91 ideas
19579 | The history of philosophy is just experiments in how to do philosophy [Novalis] |
7823 | Lucretius was rediscovered in 1417 [Grayling] |
19583 | Philosophy only begins when it studies itself [Novalis] |
22026 | Philosophy is homesickness - the urge to be at home everywhere [Novalis] |
19588 | The highest aim of philosophy is to combine all philosophies into a unity [Novalis] |
19598 | Philosophy relies on our whole system of learning, and can thus never be complete [Novalis] |
19586 | Philosophers feed on problems, hoping they are digestible, and spiced with paradox [Novalis] |
16227 | Philosophers are good at denying the obvious [Hawley] |
19587 | Philosophy aims to produce a priori an absolute and artistic world system [Novalis] |
19574 | If man sacrifices truth he sacrifices himself, by acting against his own convictions [Novalis] |
19571 | Delusion and truth differ in their life functions [Novalis] |
19597 | Logic (the theory of relations) should be applied to mathematics [Novalis] |
16216 | Part of the sense of a proper name is a criterion of the thing's identity [Hawley] |
19581 | A problem is a solid mass, which the mind must break up [Novalis] |
19584 | Whoever first counted to two must have seen the possibility of infinite counting [Novalis] |
6408 | Russell needed three extra axioms to reduce maths to logic: infinity, choice and reducibility [Grayling] |
22025 | Novalis thought self-consciousness cannot disclose 'being', because we are temporal creatures [Novalis, by Pinkard] |
16211 | A homogeneous rotating disc should be undetectable according to Humean supervenience [Hawley] |
16219 | Non-linguistic things cannot be indeterminate, because they don't have truth-values at all [Hawley] |
16223 | Maybe for the world to be vague, it must be vague in its foundations? [Hawley] |
16226 | Epistemic vagueness seems right in the case of persons [Hawley] |
16208 | Supervaluation refers to one vaguely specified thing, through satisfaction by everything in some range [Hawley] |
16221 | Supervaluationism takes what the truth-value would have been if indecision was resolved [Hawley] |
16230 | Maybe the only properties are basic ones like charge, mass and spin [Hawley] |
16232 | An object is 'natural' if its stages are linked by certain non-supervenient relations [Hawley] |
16200 | Are sortals spatially maximal - so no cat part is allowed to be a cat? [Hawley] |
16237 | The modal features of statue and lump are disputed; when does it stop being that statue? [Hawley] |
16238 | Perdurantists can adopt counterpart theory, to explain modal differences of identical part-sums [Hawley] |
16220 | Vagueness is either in our knowledge, in our talk, or in reality [Hawley] |
16222 | Indeterminacy in objects and in properties are not distinct cases [Hawley] |
16228 | The constitution theory is endurantism plus more than one object in a place [Hawley] |
16229 | Constitution theory needs sortal properties like 'being a sweater' to distinguish it from its thread [Hawley] |
14492 | If the constitution view says thread and sweater are two things, why do we talk of one thing? [Hawley] |
19575 | Refinement of senses increasingly distinguishes individuals [Novalis] |
16193 | 'Adverbialism' explains change by saying an object has-at-some-time a given property [Hawley] |
16195 | Presentism solves the change problem: the green banana ceases, so can't 'relate' to the yellow one [Hawley] |
16202 | The problem of change arises if there must be 'identity' of a thing over time [Hawley] |
16192 | Endurance theory can relate properties to times, or timed instantiations to properties [Hawley] |
16196 | Endurance is a sophisticated theory, covering properties, instantiation and time [Hawley] |
16197 | How does perdurance theory explain our concern for our own future selves? [Hawley] |
16191 | Perdurance needs an atemporal perspective, to say that the object 'has' different temporal parts [Hawley] |
16199 | If an object is the sum of all of its temporal parts, its mass is staggeringly large! [Hawley] |
16201 | Perdurance says things are sums of stages; Stage Theory says each stage is the thing [Hawley] |
16240 | If a life is essentially the sum of its temporal parts, it couldn't be shorter or longer than it was? [Hawley] |
