79 ideas
| 17240 | Definitions are the first step in philosophy [Hobbes] |
| 12274 | Begin examination with basics, and subdivide till you can go no further [Aristotle] |
| 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] |
| 17237 | Definitions of things that are caused must express their manner of generation [Hobbes] |
| 12283 | In definitions the first term to be assigned ought to be the genus [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] |
| 12289 | The genera and the differentiae are part of the essence [Aristotle] |
| 17239 | Definition is resolution of names into successive genera, and finally the difference [Hobbes] |
| 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] |
| 17241 | A defined name should not appear in the definition [Hobbes] |
| 17242 | 'Petitio principii' is reusing the idea to be defined, in disguised words [Hobbes] |
| 18270 | Choice suggests that intensions are not needed to ensure classes [Coffa] |
| 17245 | A part of a part is a part of a whole [Hobbes] |
| 11261 | Puzzles arise when reasoning seems equal on both sides [Aristotle] |
| 17258 | If we just say one, one, one, one, we don't know where we have got to [Hobbes] |
| 12273 | Unit is the starting point of number [Aristotle] |
| 17253 | Change is nothing but movement [Hobbes] |
| 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] |
| 16670 | Accidents are just modes of thinking about bodies [Hobbes] |
| 16621 | Accidents are not parts of bodies (like blood in a cloth); they have accidents as things have a size [Hobbes] |
| 16734 | The complete power of an event is just the aggregate of the qualities that produced it [Hobbes] |
| 17247 | The only generalities or universals are names or signs [Hobbes] |
| 14960 | Bodies are independent of thought, and coincide with part of space [Hobbes] |
| 17250 | If you separate the two places of one thing, you will also separate the thing [Hobbes] |
| 17249 | If you separated two things in the same place, you would also separate the places [Hobbes] |
| 12280 | Genus gives the essence better than the differentiae do [Aristotle] |
| 17248 | If a whole body is moved, its parts must move with it [Hobbes] |
| 16790 | A body is always the same, whether the parts are together or dispersed [Hobbes] |
| 13269 | In the case of a house the parts can exist without the whole, so parts are not the whole [Aristotle] |
| 17244 | To make a whole, parts needn't be put together, but can be united in the mind [Hobbes] |
| 12284 | Everything that is has one single essence [Aristotle] |
| 17233 | Particulars contain universal things [Hobbes] |
| 17246 | Some accidental features are permanent, unless the object perishes [Hobbes] |
| 12262 | An 'idion' belongs uniquely to a thing, but is not part of its essence [Aristotle] |
| 17251 | The feature which picks out or names a thing is usually called its 'essence' [Hobbes] |
| 17257 | It is the same river if it has the same source, no matter what flows in it [Hobbes] |
| 12853 | Some individuate the ship by unity of matter, and others by unity of form [Hobbes] |
| 17256 | If a new ship were made of the discarded planks, would two ships be numerically the same? [Hobbes] |
| 12290 | Destruction is dissolution of essence [Aristotle] |
| 12286 | If two things are the same, they must have the same source and origin [Aristotle] |
| 16794 | As an infant, Socrates was not the same body, but he was the same human being [Hobbes] |
| 17255 | Two bodies differ when (at some time) you can say something of one you can't say of the other [Hobbes] |
| 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] |
| 12259 | Reasoning is when some results follow necessarily from certain claims [Aristotle] |
| 16582 | We can imagine a point swelling and contracting - but not how this could be done [Hobbes] |
| 18263 | The semantic tradition aimed to explain the a priori semantically, not by Kantian intuition [Coffa] |
| 18272 | Platonism defines the a priori in a way that makes it unknowable [Coffa] |
| 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] |
| 17238 | Science aims to show causes and generation of things [Hobbes] |
| 17260 | Imagination is just weakened sensation [Hobbes] |
| 18266 | Mathematics generalises by using variables [Coffa] |
| 19373 | A 'conatus' is an initial motion, experienced by us as desire or aversion [Hobbes, by Arthur,R] |
| 2948 | Sensation is merely internal motion of the sentient being [Hobbes] |
| 17261 | Apart from pleasure and pain, the only emotions are appetite and aversion [Hobbes] |
| 17236 | Words are not for communication, but as marks for remembering what we have learned [Hobbes] |
| 12276 | Justice and self-control are better than courage, because they are always useful [Aristotle] |
| 12277 | Friendship is preferable to money, since its excess is preferable [Aristotle] |
| 12275 | We value friendship just for its own sake [Aristotle] |
| 12281 | Man is intrinsically a civilized animal [Aristotle] |
| 16600 | Prime matter is body considered with mere size and extension, and potential [Hobbes] |
| 12265 | All water is the same, because of a certain similarity [Aristotle] |
| 17252 | Acting on a body is either creating or destroying a property in it [Hobbes] |
| 17254 | An effect needs a sufficient and necessary cause [Hobbes] |
| 17235 | A cause is the complete sum of the features which necessitate the effect [Hobbes] |
| 17234 | Motion is losing one place and acquiring another [Hobbes] |
| 17259 | 'Force' is the quantity of movement imposed on something [Hobbes] |
| 18279 | Relativity is as absolutist about space-time as Newton was about space [Coffa] |
| 17243 | Past times can't exist anywhere, apart from in our memories [Hobbes] |
| 12278 | 'Being' and 'oneness' are predicated of everything which exists [Aristotle] |