172 ideas
19579 | The history of philosophy is just experiments in how to do philosophy [Novalis] |
19583 | Philosophy only begins when it studies itself [Novalis] |
5278 | Philosophy is no more than abstractions concerning observations of human historical development [Marx/Engels] |
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] |
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] |
8625 | What physical facts could underlie 0 or 1, or very large numbers? [Frege on Mill] |
19597 | Logic (the theory of relations) should be applied to mathematics [Novalis] |
17895 | Combining two distinct assertions does not necessarily lead to a single 'complex proposition' [Mill] |
10427 | All names are names of something, real or imaginary [Mill] |
4944 | Mill says names have denotation but not connotation [Mill, by Kripke] |
7762 | Proper names are just labels for persons or objects, and the meaning is the object [Mill, by Lycan] |
19581 | A problem is a solid mass, which the mind must break up [Novalis] |
9801 | Numbers must be assumed to have identical units, as horses are equalised in 'horse-power' [Mill] |
19584 | Whoever first counted to two must have seen the possibility of infinite counting [Novalis] |
8742 | The only axioms needed are for equality, addition, and successive numbers [Mill, by Shapiro] |
9800 | Arithmetic is based on definitions, and Sums of equals are equal, and Differences of equals are equal [Mill] |
5201 | Mill says logic and maths is induction based on a very large number of instances [Mill, by Ayer] |
9360 | If two black and two white objects in practice produced five, what colour is the fifth one? [Lewis,CI on Mill] |
9888 | Mill mistakes particular applications as integral to arithmetic, instead of general patterns [Dummett on Mill] |
9794 | There are no such things as numbers in the abstract [Mill] |
9796 | Things possess the properties of numbers, as quantity, and as countable parts [Mill] |
9795 | Numbers have generalised application to entities (such as bodies or sounds) [Mill] |
9798 | Different parcels made from three pebbles produce different actual sensations [Mill] |
9797 | '2 pebbles and 1 pebble' and '3 pebbles' name the same aggregation, but different facts [Mill] |
9799 | 3=2+1 presupposes collections of objects ('Threes'), which may be divided thus [Mill] |
9802 | Numbers denote physical properties of physical phenomena [Mill] |
9803 | We can't easily distinguish 102 horses from 103, but we could arrange them to make it obvious [Mill] |
9804 | Arithmetical results give a mode of formation of a given number [Mill] |
9805 | 12 is the cube of 1728 means pebbles can be aggregated a certain way [Mill] |
8741 | Numbers must be of something; they don't exist as abstractions [Mill] |
12411 | Mill is too imprecise, and is restricted to simple arithmetic [Kitcher on Mill] |
5656 | Empirical theories of arithmetic ignore zero, limit our maths, and need probability to get started [Frege on Mill] |
9624 | Numbers are a very general property of objects [Mill, by Brown,JR] |
22025 | Novalis thought self-consciousness cannot disclose 'being', because we are temporal creatures [Novalis, by Pinkard] |
5287 | Philosophical problems are resolved into empirical facts [Marx/Engels] |
9806 | Whatever is made up of parts is made up of parts of those parts [Mill] |
19575 | Refinement of senses increasingly distinguishes individuals [Novalis] |
11156 | The essence is that without which a thing can neither be, nor be conceived to be [Mill] |
12190 | Necessity is what will be, despite any alternative suppositions whatever [Mill] |
22623 | Necessity can only mean what must be, without conditions of any kind [Mill] |
3583 | External objects are permanent possibilities of sensation [Mill] |
22067 | Poetry is true idealism, and the self-consciousness of the universe [Novalis] |
16859 | Most perception is one-tenth observation and nine-tenths inference [Mill] |
19572 | Experiences tests reason, and reason tests experience [Novalis] |
9082 | Clear concepts result from good observation, extensive experience, and accurate memory [Mill] |
19590 | Empiricists are passive thinkers, given their philosophy by the external world and fate [Novalis] |
5303 | For the proletariate, law, morality and religion are just expressions of bourgeois interests [Marx/Engels] |
16860 | Inductive generalisation is more reliable than one of its instances; they can't all be wrong [Mill] |
19594 | General statements about nature are not valid [Novalis] |
16845 | The whole theory of induction rests on causes [Mill] |
16843 | Mill's methods (Difference,Agreement,Residues,Concomitance,Hypothesis) don't nail induction [Mill, by Lipton] |
17086 | Surprisingly, empiricists before Mill ignore explanation, which seems to transcend experience [Mill, by Ruben] |
17091 | Explanation is fitting of facts into ever more general patterns of regularity [Mill, by Ruben] |
16805 | Causal inference is by spotting either Agreements or Differences [Mill, by Lipton] |
16835 | The Methods of Difference and of Agreement are forms of inference to the best explanation [Mill, by Lipton] |
