Combining Texts

All the ideas for 'Unconscious Cerebral Initiative', 'Gravity and Grace (9 extracts)' and 'A Thousand Small Sanities'

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32 ideas

3. Truth / A. Truth Problems / 3. Value of Truth
We seek truth only because it is good [Weil]
20. Action / B. Preliminaries of Action / 2. Willed Action / a. Will to Act
Libet says the processes initiated in the cortex can still be consciously changed [Libet, by Papineau]
Libet found conscious choice 0.2 secs before movement, well after unconscious 'readiness potential' [Libet, by Lowe]
22. Metaethics / A. Ethics Foundations / 2. Source of Ethics / a. Idealistic ethics
Beauty, goodness and truth are only achieved by applying full attention [Weil]
22. Metaethics / C. The Good / 1. Goodness / a. Form of the Good
The good is a nothingness, and yet real [Weil]
There are two goods - the absolute good we want, and the reachable opposite of evil [Weil]
24. Political Theory / C. Ruling a State / 1. Social Power
The essence of power is illusory prestige [Weil]
24. Political Theory / C. Ruling a State / 4. Changing the State / c. Revolution
Most good social changes are incremental, rather than revolutionary [Gopnik]
24. Political Theory / D. Ideologies / 1. Ideology
A group is only dangerous if it endorses an abstract entity [Weil]
24. Political Theory / D. Ideologies / 2. Anarchism
Our only social duty is to try to limit evil [Weil]
24. Political Theory / D. Ideologies / 3. Conservatism
Conservatives often want peace, prosperity and tolerance, but not social fairness [Gopnik]
Conservatives believe obedience and rank are essential to social order [Gopnik]
24. Political Theory / D. Ideologies / 6. Liberalism / a. Liberalism basics
The opposite of liberalism is dogmatism [Gopnik]
People are fallible, so liberalism tries to distribute power [Gopnik]
Liberals have tried very hard to build a conscience into their institutions [Gopnik]
24. Political Theory / D. Ideologies / 6. Liberalism / c. Liberal equality
Left-wingers are inconsistent in their essentialist descriptions of social groups [Gopnik]
24. Political Theory / D. Ideologies / 6. Liberalism / e. Liberal community
Liberal community is not blood ties or tradition, but shared choices, and sympathy for the losers [Gopnik]
Liberal community includes flight from the family, into energetic reforming groups [Gopnik]
24. Political Theory / D. Ideologies / 6. Liberalism / g. Liberalism critique
Right-wingers attack liberal faith in reason, left-wingers attack its faith in reform [Gopnik]
Cosmopolitan liberals lack national loyalty, and welcome excessive immigration [Gopnik]
Modern left-wingers criticise liberalism's control of culture [Gopnik]
Liberalism's attempt to be neutral and colour-blind erases cultural identities [Gopnik]
24. Political Theory / D. Ideologies / 9. Communism
Classic Marxists see liberalism as the ideology of the bourgeoisie [Gopnik]
The collective is the one and only object of false idolatry [Weil]
24. Political Theory / D. Ideologies / 11. Capitalism
Environmental disasters result not from capitalism, but from a general drive for growth [Gopnik]
24. Political Theory / D. Ideologies / 14. Nationalism
Charity is the only love, and you can feel that for a country (a place with traditions), but not a nation [Weil]
Popular imperialism gives the poor the belief that their acts have world historical meaning [Gopnik]
Patriots love their place, but nationalists have a paranoid ethnic hostility [Gopnik]
25. Social Practice / A. Freedoms / 1. Slavery
If effort is from necessity rather than for a good, it is slavery [Weil]
25. Social Practice / A. Freedoms / 3. Free speech
Liberal free speech is actually paid speech [Gopnik]
25. Social Practice / A. Freedoms / 4. Free market
A 'free' society implies a free market, which always produces predatory capitalism and inequalities [Gopnik]
29. Religion / D. Religious Issues / 2. Immortality / b. Soul
The soul is the intrinsic value of a human [Weil]