66 ideas
7834 | Great philosophies are confessions by the author, growing out of moral intentions [Nietzsche] |
7080 | Metaphysics divided the old unified Greek world into two [Nietzsche, by Critchley] |
6891 | Quine's naturalistic and empirical view is based entirely on first-order logic and set theory [Quine, by Mautner] |
6310 | Enquiry needs a conceptual scheme, so we should retain the best available [Quine] |
11090 | Why do we want truth, rather than falsehood or ignorance? The value of truth is a problem [Nietzsche] |
12798 | Plurals can in principle be paraphrased away altogether [Quine] |
10245 | One geometry cannot be more true than another [Poincaré] |
17905 | Any progression will do nicely for numbers; they can all then be used to measure multiplicity [Quine] |
9556 | Nearly all of mathematics has to quantify over abstract objects [Quine] |
7079 | Nietzsche resists nihilism through new values, for a world of becoming, without worship [Nietzsche, by Critchley] |
16462 | The quest for ultimate categories is the quest for a simple clear pattern of notation [Quine] |
15723 | Either dispositions rest on structures, or we keep saying 'all things being equal' [Quine] |
15490 | Explain unmanifested dispositions as structural similarities to objects which have manifested them [Quine, by Martin,CB] |
8504 | Quine aims to deal with properties by the use of eternal open sentences, or classes [Quine, by Devitt] |
8464 | Physical objects in space-time are just events or processes, no matter how disconnected [Quine] |
7924 | The notion of a physical object is by far the most useful one for science [Quine] |
8482 | Mathematicians must be rational but not two-legged, cyclists the opposite. So a mathematical cyclist? [Quine] |
12136 | Cyclist are not actually essentially two-legged [Brody on Quine] |
17594 | We can paraphrase 'x=y' as a sequence of the form 'if Fx then Fy' [Quine] |
15725 | Normal conditionals have a truth-value gap when the antecedent is false. [Quine] |
15722 | Conditionals are pointless if the truth value of the antecedent is known [Quine] |
15719 | We feign belief in counterfactual antecedents, and assess how convincing the consequent is [Quine] |
15721 | Counterfactuals are plausible when dispositions are involved, as they imply structures [Quine] |
15724 | Counterfactuals have no place in a strict account of science [Quine] |
15720 | What stays the same in assessing a counterfactual antecedent depends on context [Quine] |
2878 | We see an approximation of a tree, not the full detail [Nietzsche] |
20140 | We shouldn't object to a false judgement, if it enhances and preserves life [Nietzsche] |
2877 | Morality becomes a problem when we compare many moralities [Nietzsche] |
4630 | Two theories can be internally consistent and match all the facts, yet be inconsistent with one another [Quine, by Baggini /Fosl] |
20355 | The ranking of a person's innermost drives reveals their true nature [Nietzsche] |
2291 | A thought comes when 'it' wants, not when 'I' want [Nietzsche] |
2871 | Wanting 'freedom of will' is wanting to pull oneself into existence out of the swamp of nothingness by one's own hair [Nietzsche] |
3131 | Quine expresses the instrumental version of eliminativism [Quine, by Rey] |
20381 | It is psychology which reveals the basic problems [Nietzsche] |
3988 | Indeterminacy of translation also implies indeterminacy in interpreting people's mental states [Dennett on Quine] |
6311 | The firmer the links between sentences and stimuli, the less translations can diverge [Quine] |
6312 | We can never precisely pin down how to translate the native word 'Gavagai' [Quine] |
6313 | Stimulus synonymy of 'Gavagai' and 'Rabbit' does not even guarantee they are coextensive [Quine] |
6317 | Dispositions to speech behaviour, and actual speech, are never enough to fix any one translation [Quine] |
6315 | We should be suspicious of a translation which implies that a people have very strange beliefs [Quine] |
6314 | Weird translations are always possible, but they improve if we impose our own logic on them [Quine] |
2860 | The most boring and dangerous of all errors is Plato's invention of pure spirit and goodness [Nietzsche] |
1568 | Nietzsche felt that Plato's views downgraded the human body and its brevity of life [Nietzsche, by Roochnik] |
2883 | Noble people see themselves as the determiners of values [Nietzsche] |
23440 | Nietzsche's judgement of actions by psychology instead of outcome was poisonous [Foot on Nietzsche] |
2875 | That which is done out of love always takes place beyond good and evil [Nietzsche] |
2868 | Nature is totally indifferent, so you should try to be different from it, not live by it [Nietzsche] |
2882 | Morality originally judged people, and actions only later on [Nietzsche] |
2872 | In the earliest phase of human history only consequences mattered [Nietzsche] |
2885 | The noble soul has reverence for itself [Nietzsche] |
20134 | Moralities extravagantly address themselves to 'all', by falsely generalising [Nietzsche] |
2881 | Virtue has been greatly harmed by the boringness of its advocates [Nietzsche] |
20382 | The four virtues are courage, insight, sympathy, solitude [Nietzsche] |
2879 | In ancient Rome pity was considered neither good nor bad [Nietzsche] |
2859 | The idea of the categorical imperative is just that we should all be very obedient [Nietzsche] |
2884 | The morality of slaves is the morality of utility [Nietzsche] |
2880 | The greatest possibilities in man are still unexhausted [Nietzsche] |
2876 | The thought of suicide is a great reassurance on bad nights [Nietzsche] |
7078 | The freedom of the subject means the collapse of moral certainty [Nietzsche, by Critchley] |
6869 | Nietzsche thinks the human condition is to overcome and remake itself [Nietzsche, by Ansell Pearson] |
2874 | Man is the animal whose nature has not yet been fixed [Nietzsche] |
20137 | The great person engages wholly with life, and is happy to endlessly relive the life they created [Nietzsche] |
20139 | Only aristocratic societies can elevate the human species [Nietzsche] |
20373 | A healthy aristocracy has no qualms about using multitudes of men as instruments [Nietzsche] |
22394 | Democracy diminishes mankind, making them mediocre and lowering their value [Nietzsche] |
2867 | Christianity is Platonism for the people [Nietzsche] |