26 ideas
15435 | If you think universals are immanent, you must believe them to be sparse, and not every related predicate [Lewis] |
15451 | I assume there could be natural properties that are not instantiated in our world [Lewis] |
15433 | Tropes are particular properties, which cannot recur, but can be exact duplicates [Lewis] |
15436 | Universals are meant to give an account of resemblance [Lewis] |
15438 | We can add a primitive natural/unnatural distinction to class nominalism [Lewis] |
15448 | The 'magical' view of structural universals says they are atoms, even though they have parts [Lewis] |
15449 | If 'methane' is an atomic structural universal, it has nothing to connect it to its carbon universals [Lewis] |
15439 | The 'pictorial' view of structural universals says they are wholes made of universals as parts [Lewis] |
15441 | The structural universal 'methane' needs the universal 'hydrogen' four times over [Lewis] |
15445 | Butane and Isobutane have the same atoms, but different structures [Lewis] |
15434 | Structural universals have a necessary connection to the universals forming its parts [Lewis] |
15437 | We can't get rid of structural universals if there are no simple universals [Lewis] |
15446 | Composition is not just making new things from old; there are too many counterexamples [Lewis] |
15440 | A whole is distinct from its parts, but is not a further addition in ontology [Lewis] |
15444 | Different things (a toy house and toy car) can be made of the same parts at different times [Lewis] |
15450 | Maybe abstraction is just mereological subtraction [Lewis] |
3986 | The 'intentional stance' is a way of interpreting an entity by assuming it is rational and self-aware [Dennett] |
3987 | Like the 'centre of gravity', desires and beliefs are abstract concepts with no actual existence [Dennett] |
3984 | The nature of content is entirely based on its functional role [Dennett] |
15443 | Mathematicians abstract by equivalence classes, but that doesn't turn a many into one [Lewis] |
23903 | When we admire a work, we see ourselves as its creator [Weil] |
23901 | Relationships depend on equality, so unequal treatment kills them [Weil] |
3983 | Learning is evolution in the brain [Dennett] |
3985 | Biology is a type of engineering, not a search for laws of nature [Dennett] |
23904 | The cruelty of the Old Testament put me off Christianity [Weil] |
23902 | I attach little importance to immortality, which is an undecidable fact, and irrelevant to us [Weil] |