153 ideas
19693 | There is practical wisdom (for action), and theoretical wisdom (for deep understanding) [Aristotle, by Whitcomb] |
6200 | Wisdom is knowing the highest good, and conforming the will to it [Kant] |
6207 | What fills me with awe are the starry heavens above me and the moral law within me [Kant] |
16281 | Honesty requires philosophical theories we can commit to with our ordinary commonsense [Lewis] |
6184 | Consistency is the highest obligation of a philosopher [Kant] |
6203 | Metaphysics is just a priori universal principles of physics [Kant] |
16288 | Analysis reduces primitives and makes understanding explicit (without adding new knowledge) [Lewis] |
1575 | For Aristotle logos is essentially the ability to talk rationally about questions of value [Roochnik on Aristotle] |
1589 | Aristotle is the supreme optimist about the ability of logos to explain nature [Roochnik on Aristotle] |
8200 | Aristotelian definitions aim to give the essential properties of the thing defined [Aristotle, by Quine] |
4385 | Aristotelian definition involves first stating the genus, then the differentia of the thing [Aristotle, by Urmson] |
9651 | Verisimilitude might be explained as being close to the possible world where the truth is exact [Lewis] |
13282 | Aristotle relativises the notion of wholeness to different measures [Aristotle, by Koslicki] |
4730 | For Aristotle, the subject-predicate structure of Greek reflected a substance-accident structure of reality [Aristotle, by O'Grady] |
15731 | Quantification sometimes commits to 'sets', but sometimes just to pluralities (or 'classes') [Lewis] |
10470 | There are only two kinds: sets, and possibilia (actual and possible particulars) [Lewis, by Oliver] |
9650 | Supervenience concerns whether things could differ, so it is a modal notion [Lewis] |
8909 | Abstractions may well be verbal fictions, in which we ignore some features of an object [Lewis] |
9057 | Vagueness is semantic indecision: we haven't settled quite what our words are meant to express [Lewis] |
9671 | Whether or not France is hexagonal depends on your standards of precision [Lewis] |
15751 | Surely 'slept in by Washington' is a property of some bed? [Lewis] |
15735 | Properties don't have degree; they are determinate, and things have varying relations to them [Lewis] |
9656 | The 'abundant' properties are just any bizarre property you fancy [Lewis] |
15737 | To be a 'property' is to suit a theoretical role [Lewis] |
15741 | All of the natural properties are included among the intrinsic properties [Lewis] |
15742 | A disjunctive property can be unnatural, but intrinsic if its disjuncts are intrinsic [Lewis] |
15397 | If a global intrinsic never varies between possible duplicates, all necessary properties are intrinsic [Cameron on Lewis] |
15398 | Global intrinsic may make necessarily coextensive properties both intrinsic or both extrinsic [Cameron on Lewis] |
15752 | We might try defining the natural properties by a short list of them [Lewis] |
14996 | Natural properties give similarity, joint carving, intrinsicness, specificity, homogeneity... [Lewis] |
15744 | We can't define natural properties by resemblance, if they are used to explain resemblance [Lewis] |
15743 | Defining natural properties by means of laws of nature is potentially circular [Lewis] |
15740 | I don't take 'natural' properties to be fixed by the nature of one possible world [Lewis] |
16262 | Sparse properties rest either on universals, or on tropes, or on primitive naturalness [Lewis, by Maudlin] |
15739 | There is the property of belonging to a set, so abundant properties are as numerous as the sets [Lewis] |
10723 | A property is the set of its actual and possible instances [Lewis, by Oliver] |
15399 | The property of being F is identical with the set of objects, in all possible worlds, which are F [Lewis, by Cameron] |
15732 | Properties don't seem to be sets, because different properties can have the same set [Lewis] |
15733 | Accidentally coextensive properties come apart when we include their possible instances [Lewis] |
15734 | If a property is relative, such as being a father or son, then set membership seems relative too [Lewis] |
9655 | Trilateral and triangular seem to be coextensive sets in all possible worlds [Lewis] |
16290 | I believe in properties, which are sets of possible individuals [Lewis] |
9653 | It would be easiest to take a property as the set of its instances [Lewis] |
9657 | You must accept primitive similarity to like tropes, but tropes give a good account of it [Lewis] |
15750 | Tropes need a similarity primitive, so they cannot be used to explain similarity [Lewis] |
15749 | Trope theory (unlike universals) needs a primitive notion of being duplicates [Lewis] |
15748 | Trope theory needs a primitive notion for what unites some tropes [Lewis] |
15745 | Universals recur, are multiply located, wholly present, make things overlap, and are held in common [Lewis] |
15746 | If particles were just made of universals, similar particles would be the same particle [Lewis] |
15747 | Universals aren't parts of things, because that relationship is transitive, and universals need not be [Lewis] |
13276 | The unmoved mover and the soul show Aristotelian form as the ultimate mereological atom [Aristotle, by Koslicki] |
