54 ideas
2922 | All intelligent Romans were Epicureans [Nietzsche] |
4767 | Traditionally, rational beliefs are those which are justified by reasons [Psillos] |
23520 | Truth has had to be fought for, and normal life must be sacrificed to achieve it [Nietzsche] |
2914 | One must never ask whether truth is useful [Nietzsche] |
4810 | Valid deduction is monotonic - that is, it remains valid if further premises are added [Psillos] |
4768 | The 'epistemic fallacy' is inferring what does exist from what can be known to exist [Psillos] |
4808 | If we say where Mars was two months ago, we offer an explanation without a prediction [Psillos] |
4807 | A good barometer will predict a storm, but not explain it [Psillos] |
4811 | Induction (unlike deduction) is non-monotonic - it can be invalidated by new premises [Psillos] |
4812 | Explanation is either showing predictability, or showing necessity, or showing causal relations [Psillos] |
4802 | Just citing a cause does not enable us to understand an event; we also need a relevant law [Psillos] |
4804 | The 'covering law model' says only laws can explain the occurrence of single events [Psillos] |
4805 | If laws explain the length of a flagpole's shadow, then the shadow also explains the length of the pole [Psillos] |
4395 | There are non-causal explanations, most typically mathematical explanations [Psillos] |
4806 | An explanation can just be a 'causal story', without laws, as when I knock over some ink [Psillos] |
4404 | Maybe explanation is entirely relative to the interests and presuppositions of the questioner [Psillos] |
4803 | An explanation is the removal of the surprise caused by the event [Psillos] |
4769 | It is hard to analyse causation, if it is presupposed in our theory of the functioning of the mind [Psillos] |
8239 | If the King likes music then there is hope for the state [Mengzi (Mencius)] |
2921 | Philosophy grasps the limits of human reason, and values are beyond it [Nietzsche] |
23398 | Human nature is naturally compassionate and good (as a 'sprout'), but people may not be good [Mengzi (Mencius), by Norden] |
20138 | Christianity is at war with the higher type of man, and excommunicates his basic instincts [Nietzsche] |
4770 | Nothing is more usual than to apply to external bodies every internal sensation which they occasion [Psillos] |
23400 | Righteousness is extending the unthinkable, to reveal what must be done [Mengzi (Mencius)] |
20375 | Virtues must be highly personal; if not, it is merely respect for a concept [Nietzsche] |
23399 | Each correct feeling relies on an underlying virtue [Mengzi (Mencius)] |
8235 | Should a coward who ran fifty paces from a battle laugh at another who ran a hundred? [Mengzi (Mencius)] |
2915 | Each person should devise his own virtues and categorical imperative [Nietzsche] |
8240 | A true king shares his pleasure with the people [Mengzi (Mencius)] |
8237 | Extend the treatment of the old and young in your family to the rest of society [Mengzi (Mencius)] |
8241 | Only put someone to death if the whole population believes it is deserved [Mengzi (Mencius)] |
8238 | Seeking peace through war is like looking for fish up a tree [Mengzi (Mencius)] |
8236 | Avoid the animals you are going to eat, as it is hard once you have got to know them [Mengzi (Mencius)] |
4399 | Causes clearly make a difference, are recipes for events, explain effects, and are evidence [Psillos] |
4400 | Theories of causation are based either on regularity, or on intrinsic relations of properties [Psillos] |
4403 | We can't base our account of causation on explanation, because it is the wrong way round [Psillos] |
4789 | Three divisions of causal theories: generalist/singularist, intrinsic/extrinsic, reductive/non-reductive [Psillos] |
4790 | If causation is 'intrinsic' it depends entirely on the properties and relations of the cause and effect [Psillos] |
4402 | Empiricists tried to reduce causation to explanation, which they reduced to logic-plus-a-law [Psillos] |
4774 | Counterfactual claims about causation imply that it is more than just regular succession [Psillos] |
4793 | "All gold cubes are smaller than one cubic mile" is a true universal generalisation, but not a law [Psillos] |
4397 | Regularity doesn't seem sufficient for causation [Psillos] |
4792 | A Humean view of causation says it is regularities, and causal facts supervene on non-causal facts [Psillos] |
4801 | The regularity of a cock's crow is used to predict dawn, even though it doesn't cause it [Psillos] |
4401 | It is not a law of nature that all the coins in my pocket are euros, though it is a regularity [Psillos] |
4796 | Laws are sets of regularities within a simple and strong coherent system of wider regularities [Psillos] |
4799 | Dispositional essentialism can't explain its key distinction between essential and non-essential properties [Psillos] |
4780 | In some counterfactuals, the counterfactual event happens later than its consequent [Psillos] |
4791 | Counterfactual theories say causes make a difference - if c hadn't occurred, then e wouldn't occur [Psillos] |
2920 | A God who cures us of a head cold at the right moment is a total absurdity [Nietzsche] |
2917 | Christianity is a revolt of things crawling on the ground against elevated things [Nietzsche] |
2918 | The story in Genesis is the story of God's fear of science [Nietzsche] |
2919 | 'Faith' means not wanting to know what is true [Nietzsche] |
2916 | The great lie of immortality destroys rationality and natural instinct [Nietzsche] |