79 ideas
| 20262 | Don't use wisdom in order to become clever! [Nietzsche] |
| 20255 | Early 19th century German philosophers enjoyed concepts, rather than scientific explanations [Nietzsche] |
| 20260 | Carlyle spent his life vainly trying to make reason appear romantic [Nietzsche] |
| 23367 | Even pointing a finger should only be done for a reason [Epictetus] |
| 20256 | What we think is totally dictated by the language available to express it [Nietzsche] |
| 20265 | The desire for a complete system requires making the weak parts look equal to the rest [Nietzsche] |
| 6887 | Linguistic philosophy approaches problems by attending to actual linguistic usage [Mautner] |
| 6881 | Analytic philosophy studies the unimportant, and sharpens tools instead of using them [Mautner] |
| 5439 | The 'hermeneutic circle' says parts and wholes are interdependent, and so cannot be interpreted [Mautner] |
| 9959 | 'Real' definitions give the essential properties of things under a concept [Mautner] |
| 9961 | 'Contextual definitions' replace whole statements, not just expressions [Mautner] |
| 9958 | Recursive definition defines each instance from a previous instance [Mautner] |
| 9960 | A stipulative definition lays down that an expression is to have a certain meaning [Mautner] |
| 9957 | Ostensive definitions point to an object which an expression denotes [Mautner] |
| 6219 | The fallacy of composition is the assumption that what is true of the parts is true of the whole [Mautner] |
| 20380 | Why should truth be omnipotent? It is enough that it is very powerful [Nietzsche] |
| 20235 | Like animals, we seek truth because we want safety [Nietzsche] |
| 6888 | Fuzzy logic is based on the notion that there can be membership of a set to some degree [Mautner] |
| 6877 | Entailment is logical requirement; it may be not(p and not-q), but that has problems [Mautner] |
| 6880 | Strict implication says false propositions imply everything, and everything implies true propositions [Mautner] |
| 6879 | 'Material implication' is defined as 'not(p and not-q)', but seems to imply a connection between p and q [Mautner] |
| 6878 | A person who 'infers' draws the conclusion, but a person who 'implies' leaves it to the audience [Mautner] |
| 6889 | Vagueness seems to be inconsistent with the view that every proposition is true or false [Mautner] |
| 6890 | Quantifiers turn an open sentence into one to which a truth-value can be assigned [Mautner] |
| 6886 | Counterfactuals are not true, they are merely valid [Mautner] |
| 6885 | Counterfactuals are true if in every world close to actual where p is the case, q is also the case [Mautner] |
| 6884 | Counterfactuals say 'If it had been, or were, p, then it would be q' [Mautner] |
| 6883 | Maybe counterfactuals are only true if they contain valid inference from premisses [Mautner] |
| 6882 | Counterfactuals presuppose a belief (or a fact) that the condition is false [Mautner] |
| 5449 | Essentialism is often identified with belief in 'de re' necessary truths [Mautner] |
| 20258 | Most people treat knowledge as a private possession [Nietzsche] |
| 6898 | Fallibilism is the view that all knowledge-claims are provisional [Mautner] |
| 6452 | 'Sense-data' arrived in 1910, but it denotes ideas in Locke, Berkeley and Hume [Mautner] |
| 20250 | We may be unable to remember, but we may never actually forget [Nietzsche] |
| 20270 | There is no one scientific method; we must try many approaches, and many emotions [Nietzsche] |
| 4783 | Observing lots of green x can confirm 'all x are green' or 'all x are grue', where 'grue' is arbitrary [Mautner, by PG] |
| 4782 | 'All x are y' is equivalent to 'all non-y are non-x', so observing paper is white confirms 'ravens are black' [Mautner, by PG] |
| 20131 | We can cultivate our drives, of anger, pity, curiosity, vanity, like a gardener, with good or bad taste [Nietzsche] |
| 20242 | Things are the boundaries of humanity, so all things must be known, for self-knowledge [Nietzsche] |
