62 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] |
19579 | The history of philosophy is just experiments in how to do philosophy [Novalis] |
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] |
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] |
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] |
22025 | Novalis thought self-consciousness cannot disclose 'being', because we are temporal creatures [Novalis, by Pinkard] |
19575 | Refinement of senses increasingly distinguishes individuals [Novalis] |
7566 | The Identity of Indiscernibles is really the same as the verification principle [Jolley] |
22067 | Poetry is true idealism, and the self-consciousness of the universe [Novalis] |
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] |
19591 | Desire for perfection is an illness, if it turns against what is imperfect [Novalis] |
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] |
19578 | Only self-illuminated perfect individuals are beautiful [Novalis] |
19582 | Morality and philosophy are mutually dependent [Novalis] |
20692 | Money does produce happiness, but only up to a point [Harari] |
22027 | Life isn't given to us like a novel - we write the novel [Novalis] |
20663 | If a group is bound by gossip, the natural size is 150 people [Harari] |
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] |
20674 | The Nazi aim was to encourage progressive evolution, and avoid degeneration [Harari] |
20679 | We stabilise societies with dogmas, either of dubious science, or of non-scientific values [Harari] |
19589 | The whole point of a monarch is that we accept them as a higher-born, ideal person [Novalis] |
20690 | The state fostered individualism, to break the power of family and community [Harari] |
20689 | In 1750 losing your family and community meant death [Harari] |
20681 | The sacred command of capitalism is that profits must be used to increase production [Harari] |
20682 | The main rule of capitalism is that all other goods depend on economic growth [Harari] |
20683 | The progress of capitalism depends entirely on the new discoveries and gadgets of science [Harari] |
20687 | In capitalism the rich invest, and the rest of us go shopping [Harari] |
20685 | No market is free of political bias, and markets need protection of their freedoms [Harari] |
20693 | Freedom may work against us, as individuals can choose to leave, and make fewer commitments [Harari] |
20691 | Real peace is the implausibility of war (and not just its absence) [Harari] |
20684 | Financing is increasingly through credit rather than taxes; people prefer investing to taxation [Harari] |
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] |
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] |
19595 | Nature is a whole, and its individual parts cannot be wholly understood [Novalis] |
19592 | The basic relations of nature are musical [Novalis] |
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] |
19576 | Religion needs an intermediary, because none of us can connect directly to a godhead [Novalis] |