133 ideas
14857 | The highest wisdom has the guise of simplicity [Nietzsche] |
19693 | There is practical wisdom (for action), and theoretical wisdom (for deep understanding) [Aristotle, by Whitcomb] |
2512 | Philosophy is a battle against the bewitchment of our intelligence by means of language [Wittgenstein] |
4148 | What is your aim in philosophy? - To show the fly the way out of the fly-bottle [Wittgenstein] |
14854 | Deep thinkers know that they are always wrong [Nietzsche] |
14833 | Comedy is a transition from fear to exuberance [Nietzsche] |
22490 | Bring words back from metaphysics to everyday use [Wittgenstein] |
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] |
6566 | The problem is to explain the role of contradiction in social life [Wittgenstein] |
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] |
18743 | Wittgenstein says we want the grammar of problems, not their first-order logical structure [Wittgenstein, by Horsten/Pettigrew] |
4139 | Naming is a preparation for description [Wittgenstein] |
4946 | A name is not determined by a description, but by a cluster or family [Wittgenstein, by Kripke] |
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] |
15106 | Essence is expressed by grammar [Wittgenstein] |
5991 | For Aristotle, knowledge is of causes, and is theoretical, practical or productive [Aristotle, by Code] |
6600 | The belief that fire burns is like the fear that it burns [Wittgenstein] |
14858 | Being certain presumes that there are absolute truths, and means of arriving at them [Nietzsche] |
4153 | Are sense-data the material of which the universe is made? [Wittgenstein] |
11239 | The notion of a priori truth is absent in Aristotle [Aristotle, by Politis] |
6501 | As sense-data are necessarily private, they are attacked by Wittgenstein's objections [Wittgenstein, by Robinson,H] |
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] |
11079 | How do I decide when to accept or obey an intuition? [Wittgenstein] |
4160 | One can mistrust one's own senses, but not one's own beliefs [Wittgenstein] |
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] |
19273 | I don't have the opinion that people have minds; I just treat them as such [Wittgenstein] |
5663 | It is irresponsible to generalise from my own case of pain to other people's [Wittgenstein] |
19272 | To imagine another's pain by my own, I must imagine a pain I don't feel, by one I do feel [Wittgenstein] |
4161 | If a lion could talk, we could not understand him [Wittgenstein] |
7392 | If a lion could talk, it would be nothing like other lions [Dennett on Wittgenstein] |
5676 | To say that I 'know' I am in pain means nothing more than that I AM in pain [Wittgenstein] |
20378 | Just as skin hides the horrors of the body, vanity conceals the passions of the soul [Nietzsche] |
4154 | Why are we not aware of the huge gap between mind and brain in ordinary life? [Wittgenstein] |
23300 | Aristotle and the Stoics denied rationality to animals, while Platonists affirmed it [Aristotle, by Sorabji] |
4158 | An 'inner process' stands in need of outward criteria [Wittgenstein] |
6165 | Every course of action can either accord or conflict with a rule, so there is no accord or conflict [Wittgenstein] |
4143 | One cannot obey a rule 'privately', because that is a practice, not the same as thinking one is obeying [Wittgenstein] |
7092 | If individuals can't tell if they are following a rule, how does a community do it? [Grayling on Wittgenstein] |
4138 | Is white simple, or does it consist of the colours of the rainbow? [Wittgenstein] |
7055 | Externalist accounts of mental content begin in Wittgenstein [Wittgenstein, by Heil] |
12576 | Possessing a concept is knowing how to go on [Wittgenstein, by Peacocke] |
4157 | Concepts direct our interests and investigations, and express those interests [Wittgenstein] |
12606 | Man learns the concept of the past by remembering [Wittgenstein] |
4141 | Various games have a 'family resemblance', as their similarities overlap and criss-cross [Wittgenstein] |
23450 | Wittgenstein rejected his earlier view that the form of language is the form of the world [Wittgenstein, by Morris,M] |
4150 | Asking about verification is only one way of asking about the meaning of a proposition [Wittgenstein] |
6567 | For Wittgenstein, words are defined by their use, just as chess pieces are [Wittgenstein, by Fogelin] |
6169 | We do not achieve meaning and understanding in our heads, but in the world [Wittgenstein, by Rowlands] |
4155 | We all seem able to see quite clearly how sentences represent things when we use them [Wittgenstein] |
4137 | In the majority of cases the meaning of a word is its use in the language [Wittgenstein] |
4142 | To understand a sentence means to understand a language [Wittgenstein] |
4149 | We don't have 'meanings' in our minds in addition to verbal expressions [Wittgenstein] |
4156 | Make the following experiment: say "It's cold here" and mean "It's warm here" [Wittgenstein] |
4145 | How do words refer to sensations? [Wittgenstein] |
4140 | The standard metre in Paris is neither one metre long nor not one metre long [Wittgenstein] |
11240 | The notion of analytic truth is absent in Aristotle [Aristotle, by Politis] |
4136 | To imagine a language means to imagine a form of life [Wittgenstein] |
6166 | Was Wittgenstein's problem between individual and community, or between occasions for an individual? [Rowlands on Wittgenstein] |
7875 | If a brilliant child invented a name for a private sensation, it couldn't communicate it [Wittgenstein] |
4146 | We cannot doublecheck mental images for correctness (or confirm news with many copies of the paper) [Wittgenstein] |
4147 | If we only named pain by our own case, it would be like naming beetles by looking in a private box [Wittgenstein] |
5659 | If the reference is private, that is incompatible with the sense being public [Wittgenstein, by Scruton] |
4152 | Getting from perceptions to words cannot be a private matter; the rules need an institution of use [Wittgenstein] |
4144 | Common human behaviour enables us to interpret an unknown language [Wittgenstein] |
11049 | To communicate, language needs agreement in judgment as well as definition [Wittgenstein] |
6658 | What is left over if I subtract my arm going up from my raising my arm? [Wittgenstein] |
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] |
4151 | Grammar tells what kind of object anything is - and theology is a kind of grammar [Wittgenstein] |
4159 | The human body is the best picture of the human soul [Wittgenstein] |