58 ideas
20678 | The Scientific Revolution was the discovery of our own ignorance [Harari] |
20686 | For millenia people didn't know how to convert one type of energy into another [Harari] |
3539 | Personal identity is just causally related mental states [Parfit, by Maslin] |
1393 | One of my future selves will not necessarily be me [Parfit] |
1392 | If we split like amoeba, we would be two people, neither of them being us [Parfit] |
1391 | Concern for our own lives isn't the source of belief in identity, it is the result of it [Parfit] |
7222 | It is a crime for someone with a violent disposition to get drunk [Mill] |
20692 | Money does produce happiness, but only up to a point [Harari] |
7214 | Ethics rests on utility, which is the permanent progressive interests of people [Mill] |
20663 | If a group is bound by gossip, the natural size is 150 people [Harari] |
20677 | Since 1500 human population has increased fourteenfold, and consumption far more [Harari] |
20688 | People 300m tons; domesticated animals 700m tons; larger wild animals 100m tons [Harari] |
7212 | Individuals have sovereignty over their own bodies and minds [Mill] |
20674 | The Nazi aim was to encourage progressive evolution, and avoid degeneration [Harari] |
7210 | The will of the people is that of the largest or most active part of the people [Mill] |
20679 | We stabilise societies with dogmas, either of dubious science, or of non-scientific values [Harari] |
7227 | It is evil to give a government any more power than is necessary [Mill] |
7228 | Individuals often do things better than governments [Mill] |
7230 | Aim for the maximum dissemination of power consistent with efficiency [Mill] |
20515 | Maximise happiness by an area of strict privacy, and an area of utilitarian interventions [Mill, by Wolff,J] |
7229 | People who transact their own business will also have the initiative to control their government [Mill] |
7211 | Prevention of harm to others is the only justification for exercising power over people [Mill] |
7231 | The worth of a State, in the long run, is the worth of the individuals composing it [Mill] |
20690 | The state fostered individualism, to break the power of family and community [Harari] |
7217 | The main argument for freedom is that interference with it is usually misguided [Mill] |
20689 | In 1750 losing your family and community meant death [Harari] |
20681 | The sacred command of capitalism is that profits must be used to increase production [Harari] |
20682 | The main rule of capitalism is that all other goods depend on economic growth [Harari] |
20683 | The progress of capitalism depends entirely on the new discoveries and gadgets of science [Harari] |
20687 | In capitalism the rich invest, and the rest of us go shopping [Harari] |
7213 | Liberty arises at the point where people can freely and equally discuss things [Mill] |
20685 | No market is free of political bias, and markets need protection of their freedoms [Harari] |
20517 | Utilitarianism values liberty, but guides us on which ones we should have or not have [Mill, by Wolff,J] |
20516 | Mill defends freedom as increasing happiness, but maybe it is an intrinsic good [Wolff,J on Mill] |
7215 | True freedom is pursuing our own good, while not impeding others [Mill] |
7218 | Individuals are not accountable for actions which only concern themselves [Mill] |
7221 | Blocking entry to an unsafe bridge does not infringe liberty, since no one wants unsafe bridges [Mill] |
7223 | Pimping and running a gambling-house are on the border between toleration and restraint [Mill] |
20693 | Freedom may work against us, as individuals can choose to leave, and make fewer commitments [Harari] |
7220 | Restraint for its own sake is an evil [Mill] |
7219 | Society can punish actions which it believes to be prejudicial to others [Mill] |
20691 | Real peace is the implausibility of war (and not just its absence) [Harari] |
7226 | Benefits performed by individuals, not by government, help also to educate them [Mill] |
20684 | Financing is increasingly through credit rather than taxes; people prefer investing to taxation [Harari] |
7224 | We need individual opinions and conduct, and State education is a means to prevent that [Mill] |
20675 | The more you know about history, the harder it becomes to explain [Harari] |
20676 | History teaches us that the present was not inevitable, and shows us the possibilities [Harari] |
7225 | It is a crime to create a being who lacks the ordinary chances of a desirable existence [Mill] |
20671 | In order to explain both order and evil, a single evil creator is best, but no one favours that [Harari] |
20664 | Animism is belief that every part of nature is aware and feeling, and can communicate [Harari] |
20666 | Most polytheist recognise one supreme power or law, behind the various gods [Harari] |
20667 | Polytheism is open-minded, and rarely persecutes opponents [Harari] |
20665 | Mythologies are usual contracts with the gods, exchanging devotion for control of nature [Harari] |
20669 | Dualist religions see everything as a battleground of good and evil forces [Harari] |
20670 | Dualist religions say the cosmos is a battleground, so can’t explain its order [Harari] |
20673 | Manichaeans and Gnostics: good made spirit, evil made flesh [Harari] |
20668 | Monotheism appeared in Egypt in 1350 BCE, when the god Aten was declared supreme [Harari] |
7216 | The ethics of the Gospel has been supplemented by barbarous Old Testament values [Mill] |