171 ideas
23889 | Among the Greeks Aristotle is the only philosopher in the modern style [Weil] |
23881 | All thought about values is philosophical, and thought about anything else is not philosophy [Weil] |
23885 | Philosophy aims to change the soul, not to accumulate knowledge [Weil] |
23886 | Systems are not unique to each philosopher. The platonist tradition is old and continuous [Weil] |
18405 | A 'teepee' argument has several mutually supporting planks to it [Cappelen/Dever] |
5728 | The concept of truth was originated by the senses [Lucretius] |
23884 | Truth is a value of thought [Weil] |
23755 | Genius and love of truth are always accompanied by great humility [Weil] |
23825 | We seek truth only because it is good [Weil] |
23853 | Truth is not a object we love - it is the radiant manifestation of reality [Weil] |
23877 | Most people won't question an idea's truth if they depend on it [Weil] |
23855 | Creation produced a network or web of determinations [Weil] |
23900 | Chance is compatible with necessity, and the two occur together [Weil] |
23888 | Knowledge is beyond question, as an unavoidable component of thinking [Weil] |
5729 | If the senses are deceptive, reason, which rests on them, is even worse [Lucretius] |
5702 | The senses are much the best way to distinguish true from false [Lucretius] |
5697 | The only possible standard for settling doubts is the foundation of the senses [Lucretius] |
5727 | Most supposed delusions of the senses are really misinterpretations by the mind [Lucretius] |
5714 | Even simple facts are hard to believe at first hearing [Lucretius] |
5718 | The mind is in the middle of the breast, because there we experience fear and joy [Lucretius] |
5717 | The mind is a part of a man, just like a hand or an eye [Lucretius] |
21387 | The separate elements and capacities of a mind cannot be distinguished [Lucretius] |
23747 | What is sacred is not a person, but the whole physical human being [Weil] |
18422 | Prioprioception focuses on your body parts, not on your self, or indexicality [Cappelen/Dever] |
18425 | We can acquire self-knowledge with mirrors, not just with proprioception and introspection [Cappelen/Dever] |
18421 | Proprioception is only immune from error if you are certain that it represents the agent [Cappelen/Dever] |
5709 | The actions of the mind are not determinate and passive, because atoms can swerve [Lucretius] |
5695 | Only bodies can touch one another [Lucretius] |
5711 | The earth is and always has been an insentient being [Lucretius] |
5712 | Particles may have sensation, but eggs turning into chicks suggests otherwise [Lucretius] |
18419 | Folk Functionalism is a Ramsification of our folk psychology [Cappelen/Dever] |
5719 | The mind moves limbs, wakes the body up, changes facial expressions, which involve touch [Lucretius] |
5724 | Lions, foxes and deer have distinct characters because their minds share in their bodies [Lucretius] |
5713 | You needn't be made of laughing particles to laugh, so why not sensation from senseless seeds? [Lucretius] |
23756 | The mind is imprisoned and limited by language, restricting our awareness of wider thoughts [Weil] |
18404 | It is assumed that indexical content is needed to represent the perspective of perception [Cappelen/Dever] |
18407 | Indexicality is not significantly connected to agency [Cappelen/Dever] |
18427 | If some of our thought is tied to its context, it will be hard to communicate it [Cappelen/Dever] |
18426 | All information is objective, and purely indexical information is not much use [Cappelen/Dever] |
18428 | You don't remember your house interior just from an experienced viewpoint [Cappelen/Dever] |
18429 | Our beliefs and desires are not organised around ourselves, but around the world [Cappelen/Dever] |
18413 | Fregeans can't agree on what 'senses' are [Cappelen/Dever] |
18417 | Possible worlds accounts of content are notoriously coarse-grained [Cappelen/Dever] |
18408 | Indexicals are just non-constant in meaning, and don't involve any special concepts [Cappelen/Dever] |
18414 | Fregeans say 'I' differs in reference, so it must also differ in sense [Cappelen/Dever] |
18423 | All indexicals can be expressed non-indexically [Cappelen/Dever] |
18406 | The basic Kaplan view is that there is truth-conditional content, and contextual character [Cappelen/Dever] |
18411 | It is proposed that a huge range of linguistic items are context-sensitive [Cappelen/Dever] |
23878 | Weakness of will is the inadequacy of the original impetus to carry through the action [Weil] |
18420 | We deny that action involves some special class of beliefs [Cappelen/Dever] |
23832 | We both desire what is beautiful, and want it to remain as it is [Weil] |
23848 | The aesthete's treatment of beauty as amusement is sacreligious; beauty should nourish [Weil] |
23899 | The secret of art is that beauty is a just blend of unity and its opposite [Weil] |
23758 | Beauty is an attractive mystery, leaving nothing to be desired [Weil] |
