273 ideas
5540 | Cleverness is shown in knowing what can reasonably be asked [Kant] |
2512 | Philosophy is a battle against the bewitchment of our intelligence by means of language [Wittgenstein] |
5631 | Reason is only interested in knowledge, actions and hopes [Kant] |
4148 | What is your aim in philosophy? - To show the fly the way out of the fly-bottle [Wittgenstein] |
5635 | In ordinary life the highest philosophy is no better than common understanding [Kant] |
21954 | Metaphysics is a systematic account of everything that can be known a priori [Kant] |
7918 | Kant turned metaphysics into epistemology, ignoring Aristotle's 'being qua being' [Kant, by Macdonald,C] |
21438 | Metaphysics might do better to match objects to our cognition (and not start with the objects) [Kant] |
16611 | You just can't stop metaphysical speculation, in any mature mind [Kant] |
5586 | The voyage of reason may go only as far as the coastline of experience reaches [Kant] |
21462 | It is still possible to largely accept Kant as a whole (where others must be dismantled) [Kant, by Gardner] |
5600 | Human reason considers all knowledge as belonging to a possible system [Kant] |
21457 | Reason has two separate objects, morality and freedom, and nature, which ultimately unite [Kant] |
9752 | Kant showed that theoretical reason cannot give answers to speculative metaphysics [Kant, by Korsgaard] |
6584 | A priori metaphysics is fond of basic unchanging entities like God, the soul, Forms, atoms… [Kant, by Fogelin] |
9349 | A dove cutting through the air, might think it could fly better in airless space (which Plato attempted) [Kant] |
12767 | Kant exposed the illusions of reason in the Transcendental Dialectic [Kant, by Fraassen] |
9350 | Our reason mostly analyses concepts we already have of objects [Kant] |
5530 | Analysis of our concepts is merely a preparation for proper a priori metaphysics [Kant] |
18259 | Analysis is becoming self-conscious about our concepts [Kant] |
22490 | Bring words back from metaphysics to everyday use [Wittgenstein] |
5622 | The boundaries of reason can only be determined a priori [Kant] |
5623 | If I know the earth is a sphere, and I am on it, I can work out its area from a small part [Kant] |
5604 | In reason things can only begin if they are voluntary [Kant] |
5578 | Pure reason deals with concepts in the understanding, not with objects [Kant] |
5603 | Pure reason exists outside of time [Kant] |
5628 | Reason hates to be limited in its speculations [Kant] |
5616 | Pure reason is only concerned with itself because it deals with understandings, not objects [Kant] |
18236 | Reason keeps asking why until explanation is complete [Kant, by Korsgaard] |
21439 | Religion and legislation can only be respected if they accept free and public examination [Kant] |
5584 | All objections are dogmatic (against propositions), or critical (against proofs), or sceptical [Kant] |
5565 | Proof of the principle of sufficient reason cannot be found [Kant] |
5563 | The principle of sufficient reason is the ground of possible experience in time [Kant] |
6566 | The problem is to explain the role of contradiction in social life [Wittgenstein] |
5602 | The free dialectic opposition of arguments is an invaluable part of the sceptical method [Kant] |
5618 | Definitions exhibit the exhaustive concept of a thing within its boundaries [Kant] |
5619 | No a priori concept can be defined [Kant] |
5577 | Transcendental ideas require unity of the subject, conditions of appearance, and objects of thought [Kant] |
23696 | Transcendental cognition is that a priori thought which shows how the a priori is applicable or possible [Kant] |
22274 | 'Transcendent' is beyond experience, and 'transcendental' is concealed within experience [Kant, by Potter] |
5555 | Philosophical examples rarely fit rules properly, and lead to inflexibility [Kant] |
5539 | We must presuppose that truth is agreement of cognition with its objects [Kant] |
5620 | Philosophy has no axioms, as it is just rational cognition of concepts [Kant] |
18794 | Logic has precise boundaries, and is the formal rules for all thinking [Kant] |
18743 | Wittgenstein says we want the grammar of problems, not their first-order logical structure [Wittgenstein, by Horsten/Pettigrew] |
4139 | Naming is a preparation for description [Wittgenstein] |
4946 | A name is not determined by a description, but by a cluster or family [Wittgenstein, by Kripke] |
5542 | There must be a general content-free account of truth in the rules of logic [Kant] |