| 20249 | Our knowledge of the many drives that constitute us is hopelessly incomplete [Nietzsche] |
| 20231 | People used to think that outcomes were from God, rather than consequences of acts [Nietzsche] |
| 6899 | The references of indexicals ('there', 'now', 'I') depend on the circumstances of utterance [Mautner] |
| 20266 | It is essential that wise people learn to express their wisdom, possibly even as foolishness [Nietzsche] |
| 20251 | Actions done for a purpose are least understood, because we complacently think it's obvious [Nietzsche] |
| 6896 | Double effect is the distinction between what is foreseen and what is intended [Mautner] |
| 6897 | Double effect acts need goodness, unintended evil, good not caused by evil, and outweighing [Mautner] |
| 20271 | Beauty in art is the imitation of happiness [Nietzsche] |
| 20230 | The very idea of a critique of morality is regarded as immoral! [Nietzsche] |
| 20234 | Morality prevents us from developing better customs [Nietzsche] |
| 5452 | 'Essentialism' is opposed to existentialism, and claims there is a human nature [Mautner] |
| 20237 | Moral feelings are entirely different from the moral concepts used to judge actions [Nietzsche] |
| 20238 | Treating morality as feelings is just obeying your ancestors [Nietzsche] |
| 20243 | Human beings are not majestic, either through divine origins, or through grand aims [Nietzsche] |
| 20268 | Most dying people have probably lost more important things than what they are about to lose [Nietzsche] |
| 20252 | Marriage is too serious to be permitted for people in love! [Nietzsche] |
| 20236 | Marriage upholds the idea that love, though a passion, can endure [Nietzsche] |
| 20263 | Fear reveals the natures of other people much more clearly than love does [Nietzsche] |
| 20233 | Punishment has distorted the pure innocence of the contingency of outcomes [Nietzsche] |
| 20248 | People do nothing for their real ego, but only for a phantom ego created by other people [Nietzsche] |
| 20246 | If you feel to others as they feel to themselves, you must hate a self-hater [Nietzsche] |
| 20272 | Honesty is a new young virtue, and we can promote it, or not [Nietzsche] |
| 20240 | The Jews treated great anger as holy, and were in awe of those who expressed it [Nietzsche] |
| 20244 | Christianity replaces rational philosophical virtues with great passions focused on God [Nietzsche] |
| 20274 | The cardinal virtues want us to be honest, brave, magnanimous and polite [Nietzsche] |
| 20257 | Cool courage and feverish bravery have one name, but are two very different virtues [Nietzsche] |
| 20259 | Teach youth to respect people who differ with them, not people who agree with them [Nietzsche] |
| 20267 | Seeing duty as a burden makes it a bit cruel, and it can thus never become a habit [Nietzsche] |
| 20275 | Most people think they are already complete, but we can cultivate ourselves [Nietzsche] |
| 20229 | No authority ever willingly accepts criticism [Nietzsche] |
| 20254 | People govern for the pleasure of it, or just to avoid being governed [Nietzsche] |
| 20273 | The French Revolution gave trusting Europe the false delusion of instant recovery [Nietzsche] |
| 20232 | Get rid of the idea of punishment! It is a noxious weed! [Nietzsche] |
| 20253 | Modern wars arise from the study of history [Nietzsche] |
| 20261 | History does not concern what really happened, but supposed events, which have all the influence [Nietzsche] |
| 20241 | Enquirers think finding our origin is salvation, but it turns out to be dull [Nietzsche] |
| 20245 | Christianity hoped for a short cut to perfection, that skipped the hard labour of morality [Nietzsche] |
| 20247 | Christianity was successful because of its heathen rituals [Nietzsche] |
| 20269 | 'I believe because it is absurd' - but how about 'I believe because I am absurd' [Nietzsche] |
| 20264 | The easy and graceful aspects of a person are called 'soul', and inner awkwardness is called 'soulless' [Nietzsche] |