61 ideas
326 | For relaxation one can consider the world of change, instead of eternal things [Plato] |
315 | Philosophy is the supreme gift of the gods to mortals [Plato] |
3123 | Science is in the business of carving nature at the joints [Segal] |
3125 | Psychology studies the way rationality links desires and beliefs to causality [Segal] |
306 | Nothing can come to be without a cause [Plato] |
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] |
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] |
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] |
321 | For knowledge and true opinion to be different there must be Forms; otherwise we are just stuck with sensations [Plato] |
317 | The universe is basically an intelligible and unchanging model, and a visible and changing copy of it [Plato] |
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] |
3105 | Is 'Hesperus = Phosphorus' metaphysically necessary, but not logically or epistemologically necessary? [Segal] |
3106 | If claims of metaphysical necessity are based on conceivability, we should be cautious [Segal] |
334 | Only bird-brained people think astronomy is entirely a matter of evidence [Plato] |
3113 | The success and virtue of an explanation do not guarantee its truth [Segal] |
5962 | Plato says the soul is ordered by number [Plato, by Plutarch] |
15450 | Maybe abstraction is just mereological subtraction [Lewis] |
330 | No one wants to be bad, but bad men result from physical and educational failures, which they do not want or choose [Plato] |
3112 | Folk psychology is ridiculously dualist in its assumptions [Segal] |
3108 | If 'water' has narrow content, it refers to both H2O and XYZ [Segal] |
3110 | Humans are made of H2O, so 'twins' aren't actually feasible [Segal] |
3124 | Externalists can't assume old words refer to modern natural kinds [Segal] |
3117 | Concepts can survive a big change in extension [Segal] |
3104 | Must we relate to some diamonds to understand them? [Segal] |
3103 | Maybe content involves relations to a language community [Segal] |
3111 | Externalism can't explain concepts that have no reference [Segal] |
3109 | If content is external, so are beliefs and desires [Segal] |
3116 | Maybe experts fix content, not ordinary users [Segal] |
3121 | If content is narrow, my perfect twin shares my concepts [Segal] |
3118 | If thoughts ARE causal, we can't explain how they cause things [Segal] |
3119 | Even 'mass' cannot be defined in causal terms [Segal] |
15443 | Mathematicians abstract by equivalence classes, but that doesn't turn a many into one [Lewis] |
316 | Music has harmony like the soul, and serves to reorder disharmony within us [Plato] |
332 | One should exercise both the mind and the body, to avoid imbalance [Plato] |
328 | Everything that takes place naturally is pleasant [Plato] |
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] |
311 | The cosmos must be unique, because it resembles the creator, who is unique [Plato] |
310 | The creator of the cosmos had no envy, and so wanted things to be as like himself as possible [Plato] |
325 | We must consider the four basic shapes as too small to see, only becoming visible in large numbers [Plato] |
327 | There are two types of cause, the necessary and the divine [Plato] |
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] |
309 | Clearly the world is good, so its maker must have been concerned with the eternal, not with change [Plato] |
308 | If the cosmos is an object of perception then it must be continually changing [Plato] |