3537 | I judge others' feeling by analogy with my body and behaviour [Mill] |
23872 | 'Society determines consciousness' is contradictory; society only exists in minds [Weil on Marx/Engels] |
5277 | Life is not determined by consciousness, but consciousness by life [Marx/Engels] |
9079 | We can focus our minds on what is common to a whole class, neglecting other aspects [Mill] |
19591 | Desire for perfection is an illness, if it turns against what is imperfect [Novalis] |
9081 | We don't recognise comparisons by something in our minds; the concepts result from the comparisons [Mill] |
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] |
9080 | General conceptions are a necessary preliminary to Induction [Mill] |
9078 | The study of the nature of Abstract Ideas does not belong to logic, but to a different science [Mill] |
19577 | Everything is a chaotic unity, then we abstract, then we reunify the world into a free alliance [Novalis] |
5280 | Language co-exists with consciousness, and makes it social [Marx/Engels] |
19585 | Every person has his own language [Novalis] |
3772 | The will, in the beginning, is entirely produced by desire [Mill] |
19578 | Only self-illuminated perfect individuals are beautiful [Novalis] |
19582 | Morality and philosophy are mutually dependent [Novalis] |
7222 | It is a crime for someone with a violent disposition to get drunk [Mill] |
3769 | With early training, any absurdity or evil may be given the power of conscience [Mill] |
5276 | The nature of an individual coincides with what they produce and how they produce it [Marx/Engels] |
5281 | Consciousness is a social product [Marx/Engels] |
21998 | Bourgeois interests create our morality, law and religion [Marx/Engels] |
3767 | Motive shows the worth of the agent, but not of the action [Mill] |
7076 | Mill wondered if he would be happy if all his aims were realised, and answered no [Mill, by Critchley] |
5289 | When aristocracy or the bourgeoisie dominate, certain values dominate with them [Marx/Engels] |
3771 | Virtues only have value because they achieve some further end [Mill] |
3768 | Orthodox morality is the only one which feels obligatory [Mill] |
7214 | Ethics rests on utility, which is the permanent progressive interests of people [Mill] |
7202 | The English believe in the task of annihilating evil for the victory of good [Nietzsche on Mill] |
5935 | Mill's qualities of pleasure is an admission that there are other good states of mind than pleasure [Ross on Mill] |
3764 | Actions are right if they promote pleasure, wrong if they promote pain [Mill] |
3776 | Utilitarianism only works if everybody has a totally equal right to happiness [Mill] |
3765 | Only pleasure and freedom from pain are desirable as ends [Mill] |
3763 | Ultimate goods such as pleasure can never be proved to be good [Mill] |
3766 | Better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied [Mill] |
3770 | General happiness is only desirable because individuals desire their own happiness [Mill] |
6697 | Moral rules protecting human welfare are more vital than local maxims [Mill] |
5274 | Young Hegelians proposed changing our present consciousness for liberating critical consciousness [Marx/Engels] |
22027 | Life isn't given to us like a novel - we write the novel [Novalis] |
21992 | Producing their own subsistence distinguishes men from animals [Marx/Engels] |
5275 | Men distinguish themselves from animals when they begin to produce their means of subsistence [Marx/Engels] |
5292 | Individuals are mutually hostile unless they group together in competition with other groups [Marx/Engels] |
7212 | Individuals have sovereignty over their own bodies and minds [Mill] |
3773 | No individual has the right to receive our benevolence [Mill] |
3774 | Rights are a matter of justice, not of benevolence [Mill] |
7210 | The will of the people is that of the largest or most active part of the people [Mill] |
19589 | The whole point of a monarch is that we accept them as a higher-born, ideal person [Novalis] |
7227 | It is evil to give a government any more power than is necessary [Mill] |
7228 | Individuals often do things better than governments [Mill] |
7230 | Aim for the maximum dissemination of power consistent with efficiency [Mill] |
20515 | Maximise happiness by an area of strict privacy, and an area of utilitarian interventions [Mill, by Wolff,J] |
7229 | People who transact their own business will also have the initiative to control their government [Mill] |
20508 | How people vote should be on public record, so they can be held accountable [Mill, by Wolff,J] |
20507 | Voting is a strict duty, like jury service, and must only be aimed at the public good [Mill] |
20505 | Direct democracy is inexperience judging experience, and ignorance judging knowledge [Mill] |
20504 | People can only participate in decisions in small communities, so representatives are needed [Mill] |
7211 | Prevention of harm to others is the only justification for exercising power over people [Mill] |
7231 | The worth of a State, in the long run, is the worth of the individuals composing it [Mill] |
