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Single Idea 7461

[filed under theme 1. Philosophy / B. History of Ideas / 1. History of Ideas ]

Full Idea

The three key ideas that I have settled on in the history of ideas are: the soul, Europe, and the experiment.

Gist of Idea

The three key ideas are the soul, Europe, and the experiment

Source

Peter Watson (Ideas [2005], Intro)

Book Ref

Watson,Peter: 'Ideas: from fire to Freud' [Phoenix 2006], p.9


A Reaction

The soul is a nice choice (rather than God). 'Europe' seems rather vast and indeterminate to count as a key idea.


The 11 ideas with the same theme [history of human ideas and their relation to cultures]:

Our knowledge starts in theology, passes through metaphysics, and ends in positivism [Comte]
All ideas must be understood historically [Comte]
Intelligence only fully flourishes at the end of a historical period [Cioran]
Ideas are neutral, but people fill them with passion and weakness [Cioran]
A nation gives expression to its sum of values, and is then exhausted [Cioran]
The history of ideas (and deeds) occurs in a meaningless environment [Cioran]
Some thinkers would have been just as dynamic, no matter when they had lived [Cioran]
The great moments are the death of Aristotle, Machiavelli, and Romanticism [Berlin, by Watson]
Nomads are the basis of history, and yet almost unknowable [Deleuze]
The three key ideas are the soul, Europe, and the experiment [Watson]
The big idea: imitation, the soul, experiments, God, heliocentric universe, evolution? [Watson]