50 ideas
22338 | An unexamined life can be virtuous [Murdoch] |
22337 | Philosophy must keep returning to the beginning [Murdoch] |
23563 | Philosophy moves continually between elaborate theories and the obvious facts [Murdoch] |
15879 | The Square of Opposition has two contradictory pairs, one contrary pair, and one sub-contrary pair [Harré] |
15891 | Traditional quantifiers combine ordinary language generality and ontology assumptions [Harré] |
15878 | Some quantifiers, such as 'any', rule out any notion of order within their range [Harré] |
15874 | Scientific properties are not observed qualities, but the dispositions which create them [Harré] |
15884 | Laws of nature remain the same through any conditions, if the underlying mechanisms are unchanged [Harré] |
15880 | In physical sciences particular observations are ordered, but in biology only the classes are ordered [Harré] |
15869 | Reports of experiments eliminate the experimenter, and present results as the behaviour of nature [Harré] |
15881 | We can save laws from counter-instances by treating the latter as analytic definitions [Harré] |
15882 | Since there are three different dimensions for generalising laws, no one system of logic can cover them [Harré] |
15888 | The grue problem shows that natural kinds are central to science [Harré] |
15887 | 'Grue' introduces a new causal hypothesis - that emeralds can change colour [Harré] |
15889 | It is because ravens are birds that their species and their colour might be connected [Harré] |
15890 | Non-black non-ravens just aren't part of the presuppositions of 'all ravens are black' [Harré] |
15885 | The necessity of Newton's First Law derives from the nature of material things, not from a mechanism [Harré] |
20653 | Six reduction levels: groups, lives, cells, molecules, atoms, particles [Putnam/Oppenheim, by Watson] |
22591 | We know perfection when we see what is imperfect [Murdoch] |
15868 | Idealisation idealises all of a thing's properties, but abstraction leaves some of them out [Harré] |
22709 | We should first decide what are the great works of art, with aesthetic theory following from that [Murdoch] |
22341 | Literature is the most important aspect of culture, because it teaches understanding of living [Murdoch] |
22715 | Great art proves the absurdity of art for art's sake [Murdoch] |
22714 | Because art is love, it improves us morally [Murdoch] |
22712 | Art and morals are essentially the same, and are both identical with love [Murdoch] |
22347 | Appreciating beauty in art or nature opens up the good life, by restricting selfishness [Murdoch] |
22339 | Love is a central concept in morals [Murdoch] |
22348 | Ordinary human love is good evidence of transcendent goodness [Murdoch] |
22713 | Love is realising something other than oneself is real [Murdoch] |
22343 | If I attend properly I will have no choices [Murdoch] |
22340 | It is hard to learn goodness from others, because their virtues are part of their personal history [Murdoch] |
22349 | Art trains us in the love of virtue [Murdoch] |
22346 | Moral reflection and experience gradually reveals unity in the moral world [Murdoch] |
22350 | Only trivial virtues can be possessed on their own [Murdoch] |
20765 | Man is a brave naked will, separate from a background of values and realities [Murdoch] |
22351 | Only a philosopher might think choices create values [Murdoch] |
22342 | Kantian existentialists care greatly for reasons for action, whereas Surrealists care nothing [Murdoch] |
15886 | Science rests on the principle that nature is a hierarchy of natural kinds [Harré] |
15864 | Classification is just as important as laws in natural science [Harré] |
15865 | Newton's First Law cannot be demonstrated experimentally, as that needs absence of external forces [Harré] |
15862 | Laws can come from data, from theory, from imagination and concepts, or from procedures [Harré] |
15870 | Are laws of nature about events, or types and universals, or dispositions, or all three? [Harré] |
15871 | Are laws about what has or might happen, or do they also cover all the possibilities? [Harré] |
15876 | Maybe laws of nature are just relations between properties? [Harré] |
15872 | Must laws of nature be universal, or could they be local? [Harré] |
15867 | Laws describe abstract idealisations, not the actual mess of nature [Harré] |
15860 | We take it that only necessary happenings could be laws [Harré] |
15892 | Laws of nature state necessary connections of things, events and properties, based on models of mechanisms [Harré] |
15875 | In counterfactuals we keep substances constant, and imagine new situations for them [Harré] |
22345 | Moral philosophy needs a central concept with all the traditional attributes of God [Murdoch] |