35 ideas
16185 | Causality indicates which properties are real [Cartwright,N] |
1212 | Replacing timbers on Theseus' ship was the classic illustration of the problem of growth and change [Plutarch] |
5958 | The sun is always bright; it doesn't become bright when it emerges [Plutarch] |
17503 | Theories can never represent accurately, because their components are abstract [Cartwright,N, by Portides] |
16182 | Two main types of explanation are by causes, or by citing a theoretical framework [Cartwright,N] |
16184 | An explanation is a model that fits a theory and predicts the phenomenological laws [Cartwright,N] |
16167 | Laws get the facts wrong, and explanation rests on improvements and qualifications of laws [Cartwright,N] |
16169 | Laws apply to separate domains, but real explanations apply to intersecting domains [Cartwright,N] |
16171 | The covering law view assumes that each phenomenon has a 'right' explanation [Cartwright,N] |
16176 | Covering-law explanation lets us explain storms by falling barometers [Cartwright,N] |
16177 | I disagree with the covering-law view that there is a law to cover every single case [Cartwright,N] |
16180 | You can't explain one quail's behaviour by just saying that all quails do it [Cartwright,N] |
16183 | In science, best explanations have regularly turned out to be false [Cartwright,N] |
5960 | When the soul is intelligent and harmonious, it is part of god and derives from god [Plutarch] |
5959 | Some philosophers say the soul is light [Plutarch] |
5952 | Rather than being the whole soul, maybe I am its chief part? [Plutarch] |
5951 | If atoms have no qualities, they cannot possibly produce a mind [Plutarch] |
5963 | Some say emotion is a sort of reason, and others say virtue concerns emotion [Plutarch] |
20796 | Action needs an affinity for a presentation, and an impulse toward the affinity [Plutarch] |
1477 | Being manly and brave is the result of convention, not of human nature [Plutarch] |
1478 | Animals don't value pleasure, as they cease sexual intercourse after impregnation [Plutarch] |
5948 | The good life involves social participation, loyalty, temperance and honesty [Plutarch] |
1479 | Animals have not been led into homosexuality, because they value pleasure very little [Plutarch] |
5950 | If only atoms exist, how do qualities arise when the atoms come together? [Plutarch] |
16175 | A cause won't increase the effect frequency if other causes keep interfering [Cartwright,N] |
6781 | There are fundamental explanatory laws (false!), and phenomenological laws (regularities) [Cartwright,N, by Bird] |
16166 | Laws of appearances are 'phenomenological'; laws of reality are 'theoretical' [Cartwright,N] |
16179 | Good organisation may not be true, and the truth may not organise very much [Cartwright,N] |
16178 | There are few laws for when one theory meets another [Cartwright,N] |
16170 | To get from facts to equations, we need a prepared descriptions suited to mathematics [Cartwright,N] |
16181 | Simple laws have quite different outcomes when they act in combinations [Cartwright,N] |
5974 | People report seeing through rocks, or over the horizon, or impossibly small works [Plutarch] |
5957 | Absurd superstitions make people atheist, not disharmony in nature [Plutarch] |
7604 | Amos was the first prophet to emphasise justice and compassion [Amos, by Armstrong,K] |
5955 | No one will ever find a city that lacks religious practices [Plutarch] |