87 ideas
19693 | There is practical wisdom (for action), and theoretical wisdom (for deep understanding) [Aristotle, by Whitcomb] |
7834 | Great philosophies are confessions by the author, growing out of moral intentions [Nietzsche] |
3358 | Metaphysics focuses on Platonism, essentialism, materialism and anti-realism [Benardete,JA] |
7080 | Metaphysics divided the old unified Greek world into two [Nietzsche, by Critchley] |
3312 | There are the 'is' of predication (a function), the 'is' of identity (equals), and the 'is' of existence (quantifier) [Benardete,JA] |
3352 | Analytical philosophy analyses separate concepts successfully, but lacks a synoptic vision of the results [Benardete,JA] |
3329 | Presumably the statements of science are true, but should they be taken literally or not? [Benardete,JA] |
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] |
11090 | Why do we want truth, rather than falsehood or ignorance? The value of truth is a problem [Nietzsche] |
3326 | Set theory attempts to reduce the 'is' of predication to mathematics [Benardete,JA] |
3327 | The set of Greeks is included in the set of men, but isn't a member of it [Benardete,JA] |
3335 | The standard Z-F Intuition version of set theory has about ten agreed axioms [Benardete,JA, by PG] |
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] |
3332 | Greeks saw the science of proportion as the link between geometry and arithmetic [Benardete,JA] |
3330 | Negatives, rationals, irrationals and imaginaries are all postulated to solve baffling equations [Benardete,JA] |
3337 | Natural numbers are seen in terms of either their ordinality (Peano), or cardinality (set theory) [Benardete,JA] |
7079 | Nietzsche resists nihilism through new values, for a world of becoming, without worship [Nietzsche, by Critchley] |
3310 | If slowness is a property of walking rather than the walker, we must allow that events exist [Benardete,JA] |
12793 | Early pre-Socratics had a mass-noun ontology, which was replaced by count-nouns [Benardete,JA] |
3353 | If there is no causal interaction with transcendent Platonic objects, how can you learn about them? [Benardete,JA] |
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] |
3304 | Why should packed-together particles be a thing (Mt Everest), but not scattered ones? [Benardete,JA] |
3350 | Could a horse lose the essential property of being a horse, and yet continue to exist? [Benardete,JA] |
3309 | If a soldier continues to exist after serving as a soldier, does the wind cease to exist after it ceases to blow? [Benardete,JA] |
3351 | One can step into the same river twice, but not into the same water [Benardete,JA] |
3323 | Maybe self-identity isn't existence, if Pegasus can be self-identical but non-existent [Benardete,JA] |
3314 | Absolutists might accept that to exist is relative, but relative to what? How about relative to itself? [Benardete,JA] |
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] |
3306 | The clearest a priori knowledge is proving non-existence through contradiction [Benardete,JA] |
3341 | Logical positivism amounts to no more than 'there is no synthetic a priori' [Benardete,JA] |
3344 | Assertions about existence beyond experience can only be a priori synthetic [Benardete,JA] |
3349 | If we know truths about prime numbers, we seem to have synthetic a priori knowledge of Platonic objects [Benardete,JA] |
3345 | Appeals to intuition seem to imply synthetic a priori knowledge [Benardete,JA] |
2878 | We see an approximation of a tree, not the full detail [Nietzsche] |
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] |
20140 | We shouldn't object to a false judgement, if it enhances and preserves life [Nietzsche] |
2877 | Morality becomes a problem when we compare many moralities [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] |
20355 | The ranking of a person's innermost drives reveals their true nature [Nietzsche] |
2291 | A thought comes when 'it' wants, not when 'I' want [Nietzsche] |
2871 | Wanting 'freedom of will' is wanting to pull oneself into existence out of the swamp of nothingness by one's own hair [Nietzsche] |
23300 | Aristotle and the Stoics denied rationality to animals, while Platonists affirmed it [Aristotle, by Sorabji] |
20381 | It is psychology which reveals the basic problems [Nietzsche] |
11240 | The notion of analytic truth is absent in Aristotle [Aristotle, by Politis] |
2860 | The most boring and dangerous of all errors is Plato's invention of pure spirit and goodness [Nietzsche] |
1568 | Nietzsche felt that Plato's views downgraded the human body and its brevity of life [Nietzsche, by Roochnik] |
6559 | Aristotle never actually says that man is a rational animal [Aristotle, by Fogelin] |
2883 | Noble people see themselves as the determiners of values [Nietzsche] |
23440 | Nietzsche's judgement of actions by psychology instead of outcome was poisonous [Foot on Nietzsche] |
2875 | That which is done out of love always takes place beyond good and evil [Nietzsche] |
2868 | Nature is totally indifferent, so you should try to be different from it, not live by it [Nietzsche] |
2882 | Morality originally judged people, and actions only later on [Nietzsche] |
2872 | In the earliest phase of human history only consequences mattered [Nietzsche] |
2885 | The noble soul has reverence for itself [Nietzsche] |
20134 | Moralities extravagantly address themselves to 'all', by falsely generalising [Nietzsche] |
2881 | Virtue has been greatly harmed by the boringness of its advocates [Nietzsche] |
20382 | The four virtues are courage, insight, sympathy, solitude [Nietzsche] |
2879 | In ancient Rome pity was considered neither good nor bad [Nietzsche] |
2859 | The idea of the categorical imperative is just that we should all be very obedient [Nietzsche] |
2884 | The morality of slaves is the morality of utility [Nietzsche] |
2880 | The greatest possibilities in man are still unexhausted [Nietzsche] |
2876 | The thought of suicide is a great reassurance on bad nights [Nietzsche] |
7078 | The freedom of the subject means the collapse of moral certainty [Nietzsche, by Critchley] |
2874 | Man is the animal whose nature has not yet been fixed [Nietzsche] |
6869 | Nietzsche thinks the human condition is to overcome and remake itself [Nietzsche, by Ansell Pearson] |
20137 | The great person engages wholly with life, and is happy to endlessly relive the life they created [Nietzsche] |
20139 | Only aristocratic societies can elevate the human species [Nietzsche] |
20373 | A healthy aristocracy has no qualms about using multitudes of men as instruments [Nietzsche] |
22394 | Democracy diminishes mankind, making them mediocre and lowering their value [Nietzsche] |
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] |
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] |
3334 | Rationalists see points as fundamental, but empiricists prefer regions [Benardete,JA] |
3308 | In the ontological argument a full understanding of the concept of God implies a contradiction in 'There is no God' [Benardete,JA] |
22729 | The concepts of gods arose from observing the soul, and the cosmos [Aristotle, by Sext.Empiricus] |
2867 | Christianity is Platonism for the people [Nietzsche] |