105 ideas
13310 | Wisdom does not lie in books, and unread people can also become wise [Seneca] |
13560 | A wise man is not subservient to anything [Seneca] |
13295 | Wise people escape necessity by willing it [Seneca] |
13860 | We can only learn from philosophers of the past if we accept the risk of major misrepresentation [Wright,C] |
13317 | Philosophy aims at happiness [Seneca] |
13293 | What philosophy offers humanity is guidance [Seneca] |
13309 | That something is a necessary condition of something else doesn't mean it caused it [Seneca] |
13313 | Even philosophers have got bogged down in analysing tiny bits of language [Seneca] |
13883 | The best way to understand a philosophical idea is to defend it [Wright,C] |
10142 | The attempt to define numbers by contextual definition has been revived [Wright,C, by Fine,K] |
9868 | An expression refers if it is a singular term in some true sentences [Wright,C, by Dummett] |
13861 | Number theory aims at the essence of natural numbers, giving their nature, and the epistemology [Wright,C] |
13892 | One could grasp numbers, and name sizes with them, without grasping ordering [Wright,C] |
13867 | Instances of a non-sortal concept can only be counted relative to a sortal concept [Wright,C] |
17441 | Wright thinks Hume's Principle is more fundamental to cardinals than the Peano Axioms are [Wright,C, by Heck] |
13862 | There are five Peano axioms, which can be expressed informally [Wright,C] |
17853 | Number truths are said to be the consequence of PA - but it needs semantic consequence [Wright,C] |
17854 | What facts underpin the truths of the Peano axioms? [Wright,C] |
13894 | Sameness of number is fundamental, not counting, despite children learning that first [Wright,C] |
10140 | We derive Hume's Law from Law V, then discard the latter in deriving arithmetic [Wright,C, by Fine,K] |
8692 | Frege has a good system if his 'number principle' replaces his basic law V [Wright,C, by Friend] |
17440 | Wright says Hume's Principle is analytic of cardinal numbers, like a definition [Wright,C, by Heck] |
13893 | It is 1-1 correlation of concepts, and not progression, which distinguishes natural number [Wright,C] |
13888 | If numbers are extensions, Frege must first solve the Caesar problem for extensions [Wright,C] |
13869 | Number platonism says that natural number is a sortal concept [Wright,C] |
13870 | We can't use empiricism to dismiss numbers, if numbers are our main evidence against empiricism [Wright,C] |
13873 | Treating numbers adjectivally is treating them as quantifiers [Wright,C] |
13899 | The Peano Axioms, and infinity of cardinal numbers, are logical consequences of how we explain cardinals [Wright,C] |
13896 | The aim is to follow Frege's strategy to derive the Peano Axioms, but without invoking classes [Wright,C] |
7804 | Wright has revived Frege's discredited logicism [Wright,C, by Benardete,JA] |
13863 | Logicism seemed to fail by Russell's paradox, Gödel's theorems, and non-logical axioms [Wright,C] |
13895 | The standard objections are Russell's Paradox, non-logical axioms, and Gödel's theorems [Wright,C] |
13884 | The idea that 'exist' has multiple senses is not coherent [Wright,C] |
13877 | Singular terms in true sentences must refer to objects; there is no further question about their existence [Wright,C] |
9878 | Contextually defined abstract terms genuinely refer to objects [Wright,C, by Dummett] |
13868 | Sortal concepts cannot require that things don't survive their loss, because of phase sortals [Wright,C] |
14703 | Superficial necessity is true in all worlds; deep necessity is thus true, no matter which world is actual [Schroeter] |
12189 | Logical necessity involves a decision about usage, and is non-realist and non-cognitive [Wright,C, by McFetridge] |
14714 | Contradictory claims about a necessary god both seem apriori coherent [Schroeter] |
14704 | 2D semantics gives us apriori knowledge of our own meanings [Schroeter] |
13297 | To the four causes Plato adds a fifth, the idea which guided the event [Seneca] |
13307 | If everything can be measured, try measuring the size of a man's soul [Seneca] |
14706 | Your view of water depends on whether you start from the actual Earth or its counterfactual Twin [Schroeter] |
14711 | Rationalists say knowing an expression is identifying its extension using an internal cognitive state [Schroeter] |
13865 | 'Sortal' concepts show kinds, use indefinite articles, and require grasping identities [Wright,C] |
13866 | A concept is only a sortal if it gives genuine identity [Wright,C] |
13890 | Entities fall under a sortal concept if they can be used to explain identity statements concerning them [Wright,C] |
13898 | If we can establish directions from lines and parallelism, we were already committed to directions [Wright,C] |
14717 | Internalist meaning is about understanding; externalist meaning is about embedding in a situation [Schroeter] |
13882 | A milder claim is that understanding requires some evidence of that understanding [Wright,C] |
7320 | Holism cannot give a coherent account of scientific methodology [Wright,C, by Miller,A] |