23887 | Art (like philosophy) establishes a relation between world and self, and between oneself and others [Weil] |
23903 | When we admire a work, we see ourselves as its creator [Weil] |
6611 | One man's meat is another man's poison [Lucretius] |
23898 | Those who say immorality is not an aesthetic criterion must show that all criteria are aesthetic [Weil] |
23854 | Beauty is the proof of what is good [Weil] |
23814 | Every human yearns for an unattainable transcendent good [Weil] |
23826 | Beauty, goodness and truth are only achieved by applying full attention [Weil] |
5730 | Our bodies weren't created to be used; on the contrary, their creation makes a use possible [Lucretius] |
23824 | Where human needs are satisfied we find happiness, friendship and beauty [Weil] |
23879 | In a violent moral disagreement, it can't be that both sides are just following social morality [Weil] |
23882 | Ends, unlike means, cannot be defined, which is why people tend to pursue means [Weil] |
23760 | All we need are the unity of justice, truth and beauty [Weil] |
23883 | Minds essentially and always strive towards value [Weil] |
23748 | The sacred in every human is their expectation of good rather than evil [Weil] |
5726 | The dead are no different from those who were never born [Lucretius] |
23759 | Everything which originates in love is beautiful [Weil] |
23762 | Evil is transmitted by comforts and pleasures, but mostly by doing harm to people [Weil] |
23833 | The good is a nothingness, and yet real [Weil] |
23808 | There are two goods - the absolute good we want, and the reachable opposite of evil [Weil] |
5705 | Nature only wants two things: freedom from pain, and pleasure [Lucretius] |
23865 | Morality would improve if people could pursue private interests [Weil] |
23894 | The concept of character is at the centre of morality [Weil] |
23896 | We see our character as a restricting limit, but also as an unshakable support [Weil] |
23893 | We don't see character in a single moment, but only over a period of time [Weil] |
23895 | We modify our character by placing ourselves in situations, or by attending to what seems trivial [Weil] |
23837 | Respect is our only obligation, which can only be expressed through deeds, not words [Weil] |
23815 | We cannot equally respect what is unequal, so equal respect needs a shared ground [Weil] |
23834 | Friendship is partly universal - the love of a person is like the ideal of loving everyone [Weil] |
23823 | Life needs risks to avoid sickly boredom [Weil] |
23844 | The most important human need is to have multiple roots [Weil] |
23838 | The need for order stands above all others, and is understood via the other needs [Weil] |
23836 | Obligations only bind individuals, not collectives [Weil] |
23840 | A citizen should be able to understand the whole of society [Weil] |
23822 | We all need to partipate in public tasks, and take some initiative [Weil] |
23843 | Even the poorest should feel collective ownership, and participation in grand display [Weil] |
23846 | Culture is an instrument for creating an ongoing succession of teachers [Weil] |
23831 | The essence of power is illusory prestige [Weil] |
23857 | People in power always try to increase their power [Weil] |
23866 | In oppressive societies the scope of actual control is extended by a religion of power [Weil] |
23812 | Force is what turns man into a thing, and ultimately into a corpse [Weil] |
23839 | A lifelong head of society should only be a symbol, not a ruler [Weil] |
23871 | No central authority can initiate decentralisation [Weil] |
23856 | Spontaneous movements are powerless against organised repression [Weil] |
23867 | After a bloody revolution the group which already had the power comes to the fore [Weil] |
23830 | A group is only dangerous if it endorses an abstract entity [Weil] |
23809 | Our only social duty is to try to limit evil [Weil] |
23870 | Decentralisation is only possible by co-operation between strong and weak - which is absurd [Weil] |
23829 | National leaders want to preserve necessary order - but always the existing order [Weil] |
23817 | We need both equality (to attend to human needs) and hierarchy (as a scale of responsibilities) [Weil] |
23842 | Party politics in a democracy can't avoid an anti-democratic party [Weil] |
23859 | True democracy is the subordination of society to the individual [Weil] |
23863 | Only individual people of good will can achieve social progress [Weil] |
23869 | In the least evil societies people can think, control community life, and be autonomous [Weil] |
23847 | Socialism tends to make a proletariat of the whole population [Weil] |
23750 | It is not more money which the wretched members of society need [Weil] |
23749 | The problem of the collective is not suppression of persons, but persons erasing themselves [Weil] |
23807 | The collective is the one and only object of false idolatry [Weil] |
23861 | Marx showed that capitalist oppression, because of competition, is unstoppable [Weil] |
23897 | Once money is the main aim, society needs everyone to think wealth is possible [Weil] |