21454 | The battle of the antinomies is usually won by the attacker, and lost by any defender [Kant] |
8739 | Geometry studies the Euclidean space that dictates how we perceive things [Kant, by Shapiro] |
8740 | Geometry would just be an idle game without its connection to our intuition [Kant] |
16899 | Geometrical truth comes from a general schema abstracted from a particular object [Kant, by Burge] |
9632 | Kant only accepts potential infinity, not actual infinity [Kant, by Brown,JR] |
3343 | Euclid's could be the only viable geometry, if rejection of the parallel line postulate doesn't lead to a contradiction [Benardete,JA on Kant] |
8737 | Kant suggested that arithmetic has no axioms [Kant, by Shapiro] |
5557 | Axioms ought to be synthetic a priori propositions [Kant] |
12421 | Kant's intuitions struggle to judge relevance, impossibility and exactness [Kitcher on Kant] |
17617 | Maths is a priori, but without its relation to empirical objects it is meaningless [Kant] |
12458 | Kant taught that mathematics is independent of logic, and cannot be grounded in it [Kant, by Hilbert] |
2795 | If 7+5=12 is analytic, then an infinity of other ways to reach 12 have to be analytic [Kant, by Dancy,J] |
4475 | Saying a thing 'is' adds nothing to it - otherwise if my concept exists, it isn't the same as my concept [Kant] |
7416 | Kant is read as the phenomena being 'contrained' by the noumenon, or 'free-floating' [Talbot on Kant] |
19386 | Without the subject or the senses, space and time vanish, as their appearances disappear [Kant] |
21445 | Even the most perfect intuition gets no closer to things in themselves [Kant] |
21448 | Categories are general concepts of objects, which determine the way in which they are experienced [Kant] |
5554 | Categories are necessary, so can't be implanted in us to agree with natural laws [Kant] |
6160 | Does Kant say the mind imposes categories, or that it restricts us to them? [Rowlands on Kant] |
17772 | Kant claims causal powers are relational rather than intrinsic [Kant, by Bayne] |
5533 | Objects in themselves are not known to us at all [Kant] |
21449 | The a priori concept of objects in general is the ground of experience [Kant] |
5550 | A substance could exist as a subject, but not as a mere predicate [Kant] |
21451 | All appearances need substance, as that which persists through change [Kant] |
5564 | Substance must exist, as the persisting substratum of the process of change [Kant] |
15106 | Essence is expressed by grammar [Wittgenstein] |
5626 | An a priori principle of persistence anticipates all experience [Kant] |
7576 | The Identity of Indiscernibles is true of concepts with identical properties, but not of particulars [Kant, by Jolley] |
14509 | If we ignore differences between water drops, we still distinguish them by their location [Kant] |
18797 | Modalities do not augment our concepts; they express their relation to cognition [Kant] |
5594 | Natural necessity is the unconditioned necessity of appearances [Kant] |
5566 | Is the possible greater than the actual, and the actual greater than the necessary? [Kant] |
5613 | The analytic mark of possibility is that it does not generate a contradiction [Kant] |
18795 | A concept is logically possible if non-contradictory (but may not be actually possible) [Kant] |
18796 | Formal experience conditions show what is possible, and general conditions what is necessary [Kant] |
16256 | For Kant metaphysics must be necessary, so a priori, so can't be justified by experience [Kant, by Maudlin] |
5524 | Maths must be a priori because it is necessary, and that cannot be derived from experience [Kant] |
23461 | Kant thought worldly necessities are revealed by what maths needs to make sense [Kant, by Morris,M] |
14710 | Necessity is always knowable a priori, and what is known a priori is always necessary [Kant, by Schroeter] |
20944 | Knowledge is threefold: apprehension, reproduction by imagination, recognition by concepts [Kant, by Bowie] |
5617 | Knowledge begins with intuitions, moves to concepts, and ends with ideas [Kant] |
15627 | Kant showed that the understanding (unlike reason) concerns what is finite and conditioned [Kant, by Hegel] |
16898 | Understanding essentially involves singular elements [Kant, by Burge] |
5573 | Reason is distinct from understanding, and is the faculty of rules or principles [Kant] |
5634 | Opinion is subjectively and objectively insufficient; belief is subjective but not objective; knowledge is both [Kant] |
