122 ideas
9199 | Wisdom for one instant is as good as wisdom for eternity [Chrysippus] |
421 | Men who love wisdom must be inquirers into very many things indeed [Heraclitus] |
20853 | Wise men should try to participate in politics, since they are a good influence [Chrysippus, by Diog. Laertius] |
326 | For relaxation one can consider the world of change, instead of eternal things [Plato] |
1491 | Everyone has the potential for self-knowledge and sound thinking [Heraclitus] |
315 | Philosophy is the supreme gift of the gods to mortals [Plato] |
20772 | Three branches of philosophy: first logic, second ethics, third physics (which ends with theology) [Chrysippus] |
5863 | Reason is eternal, but men are foolish [Heraclitus] |
414 | Logos is common to all, but most people live as if they have a private understanding [Heraclitus] |
306 | Nothing can come to be without a cause [Plato] |
5969 | Chrysippus said the uncaused is non-existent [Chrysippus, by Plutarch] |
425 | A thing can have opposing tensions but be in harmony, like a lyre [Heraclitus] |
416 | Beautiful harmony comes from things that are in opposition to one another [Heraclitus] |
21388 | The causes of future true events must exist now, so they will happen because of destiny [Chrysippus, by Cicero] |
20780 | Graspable presentations are criteria of facts, and are molded according to their objects [Chrysippus, by Diog. Laertius] |
20793 | How could you ever know that the presentation is similar to the object? [Sext.Empiricus on Chrysippus] |
8077 | Stoic propositional logic is like chemistry - how atoms make molecules, not the innards of atoms [Chrysippus, by Devlin] |
20791 | Chrysippus has five obvious 'indemonstrables' of reasoning [Chrysippus, by Diog. Laertius] |
8078 | Modus ponens is one of five inference rules identified by the Stoics [Chrysippus, by Devlin] |
1312 | If everything is and isn't then everything is true, and a midway between true and false makes everything false [Aristotle on Heraclitus] |
6023 | Every proposition is either true or false [Chrysippus, by Cicero] |
324 | Before the existence of the world there must have been being, space and becoming [Plato] |
20364 | The apprehensions of reason remain unchanging, but reasonless sensation shows mere becoming [Plato] |
5992 | Chrysippus says action is the criterion for existence, which must be physical [Chrysippus, by Tieleman] |
21673 | There are simple and complex facts; the latter depend on further facts [Chrysippus, by Cicero] |
16652 | Stoics categories are Substrate, Quality, Disposition, and Relation [Chrysippus, by Pasnau] |
15658 | The hidden harmony is stronger than the visible [Heraclitus] |
321 | For knowledge and true opinion to be different there must be Forms; otherwise we are just stuck with sensations [Plato] |
12042 | Plato's Forms were seen as part of physics, rather than of metaphysics [Plato, by Annas] |
307 | Something will always be well-made if the maker keeps in mind the eternal underlying pattern [Plato] |
318 | In addition to the underlying unchanging model and a changing copy of it, there must also be a foundation of all change [Plato] |
317 | The universe is basically an intelligible and unchanging model, and a visible and changing copy of it [Plato] |
13782 | Everything gives way, and nothing stands fast [Heraclitus] |
16058 | Dion and Theon coexist, but Theon lacks a foot. If Dion loses a foot, he ousts Theon? [Chrysippus, by Philo of Alexandria] |
11853 | A mixed drink separates if it is not stirred [Heraclitus] |
16059 | Change of matter doesn't destroy identity - in Dion and Theon change is a condition of identity [Chrysippus, by Long/Sedley] |
427 | It is not possible to step twice into the same river [Heraclitus] |
11091 | You can bathe in the same river twice, but not in the same river stage [Quine on Heraclitus] |
2064 | If flux is continuous, then lack of change can't be a property, so everything changes in every possible way [Plato on Heraclitus] |
334 | Only bird-brained people think astronomy is entirely a matter of evidence [Plato] |
