27 ideas
| 12104 | All ideas must be understood historically [Comte] |
| 12105 | Our knowledge starts in theology, passes through metaphysics, and ends in positivism [Comte] |
| 9271 | Human knowledge may not produce well-being; the examined life may not be worth living [Gray] |
| 12112 | Metaphysics is just the oversubtle qualification of abstract names for phenomena [Comte] |
| 12106 | Positivism gives up absolute truth, and seeks phenomenal laws, by reason and observation [Comte] |
| 7491 | The phases of human thought are theological, then metaphysical, then positivist [Comte, by Watson] |
| 12111 | Positivism is the final state of human intelligence [Comte] |
| 12114 | Science can drown in detail, so we need broad scientists (to keep out the metaphysicians) [Comte] |
| 12116 | Only positivist philosophy can terminate modern social crises [Comte] |
| 12108 | All real knowledge rests on observed facts [Comte] |
| 9275 | Knowledge does not need minds or nervous systems; it is found in all living things [Gray] |
| 12109 | We must observe in order to form theories, but connected observations need prior theories [Comte] |
| 12107 | Positivism explains facts by connecting particular phenomena with general facts [Comte] |
| 12115 | Introspection is pure illusion; we can obviously observe everything except ourselves [Comte] |
| 9276 | The will hardly ever does anything; most of our life just happens to us [Gray] |
| 9278 | Nowadays we identify the free life with the good life [Gray] |
| 6005 | Animals are dangerous and nourishing, and can't form contracts of justice [Hermarchus, by Sedley] |
| 12113 | The search for first or final causes is futile [Comte] |
| 12110 | We can never know origins, purposes or inner natures [Comte] |
| 9280 | Over forty percent of the Earth's living tissue is human [Gray] |
| 23061 | Free atheism should start by questioning its faith in humanity [Gray] |
| 23057 | Gnosticism has a supreme creator God, giving way to a possibly hostile Demiurge [Gray] |
| 23056 | Judaism only became monotheistic around 550 BCE [Gray] |
| 9272 | Without Christianity we lose the idea that human history has a meaning [Gray] |
| 9279 | What was our original sin, and how could Christ's suffering redeem it? [Gray] |
| 23055 | Christians introduced the idea that a religion needs a creed [Gray] |
| 23058 | Buddhism has no divinity or souls, and the aim is to lose the illusion of a self [Gray] |