16205 | The stages of Stage Theory seem too thin to populate the world, or to be referred to [Hawley] |
16203 | Stage Theory seems to miss out the link between stages of the same object [Hawley] |
16204 | Stage Theory says every stage is a distinct object, which gives too many objects [Hawley] |
16212 | An isolated stage can't be a banana (which involves suitable relations to other stages) [Hawley] |
16213 | Stages of one thing are related by extrinsic counterfactual and causal relations [Hawley] |
16206 | Stages must be as fine-grained in length as change itself, so any change is a new stage [Hawley] |
16225 | If two things might be identical, there can't be something true of one and false of the other [Hawley] |
16239 | To decide whether something is a counterpart, we need to specify a relevant sortal concept [Hawley] |
22067 | Poetry is true idealism, and the self-consciousness of the universe [Novalis] |
6414 | Two propositions might seem self-evident, but contradict one another [Grayling] |
19572 | Experiences tests reason, and reason tests experience [Novalis] |
19590 | Empiricists are passive thinkers, given their philosophy by the external world and fate [Novalis] |
19594 | General statements about nature are not valid [Novalis] |
7091 | The argument from analogy is not a strong inference, since the other being might be an actor or a robot [Grayling] |
19591 | Desire for perfection is an illness, if it turns against what is imperfect [Novalis] |
16218 | On any theory of self, it is hard to explain why we should care about our future selves [Hawley] |
19596 | The whole body is involved in the formation of thoughts [Novalis] |
19573 | The seat of the soul is where our inner and outer worlds interpenetrate [Novalis] |
19577 | Everything is a chaotic unity, then we abstract, then we reunify the world into a free alliance [Novalis] |
19585 | Every person has his own language [Novalis] |
7293 | It is legitimate to do harm if it is the unintended side-effect of an effort to achieve a good [Grayling] |
19578 | Only self-illuminated perfect individuals are beautiful [Novalis] |
19582 | Morality and philosophy are mutually dependent [Novalis] |
7809 | In an honour code shame is the supreme punishment, and revenge is a duty [Grayling] |
22027 | Life isn't given to us like a novel - we write the novel [Novalis] |
23262 | Experience, sympathy and history are sensible grounds for laying claim to rights [Grayling] |
23263 | Politics is driven by power cliques [Grayling] |
19589 | The whole point of a monarch is that we accept them as a higher-born, ideal person [Novalis] |
23255 | It is essential for democracy that voting is free and well informed [Grayling] |
23254 | Democracies should require a supermajority for major questions [Grayling] |
23260 | A cap on time of service would restrict party control and career ambitions [Grayling] |
23253 | Majority decisions are only acceptable if the minority interests are not vital [Grayling] |
23256 | Liberty and equality cannot be reconciled [Grayling] |
23258 | The very concept of democracy entails a need for justice [Grayling] |
23259 | There should be separate legislative, executive and judicial institutions [Grayling] |
7292 | War must also have a good chance of success, and be waged with moderation [Grayling] |
19580 | If the pupil really yearns for the truth, they only need a hint [Novalis] |
19593 | Persons are shaped by a life history; splendid persons are shaped by world history [Novalis] |
7824 | If suicide is lawful, but assisting suicide is unlawful, powerless people are denied their rights [Grayling] |
19595 | Nature is a whole, and its individual parts cannot be wholly understood [Novalis] |
19592 | The basic relations of nature are musical [Novalis] |
16215 | Causation is nothing more than the counterfactuals it grounds? [Hawley] |
16207 | Time could be discrete (like integers) or dense (rationals) or continuous (reals) [Hawley] |
19576 | Religion needs an intermediary, because none of us can connect directly to a godhead [Novalis] |
7819 | Religion gives answers, comforts, creates social order, and panders to superstition [Grayling] |
7817 | To make an afterlife appealing, this life has to be denigrated [Grayling] |
7818 | In Greek mythology only heroes can go to heaven [Grayling] |