13277 | The 'form' is the recipe for building wholes of a particular kind [Aristotle, by Koslicki] |
9667 | Mereological composition is unrestricted: any class of things has a mereological sum [Lewis] |
13268 | There are no restrictions on composition, because they would be vague, and composition can't be vague [Lewis, by Sider] |
13793 | An essential property is one possessed by all counterparts [Lewis, by Elder] |
9663 | A thing 'perdures' if it has separate temporal parts, and 'endures' if it is wholly present at different times [Lewis] |
14737 | Properties cannot be relations to times, if there are temporary properties which are intrinsic [Lewis, by Sider] |
9664 | Endurance is the wrong account, because things change intrinsic properties like shape [Lewis] |
9665 | There are three responses to the problem that intrinsic shapes do not endure [Lewis] |
19280 | I can ask questions which create a context in which origin ceases to be essential [Lewis] |
15968 | Identity is simple - absolutely everything is self-identical, and nothing is identical to another thing [Lewis] |
15969 | Two things can never be identical, so there is no problem [Lewis] |
6181 | Necessity cannot be extracted from an empirical proposition [Kant] |
9660 | The impossible can be imagined as long as it is a bit vague [Lewis] |
9669 | There are no free-floating possibilia; they have mates in a world, giving them extrinsic properties [Lewis] |
16133 | Possible worlds can contain contradictions if such worlds are seen as fictions [Lewis] |
16132 | On mountains or in worlds, reporting contradictions is contradictory, so no such truths can be reported [Lewis] |
12255 | For Lewis there is no real possibility, since all possibilities are actual [Oderberg on Lewis] |
9219 | Lewis posits possible worlds just as Quine says that physics needs numbers and sets [Lewis, by Sider] |
16283 | For me, all worlds are equal, with each being actual relative to itself [Lewis] |
15022 | If possible worlds really exist, then they are part of actuality [Sider on Lewis] |
10469 | A world is a maximal mereological sum of spatiotemporally interrelated things [Lewis] |
16441 | Lewis rejects actualism because he identifies properties with sets [Lewis, by Stalnaker] |
16282 | Ersatzers say we have one world, and abstract representations of how it might have been [Lewis] |
16284 | Ersatz worlds represent either through language, or by models, or magically [Lewis] |
16286 | Linguistic possible worlds need a complete supply of unique names for each thing [Lewis] |
16287 | Maximal consistency for a world seems a modal distinction, concerning what could be true together [Lewis] |
9662 | Linguistic possible worlds have problems of inconsistencies, no indiscernibles, and vocabulary [Lewis] |
7690 | If sets exist, then defining worlds as proposition sets implies an odd distinction between existing and actual [Jacquette on Lewis] |
5440 | A counterpart in a possible world is sufficiently similar, and more similar than anything else [Lewis, by Mautner] |
16291 | In counterpart theory 'Humphrey' doesn't name one being, but a mereological sum of many beings [Lewis] |
14404 | The counterpart relation is sortal-relative, so objects need not be a certain way [Lewis, by Merricks] |
5441 | Why should statements about what my 'counterpart' could have done interest me? [Mautner on Lewis] |
11903 | Extreme haecceitists could say I might have been a poached egg, but it is too remote to consider [Lewis, by Mackie,P] |
15129 | Haecceitism implies de re differences but qualitative identity [Lewis] |
9670 | Extreme haecceitism says you might possibly be a poached egg [Lewis] |
5991 | For Aristotle, knowledge is of causes, and is theoretical, practical or productive [Aristotle, by Code] |
11239 | The notion of a priori truth is absent in Aristotle [Aristotle, by Politis] |
23312 | Aristotle is a rationalist, but reason is slowly acquired through perception and experience [Aristotle, by Frede,M] |
16111 | Aristotle wants to fit common intuitions, and therefore uses language as a guide [Aristotle, by Gill,ML] |
16279 | General causal theories of knowledge are refuted by mathematics [Lewis] |
16971 | Plato says sciences are unified around Forms; Aristotle says they're unified around substance [Aristotle, by Moravcsik] |
9661 | Induction is just reasonable methods of inferring the unobserved from the observed [Lewis] |
9652 | To just expect unexamined emeralds to be grue would be totally unreasonable [Lewis] |
11243 | Aristotelian explanations are facts, while modern explanations depend on human conceptions [Aristotle, by Politis] |
3320 | Aristotle's standard analysis of species and genus involves specifying things in terms of something more general [Aristotle, by Benardete,JA] |
9658 | An explanation tells us how an event was caused [Lewis] |
16280 | Often explanaton seeks fundamental laws, rather than causal histories [Lewis] |
12000 | Aristotle regularly says that essential properties explain other significant properties [Aristotle, by Kung] |
16274 | If the well-ordering of a pack of cards was by shuffling, the explanation would make it more surprising [Lewis] |
23300 | Aristotle and the Stoics denied rationality to animals, while Platonists affirmed it [Aristotle, by Sorabji] |