6600 | The belief that fire burns is like the fear that it burns [Wittgenstein] |
5590 | 'I think therefore I am' is an identity, not an inference (as there is no major premise) [Kant] |
4153 | Are sense-data the material of which the universe is made? [Wittgenstein] |
5601 | There are possible inhabitants of the moon, but they are just possible experiences [Kant] |
22003 | We have no sensual experience of time and space, so they must be 'ideal' [Kant, by Pinkard] |
21456 | Objects having to be experiencable is not the same as full idealism [Gardner on Kant] |
21446 | If we disappeared, then all relations of objects, and time and space themselves, disappear too [Kant] |
6909 | In Kantian idealism, objects fit understanding, not vice versa [Kant, by Feuerbach] |
6910 | Kant's idealism is a limited idealism based on the viewpoint of empiricism [Kant, by Feuerbach] |
21440 | For Kant experience is either structured like reality, or generates reality's structure [Kant, by Gardner] |
22006 | The concepts that make judgeable experiences possible are created spontaneously [Kant, by Pinkard] |
21442 | 'Transcendental' cognition concerns what can be known a priori of its mode [Kant] |
5568 | We cannot know things in themselves, but are confined to appearances [Kant] |
5581 | We have proved that bodies are appearances of the outer senses, not things in themselves [Kant] |
21956 | Everything we intuit is merely a representation, with no external existence (Transcendental Idealism) [Kant] |
9156 | Kant's shift of view enables us to see a priority in terms of mental capacity, not truth and propositions [Burge on Kant] |
7575 | A priori knowledge is limited to objects of possible experience [Kant, by Jolley] |
12414 | A priori knowledge occurs absolutely independently of all experience [Kant] |
9351 | One sort of a priori knowledge just analyses given concepts, but another ventures further [Kant] |
9348 | Experienceless bodies have space; propertyless bodies have substance; this must be seen a priori [Kant] |
5404 | Two plus two objects make four objects even if experience is impossible, so Kant is wrong [Russell on Kant] |
9345 | Propositions involving necessity are a priori, and pure a priori if they only derive from other necessities [Kant] |
16893 | The apriori is independent of its sources, and marked by necessity and generality [Kant, by Burge] |
9347 | A priori knowledge is indispensable for the possibility and certainty of experience [Kant] |
3342 | Seeing that only one parallel can be drawn to a line through a given point is clearly synthetic a priori [Kant, by Benardete,JA] |
20943 | Kant bases the synthetic a priori on the categories of oneness and manyness [Kant, by Bowie] |
5402 | Kant showed that we have a priori knowledge which is not purely analytic [Kant, by Russell] |
5203 | We can think of 7 and 5 without 12, but it is still a contradiction to deny 7+5=12 [Ayer on Kant] |
5527 | That a straight line is the shortest is synthetic, as straight does not imply any quantity [Kant] |
5528 | That force and counter-force are equal is necessary, and a priori synthetic [Kant] |
5529 | The real problem of pure reason is: how are a priori synthetic judgments possible? [Kant] |
5537 | That two lines cannot enclose a space is an intuitive a priori synthetic proposition [Kant] |
5546 | Are a priori concepts necessary as a precondition for something to be an object? [Kant] |
5558 | 7+5=12 is not analytic, because 12 is not contained in 7 or 5 or their combination [Kant] |
5624 | We possess synthetic a priori knowledge in our principles which anticipate experience [Kant] |
5571 | Reason contains within itself certain underived concepts and principles [Kant] |
5403 | If, as Kant says, arithmetic and logic are contributed by us, they could change if we did [Russell on Kant] |
5525 | No analysis of the sum of seven and five will in itself reveal twelve [Kant] |
18262 | For Kant analytic knowledge needs complex concepts, but the a priori can rest on the simple [Coffa on Kant] |
5526 | With large numbers it is obvious that we could never find the sum by analysing the concepts [Kant] |
5567 | A priori the understanding can only anticipate possible experiences [Kant] |
18264 | We know the shape of a cone from its concept, but we don't know its colour [Kant] |
5532 | Colours and tastes are not qualities of things, but alterations of the subject [Kant] |
6501 | As sense-data are necessarily private, they are attacked by Wittgenstein's objections [Wittgenstein, by Robinson,H] |
