117 ideas
19693 | There is practical wisdom (for action), and theoretical wisdom (for deep understanding) [Aristotle, by Whitcomb] |
14857 | The highest wisdom has the guise of simplicity [Nietzsche] |
14854 | Deep thinkers know that they are always wrong [Nietzsche] |
14833 | Comedy is a transition from fear to exuberance [Nietzsche] |
4588 | There is no such thing as 'science'; there are just many different sciences [Heil] |
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] |
14853 | Truth finds fewest champions not when it is dangerous, but when it is boring [Nietzsche] |
24075 | Convictions, more than lies, are the great enemy of truth [Nietzsche] |
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] |
4616 | A higher level is 'supervenient' if it is determined by lower levels, but has its own natural laws [Heil] |
4603 | Functionalists in Fodor's camp usually say that a genuine property is one that figures in some causal laws [Heil] |
4617 | A stone does not possess the property of being a stone; its other properties make it a stone [Heil] |
4615 | Complex properties are not new properties, they are merely new combinations of properties [Heil] |
4612 | Complex properties are just arrangements of simple properties; they do not "emerge" as separate [Heil] |
4587 | From the property predicates P and Q, we can get 'P or Q', but it doesn't have to designate another property [Heil] |
4611 | The supporters of 'tropes' treat objects as bundles of tropes, when I think objects 'possess' properties [Heil] |
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] |
4592 | If you can have the boat without its current planks, and the planks with no boat, the planks aren't the boat [Heil] |
4586 | You can't embrace the formal apparatus of possible worlds, but reject the ontology [Heil] |
5991 | For Aristotle, knowledge is of causes, and is theoretical, practical or productive [Aristotle, by Code] |
14858 | Being certain presumes that there are absolute truths, and means of arriving at them [Nietzsche] |
4591 | Idealism explains appearances by identifying appearances with reality [Heil] |
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] |
14830 | Intuition only recognises what is possible, not what exists or is certain [Nietzsche] |
16971 | Plato says sciences are unified around Forms; Aristotle says they're unified around substance [Aristotle, by Moravcsik] |
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] |
12000 | Aristotle regularly says that essential properties explain other significant properties [Aristotle, by Kung] |
4610 | Different generations focus on either the quality of mind, or its scientific standing, or the content of thought [Heil] |
4618 | If minds are realised materially, it looks as if the material laws will pre-empt any causal role for mind [Heil] |
4621 | Whatever exists has qualities, so it is no surprise that states of minds have qualities [Heil] |
4623 | Propositional attitudes are not the only intentional states; there is also mental imagery [Heil] |
4626 | The widespread externalist view says intentionality has content because of causal links of agent to world [Heil] |
20378 | Just as skin hides the horrors of the body, vanity conceals the passions of the soul [Nietzsche] |
4622 | Error must be possible in introspection, because error is possible in all judgements [Heil] |
4590 | If causation is just regularities in events, the interaction of mind and body is not a special problem [Heil] |
4614 | Disposition is a fundamental feature of reality, since basic particles are capable of endless possible interactions [Heil] |
4595 | No mental state entails inevitable behaviour, because other beliefs or desires may intervene [Heil] |
4599 | Hearts are material, but functionalism says the property of being a heart is not a material property [Heil] |
4624 | If you are a functionalist, there appears to be no room for qualia [Heil] |
4601 | Higher-level sciences cannot be reduced, because their concepts mark boundaries invisible at lower levels [Heil] |
4602 | Higher-level sciences designate real properties of objects, which are not reducible to lower levels [Heil] |
4593 | 'Property dualism' says mind and body are not substances, but distinct families of properties [Heil] |
4597 | Early identity theory talked of mind and brain 'processes', but now the focus is properties [Heil] |
4609 | It seems contradictory to be asked to believe that we can be eliminativist about beliefs [Heil] |
4596 | The appeal of the identity theory is its simplicity, and its solution to the mental causation problem [Heil] |
4598 | Functionalists emphasise that mental processes are not to be reduced to what realises them [Heil] |
4619 | 'Multiple realisability' needs to clearly distinguish low-level realisers from what is realised [Heil] |
4620 | Multiple realisability is not a relation among properties, but an application of predicates to resembling things [Heil] |
4594 | A scientist could know everything about the physiology of headaches, but never have had one [Heil] |
4625 | Is mental imagery pictorial, or is it propositional? [Heil] |
4607 | Folk psychology and neuroscience are no more competitors than cartography and geology are [Heil] |
23300 | Aristotle and the Stoics denied rationality to animals, while Platonists affirmed it [Aristotle, by Sorabji] |
4605 | Truth-conditions correspond to the idea of 'literal meaning' [Heil] |
4606 | To understand 'birds warble' and 'tigers growl', you must also understand 'tigers warble' [Heil] |
