60 ideas
| 22864 | Philosophy is the study and criticsm of cultural beliefs, to achieve new possibilities [Dewey] |
| 6602 | Philosophy is like a statue which is worshipped but never advances [Bacon] |
| 12124 | Metaphysics is the best knowledge, because it is the simplest [Bacon] |
| 12123 | Natural history supports physical knowledge, which supports metaphysical knowledge [Bacon] |
| 12119 | Physics studies transitory matter; metaphysics what is abstracted and necessary [Bacon] |
| 12120 | Physics is of material and efficient causes, metaphysics of formal and final causes [Bacon] |
| 18335 | There are five problems which the truth-maker theory might solve [Rami] |
| 18334 | The truth-maker idea is usually justified by its explanatory power, or intuitive appeal [Rami] |
| 18339 | The truth-making relation can be one-to-one, or many-to-many [Rami] |
| 18333 | Central idea: truths need truthmakers; and possibly all truths have them, and makers entail truths [Rami] |
| 18342 | Most theorists say that truth-makers necessitate their truths [Rami] |
| 18340 | It seems best to assume different kinds of truth-maker, such as objects, facts, tropes, or events [Rami] |
| 18341 | Truth-makers seem to be states of affairs (plus optional individuals), or individuals and properties [Rami] |
| 18346 | 'Truth supervenes on being' only gives necessary (not sufficient) conditions for contingent truths [Rami] |
| 18345 | 'Truth supervenes on being' avoids entities as truth-makers for negative truths [Rami] |
| 18343 | Maybe a truth-maker also works for the entailments of the given truth [Rami] |
| 18338 | Truth-making is usually internalist, but the correspondence theory is externalist [Rami] |
| 18337 | Correspondence theories assume that truth is a representation relation [Rami] |
| 18347 | Deflationist truth is an infinitely disjunctive property [Rami] |
| 18350 | Truth-maker theorists should probably reject the converse Barcan formula [Rami] |
| 22873 | Liberalism should improve the system, and not just ameliorate it [Dewey] |
| 18336 | Internal relations depend either on the existence of the relata, or on their properties [Rami] |
| 16639 | Only individual bodies exist [Bacon] |
| 10938 | The extremes of essentialism are that all properties are essential, or only very trivial ones [Rami] |
| 16625 | In hylomorphism all the explanation of actions is in the form, and the matter doesn't do anything [Bacon] |
| 16033 | There are only individual bodies containing law-based powers, and the Forms are these laws [Bacon] |
| 10940 | An 'individual essence' is possessed uniquely by a particular object [Rami] |
| 10939 | 'Sortal essentialism' says being a particular kind is what is essential [Rami] |
| 10934 | Unlosable properties are not the same as essential properties [Rami] |
| 10933 | Physical possibility is part of metaphysical possibility which is part of logical possibility [Rami] |
| 10932 | If it is possible 'for all I know' then it is 'epistemically possible' [Rami] |
| 22869 | Knowledge is either the product of competent enquiry, or it is meaningless [Dewey] |
| 22868 | The value and truth of knowledge are measured by success in activity [Dewey] |
| 21516 | We want certainty in order achieve secure results for action [Dewey] |
| 22867 | The quest for certainty aims for peace, and avoidance of the stress of action [Dewey] |
| 22870 | No belief can be so settled that it is not subject to further inquiry [Dewey] |
| 16724 | The senses deceive, but also show their own errors [Bacon] |
| 12121 | We don't assume there is no land, because we can only see sea [Bacon] |
| 3648 | Empiricists are collecting ants; rationalists are spinning spiders; and bees do both [Bacon] |
| 12117 | Science moves up and down between inventions of causes, and experiments [Bacon] |
| 6603 | Nature is revealed when we put it under pressure rather than observe it [Bacon] |
| 21950 | Science must clear away the idols of the mind if they are ever going to find the truth [Bacon] |
| 12127 | Many different theories will fit the observed facts [Bacon] |
| 22866 | Mind is never isolated, but only exists in its interactions [Dewey] |
| 12126 | People love (unfortunately) extreme generality, rather than particular knowledge [Bacon] |
| 22865 | Habits constitute the self [Dewey] |
| 8478 | Dewey argued long before Wittgenstein that there could not seriously be a private language [Dewey, by Orenstein] |
| 22871 | The good people are those who improve; the bad are those who deteriorate [Dewey] |
| 22876 | Democracy is the development of human nature when it shares in the running of communal activities [Dewey] |
| 22875 | Democracy is not just a form of government; it is a mode of shared living [Dewey] |
| 22872 | Liberals aim to allow individuals to realise their capacities [Dewey] |
| 22874 | Individuality is only developed within groups [Dewey] |
| 22880 | The things in civilisation we prize are the products of other members of our community [Dewey] |
| 12125 | Teleological accounts are fine in metaphysics, but they stop us from searching for the causes [Bacon] |
| 16624 | Stripped and passive matter is just a human invention [Bacon] |
| 12118 | Essences are part of first philosophy, but as part of nature, not part of logic [Bacon] |
| 22879 | 'God' is an imaginative unity of ideal values [Dewey] |
| 7399 | Even without religion, there are many guides to morality [Bacon] |
| 22877 | We should try attaching the intensity of religious devotion to intelligent social action [Dewey] |
| 22878 | Religions are so shockingly diverse that they have no common element [Dewey] |