48 ideas
8093 | Seek wisdom rather than truth; it is easier [Joubert] |
8095 | We must think with our entire body and soul [Joubert] |
8107 | The love of certainty holds us back in metaphysics [Joubert] |
4767 | Traditionally, rational beliefs are those which are justified by reasons [Psillos] |
8099 | The truths of reason instruct, but they do not illuminate [Joubert] |
8098 | Truth consists of having the same idea about something that God has [Joubert] |
4810 | Valid deduction is monotonic - that is, it remains valid if further premises are added [Psillos] |
4768 | The 'epistemic fallacy' is inferring what does exist from what can be known to exist [Psillos] |
8101 | To know is to see inside oneself [Joubert] |
4807 | A good barometer will predict a storm, but not explain it [Psillos] |
4808 | If we say where Mars was two months ago, we offer an explanation without a prediction [Psillos] |
4811 | Induction (unlike deduction) is non-monotonic - it can be invalidated by new premises [Psillos] |
4812 | Explanation is either showing predictability, or showing necessity, or showing causal relations [Psillos] |
4802 | Just citing a cause does not enable us to understand an event; we also need a relevant law [Psillos] |
4804 | The 'covering law model' says only laws can explain the occurrence of single events [Psillos] |
4805 | If laws explain the length of a flagpole's shadow, then the shadow also explains the length of the pole [Psillos] |
4395 | There are non-causal explanations, most typically mathematical explanations [Psillos] |
4806 | An explanation can just be a 'causal story', without laws, as when I knock over some ink [Psillos] |
4404 | Maybe explanation is entirely relative to the interests and presuppositions of the questioner [Psillos] |
4803 | An explanation is the removal of the surprise caused by the event [Psillos] |
8094 | The imagination has made more discoveries than the eye [Joubert] |
4769 | It is hard to analyse causation, if it is presupposed in our theory of the functioning of the mind [Psillos] |
8103 | A thought is as real as a cannon ball [Joubert] |
8100 | Where does the bird's idea of a nest come from? [Joubert] |
468 | Musical performance can reveal a range of virtues [Damon of Ath.] |
4770 | Nothing is more usual than to apply to external bodies every internal sensation which they occasion [Psillos] |
8096 | He gives his body up to pleasure, but not his soul [Joubert] |
8104 | What will you think of pleasures when you no longer enjoy them? [Joubert] |
8097 | Virtue is hard if we are scorned; we need support [Joubert] |
8106 | In raising a child we must think of his old age [Joubert] |
4399 | Causes clearly make a difference, are recipes for events, explain effects, and are evidence [Psillos] |
4400 | Theories of causation are based either on regularity, or on intrinsic relations of properties [Psillos] |
4403 | We can't base our account of causation on explanation, because it is the wrong way round [Psillos] |
4789 | Three divisions of causal theories: generalist/singularist, intrinsic/extrinsic, reductive/non-reductive [Psillos] |
4790 | If causation is 'intrinsic' it depends entirely on the properties and relations of the cause and effect [Psillos] |
4402 | Empiricists tried to reduce causation to explanation, which they reduced to logic-plus-a-law [Psillos] |
4774 | Counterfactual claims about causation imply that it is more than just regular succession [Psillos] |
4793 | "All gold cubes are smaller than one cubic mile" is a true universal generalisation, but not a law [Psillos] |
4397 | Regularity doesn't seem sufficient for causation [Psillos] |
4792 | A Humean view of causation says it is regularities, and causal facts supervene on non-causal facts [Psillos] |
4801 | The regularity of a cock's crow is used to predict dawn, even though it doesn't cause it [Psillos] |
4401 | It is not a law of nature that all the coins in my pocket are euros, though it is a regularity [Psillos] |
4796 | Laws are sets of regularities within a simple and strong coherent system of wider regularities [Psillos] |
4799 | Dispositional essentialism can't explain its key distinction between essential and non-essential properties [Psillos] |
4780 | In some counterfactuals, the counterfactual event happens later than its consequent [Psillos] |
4791 | Counterfactual theories say causes make a difference - if c hadn't occurred, then e wouldn't occur [Psillos] |
8105 | We can't exactly conceive virtue without the idea of God [Joubert] |
8102 | We cannot speak against Christianity without anger, or speak for it without love [Joubert] |