104 ideas
18330 | Judging by the positive forces, the Renaissance was the last great age [Nietzsche] |
16606 | Original philosophers invariably seek inspiration from past thinkers [Pasnau] |
16604 | Philosophy consists of choosing between Plato, Aristotle and Democritus [Pasnau] |
2900 | I revere Heraclitus [Nietzsche] |
2913 | Thucydides was the perfect anti-platonist sophist [Nietzsche] |
16586 | The commentaries of Averroes were the leading guide to Aristotle [Pasnau] |
16568 | Modernity begins in the late 12th century, with Averroes's commentaries on Aristotle [Pasnau] |
16653 | Once accidents were seen as real, 'Categories' became the major text for ontology [Pasnau] |
16704 | In 1347, the Church effectively stopped philosophy for the next 300 years [Pasnau] |
16605 | After c.1450 all of Plato was available. Before that, only the first half of 'Timaeus' was known [Pasnau] |
16607 | Renaissance Platonism is peripheral [Pasnau] |
16715 | Plato only made an impact locally in 15th century Italy [Pasnau] |
16610 | Philosophy could easily have died in 17th century, if it weren't for Descartes [Pasnau] |
16781 | The 17th century is a metaphysical train wreck [Pasnau] |
2909 | Thinking has to be learned in the way dancing has to be learned [Nietzsche] |
2892 | Wanting a system in philosophy is a lack of integrity [Nietzsche] |
2896 | I want to understand the Socratic idea that 'reason equals virtue equals happiness' [Nietzsche] |
16677 | Anti-Razor: if you can't account for a truth, keep positing things until you can [Pasnau] |
2897 | With dialectics the rabble gets on top [Nietzsche] |
2898 | Anything which must first be proved is of little value [Nietzsche] |
18317 | The 'real being' of things is a nothingness constructed from contradictions in the actual world [Nietzsche] |
18315 | We get the concept of 'being' from the concept of the 'ego' [Nietzsche] |
16598 | Priority was a major topic of dispute for scholastics [Pasnau] |
16727 | In mixtures, the four elements ceased to exist, replaced by a mixed body with a form [Pasnau] |
18316 | The grounds for an assertion that the world is only apparent actually establish its reality [Nietzsche] |
16732 | 17th C qualities are either microphysical, or phenomenal, or powers [Pasnau] |
16733 | 17th century authors only recognised categorical properties, never dispositions [Pasnau] |
16662 | The biggest question for scholastics is whether properties are real, or modes of substances [Pasnau] |
16767 | There is no centralised power, but we still need essence for a metaphysical understanding [Pasnau] |
16788 | Instead of adding Aristotelian forms to physical stuff, one could add dispositions [Pasnau] |
16738 | Scholastics reject dispositions, because they are not actual, as forms require [Pasnau] |
16649 | Scholastics say there is a genuine thing if it is 'separable' [Pasnau] |
16785 | If you reject essences, questions of individuation become extremely difficult [Pasnau] |
16680 | Scholastics thought Quantity could be the principle of individuation [Pasnau] |
18314 | In language we treat 'ego' as a substance, and it is thus that we create the concept 'thing' [Nietzsche] |
16617 | Corpuscularian critics of scholasticism say only substances exist [Pasnau] |
16741 | Scholastics wanted to treat Aristotelianism as physics, rather than as metaphysics [Pasnau] |
16777 | If crowds are things at all, they seem to be Substances, since they bear properties [Pasnau] |
16628 | Corpuscularianism promised a decent account of substance [Pasnau] |
16615 | Scholastics use 'substantia' for thick concrete entities, and for thin metaphysical ones [Pasnau] |
16775 | For corpuscularians, a substance is just its integral parts [Pasnau] |
16769 | If clay survives destruction of the statue, the statue wasn't a substance, but a mere accident [Pasnau] |
16602 | Corpuscularianism rejected not only form, but also the dependence of matter on form [Pasnau] |
16612 | Hylomorphism may not be a rival to science, but an abstract account of unity and endurance [Pasnau] |
16613 | Hylomorphism declined because scholastics made it into a testable physical theory [Pasnau] |
16747 | Scholastics made forms substantial, in a way unintended by Aristotle [Pasnau] |
16759 | Scholastics began to see substantial form more as Aristotle's 'efficient' cause [Pasnau] |
16748 | Aquinas says a substance has one form; Scotists say it has many forms [Pasnau] |
16671 | Scholastic Quantity either gives a body parts, or spreads them out in a unified way [Pasnau] |
16579 | There may be different types of substrate, or temporary substrates [Pasnau] |
16596 | A substratum can't be 'bare', because it has a job to do [Pasnau] |