21399 | Referring to a person, and speaking about him, are very different [Seneca] |
13885 | If apparent reference can mislead, then so can apparent lack of reference [Wright,C] |
14720 | Semantic theory assigns meanings to expressions, and metasemantics explains how this works [Schroeter] |
17857 | We can accept Frege's idea of object without assuming that predicates have a reference [Wright,C] |
14695 | Semantic theories show how truth of sentences depends on rules for interpreting and joining their parts [Schroeter] |
14696 | Simple semantics assigns extensions to names and to predicates [Schroeter] |
14697 | 'Federer' and 'best tennis player' can't mean the same, despite having the same extension [Schroeter] |
14698 | Possible worlds semantics uses 'intensions' - functions which assign extensions at each world [Schroeter] |
14699 | Possible worlds make 'I' and that person's name synonymous, but they have different meanings [Schroeter] |
14709 | Possible worlds semantics implies a constitutive connection between meanings and modal claims [Schroeter] |
14719 | In the possible worlds account all necessary truths are same (because they all map to the True) [Schroeter] |
14701 | Array worlds along the horizontal, and contexts (world,person,time) along the vertical [Schroeter] |
14702 | If we introduce 'actually' into modal talk, we need possible worlds twice to express this [Schroeter] |
14705 | Do we know apriori how we refer to names and natural kinds, but their modal profiles only a posteriori? [Schroeter] |
14715 | 2D fans defend it for conceptual analysis, for meaning, and for internalist reference [Schroeter] |
14716 | 2D semantics can't respond to contingent apriori claims, since there is no single proposition involved [Schroeter] |
13558 | The supreme good is harmony of spirit [Seneca] |
13325 | Trouble in life comes from copying other people, which is following convention instead of reason [Seneca] |
22239 | Humans acquired the concept of virtue from an analogy with bodily health and strength [Seneca, by Allen] |
13294 | We know death, which is like before birth; ceasing to be and never beginning are the same [Seneca] |
13299 | Living is nothing wonderful; what matters is to die well [Seneca] |
13300 | It is as silly to lament ceasing to be as to lament not having lived in the remote past [Seneca] |
13321 | Is anything sweeter than valuing yourself more when you find you are loved? [Seneca] |
13292 | Selfishness does not produce happiness; to live for yourself, live for others [Seneca] |
13550 | To be always happy is to lack knowledge of one half of nature [Seneca] |
13303 | A man is as unhappy as he has convinced himself he is [Seneca] |
13302 | Life is like a play - it is the quality that matters, not the length [Seneca] |
13301 | We are scared of death - except when we are immersed in pleasure! [Seneca] |
13323 | The whole point of pleasure-seeking is novelty, and abandoning established ways [Seneca] |
13318 | Nature doesn't give us virtue; we must unremittingly pursue it, as a training and an art [Seneca] |
13324 | Living contrary to nature is like rowing against the stream [Seneca] |
13559 | I seek virtue, because it is its own reward [Seneca] |
13305 | Character is ruined by not looking back over our pasts, since the future rests on the past [Seneca] |
13554 | True greatness is never allowing events to disturb you [Seneca] |
13561 | Virtue is always moderate, so excess need not be feared [Seneca] |
13556 | Every night I critically review how I have behaved during the day [Seneca] |
13562 | It is shameful to not even recognise your own slaves [Seneca] |
13552 | Anger is an extreme vice, threatening sanity, and gripping whole states [Seneca] |
13553 | Anger is a vice which afflicts good men as well as bad [Seneca] |
13312 | Excessive curiosity is a form of intemperance [Seneca] |
13308 | It's no good winning lots of fights, if you are then conquered by your own temper [Seneca] |
13549 | Nothing bad can happen to a good man [Seneca] |
13563 | Why does your wife wear in her ears the income of a wealthy house? [Seneca] |
13565 | If wealth was a good, it would make men good [Seneca] |
13564 | There is far more scope for virtue if you are wealthy; poverty only allows endurance [Seneca] |
13315 | To govern used to mean to serve, not to rule; rulers did not test their powers over those who bestowed it [Seneca] |
13557 | Unfortunately the majority do not tend to favour what is best [Seneca] |
13290 | One joy of learning is making teaching possible [Seneca] |
13322 | Both teachers and pupils should aim at one thing - the improvement of the pupil [Seneca] |
13298 | Suicide may be appropriate even when it is not urgent, if there are few reasons against it [Seneca] |
13320 | Sometimes we have a duty not to commit suicide, for those we love [Seneca] |
13319 | If we control our own death, no one has power over us [Seneca] |
13548 | The ocean changes in volume in proportion to the attraction of the moon [Seneca] |
13311 | Does time exist on its own? Did anything precede it? Did it pre-exist the cosmos? [Seneca] |