127 ideas
| 9408 | Science studies phenomena, but only metaphysics tells us what exists [Mumford] |
| 9429 | Many forms of reasoning, such as extrapolation and analogy, are useful but deductively invalid [Mumford] |
| 9427 | For Humeans the world is a world primarily of events [Mumford] |
| 14334 | Modest realism says there is a reality; the presumptuous view says we can accurately describe it [Mumford] |
| 14306 | Anti-realists deny truth-values to all statements, and say evidence and ontology are inseparable [Mumford] |
| 14333 | Dispositions and categorical properties are two modes of presentation of the same thing [Mumford] |
| 14336 | Categorical predicates are those unconnected to functions [Mumford] |
| 14315 | Categorical properties and dispositions appear to explain one another [Mumford] |
| 14332 | There are four reasons for seeing categorical properties as the most fundamental [Mumford] |
| 14302 | A lead molecule is not leaden, and macroscopic properties need not be microscopically present [Mumford] |
| 14294 | Dispositions are attacked as mere regularities of events, or place-holders for unknown properties [Mumford] |
| 9446 | Properties are just natural clusters of powers [Mumford] |
| 14316 | If dispositions have several categorical realisations, that makes the two separate [Mumford] |
| 14310 | Dispositions are classifications of properties by functional role [Mumford] |
| 14317 | I say the categorical base causes the disposition manifestation [Mumford] |
| 14313 | All properties must be causal powers (since they wouldn't exist otherwise) [Mumford] |
| 14318 | Intrinsic properties are just causal powers, and identifying a property as causal is then analytic [Mumford] |
| 14298 | Dispositions can be contrasted either with occurrences, or with categorical properties [Mumford] |
| 14293 | Dispositions are ascribed to at least objects, substances and persons [Mumford] |
| 14326 | Unlike categorical bases, dispositions necessarily occupy a particular causal role [Mumford] |
| 14314 | If dispositions are powers, background conditions makes it hard to say what they do [Mumford] |
| 14325 | Maybe dispositions can replace powers in metaphysics, as what induces property change [Mumford] |
| 14312 | Orthodoxy says dispositions entail conditionals (rather than being equivalent to them) [Mumford] |
| 14291 | Dispositions are not just possibilities - they are features of actual things [Mumford] |
| 14299 | There could be dispositions that are never manifested [Mumford] |
| 14323 | If every event has a cause, it is easy to invent a power to explain each case [Mumford] |
| 14328 | Traditional powers initiate change, but are mysterious between those changes [Mumford] |
| 14331 | Categorical eliminativists say there are no dispositions, just categorical states or mechanisms [Mumford] |
| 9435 | A 'porridge' nominalist thinks we just divide reality in any way that suits us [Mumford] |
| 9447 | If properties are clusters of powers, this can explain why properties resemble in degrees [Mumford] |
| 18617 | Substances, unlike aggregates, can survive a change of parts [Mumford] |
| 14295 | Many artefacts have dispositional essences, which make them what they are [Mumford] |
| 12248 | How can we show that a universally possessed property is an essential property? [Mumford] |
| 18618 | Maybe possibilities are recombinations of the existing elements of reality [Mumford] |
| 18619 | Combinatorial possibility has to allow all elements to be combinable, which seems unlikely [Mumford] |
| 18620 | Combinatorial possibility relies on what actually exists (even over time), but there could be more [Mumford] |
| 14309 | Truth-functional conditionals can't distinguish whether they are causal or accidental [Mumford] |
| 14311 | Dispositions are not equivalent to stronger-than-material conditionals [Mumford] |
| 14319 | Nomothetic explanations cite laws, and structural explanations cite mechanisms [Mumford] |
| 14342 | General laws depend upon the capacities of particulars, not the other way around [Mumford] |
| 14322 | If fragile just means 'breaks when dropped', it won't explain a breakage [Mumford] |
| 14337 | Maybe dispositions can replace the 'laws of nature' as the basis of explanation [Mumford] |
| 14343 | To avoid a regress in explanations, ungrounded dispositions will always have to be posited [Mumford] |
| 14320 | Subatomic particles may terminate explanation, if they lack structure [Mumford] |