2774 | Kant says the cognitive and sensory elements in experience can't be separated [Kant, by Dancy,J] |
23454 | Appearances have a 'form', which indicates a relational order [Kant] |
5569 | We cannot represent objects unless we combine concepts with intuitions [Kant] |
23697 | I exist just as an intelligence aware of its faculty for combination [Kant] |
22005 | Associations and causes cannot explain content, which needs norms of judgement [Kant, by Pinkard] |
6577 | For Kant, our conceptual scheme is disastrous when it reaches beyond experience [Kant, by Fogelin] |
5538 | Understanding has no intuitions, and senses no thought, so knowledge needs their unity [Kant] |
5559 | Sensations are a posteriori, but that they come in degrees is known a priori [Kant] |
8736 | Kantian intuitions are of particulars, and they give immediate knowledge [Kant, by Shapiro] |
11079 | How do I decide when to accept or obey an intuition? [Wittgenstein] |
5541 | A sufficient but general sign of truth cannot possibly be provided [Kant] |
7070 | Kant says knowledge is when our representations sufficiently conform to our concepts [Kant, by Critchley] |
4708 | Kant thought he had refuted scepticism, but his critics say he is a sceptic, for rejecting reality [O'Grady on Kant] |
5595 | Scepticism is absurd in maths, where there are no hidden false assertions [Kant] |
5592 | Scepticism is the euthanasia of pure reason [Kant] |
4160 | One can mistrust one's own senses, but not one's own beliefs [Wittgenstein] |
6578 | For Kant, experience is relative to a scheme, but there are no further possible schemes [Kant, by Fogelin] |
5629 | If a proposition implies any false consequences, then it is false [Kant] |
5606 | Freedom and natural necessity do not contradict, as they relate to different conditions [Kant] |
19273 | I don't have the opinion that people have minds; I just treat them as such [Wittgenstein] |
5663 | It is irresponsible to generalise from my own case of pain to other people's [Wittgenstein] |
19272 | To imagine another's pain by my own, I must imagine a pain I don't feel, by one I do feel [Wittgenstein] |
4086 | Kant thought that consciousness depends on self-consciousness ('apperception') [Kant, by Crane] |
4161 | If a lion could talk, we could not understand him [Wittgenstein] |
7392 | If a lion could talk, it would be nothing like other lions [Dennett on Wittgenstein] |
2869 | Kant's only answer as to how synthetic a priori judgements are possible was that we have a 'faculty'! [Nietzsche on Kant] |
9346 | Judgements which are essentially and strictly universal reveal our faculty of a priori cognition [Kant] |
5572 | Reason has logical and transcendental faculties [Kant] |
22443 | We are seldom aware of imagination, but we would have no cognition at all without it [Kant] |
5627 | I can express the motion of my body in a single point, but that doesn't mean it is a simple substance [Kant] |
9751 | To some extent we must view ourselves as noumena [Kant, by Korsgaard] |
21450 | Representation would be impossible without the 'I think' that accompanies it [Kant] |
5583 | We need an account of the self based on rational principles, to avoid materialism [Kant] |
5676 | To say that I 'know' I am in pain means nothing more than that I AM in pain [Wittgenstein] |
5570 | Self-knowledge can only be inner sensation, and thus appearance [Kant] |
5551 | I have no cognition of myself as I am, but only as I appear to myself [Kant] |
21452 | I can only determine my existence in time via external things [Kant] |
5582 | As balls communicate motion, so substances could communicate consciousness, but not retain identity [Kant] |
2965 | For Kant the self is a purely formal idea, not a substance [Kant, by Lockwood] |
5549 | Mental representations would not be mine if they did not belong to a unified self-consciousness [Kant] |
5596 | We must assume an absolute causal spontaneity beginning from itself [Kant] |
9756 | We must be free, because we can act against our strongest desires [Kant, by Korsgaard] |
5597 | If there is a first beginning, there can be other sequences initiated from nothing [Kant] |
5585 | Soul and body connect physically, or by harmony, or by assistance [Kant] |
5630 | Our concept of an incorporeal nature is merely negative [Kant] |
5589 | Neither materialism nor spiritualism can reveal the separate existence of the soul [Kant] |
4154 | Why are we not aware of the huge gap between mind and brain in ordinary life? [Wittgenstein] |
