60 ideas
9247 | Life will be lived better if it has no meaning [Camus] |
7973 | There is no longer anything on which there is nothing to say [Baudrillard] |
6707 | Suicide - whether life is worth living - is the one serious philosophical problem [Camus] |
9245 | To an absurd mind reason is useless, and there is nothing beyond reason [Camus] |
17651 | Without words or other symbols, we have no world [Goodman] |
6841 | Some continental philosophers are relativists - Baudrillard, for example [Baudrillard, by Critchley] |
7975 | The task of philosophy is to unmask the illusion of objective reality [Baudrillard] |
7986 | Drunken boat pilots are less likely to collide than clearly focused ones [Baudrillard] |
7982 | Instead of thesis and antithesis leading to synthesis, they now cancel out, and the conflict is levelled [Baudrillard] |
17652 | Truth is irrelevant if no statements are involved [Goodman] |
15510 | Classes are a host of ethereal, platonic, pseudo entities [Goodman] |
9920 | Two objects can apparently make up quite distinct arrangements in sets [Goodman, by Burgess/Rosen] |
10657 | The counties of Utah, and the state, and its acres, are in no way different [Goodman] |
9244 | Logic is easy, but what about logic to the point of death? [Camus] |
12394 | If the result is bad, we change the rule; if we like the rule, we reject the result [Goodman] |
17656 | Being primitive or prior always depends on a constructional system [Goodman] |
17661 | We don't recognise patterns - we invent them [Goodman] |
17659 | Reality is largely a matter of habit [Goodman] |
7974 | Without God we faced reality: what do we face without reality? [Baudrillard] |
17657 | We build our world, and ignore anything that won't fit [Goodman] |
7987 | Nothing is true, but everything is exact [Baudrillard] |
17654 | A world can be full of variety or not, depending on how we sort it [Goodman] |
14292 | Dispositions seem more ethereal than behaviour; a non-occult account of them would be nice [Goodman] |
7956 | If all and only red things were round things, we would need to specify the 'respect' of the resemblance [Goodman, by Macdonald,C] |
7957 | Without respects of resemblance, we would collect blue book, blue pen, red pen, red clock together [Goodman, by Macdonald,C] |
7952 | If we apply the same word to different things, it is only because we are willing to do so [Goodman, by Macdonald,C] |
17653 | Things can only be judged the 'same' by citing some respect of sameness [Goodman] |
12191 | Counterfactuals are true if logical or natural laws imply the consequence [Goodman, by McFetridge] |
17660 | Discovery is often just finding a fit, like a jigsaw puzzle [Goodman] |
17658 | Users of digital thermometers recognise no temperatures in the gaps [Goodman] |
17650 | We lack frames of reference to transform physics, biology and psychology into one another [Goodman] |
18749 | Goodman argued that the confirmation relation can never be formalised [Goodman, by Horsten/Pettigrew] |
17646 | Goodman showed that every sound inductive argument has an unsound one of the same form [Goodman, by Putnam] |
17655 | Grue and green won't be in the same world, as that would block induction entirely [Goodman] |
9249 | Whether we are free is uninteresting; we can only experience our freedom [Camus] |
7978 | There is no need to involve the idea of free will to make choices about one's life [Baudrillard] |
9253 | The human heart has a tiresome tendency to label as fate only what crushes it [Camus] |
20440 | Art is a referential activity, hence indefinable, but it has a set of symptoms [Goodman] |
20439 | Artistic symbols are judged by the fruitfulness of their classifications [Goodman, by Giovannelli] |
8113 | Art is like understanding a natural language, and needs a grasp of a symbol system [Goodman, by Gardner] |
20438 | A performance is only an instance of a work if there is not a single error [Goodman] |
20437 | A copy only becomes an 'instance' of an artwork if there is a system of notation [Goodman] |
7980 | In modern times, being useless is the essential aesthetic ingredient for an object [Baudrillard] |
9250 | Discussing ethics is pointless; moral people behave badly, and integrity doesn't need rules [Camus] |
9252 | The more one loves the stronger the absurd grows [Camus] |
7983 | Good versus evil has been banefully reduced to happiness versus misfortune [Baudrillard] |
9251 | One can be virtuous through a whim [Camus] |
9243 | If we believe existence is absurd, this should dictate our conduct [Camus] |
6708 | Happiness and the absurd go together, each leading to the other [Camus] |
9242 | Essential problems either risk death, or intensify the passion of life [Camus] |
9246 | Danger and integrity are not in the leap of faith, but in remaining poised just before the leap [Camus] |
7981 | Whole populations are terrorist threats to authorities, who unite against them [Baudrillard] |
7976 | People like democracy because it means they can avoid power [Baudrillard] |
7977 | Only in the last 200 years have people demanded the democratic privilege of being individuals [Baudrillard] |
7979 | The arrival of the news media brought history to an end [Baudrillard] |
9248 | It is essential to die unreconciled and not of one's own free will [Camus] |
7984 | Suicide is ascribed to depression, with the originality of the act of will ignored [Baudrillard] |
17649 | If the world is one it has many aspects, and if there are many worlds they will collect into one [Goodman] |
4794 | We don't use laws to make predictions, we call things laws if we make predictions with them [Goodman] |
7985 | Pascal says secular life is acceptable, but more fun with the hypothesis of God [Baudrillard] |