45 ideas
20678 | The Scientific Revolution was the discovery of our own ignorance [Harari] |
20686 | For millenia people didn't know how to convert one type of energy into another [Harari] |
20653 | Six reduction levels: groups, lives, cells, molecules, atoms, particles [Putnam/Oppenheim, by Watson] |
22858 | There is collective action, where a trend is manifest, but is not attributable to individuals [Lukes] |
20692 | Money does produce happiness, but only up to a point [Harari] |
20663 | If a group is bound by gossip, the natural size is 150 people [Harari] |
20677 | Since 1500 human population has increased fourteenfold, and consumption far more [Harari] |
20688 | People 300m tons; domesticated animals 700m tons; larger wild animals 100m tons [Harari] |
20674 | The Nazi aim was to encourage progressive evolution, and avoid degeneration [Harari] |
20679 | We stabilise societies with dogmas, either of dubious science, or of non-scientific values [Harari] |
22863 | Power is the capacity of a social class to realise its interests [Lukes] |
21133 | Supreme power is getting people to have thoughts and desires chosen by you [Lukes] |
22850 | Hidden powers are the most effective [Lukes] |
22852 | The pluralist view says that power is restrained by group rivalry [Lukes] |
22854 | Power is a capacity, which may never need to be exercised [Lukes] |
22857 | The two-dimensional view of power recognises the importance of controlling the agenda [Lukes] |
22855 | One-dimensionsal power is behaviour in observable conflicts of interests [Lukes] |
22856 | Political organisation brings some conflicts to the fore, and suppresses others [Lukes] |
22860 | The evidence for the exertion of power need not involve a grievance of the powerless [Lukes] |
22861 | Power is affecting a person in a way contrary to their interests [Lukes] |
22859 | Power can be exercised to determine a person's desires [Lukes] |
22851 | In the 1950s they said ideology is finished, and expertise takes over [Lukes] |
22862 | Liberals take people as they are, and take their preferences to be their interests [Lukes] |
20690 | The state fostered individualism, to break the power of family and community [Harari] |
20689 | In 1750 losing your family and community meant death [Harari] |
22853 | Anyone who thinks capitalism can improve their lives is endorsing capitalism [Lukes] |
20681 | The sacred command of capitalism is that profits must be used to increase production [Harari] |
20682 | The main rule of capitalism is that all other goods depend on economic growth [Harari] |
20683 | The progress of capitalism depends entirely on the new discoveries and gadgets of science [Harari] |
20687 | In capitalism the rich invest, and the rest of us go shopping [Harari] |
20685 | No market is free of political bias, and markets need protection of their freedoms [Harari] |
20693 | Freedom may work against us, as individuals can choose to leave, and make fewer commitments [Harari] |
20691 | Real peace is the implausibility of war (and not just its absence) [Harari] |
20684 | Financing is increasingly through credit rather than taxes; people prefer investing to taxation [Harari] |
20675 | The more you know about history, the harder it becomes to explain [Harari] |
20676 | History teaches us that the present was not inevitable, and shows us the possibilities [Harari] |
20671 | In order to explain both order and evil, a single evil creator is best, but no one favours that [Harari] |
20664 | Animism is belief that every part of nature is aware and feeling, and can communicate [Harari] |
20666 | Most polytheist recognise one supreme power or law, behind the various gods [Harari] |
20667 | Polytheism is open-minded, and rarely persecutes opponents [Harari] |
20665 | Mythologies are usual contracts with the gods, exchanging devotion for control of nature [Harari] |
20669 | Dualist religions see everything as a battleground of good and evil forces [Harari] |
20670 | Dualist religions say the cosmos is a battleground, so can’t explain its order [Harari] |
20673 | Manichaeans and Gnostics: good made spirit, evil made flesh [Harari] |
20668 | Monotheism appeared in Egypt in 1350 BCE, when the god Aten was declared supreme [Harari] |