5556 | A pure concept of the understanding can never become an image [Kant] |
8687 | Kantian 'intuition' is the bridge between pure reason and its application to sense experiences [Kant, by Friend] |
6165 | Every course of action can either accord or conflict with a rule, so there is no accord or conflict [Wittgenstein] |
4143 | One cannot obey a rule 'privately', because that is a practice, not the same as thinking one is obeying [Wittgenstein] |
7092 | If individuals can't tell if they are following a rule, how does a community do it? [Grayling on Wittgenstein] |
4158 | An 'inner process' stands in need of outward criteria [Wittgenstein] |
21759 | Kant deduced the categories from our judgements, and then as preconditions of experience [Kant, by Houlgate] |
19655 | Kant says we can describe the categories of thought, but Hegel claims to deduce them [Kant, by Meillassoux] |
5552 | Categories are concepts that prescribe laws a priori to appearances [Kant] |
5544 | Four groups of categories of concept: Quantity, Quality, Relation and Modality [Kant] |
5547 | The categories are objectively valid, because they make experience possible [Kant] |
4138 | Is white simple, or does it consist of the colours of the rainbow? [Wittgenstein] |
7055 | Externalist accounts of mental content begin in Wittgenstein [Wittgenstein, by Heil] |
17616 | Thoughts without content are empty, intuitions without concepts are blind [Kant] |
5553 | Either experience creates concepts, or concepts make experience possible [Kant] |
5593 | Reason generates no concepts, but frees them from their link to experience in the understanding [Kant] |
22004 | Concepts are rules for combining representations [Kant, by Pinkard] |
5543 | All human cognition is through concepts [Kant] |
12576 | Possessing a concept is knowing how to go on [Wittgenstein, by Peacocke] |
4157 | Concepts direct our interests and investigations, and express those interests [Wittgenstein] |
12606 | Man learns the concept of the past by remembering [Wittgenstein] |
8735 | Kant implies that concepts have analysable parts [Kant, by Shapiro] |
4141 | Various games have a 'family resemblance', as their similarities overlap and criss-cross [Wittgenstein] |
23450 | Wittgenstein rejected his earlier view that the form of language is the form of the world [Wittgenstein, by Morris,M] |
4150 | Asking about verification is only one way of asking about the meaning of a proposition [Wittgenstein] |
4137 | In the majority of cases the meaning of a word is its use in the language [Wittgenstein] |
6567 | For Wittgenstein, words are defined by their use, just as chess pieces are [Wittgenstein, by Fogelin] |
6169 | We do not achieve meaning and understanding in our heads, but in the world [Wittgenstein, by Rowlands] |
4155 | We all seem able to see quite clearly how sentences represent things when we use them [Wittgenstein] |
4142 | To understand a sentence means to understand a language [Wittgenstein] |
4149 | We don't have 'meanings' in our minds in addition to verbal expressions [Wittgenstein] |
4156 | Make the following experiment: say "It's cold here" and mean "It's warm here" [Wittgenstein] |
4145 | How do words refer to sensations? [Wittgenstein] |
4140 | The standard metre in Paris is neither one metre long nor not one metre long [Wittgenstein] |
8734 | Non-subject/predicate tautologies won't fit Kant's definition of analyticity [Shapiro on Kant] |
7314 | How can bachelor 'contain' unmarried man? Are all analytic truths in subject-predicate form? [Miller,A on Kant] |
20291 | If the predicate is contained in the subject of a judgement, it is analytic; otherwise synthetic [Kant] |
20292 | Analytic judgements clarify, by analysing the subject into its component predicates [Kant] |
4136 | To imagine a language means to imagine a form of life [Wittgenstein] |
6166 | Was Wittgenstein's problem between individual and community, or between occasions for an individual? [Rowlands on Wittgenstein] |
7875 | If a brilliant child invented a name for a private sensation, it couldn't communicate it [Wittgenstein] |
4146 | We cannot doublecheck mental images for correctness (or confirm news with many copies of the paper) [Wittgenstein] |
4147 | If we only named pain by our own case, it would be like naming beetles by looking in a private box [Wittgenstein] |
5659 | If the reference is private, that is incompatible with the sense being public [Wittgenstein, by Scruton] |
4152 | Getting from perceptions to words cannot be a private matter; the rules need an institution of use [Wittgenstein] |