4604 | If propositions are abstract entities, how do human beings interact with them? [Heil] |
11240 | The notion of analytic truth is absent in Aristotle [Aristotle, by Politis] |
14820 | People always do what they think is right, according to the degree of their intellect [Nietzsche] |
14856 | Our judgment seems to cause our nature, but actually judgment arises from our nature [Nietzsche] |
14842 | Why are the strong tastes of other people so contagious? [Nietzsche] |
14835 | Artists are not especially passionate, but they pretend to be [Nietzsche] |
22473 | Nietzsche said the will doesn't exist, so it can't ground moral responsibility [Nietzsche, by Foot] |
14807 | The history of morality rests on an error called 'responsibility', which rests on an error called 'free will' [Nietzsche] |
14823 | Ceasing to believe in human responsibility is bitter, if you had based the nobility of humanity on it [Nietzsche] |
14824 | It is absurd to blame nature and necessity; we should no more praise actions than we praise plants or artworks [Nietzsche] |
14812 | Intellect is tied to morality, because it requires good memory and powerful imagination [Nietzsche] |
6559 | Aristotle never actually says that man is a rational animal [Aristotle, by Fogelin] |
14810 | Originally it was the rulers who requited good for good and evil for evil who were called 'good' [Nietzsche] |
14831 | No one has ever done anything that was entirely for other people [Nietzsche] |
14855 | Simultaneous love and respect are impossible; love has no separation or rank, but respect admits power [Nietzsche] |
14815 | We get enormous pleasure from tales of noble actions [Nietzsche] |
14849 | We can only achieve happy moments, not happy eras [Nietzsche] |
14818 | First morality is force, then custom, then acceptance, then instinct, then a pleasure - and finally 'virtue' [Nietzsche] |
20103 | You are mastered by your own virtues, but you must master them, and turn them into tools [Nietzsche] |
14817 | The 'good' man does the moral thing as if by nature, easily and gladly, after a long inheritance [Nietzsche] |
14809 | All societies of good men give a priority to gratitude [Nietzsche] |
14816 | Justice (fairness) originates among roughly equal powers (as the Melian dialogues show) [Nietzsche] |
20112 | Pity consoles those who suffer, because they see that they still have the power to hurt [Nietzsche] |
14821 | Apart from philosophers, most people rightly have a low estimate of pity [Nietzsche] |
14841 | Many people are better at having good friends than being a good friend [Nietzsche] |
14843 | Women can be friends with men, but only some physical antipathy will maintain it [Nietzsche] |
14811 | In Homer it is the contemptible person, not the harmful person, who is bad [Nietzsche] |
20111 | We could live more naturally, relishing the spectacle, and not thinking we are special [Nietzsche] |
14844 | People do not experience boredom if they have never learned to work properly [Nietzsche] |
14808 | Over huge periods of time human character would change endlessly [Nietzsche] |
14822 | If self-defence is moral, then so are most expressions of 'immoral' egoism [Nietzsche] |
14838 | The state aims to protect individuals from one another [Nietzsche] |
14852 | Culture cannot do without passions and vices [Nietzsche] |
14846 | If we want the good life for the greatest number, we must let them decide on the good life [Nietzsche] |
14819 | Slavery cannot be judged by our standards, because the sense of justice was then less developed [Nietzsche] |
14847 | Laws that are well thought out, or laws that are easy to understand? [Nietzsche] |
14814 | Execution is worse than murder, because we are using the victim, and really we are the guilty [Nietzsche] |
14836 | People will enthusiastically pursue an unwanted war, once sacrifices have been made [Nietzsche] |
11150 | It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain an idea without accepting it [Aristotle] |
14845 | Don't crush girls with dull Gymnasium education, the way we have crushed boys! [Nietzsche] |
14848 | Education in large states is mediocre, like cooking in large kitchens [Nietzsche] |
14839 | Interest in education gains strength when we lose interest in God [Nietzsche] |
3037 | Aristotle said the educated were superior to the uneducated as the living are to the dead [Aristotle, by Diog. Laertius] |
14834 | Teachers only gather knowledge for their pupils, and can't be serious about themselves [Nietzsche] |
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] |
14825 | In religious thought nature is a complex of arbitrary acts by conscious beings [Nietzsche] |
14826 | Modern man wants laws of nature in order to submit to them [Nietzsche] |
22729 | The concepts of gods arose from observing the soul, and the cosmos [Aristotle, by Sext.Empiricus] |
14827 | The Greeks saw the gods not as their masters, but as idealised versions of themselves [Nietzsche] |
14813 | Science rejecting the teaching of Christianity in favour of Epicurus shows the superiority of the latter [Nietzsche] |
14832 | The Sermon on the Mount is vanity - praying to one part of oneself, and demonising the rest [Nietzsche] |
14850 | Christ was the noblest human being [Nietzsche] |
14837 | Christ seems warm hearted, and suppressed intellect in favour of the intellectually weak [Nietzsche] |
14828 | Religion is tempting if your life is boring, but you can't therefore impose it on the busy people [Nietzsche] |