57 ideas
19579 | The history of philosophy is just experiments in how to do philosophy [Novalis] |
19583 | Philosophy only begins when it studies itself [Novalis] |
22338 | An unexamined life can be virtuous [Murdoch] |
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] |
22337 | Philosophy must keep returning to the beginning [Murdoch] |
19587 | Philosophy aims to produce a priori an absolute and artistic world system [Novalis] |
23563 | Philosophy moves continually between elaborate theories and the obvious facts [Murdoch] |
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] |
18933 | Not-Being obviously doesn't exist, and the five modes of Being are all impossible [Gorgias, by Diog. Laertius] |
22025 | Novalis thought self-consciousness cannot disclose 'being', because we are temporal creatures [Novalis, by Pinkard] |
19575 | Refinement of senses increasingly distinguishes individuals [Novalis] |
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] |
22591 | We know perfection when we see what is imperfect [Murdoch] |
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] |
9866 | Gorgias says rhetoric is the best of arts, because it enslaves without using force [Gorgias, by Plato] |
5864 | Destroy seriousness with laughter, and laughter with seriousness [Gorgias] |
19585 | Every person has his own language [Novalis] |
19578 | Only self-illuminated perfect individuals are beautiful [Novalis] |
22709 | We should first decide what are the great works of art, with aesthetic theory following from that [Murdoch] |
22341 | Literature is the most important aspect of culture, because it teaches understanding of living [Murdoch] |
22715 | Great art proves the absurdity of art for art's sake [Murdoch] |
22712 | Art and morals are essentially the same, and are both identical with love [Murdoch] |
22347 | Appreciating beauty in art or nature opens up the good life, by restricting selfishness [Murdoch] |
22714 | Because art is love, it improves us morally [Murdoch] |
19582 | Morality and philosophy are mutually dependent [Novalis] |
22713 | Love is realising something other than oneself is real [Murdoch] |
22339 | Love is a central concept in morals [Murdoch] |
22348 | Ordinary human love is good evidence of transcendent goodness [Murdoch] |
22343 | If I attend properly I will have no choices [Murdoch] |
22349 | Art trains us in the love of virtue [Murdoch] |
22340 | It is hard to learn goodness from others, because their virtues are part of their personal history [Murdoch] |
22346 | Moral reflection and experience gradually reveals unity in the moral world [Murdoch] |
22350 | Only trivial virtues can be possessed on their own [Murdoch] |
20765 | Man is a brave naked will, separate from a background of values and realities [Murdoch] |
22342 | Kantian existentialists care greatly for reasons for action, whereas Surrealists care nothing [Murdoch] |
22351 | Only a philosopher might think choices create values [Murdoch] |
22027 | Life isn't given to us like a novel - we write the novel [Novalis] |
19589 | The whole point of a monarch is that we accept them as a higher-born, ideal person [Novalis] |
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] |
19595 | Nature is a whole, and its individual parts cannot be wholly understood [Novalis] |
19592 | The basic relations of nature are musical [Novalis] |
22345 | Moral philosophy needs a central concept with all the traditional attributes of God [Murdoch] |
19576 | Religion needs an intermediary, because none of us can connect directly to a godhead [Novalis] |