128 ideas
14857 | The highest wisdom has the guise of simplicity [Nietzsche] |
1922 | Spiritual qualities only become advantageous with the growth of wisdom [Plato] |
14854 | Deep thinkers know that they are always wrong [Nietzsche] |
14833 | Comedy is a transition from fear to exuberance [Nietzsche] |
6779 | Instrumentalists say distinctions between observation and theory vanish with ostensive definition [Bird] |
14853 | Truth finds fewest champions not when it is dangerous, but when it is boring [Nietzsche] |
24075 | Convictions, more than lies, are the great enemy of truth [Nietzsche] |
11259 | How can you seek knowledge of something if you don't know it? [Plato] |
6780 | Anti-realism is more plausible about laws than about entities and theories [Bird] |
6796 | Subjective probability measures personal beliefs; objective probability measures the chance of an event happening [Bird] |
6797 | Objective probability of tails measures the bias of the coin, not our beliefs about it [Bird] |
20219 | True opinions only become really valuable when they are tied down by reasons [Plato] |
14858 | Being certain presumes that there are absolute truths, and means of arriving at them [Nietzsche] |
5985 | Seeking and learning are just recollection [Plato] |
5986 | The slave boy learns geometry from questioning, not teaching, so it is recollection [Plato] |
14830 | Intuition only recognises what is possible, not what exists or is certain [Nietzsche] |
1923 | As a guide to action, true opinion is as good as knowledge [Plato] |
6800 | Many philosophers rate justification as a more important concept than knowledge [Bird] |
6786 | As science investigates more phenomena, the theories it needs decreases [Bird] |
1919 | You don't need to learn what you know, and how do you seek for what you don't know? [Plato] |
6792 | If theories need observation, and observations need theories, how do we start? [Bird] |
6757 | Explanation predicts after the event; prediction explains before the event [Bird] |
6805 | Relativity ousted Newtonian mechanics despite a loss of simplicity [Bird] |
6777 | Realists say their theories involve truth and the existence of their phenomena [Bird] |
6804 | There is no agreement on scientific method - because there is no such thing [Bird] |
6778 | Instrumentalists regard theories as tools for prediction, with truth being irrelevant [Bird] |
6775 | Induction is inference to the best explanation, where the explanation is a law [Bird] |
6791 | If Hume is right about induction, there is no scientific knowledge [Bird] |
6790 | Anything justifying inferences from observed to unobserved must itself do that [Bird] |
6738 | Any conclusion can be drawn from an induction, if we use grue-like predicates [Bird] |
6739 | Several months of observing beech trees supports the deciduous and evergreen hypotheses [Bird] |
6799 | We normally learn natural kinds from laws, but Goodman shows laws require prior natural kinds [Bird] |
6798 | Bayesianism claims to find rationality and truth in induction, and show how science works [Bird] |
6752 | The objective component of explanations is the things that must exist for the explanation [Bird] |
6754 | We talk both of 'people' explaining things, and of 'facts' explaining things [Bird] |
6750 | Explanations are causal, nomic, psychological, psychoanalytic, Darwinian or functional [Bird] |
6761 | Contrastive explanations say why one thing happened but not another [Bird] |
6758 | 'Covering law' explanations only work if no other explanations are to be found [Bird] |
6759 | Livers always accompany hearts, but they don't explain hearts [Bird] |
6756 | Probabilistic-statistical explanations don't entail the explanandum, but makes it more likely [Bird] |
6760 | An operation might reduce the probability of death, yet explain a death [Bird] |
6785 | Inference to the Best Explanation is done with facts, so it has to be realist [Bird] |
6788 | Maybe bad explanations are the true ones, in this messy world [Bird] |
6787 | Which explanation is 'best' is bound to be subjective, and no guide to truth [Bird] |
6751 | Maybe explanation is so subjective that it cannot be a part of science [Bird] |
20378 | Just as skin hides the horrors of the body, vanity conceals the passions of the soul [Nietzsche] |
14820 | People always do what they think is right, according to the degree of their intellect [Nietzsche] |
14856 | Our judgment seems to cause our nature, but actually judgment arises from our nature [Nietzsche] |
14842 | Why are the strong tastes of other people so contagious? [Nietzsche] |
14835 | Artists are not especially passionate, but they pretend to be [Nietzsche] |
22473 | Nietzsche said the will doesn't exist, so it can't ground moral responsibility [Nietzsche, by Foot] |
14807 | The history of morality rests on an error called 'responsibility', which rests on an error called 'free will' [Nietzsche] |
14823 | Ceasing to believe in human responsibility is bitter, if you had based the nobility of humanity on it [Nietzsche] |
14824 | It is absurd to blame nature and necessity; we should no more praise actions than we praise plants or artworks [Nietzsche] |
14812 | Intellect is tied to morality, because it requires good memory and powerful imagination [Nietzsche] |
14810 | Originally it was the rulers who requited good for good and evil for evil who were called 'good' [Nietzsche] |
14831 | No one has ever done anything that was entirely for other people [Nietzsche] |
14855 | Simultaneous love and respect are impossible; love has no separation or rank, but respect admits power [Nietzsche] |
14815 | We get enormous pleasure from tales of noble actions [Nietzsche] |
14849 | We can only achieve happy moments, not happy eras [Nietzsche] |
14818 | First morality is force, then custom, then acceptance, then instinct, then a pleasure - and finally 'virtue' [Nietzsche] |
20103 | You are mastered by your own virtues, but you must master them, and turn them into tools [Nietzsche] |
14817 | The 'good' man does the moral thing as if by nature, easily and gladly, after a long inheritance [Nietzsche] |
1913 | Is virtue taught, or achieved by practice, or a natural aptitude, or what? [Plato] |