| 14324 | Ontology is unrelated to explanation, which concerns modes of presentation and states of knowledge [Mumford] |
| 19956 | True goodness is political, and consists of love of and submission to the laws [Montesquieu] |
| 19961 | Primitive people would be too vulnerable and timid to attack anyone, so peace would reign [Montesquieu] |
| 19962 | Men do not desire to subjugate one another; domination is a complex and advanced idea [Montesquieu] |
| 19963 | People are drawn into society by needs, shared fears, pleasure, and knowledge [Montesquieu] |
| 20008 | People are guided by a multitude of influences, from which the spirit of a nation emerges [Montesquieu] |
| 19993 | In small republics citizens identify with the public good, and abuses are fewer [Montesquieu] |
| 19992 | In a large republic there is too much wealth for individuals to manage it [Montesquieu] |
| 20565 | Men are created equal, and with certain inalienable rights [Jefferson] |
| 20005 | The rich would never submit to a lottery deciding which part of their society should be slaves [Montesquieu] |
| 19995 | All states aim at preservation, and then have distinctive individual purposes [Montesquieu] |
| 19964 | The natural power of a father suggests rule by one person, but that authority can be spread [Montesquieu] |
| 19986 | Monarchies can act more quickly, because one person is in charge [Montesquieu] |
| 19972 | The nobility are an indispensable part of a monarchy [Montesquieu] |
| 19974 | Monarchs must not just have links to the people; they need a body which maintains the laws [Montesquieu] |
| 19976 | Ambition is good in a monarchy, because the monarch can always restrain it [Montesquieu] |
| 19978 | In monarchies, men's actions are judged by their grand appearance, not their virtues [Montesquieu] |
| 19985 | In a monarchy, the nobility must be hereditary, to bind them together [Montesquieu] |
| 19988 | A despot's agents must be given power, so they inevitably become corrupt [Montesquieu] |
| 19977 | Despotism and honour are incompatible, because honour scorns his power, and lives by rules [Montesquieu] |
| 20007 | Tyranny is either real violence, or the imposition of unpopular legislation [Montesquieu] |
| 19975 | Despots are always lazy and ignorant, so they always delegate their power to a vizier [Montesquieu] |
| 19989 | The will of a despot is an enigma, so magistrates can only follow their own will [Montesquieu] |
| 19970 | If the nobility is numerous, the senate is the artistocracy, and the nobles are a democracy [Montesquieu] |
| 19971 | Aristocracy is democratic if they resemble the people, but not if they resemble the monarch [Montesquieu] |
| 19984 | Great inequality between aristocrats and the rest is bad - and also among aristocrats themselves [Montesquieu] |
| 19980 | If a government is to be preserved, it must first be loved [Montesquieu] |
| 19996 | A government has a legislature, an international executive, and a domestic executive [Montesquieu] |
| 19997 | The judiciary must be separate from the legislature, to avoid arbitrary power [Montesquieu] |
| 19965 | The fundamental laws of a democracy decide who can vote [Montesquieu] |
| 19968 | It is basic to a democracy that the people themselves must name their ministers [Montesquieu] |
| 19969 | Voting should be public, so the lower classes can be influenced by the example of notable people [Montesquieu] |
| 19999 | All citizens (apart from the very humble poor) should choose their representatives [Montesquieu] |
| 19967 | In a democracy the people should manage themselves, and only delegate what they can't do [Montesquieu] |
| 19966 | A democratic assembly must have a fixed number, to see whether everyone has spoken [Montesquieu] |
| 19998 | If deputies represent people, they are accountable, but less so if they represent places [Montesquieu] |
| 20003 | Slaves are not members of the society, so no law can forbid them to run away [Montesquieu] |
| 20000 | Slavery is entirely bad; the master abandons the virtues, and they are pointless in the slave [Montesquieu] |
| 20006 | The demand for slavery is just the masters' demand for luxury [Montesquieu] |
| 20009 | Freedom of speech and writing, within the law, is essential to preserve liberty [Montesquieu] |
| 19994 | Freedom in society is ability to do what is right, and not having to do what is wrong [Montesquieu] |
