43 ideas
6319 | Wise people choose inaction and silence [Laozi (Lao Tzu)] |
6325 | One who knows does not speak; one who speaks does not know [Laozi (Lao Tzu)] |
6321 | Vulgar people are alert; I alone am muddled [Laozi (Lao Tzu)] |
23770 | Reductive analysis makes a concept clearer, by giving an alternative simpler set [Williams,NE] |
23769 | Promoting an ontology by its implied good metaphysic is an 'argument-by-display' [Williams,NE] |
23783 | Change exists, it is causal, and it needs an explanation [Williams,NE] |
23784 | Processes don't begin or end; they just change direction unexpectedly [Williams,NE] |
23790 | Processes are either strings of short unchanging states, or continuous and unreducible events [Williams,NE] |
23786 | The status quo is part of what exists, and so needs metaphysical explanation [Williams,NE] |
23768 | A metaphysic is a set of wider explanations derived from a basic ontology [Williams,NE] |
23773 | Humeans say properties are passive, possibility is vast, laws are descriptions, causation is weak [Williams,NE] |
23779 | We shouldn't posit the existence of anything we have a word for [Williams,NE] |
23775 | Powers are 'multi-track' if they can produce a variety of manifestations [Williams,NE] |
23780 | Every possible state of affairs is written into its originating powers [Williams,NE] |
23789 | Naming powers is unwise, because that it usually done by a single manifestation [Williams,NE] |
23771 | Fundamental physics describes everything in terms of powers [Williams,NE] |
23776 | Rather than pure powers or pure categoricals, I favour basics which are both at once [Williams,NE] |
23777 | Powers are more complicated than properties which are always on display [Williams,NE] |
23774 | There are basic powers, which underlie dispositions, potentialities, capacities etc [Williams,NE] |
23791 | Dispositions are just useful descriptions, which are explained by underlying powers [Williams,NE] |
23772 | If objects are property bundles, the properties need combining powers [Williams,NE] |
23788 | Four-Dimensional is Perdurantism (temporal parts), plus Eternalism [Williams,NE] |
6328 | To know yet to think that one does not know is best [Laozi (Lao Tzu)] |
6323 | Pursuit of learning increases activity; the Way decreases it [Laozi (Lao Tzu)] |
6331 | Truth is not beautiful; beautiful speech is not truthful [Laozi (Lao Tzu)] |
6330 | One with no use for life is wiser than one who values it [Laozi (Lao Tzu)] |
6327 | Do good to him who has done you an injury [Laozi (Lao Tzu)] |
23402 | The highest virtue is achieved without effort [Laozi (Lao Tzu)] |
6324 | To gain in goodness, treat as good those who are good, and those who are not [Laozi (Lao Tzu)] |
6322 | There is no crime greater than having too many desires [Laozi (Lao Tzu)] |
6320 | The best rulers are invisible, the next admired, the next feared, and the worst are exploited [Laozi (Lao Tzu)] |
6329 | People are hard to govern because authorities love to do things [Laozi (Lao Tzu)] |
6326 | The better known the law, the more criminals there are [Laozi (Lao Tzu)] |
23401 | A military victory is not a thing of beauty [Laozi (Lao Tzu)] |
6613 | The natural kinds are objects, processes and properties/relations [Ellis] |
23782 | Causation is the exercise of powers [Williams,NE] |
23785 | Causation needs to explain stasis, as well as change [Williams,NE] |
23787 | If causes and effects overlap, that makes changes impossible [Williams,NE] |
6616 | Least action is not a causal law, but a 'global law', describing a global essence [Ellis] |
6615 | A species requires a genus, and its essence includes the essence of the genus [Ellis] |
6614 | A hierarchy of natural kinds is elaborate ontology, but needed to explain natural laws [Ellis] |
23778 | Powers contain lawlike features, pointing to possible future states [Williams,NE] |
6612 | Without general principles, we couldn't predict the behaviour of dispositional properties [Ellis] |