1921 | If virtue is a type of knowledge then it ought to be taught [Plato] |
1927 | It seems that virtue is neither natural nor taught, but is a divine gift [Plato] |
1918 | How can you know part of virtue without knowing the whole? [Plato] |
1916 | Even if virtues are many and various, they must have something in common to make them virtues [Plato] |
14809 | All societies of good men give a priority to gratitude [Nietzsche] |
14816 | Justice (fairness) originates among roughly equal powers (as the Melian dialogues show) [Nietzsche] |
20112 | Pity consoles those who suffer, because they see that they still have the power to hurt [Nietzsche] |
14821 | Apart from philosophers, most people rightly have a low estimate of pity [Nietzsche] |
14841 | Many people are better at having good friends than being a good friend [Nietzsche] |
14843 | Women can be friends with men, but only some physical antipathy will maintain it [Nietzsche] |
14811 | In Homer it is the contemptible person, not the harmful person, who is bad [Nietzsche] |
20111 | We could live more naturally, relishing the spectacle, and not thinking we are special [Nietzsche] |
14844 | People do not experience boredom if they have never learned to work properly [Nietzsche] |
14808 | Over huge periods of time human character would change endlessly [Nietzsche] |
14822 | If self-defence is moral, then so are most expressions of 'immoral' egoism [Nietzsche] |
14838 | The state aims to protect individuals from one another [Nietzsche] |
14852 | Culture cannot do without passions and vices [Nietzsche] |
14846 | If we want the good life for the greatest number, we must let them decide on the good life [Nietzsche] |
14819 | Slavery cannot be judged by our standards, because the sense of justice was then less developed [Nietzsche] |
14847 | Laws that are well thought out, or laws that are easy to understand? [Nietzsche] |
14814 | Execution is worse than murder, because we are using the victim, and really we are the guilty [Nietzsche] |
14836 | People will enthusiastically pursue an unwanted war, once sacrifices have been made [Nietzsche] |
14845 | Don't crush girls with dull Gymnasium education, the way we have crushed boys! [Nietzsche] |
14848 | Education in large states is mediocre, like cooking in large kitchens [Nietzsche] |
14839 | Interest in education gains strength when we lose interest in God [Nietzsche] |
14834 | Teachers only gather knowledge for their pupils, and can't be serious about themselves [Nietzsche] |
6776 | Natural kinds are those that we use in induction [Bird] |
6767 | Rubies and sapphires are both corundum, with traces of metals varying their colours [Bird] |
6768 | Tin is not one natural kind, but appears to be 21, depending on isotope [Bird] |
6770 | Membership of a purely random collection cannot be used as an explanation [Bird] |
6771 | Natural kinds may overlap, or be sub-kinds of one another [Bird] |
6773 | If F is a universal appearing in a natural law, then Fs form a natural kind [Bird] |
6769 | In the Kripke-Putnam view only nuclear physicists can know natural kinds [Bird] |
6774 | Darwinism suggests that we should have a native ability to detect natural kinds [Bird] |
6764 | Nominal essence of a natural kind is the features that make it fit its name [Bird] |
6766 | Jadeite and nephrite are superficially identical, but have different composition [Bird] |
6808 | Reference to scientific terms is by explanatory role, not by descriptions [Bird] |
6753 | Laws are more fundamental in science than causes, and laws will explain causes [Bird] |
14825 | In religious thought nature is a complex of arbitrary acts by conscious beings [Nietzsche] |
6762 | Newton's laws cannot be confirmed individually, but only in combinations [Bird] |
6763 | Parapsychology is mere speculation, because it offers no mechanisms for its working [Bird] |
6772 | Existence requires laws, as inertia or gravity are needed for mass or matter [Bird] |
6740 | 'All uranium lumps are small' is a law, but 'all gold lumps are small' is not [Bird] |
6741 | There can be remarkable uniformities in nature that are purely coincidental [Bird] |
6742 | A law might have no instances, if it was about things that only exist momentarily [Bird] |
6743 | If laws are just instances, the law should either have gaps, or join the instances arbitrarily [Bird] |
6744 | Where is the regularity in a law predicting nuclear decay? [Bird] |
6747 | Laws cannot explain instances if they are regularities, as something can't explain itself [Bird] |
6746 | There may be many laws, each with only a few instances [Bird] |
6748 | Similar appearance of siblings is a regularity, but shared parents is what links them [Bird] |
6749 | We can only infer a true regularity if something binds the instances together [Bird] |
6803 | If we only infer laws from regularities among observations, we can't infer unobservable entities. [Bird] |
6801 | Accidental regularities are not laws, and an apparent regularity may not be actual [Bird] |
6745 | A regularity is only a law if it is part of a complete system which is simple and strong [Bird] |
6802 | With strange enough predicates, anything could be made out to be a regularity [Bird] |
6789 | If flame colour is characteristic of a metal, that is an empirical claim needing justification [Bird] |
14826 | Modern man wants laws of nature in order to submit to them [Nietzsche] |
6807 | In Newton mass is conserved, but in Einstein it can convert into energy [Bird] |
14827 | The Greeks saw the gods not as their masters, but as idealised versions of themselves [Nietzsche] |
14813 | Science rejecting the teaching of Christianity in favour of Epicurus shows the superiority of the latter [Nietzsche] |
14832 | The Sermon on the Mount is vanity - praying to one part of oneself, and demonising the rest [Nietzsche] |
14850 | Christ was the noblest human being [Nietzsche] |
14837 | Christ seems warm hearted, and suppressed intellect in favour of the intellectually weak [Nietzsche] |
14828 | Religion is tempting if your life is boring, but you can't therefore impose it on the busy people [Nietzsche] |