52 ideas
501 | Reason is a more powerful persuader than gold [Democritus (attr)] |
12154 | Are 'word token' and 'word type' different sorts of countable objects, or two ways of counting? [Geach, by Perry] |
10735 | Abstraction from objects won't reveal an operation's being performed 'so many times' [Geach] |
8780 | Attributes are functions, not objects; this distinguishes 'square of 2' from 'double of 2' [Geach] |
8969 | We should abandon absolute identity, confining it to within some category [Geach, by Hawthorne] |
16075 | Denial of absolute identity has drastic implications for logic, semantics and set theory [Wasserman on Geach] |
12152 | Identity is relative. One must not say things are 'the same', but 'the same A as' [Geach] |
16073 | Leibniz's Law is incomplete, since it includes a non-relativized identity predicate [Geach, by Wasserman] |
11910 | Being 'the same' is meaningless, unless we specify 'the same X' [Geach] |
8775 | A big flea is a small animal, so 'big' and 'small' cannot be acquired by abstraction [Geach] |
8776 | We cannot learn relations by abstraction, because their converse must be learned too [Geach] |
10732 | If concepts are just recognitional, then general judgements would be impossible [Geach] |
2567 | You can't define real mental states in terms of behaviour that never happens [Geach] |
2568 | Beliefs aren't tied to particular behaviours [Geach] |
8781 | The mind does not lift concepts from experience; it creates them, and then applies them [Geach] |
10731 | For abstractionists, concepts are capacities to recognise recurrent features of the world [Geach] |
8769 | If someone has aphasia but can still play chess, they clearly have concepts [Geach] |
8770 | 'Abstractionism' is acquiring a concept by picking out one experience amongst a group [Geach] |
8771 | 'Or' and 'not' are not to be found in the sensible world, or even in the world of inner experience [Geach] |
8772 | We can't acquire number-concepts by extracting the number from the things being counted [Geach] |
8773 | Abstractionists can't explain counting, because it must precede experience of objects [Geach] |
8774 | The numbers don't exist in nature, so they cannot have been abstracted from there into our languages [Geach] |
8778 | Blind people can use colour words like 'red' perfectly intelligently [Geach] |
8777 | If 'black' and 'cat' can be used in the absence of such objects, how can such usage be abstracted? [Geach] |
8779 | We can form two different abstract concepts that apply to a single unified experience [Geach] |
10733 | The abstractionist cannot explain 'some' and 'not' [Geach] |
10734 | Only a judgement can distinguish 'striking' from 'being struck' [Geach] |
514 | Beauty is merely animal without intelligence [Democritus (attr)] |
525 | Behave well when alone, and feel shame in you own eyes [Democritus (attr)] |
502 | Good breeding in men means having a good character [Democritus (attr)] |
507 | Virtuous love consists of decorous desire for the beautiful [Democritus (attr)] |
22489 | 'Good' is an attributive adjective like 'large', not predicative like 'red' [Geach, by Foot] |
521 | We should only choose pleasures which are concerned with the beautiful [Democritus (attr)] |
505 | Good and true are the same for everyone, but pleasures differ [Democritus (attr)] |
508 | Only accept beneficial pleasures [Democritus (attr)] |
520 | The great pleasures come from the contemplation of noble works [Democritus (attr)] |
522 | Moderation brings more pleasures, and so increases pleasure [Democritus (attr)] |
506 | Immoderate desire is the mark of a child, not an adult [Democritus (attr)] |
523 | It is as brave to master pleasure as to overcome the enemy [Democritus (attr)] |
503 | Virtue doesn't just avoid evil, but also doesn't desire it [Democritus (attr)] |
518 | A bad life is just a drawn-out death [Democritus (attr)] |
497 | Be virtuous from duty, not from fear [Democritus (attr)] |
499 | Repentance of shameful deeds is salvation [Democritus (attr)] |
524 | Virtue comes more from practice than from nature [Democritus (attr)] |
519 | One must avoid even speaking of evil deeds [Democritus (attr)] |
500 | The wrongdoer is more unfortunate than the person wronged [Democritus (attr)] |
1539 | The endless desire for money is a crueller slavery than poverty [Democritus (attr)] |
526 | Small appetite makes poverty equal to wealth [Democritus (attr)] |
511 | It is better to have one intelligent friend than many unintelligent [Democritus (attr)] |
498 | It is a great thing, when one is in adversity, to think of duty [Democritus (attr)] |
1541 | It is better to be poor in a democracy than be rich without freedom [Democritus (attr)] |
20723 | Only when working people are poor do they remain obedient to God [Calvin, by Weber] |