31 ideas
| 20771 | Six parts: dialectic, rhetoric, ethics, politics, physics, theology [Cleanthes, by Diog. Laertius] |
| 5311 | If observation goes up a level, we expect the laws of the lower level to remain in force [Wilson,EO] |
| 5312 | A child first sees objects as distinct, and later as members of groups [Wilson,EO] |
| 5309 | Beliefs are really enabling mechanisms for survival [Wilson,EO] |
| 6028 | Bodies interact with other bodies, and cuts cause pain, and shame causes blushing, so the soul is a body [Cleanthes, by Nemesius] |
| 20831 | The soul suffers when the body hurts, creates redness from shame, and pallor from fear [Cleanthes] |
| 5310 | Philosophers study the consequences of ethics instead of its origins [Wilson,EO] |
| 5313 | The rules of human decision-making converge and overlap in a 'human nature' [Wilson,EO] |
| 5316 | We undermine altruism by rewarding it, but we reward it to encourage it [Wilson,EO] |
| 5318 | Pure hard-core altruism based on kin selection is the enemy of civilisation [Wilson,EO] |
| 5317 | The actor is most convincing who believes that his performance is real [Wilson,EO] |
| 22673 | Wherever there is a small community, the association of the people is natural [Tocqueville] |
| 22676 | The people are just individuals, and only present themselves as united to foreigners [Tocqueville] |
| 22679 | Vast empires are bad for well-being and freedom, though they may promote glory [Tocqueville] |
| 22680 | People would be much happier and freer in small nations [Tocqueville] |
| 22675 | In American judges rule according to the Constitution, not the law [Tocqueville] |
| 22677 | A monarchical family is always deeply concerned with the interests of the state [Tocqueville] |
| 22683 | Despots like to see their own regulations ignored, by themselves and their agents [Tocqueville] |
| 22669 | Aristocracy is constituted by inherited landed property [Tocqueville] |
| 22674 | In Europe it is thought that local government is best handled centrally [Tocqueville] |
| 22678 | An election, and its lead up time, are always a national crisis [Tocqueville] |
| 22682 | Universal suffrage is no guarantee of wise choices [Tocqueville] |
| 22670 | Slavery undermines the morals and energy of a society [Tocqueville] |
| 22681 | The liberty of the press is more valuable for what it prevents than what it promotes [Tocqueville] |
| 22672 | It is admirable to elevate the humble to the level of the great, but the opposite is depraved [Tocqueville] |
| 22671 | Equality can only be established by equal rights for all (or no rights for anyone) [Tocqueville] |
| 5308 | The only human purpose is that created by our genetic history [Wilson,EO] |
| 5314 | Cultural evolution is Lamarckian and fast, biological evolution is Darwinian and slow [Wilson,EO] |
| 5315 | Over 99 percent of human evolution has been in the hunter-gatherer phase [Wilson,EO] |
| 5993 | The ascending scale of living creatures requires a perfect being [Cleanthes, by Tieleman] |
| 5320 | It is estimated that mankind has produced 100,000 religions [Wilson,EO] |