59 ideas
6259 | Why can't a wise man doubt everything? [Montaigne] |
6263 | No wisdom could make us comfortably walk a wide beam if it was high in the air [Montaigne] |
23122 | Montaigne was the founding father of liberalism [Montaigne, by Gopnik] |
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] |
6258 | Virtue is the distinctive mark of truth, and its greatest product [Montaigne] |
21812 | Being is the product of pure intellect [Plotinus] |
21817 | The One does not exist, but is the source of all existence [Plotinus] |
21824 | The One is a principle which transcends Being [Plotinus] |
21813 | Number determines individual being [Plotinus] |
6262 | We lack some sense or other, and hence objects may have hidden features [Montaigne] |
6260 | Sceptics say there is truth, but no means of making or testing lasting judgements [Montaigne] |
6261 | The soul is in the brain, as shown by head injuries [Montaigne] |
5506 | If soul was like body, its parts would be separate, without communication [Plotinus] |
21827 | The movement of Soul is continuous, but we are only aware of the parts of it that are sensed [Plotinus] |
21828 | A person is the whole of their soul [Plotinus] |
21809 | Our soul has the same ideal nature as the oldest god, and is honourable above the body [Plotinus] |
21825 | The soul is outside of all of space, and has no connection to the bodily order [Plotinus] |
7496 | Rules and duties are based on the will, as that is all we control [Montaigne] |
21826 | The Soul reasons about the Right, so there must be some permanent Right about which it reasons [Plotinus] |
7495 | Apart from the fear, dying is an easy duty [Montaigne] |
6922 | Ecstasy is for the neo-Platonist the highest psychological state of man [Plotinus, by Feuerbach] |
22269 | We must fight fiercely to hang on to the few pleasures which survive into old age [Montaigne] |
20482 | Virtue inspires Stoics, but I want a good temperament [Montaigne] |
20480 | There is not much point in only becoming good near the end of your life [Montaigne] |
20692 | Money does produce happiness, but only up to a point [Harari] |
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] |
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] |
20682 | The main rule of capitalism is that all other goods depend on economic growth [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] |
20687 | In capitalism the rich invest, and the rest of us go shopping [Harari] |
20481 | Nothing we say can be worse than unsaying it in the face of authority [Montaigne] |
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] |
20479 | People at home care far more than soldiers risking death about the outcome of wars [Montaigne] |
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] |
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] |
21815 | Because the One is immobile, it must create by radiation, light the sun producing light [Plotinus] |
21816 | Soul is the logos of Nous, just as Nous is the logos of the One [Plotinus] |
21814 | How can multiple existence arise from the unified One? [Plotinus] |
21808 | Soul is author of all of life, and of the stars, and it gives them law and movement [Plotinus] |
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] |
21811 | Even the soul is secondary to the Intellectual-Principle [Nous], of which soul is an utterance [Plotinus] |