (The Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences [1840]), quoted by Peter Watson - Convergence Intro 'United' | |
A reaction: Apparently this is the first use of the word, which was popularised by E.O. Wilson in recent times. If, as I do, you dream of a final theory, in philosophy as well as in science, then you have to be a fan of consilience. |
13550 | To be always happy is to lack knowledge of one half of nature [Seneca] |
Full Idea: To be always happy and to pass through life without any mental distress is to lack knowledge of one half of nature. | |
From: Seneca the Younger (On Providence [c.60], §4) | |
A reaction: These kind of paradoxes plague virtue theory, and any theory which aims at an ideal. Heaven, for example, seems to have no problems to solve, which spells boredom. The fascination of corrupt people is their superior knowledge of the world. |
13549 | Nothing bad can happen to a good man [Seneca] |
Full Idea: Nothing bad can happen to a good man. | |
From: Seneca the Younger (On Providence [c.60], §2) | |
A reaction: This is a pithy summary of a well know ancient attitude - one that is rejected by Aristotle, but defended by Socrates. It depends what you mean by 'bad' - but that is a rather modern response. |
21994 | The handmill gives feudalism, the steam mill capitalism [Marx] |
Full Idea: The handmill gives you society with the feudal lord; the steam mill society with the industrial capitalist. | |
From: Karl Marx (The Poverty of Philosophy [1847], p.202), quoted by Peter Singer - Marx 7 | |
A reaction: If technology dictates social structure, then feudalism is still with us, in low-tech industries. What if the steam mill had been invented in 1300? |
13548 | The ocean changes in volume in proportion to the attraction of the moon [Seneca] |
Full Idea: The waves increase by degrees, approaching to the hour and day proportionately larger or smaller in volume as they are attracted by the star we call the moon, whose power controls the ocean's surge. | |
From: Seneca the Younger (On Providence [c.60], §1) | |
A reaction: ....just in case anyone thought that Isaac Newton had invented gravity. |