19 ideas
| 7454 | Gassendi is the first great empiricist philosopher [Hacking] |
| 12124 | Metaphysics is the best knowledge, because it is the simplest [Bacon] |
| 22140 | The greatest philosophers are methodical; it is what makes them great [Grice] |
| 12123 | Natural history supports physical knowledge, which supports metaphysical knowledge [Bacon] |
| 12119 | Physics studies transitory matter; metaphysics what is abstracted and necessary [Bacon] |
| 12120 | Physics is of material and efficient causes, metaphysics of formal and final causes [Bacon] |
| 7447 | Probability was fully explained between 1654 and 1812 [Hacking] |
| 7448 | Probability is statistical (behaviour of chance devices) or epistemological (belief based on evidence) [Hacking] |
| 7449 | Epistemological probability based either on logical implications or coherent judgments [Hacking] |
| 12121 | We don't assume there is no land, because we can only see sea [Bacon] |
| 7450 | In the medieval view, only deduction counted as true evidence [Hacking] |
| 7451 | Formerly evidence came from people; the new idea was that things provided evidence [Hacking] |
| 12117 | Science moves up and down between inventions of causes, and experiments [Bacon] |
| 7452 | An experiment is a test, or an adventure, or a diagnosis, or a dissection [Hacking, by PG] |
| 12127 | Many different theories will fit the observed facts [Bacon] |
| 7459 | Follow maths for necessary truths, and jurisprudence for contingent truths [Hacking] |
| 12126 | People love (unfortunately) extreme generality, rather than particular knowledge [Bacon] |
| 12125 | Teleological accounts are fine in metaphysics, but they stop us from searching for the causes [Bacon] |
| 12118 | Essences are part of first philosophy, but as part of nature, not part of logic [Bacon] |