8901 | Abstraction is usually explained either by example, or conflation, or abstraction, or negatively [Lewis] |
8904 | The Way of Abstraction says an incomplete description of a concrete entity is the complete abstraction [Lewis] |
8938 | The Way of Example compares donkeys and numbers, but what is the difference, and what are numbers? [Lewis] |
8903 | Abstracta can be causal: sets can be causes or effects; there can be universal effects; events may be sets [Lewis] |
8902 | If abstractions are non-spatial, then both sets and universals seem to have locations [Lewis] |
8905 | If universals or tropes are parts of things, then abstraction picks out those parts [Lewis] |
8906 | If we can abstract the extrinsic relations and features of objects, abstraction isn't universals or tropes [Lewis] |
8907 | The abstract direction of a line is the equivalence class of it and all lines parallel to it [Lewis] |
8908 | For most sets, the concept of equivalence is too artificial to explain abstraction [Lewis] |
16289 | We can't account for an abstraction as 'from' something if the something doesn't exist [Lewis] |
16278 | A particular functional role is what gives content to a thought [Lewis] |
9654 | A proposition is a set of entire possible worlds which instantiate a particular property [Lewis] |
15736 | A proposition is the property of being a possible world where it holds true [Lewis] |
15738 | Propositions can't have syntactic structure if they are just sets of worlds [Lewis] |
11240 | The notion of analytic truth is absent in Aristotle [Aristotle, by Politis] |
6183 | Can pure reason determine the will, or are empirical conditions relevant? [Kant] |
6191 | The will is the faculty of purposes, which guide desires according to principles [Kant] |
6190 | The sole objects of practical reason are the good and the evil [Kant] |
18235 | Only human reason can confer value on our choices [Kant, by Korsgaard] |
6559 | Aristotle never actually says that man is a rational animal [Aristotle, by Fogelin] |
6196 | People cannot come to morality through feeling, because morality must not be sensuous [Kant] |
18675 | Kant may rate two things as finally valuable: having a good will, and deserving happiness [Orsi on Kant] |
22007 | An autonomous agent has dignity [Würde], which has absolute worth [Kant, by Pinkard] |
18234 | The good will is unconditionally good, because it is the only possible source of value [Kant, by Korsgaard] |
6192 | Good or evil cannot be a thing, but only a maxim of action, making the person good or evil [Kant] |
6197 | Morality involves duty and respect for law, not love of the outcome [Kant] |
6193 | Our happiness is all that matters, not as a sensation, but as satisfaction with our whole existence [Kant] |
1452 | Happiness is the condition of a rational being for whom everything goes as they wish [Kant] |
1454 | Morality is not about making ourselves happy, but about being worthy of happiness [Kant] |
6194 | The highest worth for human beings lies in dispositions, not just actions [Kant] |
6198 | Virtue is the supreme state of our pursuit of happiness, and so is supreme good [Kant] |
1456 | Moral law is holy, and the best we can do is achieve virtue through respect for the law [Kant] |
6185 | No one would lend money unless a universal law made it secure, even after death [Kant] |
6187 | Universality determines the will, and hence extends self-love into altruism [Kant] |
6201 | Everyone (even God) must treat rational beings as ends in themselves, and not just as means [Kant] |
6186 | A holy will is incapable of any maxims which conflict with the moral law [Kant] |
6195 | Reason cannot solve the problem of why a law should motivate the will [Kant] |
11150 | It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain an idea without accepting it [Aristotle] |
3037 | Aristotle said the educated were superior to the uneducated as the living are to the dead [Aristotle, by Diog. Laertius] |
6188 | A permanent natural order could not universalise a rule permitting suicide [Kant] |
8660 | There are potential infinities (never running out), but actual infinity is incoherent [Aristotle, by Friend] |
12058 | Aristotle's matter can become any other kind of matter [Aristotle, by Wiggins] |
9659 | Causation is when at the closest world without the cause, there is no effect either [Lewis] |
9666 | It is quite implausible that the future is unreal, as that would terminate everything [Lewis] |
6199 | Obligation does not rest on the existence of God, but on the autonomy of reason [Kant] |
1453 | We have to postulate something outside nature which makes happiness coincide with morality [Kant] |
1455 | Belief in justice requires belief in a place for justice (heaven), a time (eternity), and a cause (God) [Kant, by PG] |
6205 | To know if this world must have been created by God, we would need to know all other possible worlds [Kant] |
6204 | Using God to explain nature is referring to something inconceivable to explain what is in front of you [Kant] |
6206 | From our limited knowledge we can infer great virtues in God, but not ultimate ones [Kant] |
6202 | In all naturalistic concepts of God, if you remove the human qualities there is nothing left [Kant] |
22729 | The concepts of gods arose from observing the soul, and the cosmos [Aristotle, by Sext.Empiricus] |