430 | Senses are no use if the soul is corrupt [Heraclitus] |
1500 | When we sleep, reason closes down as the senses do [Heraclitus, by Sext.Empiricus] |
417 | Donkeys prefer chaff to gold [Heraclitus] |
426 | Sea water is life-giving for fish, but not for people [Heraclitus] |
431 | Health, feeding and rest are only made good by disease, hunger and weariness [Heraclitus] |
5962 | Plato says the soul is ordered by number [Plato, by Plutarch] |
1875 | Dogs show reason in decisions made by elimination [Chrysippus, by Sext.Empiricus] |
20834 | Chrysippus allows evil to say it is fated, or even that it is rational and natural [Plutarch on Chrysippus] |
20833 | A swerve in the atoms would be unnatural, like scales settling differently for no reason [Chrysippus, by Plutarch] |
330 | No one wants to be bad, but bad men result from physical and educational failures, which they do not want or choose [Plato] |
20808 | Everything is fated, either by continuous causes or by a supreme rational principle [Chrysippus, by Diog. Laertius] |
20835 | Chrysippus is wrong to believe in non-occurring future possibilities if he is a fatalist [Plutarch on Chrysippus] |
20836 | The Lazy Argument responds to fate with 'why bother?', but the bothering is also fated [Chrysippus, by Cicero] |
21679 | When we say events are fated by antecedent causes, do we mean principal or auxiliary causes? [Chrysippus] |
20837 | Fate is an eternal and fixed chain of causal events [Chrysippus] |
5971 | Destiny is only a predisposing cause, not a sufficient cause [Chrysippus, by Plutarch] |
20787 | A proposition is what can be asserted or denied on its own [Chrysippus] |
20850 | Passions are judgements; greed thinks money is honorable, and likewise drinking and lust [Chrysippus, by Diog. Laertius] |
20869 | The highest degree of morality performs all that is appropriate, omitting nothing [Chrysippus] |
316 | Music has harmony like the soul, and serves to reorder disharmony within us [Plato] |
3044 | Stoics say that beauty and goodness are equivalent and linked [Chrysippus, by Diog. Laertius] |
429 | To God (though not to humans) all things are beautiful and good and just [Heraclitus] |
20838 | Fate initiates general causes, but individual wills and characters dictate what we do [Chrysippus] |
12294 | Good and evil are the same thing [Heraclitus, by Aristotle] |
20813 | Human purpose is to contemplate and imitate the cosmos [Chrysippus] |
3045 | Stoics say justice is a part of nature, not just an invented principle [Chrysippus, by Diog. Laertius] |
20774 | Only nature is available to guide action and virtue [Chrysippus] |
419 | If one does not hope, one will not find the unhoped-for, since nothing leads to it [Heraclitus] |
20864 | Live in agreement, according to experience of natural events [Chrysippus] |
5972 | Living happily is nothing but living virtuously [Chrysippus, by Plutarch] |
415 | If happiness is bodily pleasure, then oxen are happy when they have vetch to eat [Heraclitus] |
1777 | Pleasure is not the good, because there are disgraceful pleasures [Chrysippus, by Diog. Laertius] |
5973 | Justice can be preserved if pleasure is a good, but not if it is the goal [Chrysippus, by Plutarch] |
332 | One should exercise both the mind and the body, to avoid imbalance [Plato] |
20845 | There are shameful pleasures, and nothing shameful is good, so pleasure is not a good [Chrysippus, by Diog. Laertius] |
328 | Everything that takes place naturally is pleasant [Plato] |
5155 | It is hard to fight against emotion, but harder still to fight against pleasure [Heraclitus] |
5967 | People need nothing except corn and water [Chrysippus, by Plutarch] |
5966 | All virtue is good, but not always praised (as in not lusting after someone ugly) [Chrysippus] |
20855 | Chrysippus says virtue can be lost (though Cleanthes says it is too secure for that) [Chrysippus, by Diog. Laertius] |
5970 | Chrysippus says nothing is blameworthy, as everything conforms with the best nature [Chrysippus, by Plutarch] |
433 | For man character is destiny [Heraclitus] |
