110 ideas
20262 | Don't use wisdom in order to become clever! [Nietzsche] |
20255 | Early 19th century German philosophers enjoyed concepts, rather than scientific explanations [Nietzsche] |
20260 | Carlyle spent his life vainly trying to make reason appear romantic [Nietzsche] |
20256 | What we think is totally dictated by the language available to express it [Nietzsche] |
20265 | The desire for a complete system requires making the weak parts look equal to the rest [Nietzsche] |
7001 | If you begin philosophy with language, you find yourself trapped in it [Heil] |
7038 | A theory with few fundamental principles might still posit a lot of entities [Heil] |
7037 | Parsimony does not imply the world is simple, but that our theories should try to be [Heil] |
20380 | Why should truth be omnipotent? It is enough that it is very powerful [Nietzsche] |
20235 | Like animals, we seek truth because we want safety [Nietzsche] |
7004 | The view that truth making is entailment is misguided and misleading [Heil] |
7035 | God does not create the world, and then add the classes [Heil] |
14775 | Numbers are just names devised for counting [Peirce] |
14776 | That two two-eyed people must have four eyes is a statement about numbers, not a fact [Peirce] |
7017 | The reductionist programme dispenses with levels of reality [Heil] |
7003 | There are levels of organisation, complexity, description and explanation, but not of reality [Heil] |
7045 | Realism says some of our concepts 'cut nature at the joints' [Heil] |
7065 | Anti-realists who reduce reality to language must explain the existence of language [Heil] |
7020 | Concepts don't carve up the world, which has endless overlooked or ignored divisions [Heil] |
7007 | I think of properties as simultaneously dispositional and qualitative [Heil] |
7015 | A predicate applies truly if it picks out a real property of objects [Heil] |
7042 | A theory of universals says similarity is identity of parts; for modes, similarity is primitive [Heil] |
7023 | Powers or dispositions are usually seen as caused by lower-level qualities [Heil] |
7025 | Are a property's dispositions built in, or contingently added? [Heil] |
7034 | Universals explain one-over-many relations, and similar qualities, and similar behaviour [Heil] |
7039 | How could you tell if the universals were missing from a world of instances? [Heil] |
7009 | Similarity among modes will explain everthing universals were for [Heil] |
7041 | Similar objects have similar properties; properties are directly similar [Heil] |
7032 | Objects join sets because of properties; the property is not bestowed by set membership [Heil] |
7008 | Trope theorists usually see objects as 'bundles' of tropes [Heil] |
7018 | Objects are substances, which are objects considered as the bearer of properties [Heil] |
7019 | Maybe there is only one substance, space-time or a quantum field [Heil] |
7046 | Rather than 'substance' I use 'objects', which have properties [Heil] |
7047 | Statues and bronze lumps have discernible differences, so can't be identical [Heil] |
7048 | Do we reduce statues to bronze, or eliminate statues, or allow statues and bronze? [Heil] |
20258 | Most people treat knowledge as a private possession [Nietzsche] |
14770 | Reasoning is based on statistical induction, so it can't achieve certainty or precision [Peirce] |
14774 | Innate truths are very uncertain and full of error, so they certainly have exceptions [Peirce] |
7030 | Properties don't possess ways they are, because that just is the property [Heil] |
7028 | If properties were qualities without dispositions, they would be undetectable [Heil] |
7029 | Can we distinguish the way a property is from the property? [Heil] |
7051 | Objects only have secondary qualities because they have primary qualities [Heil] |
7044 | Secondary qualities are just primary qualities considered in the light of their effect on us [Heil] |
7052 | Colours aren't surface properties, because of radiant sources and the colour of the sky [Heil] |
7053 | Treating colour as light radiation has the implausible result that tomatoes are not red [Heil] |
14773 | A truth is hard for us to understand if it rests on nothing but inspiration [Peirce] |
14772 | If we decide an idea is inspired, we still can't be sure we have got the idea right [Peirce] |
14771 | Only reason can establish whether some deliverance of revelation really is inspired [Peirce] |
20250 | We may be unable to remember, but we may never actually forget [Nietzsche] |
7066 | If the world is just texts or social constructs, what are texts and social constructs? [Heil] |
20270 | There is no one scientific method; we must try many approaches, and many emotions [Nietzsche] |
7021 | If the world is theory-dependent, the theories themselves can't be theory-dependent [Heil] |
7026 | Science is sometimes said to classify powers, neglecting qualities [Heil] |
7060 | One form of explanation is by decomposition [Heil] |
7010 | Dispositionality provides the grounding for intentionality [Heil] |
7054 | Intentionality now has internalist (intrinsic to thinkers) and externalist (environment or community) views [Heil] |
7011 | Qualia are not extra appendages, but intrinsic ingredients of material states and processes [Heil] |
