63 ideas
| 5300 | Philosophers have interpreted the world, but the point is to change it [Marx] |
| 5297 | Whether human thinking can be 'true' must be decided in practice, not theory [Marx] |
| 18528 | The single imagined 'interval' between things only exists in the intellect [Auriol] |
| 13047 | It is knowing 'why' that gives scientific understanding, not knowing 'that' [Salmon] |
| 13065 | Understanding is an extremely vague concept [Salmon] |
| 13054 | Correlations can provide predictions, but only causes can give explanations [Salmon] |
| 13067 | For the instrumentalists there are no scientific explanations [Salmon] |
| 13055 | Good induction needs 'total evidence' - the absence at the time of any undermining evidence [Salmon] |
| 13046 | Scientific explanation is not reducing the unfamiliar to the familiar [Salmon] |
| 13058 | Why-questions can seek evidence as well as explanation [Salmon] |
| 14366 | An explanation is a table of statistical information [Salmon, by Strevens] |
| 13064 | The three basic conceptions of scientific explanation are modal, epistemic, and ontic [Salmon] |
| 13050 | The 'inferential' conception is that all scientific explanations are arguments [Salmon] |
| 13059 | Ontic explanations can be facts, or reports of facts [Salmon] |
| 13049 | We must distinguish true laws because they (unlike accidental generalizations) explain things [Salmon] |
| 13051 | Deductive-nomological explanations will predict, and their predictions will explain [Salmon] |
| 13053 | A law is not enough for explanation - we need information about what makes a difference [Salmon] |
| 13061 | Flagpoles explain shadows, and not vice versa, because of temporal ordering [Salmon] |
| 17093 | Causation produces productive mechanisms; to understand the world, understand these mechanisms [Salmon] |
| 17492 | Salmon's interaction mechanisms needn't be regular, or involving any systems [Glennan on Salmon] |
| 13045 | Explanation at the quantum level will probably be by entirely new mechanisms [Salmon] |
| 13062 | Does an item have a function the first time it occurs? [Salmon] |
| 13063 | Explanations reveal the mechanisms which produce the facts [Salmon] |
| 16557 | Salmon's mechanisms are processes and interactions, involving marks, or conserved quantities [Salmon, by Machamer/Darden/Craver] |
| 13060 | Can events whose probabilities are low be explained? [Salmon] |
| 13056 | Statistical explanation needs relevance, not high probability [Salmon] |
| 13057 | Think of probabilities in terms of propensities rather than frequencies [Salmon] |
| 22598 | The authentic self exists at the level of class, rather than the individual [Marx, by Dunt] |
| 5298 | The human essence is not found in individuals but in social relations [Marx] |
| 23874 | Armies and businesses create moralities in which their activity can do no wrong [Marx, by Weil] |
| 22001 | The real will of the cooperative will replace the 'will of the people' [Marx] |
| 21991 | The middle class gain freedom through property, but workers can only free all of humanity [Marx, by Singer] |
| 21990 | Theory is as much a part of a revolution as material force is [Marx] |
| 22971 | In moving from capitalism to communism a revolutionary dictatorship of the proletariat is needed [Marx] |
| 18662 | Liberal freedom is the right to be separate, and ignores the union of man with man [Marx] |
| 23372 | Liberals want the right to be separate, rather than for people to be united [Marx] |
| 20576 | Early Marx anticipates communitarian objections to liberalism [Marx, by Oksala] |
| 21989 | Man is dominated by money, which is the essence of his alienation [Marx] |
| 22000 | From each according to his ability, to each according to his need [Marx] |
| 23862 | By saying the material dialectic of history aspires to the best, Marx agreed with capitalism [Weil on Marx] |
| 21999 | False consciousness results from concealment by the superstructure [Marx, by Singer] |
| 23875 | Marx says force is everything, and that the weak will become strong, while remaining the weak [Weil on Marx] |
| 21995 | Must production determine superstructure, or could it be the other way round? [Singer on Marx] |
| 18653 | Marx rejected equal rights because they never actually treat people as equals [Marx, by Kymlicka] |
| 20577 | Even decently paid workers still have their produce bought with money stolen from them [Marx] |
| 22969 | People who only have their labour power are the slaves of those permitting them to work [Marx] |
| 21996 | Freedom only comes when labour is no longer necessary [Marx] |
| 22970 | Freedom is making the state subordinate to its society [Marx] |
| 21994 | The handmill gives feudalism, the steam mill capitalism [Marx] |
| 20958 | Capitalism changes the world, by socialising the idea of a commodity [Marx, by Bowie] |
| 23876 | The essence of capitalism is the subordination of people to things [Marx, by Weil] |
| 20960 | Marx thought capitalism was partly liberating, and could make labour and ownership more humane [Marx, by Bowie] |
| 22972 | Bourgeois 'freedom of conscience' just tolerates all sorts of religious intolerance [Marx] |
| 20519 | Marxists say liberal rights are confrontational, and liberal equality is a sham [Marx, by Wolff,J] |
| 16589 | Prime matter lacks essence, but is only potentially and indeterminately a physical thing [Auriol] |
| 8412 | A causal interaction is when two processes intersect, and correlated modifications persist afterwards [Salmon] |
| 8413 | Cause must come first in propagations of causal interactions, but interactions are simultaneous [Salmon] |
| 8411 | Instead of localised events, I take enduring and extended processes as basic to causation [Salmon] |
| 4784 | Salmon says processes rather than events should be basic in a theory of physical causation [Salmon, by Psillos] |
| 8409 | Probabilistic causal concepts are widely used in everyday life and in science [Salmon] |
| 16651 | God can do anything non-contradictory, as making straightness with no line, or lightness with no parts [Auriol] |
| 7128 | Religion is the opium of the people, and real happiness requires its abolition [Marx] |
| 5299 | Religious feeling is social in origin [Marx] |