51 ideas
6602 | Philosophy is like a statue which is worshipped but never advances [Bacon] |
12124 | Metaphysics is the best knowledge, because it is the simplest [Bacon] |
12123 | Natural history supports physical knowledge, which supports metaphysical knowledge [Bacon] |
12119 | Physics studies transitory matter; metaphysics what is abstracted and necessary [Bacon] |
12120 | Physics is of material and efficient causes, metaphysics of formal and final causes [Bacon] |
22886 | The modern idea of 'limit' allows infinite quantities to have a finite sum [Bardon] |
22914 | An equally good question would be why there was nothing instead of something [Bardon] |
16639 | Only individual bodies exist [Bacon] |
16625 | In hylomorphism all the explanation of actions is in the form, and the matter doesn't do anything [Bacon] |
16033 | There are only individual bodies containing law-based powers, and the Forms are these laws [Bacon] |
16724 | The senses deceive, but also show their own errors [Bacon] |
12121 | We don't assume there is no land, because we can only see sea [Bacon] |
3648 | Empiricists are collecting ants; rationalists are spinning spiders; and bees do both [Bacon] |
12117 | Science moves up and down between inventions of causes, and experiments [Bacon] |
6603 | Nature is revealed when we put it under pressure rather than observe it [Bacon] |
21950 | Science must clear away the idols of the mind if they are ever going to find the truth [Bacon] |
12127 | Many different theories will fit the observed facts [Bacon] |
12126 | People love (unfortunately) extreme generality, rather than particular knowledge [Bacon] |
8122 | True works of art transmit completely new feelings [Tolstoy] |
8121 | Art is when one man uses external signs to hand on his feelings to another man [Tolstoy] |
8124 | The highest feelings of mankind can only be transmitted by art [Tolstoy] |
8123 | The purpose of art is to help mankind to evolve better, more socially beneficial feelings [Tolstoy] |
22710 | People estimate art according to their moral values [Tolstoy] |
8125 | The upper classes put beauty first, and thus freed themselves from morality [Tolstoy] |
8064 | We separate the concept of beauty from goodness, unlike the ancients [Tolstoy] |
12125 | Teleological accounts are fine in metaphysics, but they stop us from searching for the causes [Bacon] |
16624 | Stripped and passive matter is just a human invention [Bacon] |
22902 | Why does an effect require a prior event if the prior event isn't a cause? [Bardon] |
12118 | Essences are part of first philosophy, but as part of nature, not part of logic [Bacon] |
22905 | Becoming disordered is much easier for a system than becoming ordered [Bardon] |
22913 | The universe expands, so space-time is enlarging [Bardon] |
22889 | We should treat time as adverbial, so we don't experience time, we experience things temporally [Bardon, by Bardon] |
22900 | How can we question the passage of time, if the question takes time to ask? [Bardon] |
22898 | What is time's passage relative to, and how fast does it pass? [Bardon] |
22897 | The A-series says a past event is becoming more past, but how can it do that? [Bardon] |
22901 | The B-series needs a revised view of causes, laws and explanations [Bardon] |
22896 | The B-series is realist about time, but idealist about its passage [Bardon] |
22903 | The B-series adds directionality when it accepts 'earlier' and 'later' [Bardon] |
22910 | To define time's arrow by causation, we need a timeless definition of causation [Bardon] |
22909 | We judge memories to be of the past because the events cause the memories [Bardon] |
22904 | The psychological arrow of time is the direction from our memories to our anticipations [Bardon] |
22906 | The direction of entropy is probabilistic, not necessary, so cannot be identical to time's arrow [Bardon] |
22907 | It is arbitrary to reverse time in a more orderly universe, but not in a sub-system of it [Bardon] |
22883 | It seems hard to understand change without understanding time first [Bardon] |
22890 | We experience static states (while walking round a house) and observe change (ship leaving dock) [Bardon] |
22884 | The motion of a thing should be a fact in the present moment [Bardon] |
22892 | Experiences of motion may be overlapping, thus stretching out the experience [Bardon] |
22911 | At least eternal time gives time travellers a possible destination [Bardon] |
22912 | Time travel is not a paradox if we include it in the eternal continuum of events [Bardon] |
22882 | We use calendars for the order of events, and clocks for their passing [Bardon] |
7399 | Even without religion, there are many guides to morality [Bacon] |