14769 | Only imagination can connect phenomena together in a rational way [Peirce] |
20131 | We can cultivate our drives, of anger, pity, curiosity, vanity, like a gardener, with good or bad taste [Nietzsche] |
20242 | Things are the boundaries of humanity, so all things must be known, for self-knowledge [Nietzsche] |
20249 | Our knowledge of the many drives that constitute us is hopelessly incomplete [Nietzsche] |
20231 | People used to think that outcomes were from God, rather than consequences of acts [Nietzsche] |
7061 | Philosophers' zombies aim to show consciousness is over and above the physical world [Heil] |
7063 | Zombies are based on the idea that consciousness relates contingently to the physical [Heil] |
7064 | Functionalists deny zombies, since identity of functional state means identity of mental state [Heil] |
7027 | Functionalists say objects can be the same in disposition but differ in quality [Heil] |
7062 | Functionalism cannot explain consciousness just by functional organisation [Heil] |
7059 | The 'explanatory gap' is used to say consciousness is inexplicable, at least with current concepts [Heil] |
7012 | If a car is a higher-level entity, distinct from its parts, how could it ever do anything? [Heil] |
7043 | Multiple realisability is actually one predicate applying to a diverse range of properties [Heil] |
7058 | Externalism is causal-historical, or social, or biological [Heil] |
7057 | Intentionality is based in dispositions, which are intrinsic to agents, suggesting internalism [Heil] |
7013 | The Picture Theory claims we can read reality from our ways of speaking about it [Heil] |
7002 | If propositions are states of affairs or sets of possible worlds, these lack truth values [Heil] |
20266 | It is essential that wise people learn to express their wisdom, possibly even as foolishness [Nietzsche] |
20251 | Actions done for a purpose are least understood, because we complacently think it's obvious [Nietzsche] |
20271 | Beauty in art is the imitation of happiness [Nietzsche] |
20230 | The very idea of a critique of morality is regarded as immoral! [Nietzsche] |
20234 | Morality prevents us from developing better customs [Nietzsche] |
20237 | Moral feelings are entirely different from the moral concepts used to judge actions [Nietzsche] |
20238 | Treating morality as feelings is just obeying your ancestors [Nietzsche] |
20243 | Human beings are not majestic, either through divine origins, or through grand aims [Nietzsche] |
20268 | Most dying people have probably lost more important things than what they are about to lose [Nietzsche] |
20252 | Marriage is too serious to be permitted for people in love! [Nietzsche] |
20236 | Marriage upholds the idea that love, though a passion, can endure [Nietzsche] |
20263 | Fear reveals the natures of other people much more clearly than love does [Nietzsche] |
20233 | Punishment has distorted the pure innocence of the contingency of outcomes [Nietzsche] |
20248 | People do nothing for their real ego, but only for a phantom ego created by other people [Nietzsche] |
20246 | If you feel to others as they feel to themselves, you must hate a self-hater [Nietzsche] |
20272 | Honesty is a new young virtue, and we can promote it, or not [Nietzsche] |
20240 | The Jews treated great anger as holy, and were in awe of those who expressed it [Nietzsche] |
20244 | Christianity replaces rational philosophical virtues with great passions focused on God [Nietzsche] |
20274 | The cardinal virtues want us to be honest, brave, magnanimous and polite [Nietzsche] |
20257 | Cool courage and feverish bravery have one name, but are two very different virtues [Nietzsche] |
20259 | Teach youth to respect people who differ with them, not people who agree with them [Nietzsche] |
20267 | Seeing duty as a burden makes it a bit cruel, and it can thus never become a habit [Nietzsche] |
20275 | Most people think they are already complete, but we can cultivate ourselves [Nietzsche] |
20229 | No authority ever willingly accepts criticism [Nietzsche] |
20254 | People govern for the pleasure of it, or just to avoid being governed [Nietzsche] |
20273 | The French Revolution gave trusting Europe the false delusion of instant recovery [Nietzsche] |
20232 | Get rid of the idea of punishment! It is a noxious weed! [Nietzsche] |
20253 | Modern wars arise from the study of history [Nietzsche] |
20261 | History does not concern what really happened, but supposed events, which have all the influence [Nietzsche] |
7016 | The standard view is that causal sequences are backed by laws, and between particular events [Heil] |
7036 | The real natural properties are sparse, but there are many complex properties [Heil] |
20241 | Enquirers think finding our origin is salvation, but it turns out to be dull [Nietzsche] |
20245 | Christianity hoped for a short cut to perfection, that skipped the hard labour of morality [Nietzsche] |
20247 | Christianity was successful because of its heathen rituals [Nietzsche] |
20269 | 'I believe because it is absurd' - but how about 'I believe because I am absurd' [Nietzsche] |
20264 | The easy and graceful aspects of a person are called 'soul', and inner awkwardness is called 'soulless' [Nietzsche] |