94 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] |
16062 | A necessary relation between fact-levels seems to be a further irreducible fact [Lynch/Glasgow] |
16061 | If some facts 'logically supervene' on some others, they just redescribe them, adding nothing [Lynch/Glasgow] |
16060 | Nonreductive materialism says upper 'levels' depend on lower, but don't 'reduce' [Lynch/Glasgow] |
16064 | The hallmark of physicalism is that each causal power has a base causal power under it [Lynch/Glasgow] |
18658 | The 'Kantian' self steps back from commitment to its social situation [Kymlicka] |
18650 | Teleological theories give the good priority over concern for people [Kymlicka] |
18664 | Maybe the particularist moral thought of women is better than the impartial public thinking of men [Kymlicka] |
20692 | Money does produce happiness, but only up to a point [Harari] |
18624 | Utilitarianism is not a decision-procedure; choice of the best procedure is an open question [Kymlicka] |
18626 | One view says start with equality, and infer equal weight to interests, and hence maximum utility [Kymlicka] |
18627 | A second view says start with maximising the good, implying aggregation, and hence equality [Kymlicka] |
20663 | If a group is bound by gossip, the natural size is 150 people [Harari] |
18625 | To maximise utility should we double the population, even if life somewhat deteriorates? [Kymlicka] |
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] |
18638 | The difference principles says we must subsidise the costs of other people's choices [Kymlicka] |
20674 | The Nazi aim was to encourage progressive evolution, and avoid degeneration [Harari] |
23418 | Liberal state legitimacy is based on a belief in justice, not in some conception of the good life [Kymlicka] |
18635 | Social contract theories are usually rejected because there never was such a contract [Kymlicka] |
23369 | Some liberals thinks checks and balances are enough, without virtuous citizens [Kymlicka] |
23370 | Good citizens need civic virtues of loyalty, independence, diligence, respect, etc. [Kymlicka] |
23373 | Liberals accept that people need society, but Aristotelians must show that they need political activity [Kymlicka] |
23375 | Minimal liberal citizenship needs common civility, as well as mere non-interference [Kymlicka] |
23376 | Modern non-discrimination obliges modern citizens to treat each other as equals [Kymlicka] |
23377 | The right wing sees citizenship in terms of responsibility to earn a living, rather than rights [Kymlicka] |
23414 | Liberals say state intervention in culture restricts people's autonomy [Kymlicka] |
20679 | We stabilise societies with dogmas, either of dubious science, or of non-scientific values [Harari] |
18630 | Utilitarianism is no longer a distinctive political position [Kymlicka] |
18623 | The quest of the general good is partly undermined by people's past entitlements [Kymlicka] |
18628 | We shouldn't endorse preferences which reject equality, and show prejudice and selfishness [Kymlicka] |
18629 | Using utilitarian principles to make decisions encourages cold detachment from people [Kymlicka] |
18637 | Utilitarianism is irrational if it tells you to trade in your rights and resources just for benefits [Kymlicka] |
23371 | Modern democratic theory focuses on talk, not votes, because we need consensus or compromise [Kymlicka] |
23390 | In a liberal democracy all subjects of authority have a right to determine the authority [Kymlicka] |
18663 | Modern liberalism has added personal privacy to our personal social lives [Kymlicka] |
23374 | We have become attached to private life because that has become greatly enriched [Kymlicka] |
20690 | The state fostered individualism, to break the power of family and community [Harari] |
18632 | Liberalism tends to give priority to basic liberties [Kymlicka] |
22818 | Liberals are not too individualistic, because people recognise and value social relations [Kymlicka] |
23410 | Modern liberals see a community as simply a society which respects freedom and equality [Kymlicka] |
23387 | Liberals must avoid an official culture, as well as an official religion [Kymlicka] |
23388 | Liberals need more than freedom; they must build a nation, through a language and institutions [Kymlicka] |
23380 | Some individuals can gain citizenship as part of a group, rather than as mere individuals [Kymlicka] |
23381 | The status hierarchy is independent of the economic hierarchy [Kymlicka] |
23383 | Some multiculturalists defended the rights of cohesive minorities against liberal individualism [Kymlicka] |
23384 | 'Culturalist' liberals say that even liberal individuals may need minority rights [Kymlicka] |
23385 | Multiculturalism may entail men dominating women in minority groups [Kymlicka] |
23386 | Liberals must prefer minority right which are freedoms, not restrictions [Kymlicka] |
23389 | Why shouldn't national minorities have their own right to nation-build? [Kymlicka] |
23391 | Multiculturalism is liberal if it challenges inequality, conservative if it emphasises common good [Kymlicka] |
18656 | Marxists say liberalism is unjust, because it allows exploitation in the sale of labour [Kymlicka] |
18659 | The 'Kantian' view of the self misses the way it is embedded or situated in society [Kymlicka] |
18660 | Communitarians say we should pay more attention to our history [Kymlicka] |
20689 | In 1750 losing your family and community meant death [Harari] |
23409 | Community can focus on class or citizenship or ethnicity or culture [Kymlicka] |
18657 | Communitarian states only encourage fairly orthodox ideas of the good life [Kymlicka] |
23413 | Feminism has shown that social roles are far from fixed (as communitarians tend to see them) [Kymlicka] |
23415 | Participation aids the quest for the good life, but why should that be a state activity? [Kymlicka] |
23419 | Communitarianism struggles with excluded marginalised groups [Kymlicka] |
20687 | In capitalism the rich invest, and the rest of us go shopping [Harari] |
20681 | The sacred command of capitalism is that profits must be used to increase production [Harari] |
20683 | The progress of capitalism depends entirely on the new discoveries and gadgets of science [Harari] |
20682 | The main rule of capitalism is that all other goods depend on economic growth [Harari] |
18649 | If everyone owned himself, that would prevent slavery [Kymlicka] |
18640 | Libertarians like the free market, but they also think that the free market is just [Kymlicka] |
20685 | No market is free of political bias, and markets need protection of their freedoms [Harari] |
18651 | The most valuable liberties to us need not be the ones with the most freedom [Kymlicka] |
20693 | Freedom may work against us, as individuals can choose to leave, and make fewer commitments [Harari] |
18661 | Ancient freedom was free participation in politics, not private independence of life [Kymlicka] |
18633 | Equal opportunities seems fair, because your fate is from your choices, not your circumstances [Kymlicka] |
18634 | Equal opportunity arbitrarily worries about social circumstances, but ignores talents [Kymlicka] |
18654 | Marxists say justice is unneeded in the truly good community [Kymlicka] |
18652 | The Lockean view of freedom depends on whether you had a right to what is restricted [Kymlicka] |
23379 | Rights are a part of nation-building, to build a common national identity and culture [Kymlicka] |
23382 | Rights derived from group membership are opposed to the idea of state citizenship [Kymlicka] |
18655 | Justice corrects social faults, but also expresses respect to individuals as ends [Kymlicka] |
23411 | Communitarians see justice as primarily a community matter, rather than a principle [Kymlicka] |
23412 | Justice resolves conflicts, but may also provoke them [Kymlicka] |
20691 | Real peace is the implausibility of war (and not just its absence) [Harari] |
23378 | The welfare state helps to integrate the working classes into a national culture [Kymlicka] |
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] |