4144 | Common human behaviour enables us to interpret an unknown language [Wittgenstein] |
11049 | To communicate, language needs agreement in judgment as well as definition [Wittgenstein] |
6658 | What is left over if I subtract my arm going up from my raising my arm? [Wittgenstein] |
468 | Musical performance can reveal a range of virtues [Damon of Ath.] |
5599 | Without God, creation and free will, morality would be empty [Kant] |
5576 | We cannot derive moral laws from experience, as it is the mother of illusion [Kant] |
21455 | We only understand what exists, and can find no sign of what ought to be in nature [Kant] |
5605 | Moral blame is based on reason, since a reason is a cause which should have been followed [Kant] |
5632 | Moral laws are commands, which must involve promises and threats, which only God could provide [Kant] |
6916 | For Kant, essence is mental and a mere idea, and existence is the senses and mere appearance [Kant, by Feuerbach] |
5575 | An obvious idea is a constitution based on maximum mutual freedom for citizens [Kant] |
5621 | The existence of reason depends on the freedom of citizens to agree, doubt and veto ideas [Kant] |
22052 | Kant's nature is just a system of necessary laws [Bowie on Kant] |
8256 | Kant identifies nature with the scientific picture of it as the realm of law [Kant, by McDowell] |
5591 | Reason must assume as necessary that everything in a living organism has a proportionate purpose [Kant] |
5615 | Extension and impenetrability together make the concept of matter [Kant] |
14560 | A ball denting a pillow seems like simultaneous cause and effect, though time identifies which is cause [Kant] |
5545 | Appearances give rules of what usually happens, but cause involves necessity [Kant] |
9755 | The concept of causality entails laws; random causality is a contradiction [Kant, by Korsgaard] |
17709 | We judge causation by relating events together by some law of nature [Kant, by Mares] |
5562 | Experience is only possible because we subject appearances to causal laws [Kant] |
5523 | Causation obviously involves necessity, so it cannot just be frequent association [Kant] |
19669 | For Kant the laws must be necessary, because contingency would destroy representation [Kant, by Meillassoux] |
19672 | Kant fails to prove the necessity of laws, because his reasoning about chance is over-ambitious [Meillassoux on Kant] |
17736 | We can't learn of space through experience; experience of space needs its representation [Kant] |
5531 | Space is an a priori necessary basic intuition, as we cannot imagine its absence [Kant] |
5536 | If space and time exist absolutely, we must assume the existence of two pointless non-entities [Kant] |
5534 | One can never imagine appearances without time, so it is given a priori [Kant] |
5560 | The three modes of time are persistence, succession and simultaneity [Kant] |
5535 | That times cannot be simultaneous is synthetic, so it is known by intuition, not analysis [Kant] |
5561 | If time involved succession, we must think of another time in which succession occurs [Kant] |
5633 | We don't accept duties as coming from God, but assume they are divine because they are duties [Kant] |
5607 | Only three proofs of God: the physico-theological (evidence), the cosmological (existence), the ontological (a priori) [Kant] |
13732 | Kant never denied that 'exist' could be a predicate - only that it didn't enlarge concepts [Kant, by Fitting/Mendelsohn] |
8451 | Existence is merely derived from the word 'is' (rather than being a predicate) [Kant, by Orenstein] |
3321 | Modern logic says (with Kant) that existence is not a predicate, because it has been reclassified as a quantifier [Benardete,JA on Kant] |
5608 | Is "This thing exists" analytic or synthetic? [Kant] |
5609 | If 'this exists' is analytic, either the thing is a thought, or you have presupposed its existence [Kant] |
5610 | If an existential proposition is synthetic, you must be able to cancel its predicate without contradiction [Kant] |
5611 | Being is not a real predicate, that adds something to a concept [Kant] |
5612 | You add nothing to the concept of God or coins if you say they exist [Kant] |
5598 | If you prove God cosmologically, by a regress in the sequences of causes, you can't abandon causes at the end [Kant] |
4151 | Grammar tells what kind of object anything is - and theology is a kind of grammar [Wittgenstein] |
4159 | The human body is the best picture of the human soul [Wittgenstein] |