50 ideas
24032 | Clever scholars can obscure things which are obvious even to peasants [Descartes] |
24033 | Most scholastic disputes concern words, where agreeing on meanings would settle them [Descartes] |
24024 | The secret of the method is to recognise which thing in a series is the simplest [Descartes] |
24018 | One truth leads us to another [Descartes] |
24035 | Unity is something shared by many things, so in that respect they are equals [Descartes] |
24036 | I can only see the proportion of two to three if there is a common measure - their unity [Descartes] |
24029 | Among the simples are the graspable negations, such as rest and instants [Descartes] |
19400 | Possibles demand existence, so as many of them as possible must actually exist [Leibniz] |
19401 | God's sufficient reason for choosing reality is in the fitness or perfection of possibilities [Leibniz] |
24030 | 3+4=7 is necessary because we cannot conceive of seven without including three and four [Descartes] |
19402 | The actual universe is the richest composite of what is possible [Leibniz] |
24019 | If we accept mere probabilities as true we undermine our existing knowledge [Descartes] |
24020 | We all see intuitively that we exist, where intuition is attentive, clear and distinct rational understanding [Descartes] |
24031 | When Socrates doubts, he know he doubts, and that truth is possible [Descartes] |
24025 | Clear and distinct truths must be known all at once (unlike deductions) [Descartes] |
24022 | Our souls possess divine seeds of knowledge, which can bear spontaneous fruit [Descartes] |
24034 | If someone had only seen the basic colours, they could deduce the others from resemblance [Descartes] |
24021 | The method starts with clear intuitions, followed by a process of deduction [Descartes] |
17405 | If a theory can be fudged, so can observations [Scerri] |
17397 | The periodic system is the big counterexample to Kuhn's theory of revolutionary science [Scerri] |
17393 | Scientists eventually seek underlying explanations for every pattern [Scerri] |
17403 | The periodic table suggests accommodation to facts rates above prediction [Scerri] |
24027 | Nerves and movement originate in the brain, where imagination moves them [Descartes] |
24026 | Our four knowledge faculties are intelligence, imagination, the senses, and memory [Descartes] |
24028 | The force by which we know things is spiritual, and quite distinct from the body [Descartes] |
24023 | All the sciences searching for order and measure are related to mathematics [Descartes] |
17394 | Natural kinds are what are differentiated by nature, and not just by us [Scerri] |
17421 | If elements are natural kinds, might the groups of the periodic table also be natural kinds? [Scerri] |
17396 | The colour of gold is best explained by relativistic effects due to fast-moving inner-shell electrons [Scerri] |
17420 | The stability of nuclei can be estimated through their binding energy [Scerri] |
17411 | If all elements are multiples of one (of hydrogen), that suggests once again that matter is unified [Scerri] |
17415 | A big chemistry idea is that covalent bonds are shared electrons, not transfer of electrons [Scerri] |
17407 | The electron is the main source of chemical properties [Scerri] |
17392 | How can poisonous elements survive in the nutritious compound they compose? [Scerri] |
17391 | Periodicity and bonding are the two big ideas in chemistry [Scerri] |
17404 | Chemistry does not work from general principles, but by careful induction from large amounts of data [Scerri] |
17409 | Does radioactivity show that only physics can explain chemistry? [Scerri] |
17418 | It is now thought that all the elements have literally evolved from hydrogen [Scerri] |
17398 | 19th C views said elements survived abstractly in compounds, but also as 'material ingredients' [Scerri] |
17406 | Moseley, using X-rays, showed that atomic number ordered better than atomic weight [Scerri] |
17408 | Some suggested basing the new periodic table on isotopes, not elements [Scerri] |
17412 | Elements are placed in the table by the number of positive charges - the atomic number [Scerri] |
17413 | Elements in the table are grouped by having the same number of outer-shell electrons [Scerri] |
17416 | Orthodoxy says the periodic table is explained by quantum mechanics [Scerri] |
17414 | Pauli explained the electron shells, but not the lengths of the periods in the table [Scerri] |
17410 | Moseley showed the elements progress in units, and thereby clearly identified the gaps [Scerri] |
17417 | To explain the table, quantum mechanics still needs to explain order of shell filling [Scerri] |
17419 | Since 99.96% of the universe is hydrogen and helium, the periodic table hardly matters [Scerri] |
17395 | Elements were ordered by equivalent weight; later by atomic weight; finally by atomic number [Scerri] |
17422 | The best classification needs the deepest and most general principles of the atoms [Scerri] |