75 ideas
7490 | Because of Darwin, wisdom as a definite attainable state has faded [Watson] |
7461 | The three key ideas are the soul, Europe, and the experiment [Watson] |
7464 | The big idea: imitation, the soul, experiments, God, heliocentric universe, evolution? [Watson] |
3695 | Philosophy is a priori if it is anything [Bonjour] |
3651 | Perceiving necessary connections is the essence of reasoning [Bonjour] |
3700 | Coherence can't be validated by appeal to coherence [Bonjour] |
8893 | For any given area, there seem to be a huge number of possible coherent systems of beliefs [Bonjour] |
7465 | Babylonian thinking used analogy, rather than deduction or induction [Watson] |
4261 | The Lottery Paradox says each ticket is likely to lose, so there probably won't be a winner [Bonjour, by PG] |
21554 | Sets always exceed terms, so all the sets must exceed all the sets [Lackey] |
21553 | It seems that the ordinal number of all the ordinals must be bigger than itself [Lackey] |
7466 | Mesopotamian numbers applied to specific things, and then became abstract [Watson] |
3697 | The concept of possibility is prior to that of necessity [Bonjour] |
8888 | The concept of knowledge is so confused that it is best avoided [Bonjour] |
8887 | It is hard to give the concept of 'self-evident' a clear and defensible characterization [Bonjour] |
8897 | The adverbial account will still be needed when a mind apprehends its sense-data [Bonjour] |
3707 | Our rules of thought can only be judged by pure rational insight [Bonjour] |
3704 | Moderate rationalists believe in fallible a priori justification [Bonjour] |
4255 | Externalist theories of knowledge are one species of foundationalism [Bonjour] |
4257 | The big problem for foundationalism is to explain how basic beliefs are possible [Bonjour] |
8896 | Conscious states have built-in awareness of content, so we know if a conceptual description of it is correct [Bonjour] |
3696 | A priori justification requires understanding but no experience [Bonjour] |
3703 | You can't explain away a priori justification as analyticity, and you can't totally give it up [Bonjour] |
3706 | A priori justification can vary in degree [Bonjour] |
4256 | The main argument for foundationalism is that all other theories involve a regress leading to scepticism [Bonjour] |
3699 | The induction problem blocks any attempted proof of physical statements [Bonjour] |
21506 | A coherence theory of justification can combine with a correspondence theory of truth [Bonjour] |
21509 | There will always be a vast number of equally coherent but rival systems [Bonjour] |
21503 | Empirical coherence must attribute reliability to spontaneous experience [Bonjour] |
21511 | A well written novel cannot possibly match a real belief system for coherence [Bonjour] |
21510 | The objection that a negated system is equally coherent assume that coherence is consistency [Bonjour] |
21505 | A coherent system can be justified with initial beliefs lacking all credibility [Bonjour] |
21504 | The best explanation of coherent observations is they are caused by and correspond to reality [Bonjour] |
8891 | My incoherent beliefs about art should not undermine my very coherent beliefs about physics [Bonjour] |
8892 | Coherence seems to justify empirical beliefs about externals when there is no external input [Bonjour] |
8894 | Coherentists must give a reason why coherent justification is likely to lead to the truth [Bonjour] |
4258 | Extreme externalism says no more justification is required than the truth of the belief [Bonjour] |
3701 | Externalist theories of justification don't require believers to have reasons for their beliefs [Bonjour] |
8889 | Reliabilists disagree over whether some further requirement is needed to produce knowledge [Bonjour] |
4259 | External reliability is not enough, if the internal state of the believer is known to be irrational [Bonjour] |
8890 | If the reliable facts producing a belief are unknown to me, my belief is not rational or responsible [Bonjour] |
4260 | Even if there is no obvious irrationality, it may be irrational to base knowledge entirely on external criteria [Bonjour] |
3702 | Externalism means we have no reason to believe, which is strong scepticism [Bonjour] |
21508 | Anomalies challenge the claim that the basic explanations are actually basic [Bonjour] |
3709 | Induction must go beyond the evidence, in order to explain why the evidence occurred [Bonjour] |
8895 | If neither the first-level nor the second-level is itself conscious, there seems to be no consciousness present [Bonjour] |
20657 | There are 23 core brain functions, with known circuit, transmitters, genes and behaviour [Watson] |
20656 | Traditional ideas of the mind were weakened in the 1950s by mind-influencing drugs [Watson] |
3708 | All thought represents either properties or indexicals [Bonjour] |
3698 | Indeterminacy of translation is actually indeterminacy of meaning and belief [Bonjour] |
20655 | Humans have been hunter-gatherers for 99.5% of their existence [Watson] |
7477 | Modern democracy is actually elective oligarchy [Watson] |
7478 | Greek philosophers invented the concept of 'nature' as their special subject [Watson] |
20650 | The Uncertainty Principle implies that cause and effect can't be measured [Watson] |
20649 | The interference of light through two slits confirmed that it is waves [Watson] |
20661 | Electrons rotate in hyrogen atoms 10^13 times per second [Watson] |
20647 | Quantum theory explains why nature is made up of units, such as elements [Watson] |
20654 | Only four particles are needed for matter: up and down quark, electron, electron-neutrino [Watson] |
20651 | The shape of molecules is important, as well as the atoms and their bonds [Watson] |
20652 | In 1828 the animal substance urea was manufactured from inorganic ingredients [Watson] |
20658 | Information is physical, and living can be seen as replicating and preserving information [Watson] |
7462 | DNA mutation suggests humans and chimpanzees diverged 6.6 million years ago [Watson] |
7470 | During the rise of civilizations, the main gods changed from female to male [Watson] |
7474 | Hinduism has no founder, or prophet, or creed, or ecclesiastical structure [Watson] |
7479 | Modern Judaism became stabilised in 200 CE [Watson] |
7481 | The Israelites may have asserted the uniqueness of Yahweh to justify land claims [Watson] |
7480 | Monotheism was a uniquely Israelite creation within the Middle East [Watson] |
7471 | The Gathas (hymns) of Zoroastrianism date from about 1000 BCE [Watson] |
7473 | Zoroaster conceived the afterlife, judgement, heaven and hell, and the devil [Watson] |
7483 | Paul's early writings mention few striking episodes from Jesus' life [Watson] |
7484 | Jesus never intended to start a new religion [Watson] |
7475 | Confucius revered the spiritual world, but not the supernatural, or a personal god, or the afterlife [Watson] |
7476 | Taoism aims at freedom from the world, the body, the mind, and nature [Watson] |
7463 | The three basic ingredients of religion are: the soul, seers or priests, and ritual [Watson] |
7468 | In ancient Athens the souls of the dead are received by the 'upper air' [Watson] |