47 ideas
7508 | Good reductionism connects fields of knowledge, but doesn't replace one with another [Pinker] |
5311 | If observation goes up a level, we expect the laws of the lower level to remain in force [Wilson,EO] |
5312 | A child first sees objects as distinct, and later as members of groups [Wilson,EO] |
9240 | Love creates a necessity concerning what to care about [Frankfurt] |
5309 | Beliefs are really enabling mechanisms for survival [Wilson,EO] |
7510 | Connectionists say the mind is a general purpose learning device [Pinker] |
7513 | Is memory stored in protein sequences, neurons, synapses, or synapse-strengths? [Pinker] |
9264 | Persons are distinguished by a capacity for second-order desires [Frankfurt] |
9266 | A person essentially has second-order volitions, and not just second-order desires [Frankfurt] |
9267 | Free will is the capacity to choose what sort of will you have [Frankfurt] |
7509 | Roundworms live successfully with 302 neurons, so human freedom comes from our trillions [Pinker] |
7511 | Neural networks can generalise their training, e.g. truths about tigers apply mostly to lions [Pinker] |
7512 | There are five types of reasoning that seem beyond connectionist systems [Pinker, by PG] |
9265 | The will is the effective desire which actually leads to an action [Frankfurt] |
20015 | Freedom of action needs the agent to identify with their reason for acting [Frankfurt, by Wilson/Schpall] |
5310 | Philosophers study the consequences of ethics instead of its origins [Wilson,EO] |
9228 | Ranking order of desires reveals nothing, because none of them may be considered important [Frankfurt] |
9270 | A 'wanton' is not a person, because they lack second-order volitions [Frankfurt] |
9269 | A person may be morally responsible without free will [Frankfurt] |
9238 | Morality isn't based on reason; moral indignation is quite unlike disapproval of irrationality [Frankfurt] |
22187 | Genetic behaviours that have enhanced human success include aggression, rape and xenophobia [Wilson,EO, by Okasha] |
5313 | The rules of human decision-making converge and overlap in a 'human nature' [Wilson,EO] |
7505 | Many think that accepting human nature is to accept innumerable evils [Pinker] |
9232 | It is by caring about things that we infuse the world with importance [Frankfurt] |
9234 | If you don't care about at least one thing, you can't find reasons to care about anything [Frankfurt] |
9229 | What is worthwhile for its own sake alone may be worth very little [Frankfurt] |
9233 | Our criteria for evaluating how to live offer an answer to the problem [Frankfurt] |
5316 | We undermine altruism by rewarding it, but we reward it to encourage it [Wilson,EO] |
5318 | Pure hard-core altruism based on kin selection is the enemy of civilisation [Wilson,EO] |
9235 | Rather than loving things because we value them, I think we value things because we love them [Frankfurt] |
9236 | Love can be cool, and it may not involve liking its object [Frankfurt] |
9237 | The paradigm case of pure love is not romantic, but that between parents and infants [Frankfurt] |
9239 | I value my children for their sake, but I also value my love for them for its own sake [Frankfurt] |
9227 | We might not choose a very moral life, if the character or constitution was deficient [Frankfurt] |
9230 | People want to fulfill their desires, but also for their desires to be sustained [Frankfurt] |
9241 | Loving oneself is not a failing, but is essential to a successful life [Frankfurt] |
5317 | The actor is most convincing who believes that his performance is real [Wilson,EO] |
9300 | Boredom is serious, not just uncomfortable; it threatens our psychic survival [Frankfurt] |
20662 | The biology of societies: kin selection, parenting, mating; status, territory, contracts [Wilson,EO] |
9231 | Freedom needs autonomy (rather than causal independence) - embracing our own desires and choices [Frankfurt] |
5308 | The only human purpose is that created by our genetic history [Wilson,EO] |
7516 | In 1828, the stuff of life was shown to be ordinary chemistry, not a magic gel [Pinker] |
5314 | Cultural evolution is Lamarckian and fast, biological evolution is Darwinian and slow [Wilson,EO] |
5315 | Over 99 percent of human evolution has been in the hunter-gatherer phase [Wilson,EO] |
7515 | All the evidence says evolution is cruel and wasteful, not intelligent [Pinker] |
7514 | Intelligent Design says that every unexplained phenomenon must be design, by default [Pinker] |
5320 | It is estimated that mankind has produced 100,000 religions [Wilson,EO] |