3 ideas
| 7295 | Maybe induction is only reliable IF reality is stable [Mitchell,A] |
| Full Idea: Maybe we should say that IF regularities are stable, only then is induction a reliable procedure. | |
| From: Alistair Mitchell (talk [2006]), quoted by PG - Db (ideas) | |
| A reaction: This seems to me a very good proposal. In a wildly unpredictable reality, it is hard to see how anyone could learn from experience, or do any reasoning about the future. Natural stability is the axiom on which induction is built. |
| 23217 | All of our happiness and misery arises entirely from the brain [Hippocrates] |
| Full Idea: Men ought to know that from the brain, and from the brain alone, arise our pleasures, joys, laughter and jests, as well as our sorrow, pains, griefs and tears. | |
| From: Hippocrates (Hippocrates of Cos on the mind [c.430 BCE], p.32) | |
| A reaction: If this could be assertedly so confidently at that date, why was the fact so slow to catch on? Brain injuries should have convinced everyone. |
| 1515 | Pythagoreans believe it is absurd to seek for goodness anywhere except with the gods [Iamblichus] |
| Full Idea: The thinking behind Pythagorean philosophy is that people behave in an absurd fashion if they try to find any source for the good other than the gods. | |
| From: Iamblichus (Life of Pythagoras [c.290], 137) |