3 ideas
16587 | Prime matter is halfway between non-existence and existence [Averroes] |
Full Idea: Prime matter falls halfway, as it were, between complete non-existence and actual existence. | |
From: Averroes (Ibn Rushd) (Commentary on 'Physics' [1190], I.70), quoted by Robert Pasnau - Metaphysical Themes 1274-1671 03.1 |
4254 | Externalist accounts of knowledge do not require the traditional sort of justification [Kornblith] |
Full Idea: What is distinctive about externalist accounts of knowledge is that they do not require justification, at least in the traditional sense. | |
From: Hilary Kornblith (Internalism and Externalism: a History [2001], p.2) | |
A reaction: At least this gives animals the chance to know things, but I suspect that they never get beyond true beliefs. I'm sure humans have 'better' knowledge than animals. |
22352 | Out of more than a hundred planets, Earth is the only one with the idea of free will [Vonnegut] |
Full Idea: I wouldn’t have any idea what was meant by ‘free will'. I’ve visited thirty-one inhabited planets in the universe, and studied reports on one hundred more. Only on Earth is there any talk of free will. | |
From: Kurt Vonnegut (Slaughterhouse Five [1969], Ch.4) | |
A reaction: Spoken by the ambassador from the planet Tralfamadore. Possibly the greatest put down of a philosophical idea since Diogenes responded to Plato's definition of a man. I think free will is a non-idea. It is non-sensical, and doesn't exist. |