23845 | The capitalists neglect the people and the nation, and even their own interests [Weil] |
23828 | National prestige consists of behaving as if you could beat the others in a war [Weil] |
23810 | Charity is the only love, and you can feel that for a country (a place with traditions), but not a nation [Weil] |
23868 | The pleasure of completing tasks motivates just as well as the whip of slavery [Weil] |
23811 | If effort is from necessity rather than for a good, it is slavery [Weil] |
23819 | Deliberate public lying should be punished [Weil] |
23818 | We have liberty in the space between nature and accepted authority [Weil] |
23901 | Relationships depend on equality, so unequal treatment kills them [Weil] |
23753 | People absurdly claim an equal share of things which are essentially privileged [Weil] |
23841 | By making money the sole human measure, inequality has become universal [Weil] |
23864 | Inequality could easily be mitigated, if it were not for the struggle for power [Weil] |
23751 | Rights are asserted contentiously, and need the backing of force [Weil] |
23752 | Giving centrality to rights stifles all impulses of charity [Weil] |
23835 | People have duties, and only have rights because of the obligations of others to them [Weil] |
23820 | People need personal and collective property, and a social class lacking property is shameful [Weil] |
23813 | Only people who understand force, and don't respect it, are capable of justice [Weil] |
23757 | The spirit of justice needs the full attention of truth, and that attention is love [Weil] |
23761 | Justice (concerning harm) is distinct from rights (concerning inequality) [Weil] |
23852 | To punish people we must ourselves be innocent - but that undermines the desire to punish [Weil] |
23821 | Crime should be punished, to bring the perpetrator freely back to morality [Weil] |
23763 | Punishment aims at the good for men who don't desire it [Weil] |
23764 | The only thing in society worse than crime is repressive justice [Weil] |
23827 | Modern wars are fought in the name of empty words which are given capital letters [Weil] |
23880 | When war was a profession, customary morality justified any act of war [Weil] |
23850 | The soldier-civilian distinction should be abolished; every citizen is committed to a war [Weil] |
23858 | War is perpetuated by its continual preparations [Weil] |
23851 | Education is essentially motivation [Weil] |
23873 | Dividing history books into separate chapters is disastrous [Weil] |
23860 | Even if a drowning man is doomed, he should keep swimming to the last [Weil] |
5716 | Nature runs the universe by herself without the aid of gods [Lucretius] |
5704 | There can be no centre in infinity [Lucretius] |
5703 | The universe must be limitless, since there could be nothing outside to limit it [Lucretius] |
5693 | Everything is created and fed by nature from atoms, and they return to atoms in death [Lucretius] |
5701 | If an object is infinitely subdivisible, it will be the same as the whole universe [Lucretius] |
5708 | In downward motion, atoms occasionally swerve slightly for no reason [Lucretius] |
17004 | Nothing can break the binding laws of eternity [Lucretius] |
5706 | Atoms move themselves [Lucretius] |
5696 | If there were no space there could be no movement, or even creation [Lucretius] |
5700 | It is quicker to break things up than to assemble them [Lucretius] |
5698 | We can only sense time by means of movement, or its absence [Lucretius] |
5715 | This earth is very unlikely to be the only one created [Lucretius] |
5694 | Nothing can be created by divine power out of nothing [Lucretius] |
23816 | Attention to a transcendent reality motivates a duty to foster the good of humanity [Weil] |
23754 | The only choice is between supernatural good, or evil [Weil] |
5699 | If matter wasn't everlasting, everything would have disappeared by now [Lucretius] |
23892 | The only legitimate proof of God by order derives from beauty [Weil] |
5707 | The universe can't have been created by gods, because it is too imperfect [Lucretius] |
5710 | Gods are tranquil and aloof, and have no need of or interest in us [Lucretius] |
5731 | Why does Jupiter never hurl lightning from a blue sky? [Lucretius] |
23904 | The cruelty of the Old Testament put me off Christianity [Weil] |
23849 | Religion should quietly suffuse all human life with its light [Weil] |
5720 | Spirit is mortal [Lucretius] |
5722 | For a separated spirit to remain sentient it would need sense organs attached to it [Lucretius] |
5725 | An immortal mind couldn't work harmoniously with a mortal body [Lucretius] |
23902 | I attach little importance to immortality, which is an undecidable fact, and irrelevant to us [Weil] |
5721 | The mind is very small smooth particles, which evaporate at death [Lucretius] |
5723 | If spirit is immortal and enters us at birth, why don't we remember a previous existence? [Lucretius] |
23765 | The soul is the intrinsic value of a human [Weil] |