| 19981 | No one even thinks of equality in monarchies and despotism; they all want superiority [Montesquieu] |
| 19991 | Equality is not command by everyone or no one, but command and obedience among equals [Montesquieu] |
| 19990 | Democracy is corrupted by lack of equality, or by extreme equality (between rulers and ruled) [Montesquieu] |
| 19983 | Democracies may sometimes need to restrict equality [Montesquieu] |
| 19982 | Some equality can be achieved by social categories, combined with taxes and poor relief [Montesquieu] |
| 19959 | Prior to positive laws there is natural equity, of obedience, gratitude, dependence and merit [Montesquieu] |
| 19960 | Sensation gives animals natural laws, but knowledge can make them break them [Montesquieu] |
| 20002 | The death penalty is permissible, because its victims enjoyed the protection of that law [Montesquieu] |
| 20010 | If religion teaches determinism, penalties must be severe; if free will, then that is different [Montesquieu] |
| 20001 | The only right victors have over captives is the protection of the former [Montesquieu] |
| 19973 | The clergy are essential to a monarchy, but dangerous in a republic [Montesquieu] |
| 19987 | Religion has the most influence in despotic states, and reinforces veneration for the ruler [Montesquieu] |
| 20011 | Religion can support the state when the law fails to do so [Montesquieu] |
| 20004 | French slavery was accepted because it was the best method of religious conversion [Montesquieu] |
| 19979 | In monarchies education ennobles people, and in despotisms it debases them [Montesquieu] |
| 19957 | Teaching is the best practice of the general virtue that leads us to love everyone [Montesquieu] |
| 14344 | Natural kinds, such as electrons, all behave the same way because we divide them by dispositions [Mumford] |
| 19068 | Causation interests us because we want to explain change [Mumford] |
| 9430 | Singular causes, and identities, might be necessary without falling under a law [Mumford] |
| 9445 | We can give up the counterfactual account if we take causal language at face value [Mumford] |
| 9443 | It is only properties which are the source of necessity in the world [Mumford] |
| 14338 | In the 'laws' view events are basic, and properties are categorical, only existing when manifested [Mumford] |
| 9444 | There are four candidates for the logical form of law statements [Mumford] |
| 14339 | Without laws, how can a dispositionalist explain general behaviour within kinds? [Mumford] |
| 14341 | Dretske and Armstrong base laws on regularities between individual properties, not between events [Mumford] |
| 9441 | Regularity laws don't explain, because they have no governing role [Mumford] |
| 14340 | It is a regularity that whenever a person sneezes, someone (somewhere) promptly coughs [Mumford] |
| 9431 | Pure regularities are rare, usually only found in idealized conditions [Mumford] |
| 9415 | Would it count as a regularity if the only five As were also B? [Mumford] |
| 9416 | Regularities are more likely with few instances, and guaranteed with no instances! [Mumford] |
| 9422 | If the best system describes a nomological system, the laws are in nature, not in the description [Mumford] |
| 9421 | The best systems theory says regularities derive from laws, rather than constituting them [Mumford] |
| 9432 | Laws of nature are necessary relations between universal properties, rather than about particulars [Mumford] |
| 9433 | If laws can be uninstantiated, this favours the view of them as connecting universals [Mumford] |
| 14345 | The necessity of an electron being an electron is conceptual, and won't ground necessary laws [Mumford] |
| 19958 | Laws are the necessary relations that derive from the nature of things [Montesquieu] |
| 9434 | Laws of nature are just the possession of essential properties by natural kinds [Mumford] |
| 14307 | Some dispositions are so far unknown, until we learn how to manifest them [Mumford] |
| 9437 | To distinguish accidental from essential properties, we must include possible members of kinds [Mumford] |
| 9439 | The Central Dilemma is how to explain an internal or external view of laws which govern [Mumford] |
| 9412 | You only need laws if you (erroneously) think the world is otherwise inert [Mumford] |
| 9411 | There are no laws of nature in Aristotle; they became standard with Descartes and Newton [Mumford] |