16584 | If a substrate gives causal support for change, quite a lot of the ingredients must endure [Pasnau] |
16580 | A substrate may be 'prime matter', which endures through every change [Pasnau] |
16749 | Aristotelians deny that all necessary properties are essential [Pasnau] |
16694 | Typical successive things are time and motion [Pasnau] |
16583 | Weak ex nihilo says it all comes from something; strong version says the old must partly endure [Pasnau] |
18309 | The evidence of the senses is falsified by reason [Nietzsche] |
16783 | Essences must explain, so we can infer them causally from the accidents [Pasnau] |
18323 | Any explanation will be accepted as true if it gives pleasure and a feeling of power [Nietzsche] |
18310 | The 'highest' concepts are the most general and empty concepts [Nietzsche] |
20368 | There are no 'individual' persons; we are each the sum of humanity up to this moment [Nietzsche] |
2899 | The fanatical rationality of Greek philosophy shows that they were in a state of emergency [Nietzsche] |
18313 | The big error is to think the will is a faculty producing effects; in fact, it is just a word [Nietzsche] |
20133 | The 'motive' is superficial, and may even hide the antecedents of a deed [Nietzsche] |
18326 | The beautiful never stands alone; it derives from man's pleasure in man [Nietzsche] |
20101 | Without music life would be a mistake [Nietzsche] |
2902 | Healthy morality is dominated by an instinct for life [Nietzsche] |
18311 | Philosophers hate values having an origin, and want values to be self-sufficient [Nietzsche] |
18324 | There are no moral facts, and moralists believe in realities which do not exist [Nietzsche] |
2904 | The doctrine of free will has been invented essentially in order to blame and punish people [Nietzsche] |
2895 | The value of life cannot be estimated [Nietzsche] |
18322 | When we establish values, that is life itself establishing them, through us [Nietzsche] |
2893 | In every age the wisest people have judged life to be worthless [Nietzsche] |
18308 | A philosopher fails in wisdom if he thinks the value of life is a problem [Nietzsche] |
2894 | Value judgements about life can never be true [Nietzsche] |
18321 | To evaluate life one must know it, but also be situated outside of it [Nietzsche] |
18319 | Love is the spiritualisation of sensuality [Nietzsche] |
2903 | A good human will be virtuous because they are happy [Nietzsche] |
2891 | Only the English actually strive after happiness [Nietzsche] |
18327 | A wholly altruistic morality, with no egoism, is a thoroughly bad thing [Nietzsche] |
15606 | Military idea: what does not kill me makes me stronger [Nietzsche] |
18328 | Invalids are parasites [Nietzsche] |
18331 | Democracy is organisational power in decline [Nietzsche] |
18332 | The creation of institutions needs a determination which is necessarily anti-liberal [Nietzsche] |
2911 | True justice is equality for equals and inequality for unequals [Nietzsche] |
18320 | To renounce war is to renounce the grand life [Nietzsche] |
2908 | There is a need for educators who are themselves educated [Nietzsche] |
18329 | Sometimes it is an error to have been born - but we can rectify it [Nietzsche] |
2905 | 'Purpose' is just a human fiction [Nietzsche] |
1748 | Archelaus was the first person to say that the universe is boundless [Archelaus, by Diog. Laertius] |
16609 | Atomists say causation is mechanical collisions, and all true qualities are microscopic [Pasnau] |
16603 | In the 17th C matter became body, and was then studied by science [Pasnau] |
16592 | Atomism is the commonest version of corpuscularianism, but isn't required by it [Pasnau] |
16750 | If there are just arrangements of corpuscles, where are the boundaries between substances? [Pasnau] |
16722 | Scholastic causation is by changes in the primary qualities of hot, cold, wet, dry [Pasnau] |
16760 | Substantial forms were a step towards scientific essentialism [Pasnau] |
16581 | Scholastic authors agree that matter was created by God, out of nothing [Pasnau] |
5989 | Archelaus said life began in a primeval slime [Archelaus, by Schofield] |
18312 | The supreme general but empty concepts must be compatible, and hence we get 'God' [Nietzsche] |
2906 | By denying God we deny human accountability, and thus we redeem the world [Nietzsche] |
2901 | How could the Church intelligently fight against passion if it preferred poorness of spirit to intelligence? [Nietzsche] |
18325 | Christians believe that only God can know what is good for man [Nietzsche] |
16642 | Transubstantion says accidents of bread and wine don't inhere in the substance [Pasnau] |
18318 | People who disparage actual life avenge themselves by imagining a better one [Nietzsche] |