68 ideas
12274 | Begin examination with basics, and subdivide till you can go no further [Aristotle] |
1502 | Parmenides was much more cautious about accepting ideas than his predecessors [Simplicius on Parmenides] |
12260 | Dialectic starts from generally accepted opinions [Aristotle] |
12291 | There can't be one definition of two things, or two definitions of the same thing [Aristotle] |
12292 | Definitions are easily destroyed, since they can contain very many assertions [Aristotle] |
12272 | We describe the essence of a particular thing by means of its differentiae [Aristotle] |
12279 | The differentia indicate the qualities, but not the essence [Aristotle] |
12283 | In definitions the first term to be assigned ought to be the genus [Aristotle] |
12289 | The genera and the differentiae are part of the essence [Aristotle] |
12261 | Differentia are generic, and belong with genus [Aristotle] |
12263 | 'Genus' is part of the essence shared among several things [Aristotle] |
12285 | The definition is peculiar to one thing, not common to many [Aristotle] |
15842 | An ad hominem refutation is reasonable, if it uses the opponent's assumptions [Harte,V] |
15841 | Mereology began as a nominalist revolt against the commitments of set theory [Harte,V] |
11261 | Puzzles arise when reasoning seems equal on both sides [Aristotle] |
12273 | Unit is the starting point of number [Aristotle] |
448 | No necessity could produce Being either later or earlier, so it must exist absolutely or not at all [Parmenides] |
447 | Being must be eternal and uncreated, and hence it is timeless [Parmenides] |
449 | Being is not divisible, since it is all alike [Parmenides] |
1503 | There is no such thing as nothing [Parmenides] |
445 | The realm of necessary non-existence cannot be explored, because it is unknowable [Parmenides] |
21820 | Parmenides at least saw Being as the same as Nous, and separate from the sensed realm [Parmenides, by Plotinus] |
452 | All our concepts of change and permanence are just names, not the truth [Parmenides] |
15858 | Traditionally, the four elements are just what persists through change [Harte,V] |
12267 | There are ten categories: essence, quantity, quality, relation, place, time, position, state, activity, passivity [Aristotle] |
12282 | An individual property has to exist (in past, present or future) [Aristotle] |
12264 | An 'accident' is something which may possibly either belong or not belong to a thing [Aristotle] |
12280 | Genus gives the essence better than the differentiae do [Aristotle] |
15848 | Mereology treats constitution as a criterion of identity, as shown in the axiom of extensionality [Harte,V] |
15837 | What exactly is a 'sum', and what exactly is 'composition'? [Harte,V] |
15839 | If something is 'more than' the sum of its parts, is the extra thing another part, or not? [Harte,V] |
15838 | The problem with the term 'sum' is that it is singular [Harte,V] |
13269 | In the case of a house the parts can exist without the whole, so parts are not the whole [Aristotle] |
12284 | Everything that is has one single essence [Aristotle] |
12262 | An 'idion' belongs uniquely to a thing, but is not part of its essence [Aristotle] |
1504 | Something must be unchanging to make recognition and knowledge possible [Aristotle on Parmenides] |
12290 | Destruction is dissolution of essence [Aristotle] |
12286 | If two things are the same, they must have the same source and origin [Aristotle] |
12266 | 'Same' is mainly for names or definitions, but also for propria, and for accidents [Aristotle] |
12287 | Two identical things have the same accidents, they are the same; if the accidents differ, they're different [Aristotle] |
12288 | Numerical sameness and generic sameness are not the same [Aristotle] |
444 | The first way of enquiry involves necessary existence [Parmenides] |
12259 | Reasoning is when some results follow necessarily from certain claims [Aristotle] |
450 | Necessity sets limits on being, in order to give it identity [Parmenides] |
451 | Thinking implies existence, because thinking depends on it [Parmenides] |
1506 | Parmenides treats perception and intellectual activity as the same [Theophrastus on Parmenides] |
3058 | Only reason can prove the truth of facts [Parmenides] |
12271 | Induction is the progress from particulars to universals [Aristotle] |
12293 | We say 'so in cases of this kind', but how do you decide what is 'of this kind'? [Aristotle] |
12277 | Friendship is preferable to money, since its excess is preferable [Aristotle] |
12276 | Justice and self-control are better than courage, because they are always useful [Aristotle] |
12275 | We value friendship just for its own sake [Aristotle] |
12281 | Man is intrinsically a civilized animal [Aristotle] |
555 | People who say that the cosmos is one forget that they must explain movement [Aristotle on Parmenides] |
5081 | There could be movement within one thing, as there is within water [Aristotle on Parmenides] |
1509 | The one can't be divisible, because if it was it could be infinitely divided down to nothing [Parmenides, by Simplicius] |
20900 | Defenders of the One say motion needs the void - but that is not part of Being [Parmenides, by Aristotle] |
226 | The one is without any kind of motion [Parmenides] |
1505 | Reason sees reality as one, the senses see it as many [Aristotle on Parmenides] |
453 | Reality is symmetrical and balanced, like a sphere, with no reason to be greater one way rather than another [Parmenides] |
1792 | He taught that there are two elements, fire the maker, and earth the matter [Parmenides, by Diog. Laertius] |
12265 | All water is the same, because of a certain similarity [Aristotle] |
5115 | It is feeble-minded to look for explanations of everything being at rest [Aristotle on Parmenides] |
13217 | The void can't exist, and without the void there can't be movement or separation [Parmenides, by Aristotle] |
22918 | What could have triggered the beginning [of time and being]? [Parmenides] |
1794 | He was the first to discover the identity of the Morning and Evening Stars [Parmenides, by Diog. Laertius] |
1791 | He was the first person to say the earth is spherical [Parmenides, by Diog. Laertius] |
12278 | 'Being' and 'oneness' are predicated of everything which exists [Aristotle] |