20842 | Rational animals begin uncorrupted, but externals and companions are bad influences [Chrysippus, by Diog. Laertius] |
422 | The people should fight for the law as if for their city-wall [Heraclitus] |
20856 | Justice, the law, and right reason are natural and not conventional [Chrysippus, by Diog. Laertius] |
322 | Intelligence is the result of rational teaching; true opinion can result from irrational persuasion [Plato] |
331 | Bad governments prevent discussion, and discourage the study of virtue [Plato] |
1779 | We don't have obligations to animals as they aren't like us [Chrysippus, by Diog. Laertius] |
20857 | Justice is irrelevant to animals, because they are too unlike us [Chrysippus, by Diog. Laertius] |
310 | The creator of the cosmos had no envy, and so wanted things to be as like himself as possible [Plato] |
311 | The cosmos must be unique, because it resembles the creator, who is unique [Plato] |
20812 | Covers are for shields, and sheaths for swords; likewise, all in the cosmos is for some other thing [Chrysippus] |
614 | Heraclitus said sometimes everything becomes fire [Heraclitus, by Aristotle] |
424 | Reason tells us that all things are one [Heraclitus] |
21403 | The later Stoics identified the logos with an air-fire compound, called 'pneuma' [Chrysippus, by Long] |
20828 | Fire is a separate element, not formed with others (as was previously believed) [Chrysippus, by Stobaeus] |
5975 | Stoics say earth, air, fire and water are the primary elements [Chrysippus, by Plutarch] |
5096 | Heraclitus says that at some time everything becomes fire [Heraclitus, by Aristotle] |
17539 | The sayings of Heraclitus are still correct, if we replace 'fire' with 'energy' [Heraclitus, by Heisenberg] |
3054 | Heraclitus said fire could be transformed to create the other lower elements [Heraclitus, by Diog. Laertius] |
325 | We must consider the four basic shapes as too small to see, only becoming visible in large numbers [Plato] |
15660 | Logos is the source of everything, and my theories separate and explain each nature [Heraclitus] |
327 | There are two types of cause, the necessary and the divine [Plato] |
12269 | All things are in a state of motion [Heraclitus, by Aristotle] |
20819 | The past and the future subsist, but only the present exists [Chrysippus, by Plutarch] |
314 | Heavenly movements gave us the idea of time, and caused us to inquire about the heavens [Plato] |
312 | Time came into existence with the heavens, so that there will be a time when they can be dissolved [Plato] |
20818 | The present does not exist, so our immediate experience is actually part past and part future [Chrysippus, by Plutarch] |
20821 | Time is continous and infinitely divisible, so there cannot be a wholly present time [Chrysippus, by Stobaeus] |
309 | Clearly the world is good, so its maker must have been concerned with the eternal, not with change [Plato] |
420 | The cosmos is eternal not created, and is an ever-living and changing fire [Heraclitus] |
308 | If the cosmos is an object of perception then it must be continually changing [Plato] |
3048 | Stoics say that God the creator is the perfection of all animals [Chrysippus, by Diog. Laertius] |
20773 | The origin of justice can only be in Zeus, and in nature [Chrysippus] |
3042 | Stoics teach that law is identical with right reason, which is the will of Zeus [Chrysippus, by Diog. Laertius] |
5965 | The source of all justice is Zeus and the universal nature [Chrysippus] |
1499 | Heraclitus says intelligence draws on divine reason [Heraclitus, by Sext.Empiricus] |
15659 | Purifying yourself with blood is as crazy as using mud to wash off mud [Heraclitus] |
1782 | Stoics teach that God is a unity, variously known as Mind, or Fate, or Jupiter [Chrysippus, by Diog. Laertius] |
1501 | In their ignorance people pray to statues, which is like talking to a house [Heraclitus] |
20830 | Death can't separate soul from body, because incorporeal soul can't unite with body [Chrysippus] |
21404 | There is a rationale in terrible disasters; they are useful to the whole, and make good possible [Chrysippus] |