53 ideas
162 | Can we understand an individual soul without knowing the soul in general? [Plato] |
21887 | Derrida focuses on other philosophers, rather than on science [Derrida] |
160 | The highest ability in man is the ability to discuss unity and plurality in the nature of things [Plato] |
21888 | Philosophy is just a linguistic display [Derrida] |
21896 | Philosophy aims to build foundations for thought [Derrida, by May] |
21893 | Philosophy is necessarily metaphorical, and its writing is aesthetic [Derrida] |
166 | A speaker should be able to divide a subject, right down to the limits of divisibility [Plato] |
20925 | Hermeneutics blunts truth, by conforming it to the interpreter [Derrida, by Zimmermann,J] |
21892 | Interpretations can be interpreted, so there is no original 'meaning' available [Derrida] |
20934 | Hermeneutics is hostile, trying to overcome the other person's difference [Derrida, by Zimmermann,J] |
21895 | Structuralism destroys awareness of dynamic meaning [Derrida] |
21934 | The idea of being as persistent presence, and meaning as conscious intelligibility, are self-destructive [Derrida, by Glendinning] |
21881 | We aim to explore the limits of expression (as in Mallarmé's poetry) [Derrida] |
21883 | Sincerity can't be verified, so fiction infuses speech, and hence reality also [Derrida] |
21882 | Sentences are contradictory, as they have opposite meanings in some contexts [Derrida] |
4756 | Derrida says that all truth-talk is merely metaphor [Derrida, by Engel] |
21877 | True thoughts are inaccessible, in the subconscious, prior to speech or writing [Derrida] |
21878 | Names have a subjective aspect, especially the role of our own name [Derrida] |
21889 | 'I' is the perfect name, because it denotes without description [Derrida] |
21879 | Even Kripke can't explain names; the word is the thing, and the thing is the word [Derrida] |
7953 | Reasoning needs to cut nature accurately at the joints [Plato] |
16121 | I revere anyone who can discern a single thing that encompasses many things [Plato] |
153 | It takes a person to understand, by using universals, and by using reason to create a unity out of sense-impressions [Plato] |
154 | We would have an overpowering love of knowledge if we had a pure idea of it - as with the other Forms [Plato] |
151 | True knowledge is of the reality behind sense experience [Plato] |
165 | If the apparent facts strongly conflict with probability, it is in everyone's interests to suppress the facts [Plato] |
9296 | The soul is self-motion [Plato] |
21890 | Heidegger showed that passing time is the key to consciousness [Derrida] |
21880 | 'Tacit theory' controls our thinking (which is why Freud is important) [Derrida] |
23997 | Plato saw emotions and appetites as wild horses, in need of taming [Plato, by Goldie] |
21894 | Madness and instability ('the demonic hyperbole') lurks in all language [Derrida] |
21884 | Capacity for repetitions is the hallmark of language [Derrida] |
21935 | The sign is only conceivable as a movement between elusive presences [Derrida] |
21930 | For Aristotle all proper nouns must have a single sense, which is the purpose of language [Derrida] |
21933 | Writing functions even if the sender or the receiver are absent [Derrida, by Glendinning] |
21886 | Meanings depend on differences and contrasts [Derrida] |
21931 | 'Dissemination' is opposed to polysemia, since that is irreducible, because of multiple understandings [Derrida, by Glendinning] |
21885 | Words exist in 'spacing', so meanings are never synchronic except in writing [Derrida] |
5946 | 'Phaedrus' pioneers the notion of philosophical rhetoric [Lawson-Tancred on Plato] |
159 | Only a good philosopher can be a good speaker [Plato] |
158 | An excellent speech seems to imply a knowledge of the truth in the mind of the speaker [Plato] |
155 | Beauty is the clearest and most lovely of the Forms [Plato] |
143 | The two ruling human principles are the natural desire for pleasure, and an acquired love of virtue [Plato] |
21891 | The good is implicitly violent (against evil), so there is no pure good [Derrida] |
157 | Most pleasure is release from pain, and is therefore not worthwhile [Plato] |
144 | Reason impels us towards excellence, which teaches us self-control [Plato] |
156 | Bad people are never really friends with one another [Plato] |
148 | If the prime origin is destroyed, it will not come into being again out of anything [Plato] |
152 | The mind of God is fully satisfied and happy with a vision of reality and truth [Plato] |
7902 | The Buddha made flowers float in the air, to impress people, and make them listen [Mahavastu] |
150 | We cannot conceive of God, so we have to think of Him as an immortal version of ourselves [Plato] |
149 | There isn't a single reason for positing the existence of immortal beings [Plato] |
146 | Soul is always in motion, so it must be self-moving and immortal [Plato] |