7217 | The main argument for freedom is that interference with it is usually misguided [Mill] |
5293 | Only in community are people able to cultivate their gifts, and therefore be free [Marx/Engels] |
5273 | Young Hegelians think consciousness is chains for men, where old Hegelians think it the bond of society [Marx/Engels] |
5283 | In communist society we are not trapped in one activity, but can act freely [Marx/Engels] |
5282 | If the common interest imposes on the individual, his actions become alienated and enslaving [Marx/Engels] |
5288 | The class controlling material production also controls mental production [Marx/Engels] |
5290 | The revolutionary class is opposed to 'class', and represents all of society [Marx/Engels] |
5294 | To assert themselves as individuals, the proletarians must overthrow the State [Marx/Engels] |
5302 | Modern governments are just bourgeois management committees [Marx/Engels] |
5304 | Communism aims to abolish not all property, but bourgeois property [Marx/Engels] |
5307 | Many of the bourgeois rights grievances are a form of self-defence [Marx/Engels] |
5285 | Slavery cannot be abolished without the steam-engine [Marx/Engels] |
7213 | Liberty arises at the point where people can freely and equally discuss things [Mill] |
5284 | Communism abolishes private property and dissolves the powerful world market [Marx/Engels] |
20517 | Utilitarianism values liberty, but guides us on which ones we should have or not have [Mill, by Wolff,J] |
20516 | Mill defends freedom as increasing happiness, but maybe it is an intrinsic good [Wolff,J on Mill] |
7215 | True freedom is pursuing our own good, while not impeding others [Mill] |
7218 | Individuals are not accountable for actions which only concern themselves [Mill] |
7221 | Blocking entry to an unsafe bridge does not infringe liberty, since no one wants unsafe bridges [Mill] |
7223 | Pimping and running a gambling-house are on the border between toleration and restraint [Mill] |
5306 | The free development of each should be the condition for the free development of all [Marx/Engels] |
7220 | Restraint for its own sake is an evil [Mill] |
3775 | A right is a valid claim to society's protection [Mill] |
5291 | The law says private property is the result of the general will [Marx/Engels] |
7219 | Society can punish actions which it believes to be prejudicial to others [Mill] |
7226 | Benefits performed by individuals, not by government, help also to educate them [Mill] |
7224 | We need individual opinions and conduct, and State education is a means to prevent that [Mill] |
5305 | Communists want to rescue education from the ruling class [Marx/Engels] |
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] |
5279 | Human history must always be studied in relation to industry and exchange [Marx/Engels] |
5286 | Most historians are trapped in the illusions of their own epoch [Marx/Engels] |
5301 | The history of all existing society is the history of class struggles [Marx/Engels] |
7225 | It is a crime to create a being who lacks the ordinary chances of a desirable existence [Mill] |
19595 | Nature is a whole, and its individual parts cannot be wholly understood [Novalis] |
19592 | The basic relations of nature are musical [Novalis] |
8345 | A cause is the total of all the conditions which inevitably produce the result [Mill] |
10391 | Causes and conditions are not distinct, because we select capriciously from among them [Mill] |
14547 | The strict cause is the total positive and negative conditions which ensure the consequent [Mill] |
8377 | Causation is just invariability of succession between every natural fact and a preceding fact [Mill] |
14545 | A cause is an antecedent which invariably and unconditionally leads to a phenomenon [Mill] |
4773 | Mill's regularity theory of causation is based on an effect preceded by a conjunction of causes [Mill, by Psillos] |
4775 | In Mill's 'Method of Agreement' cause is the common factor in a range of different cases [Mill, by Psillos] |
4776 | In Mill's 'Method of Difference' the cause is what stops the effect when it is removed [Mill, by Psillos] |
9417 | What are the fewest propositions from which all natural uniformities could be inferred? [Mill] |
21332 | We don't get a love of 'order' from nature - which is thoroughly chaotic [Mill] |
7216 | The ethics of the Gospel has been supplemented by barbarous Old Testament values [Mill] |
19576 | Religion needs an intermediary, because none of us can connect directly to a godhead [Novalis] |
21333 | Evil comes from good just as often as good comes from evil [Mill] |
21335 | Belief that an afterlife is required for justice is an admission that this life is very unjust [Mill] |
21334 | No necessity ties an omnipotent Creator, so he evidently wills human misery [Mill] |
21329 | Nature dispenses cruelty with no concern for either mercy or justice [Mill] |
21328 | Killing is a human crime, but nature kills everyone, and often with great tortures [Mill] |
21330 | Nature makes childbirth a miserable experience, often leading to the death of the mother [Mill] |
21331 | Hurricanes, locusts, floods and blight can starve a million people to death [Mill] |