42 ideas
3358 | Metaphysics focuses on Platonism, essentialism, materialism and anti-realism [Benardete,JA] |
3312 | There are the 'is' of predication (a function), the 'is' of identity (equals), and the 'is' of existence (quantifier) [Benardete,JA] |
3352 | Analytical philosophy analyses separate concepts successfully, but lacks a synoptic vision of the results [Benardete,JA] |
3329 | Presumably the statements of science are true, but should they be taken literally or not? [Benardete,JA] |
3326 | Set theory attempts to reduce the 'is' of predication to mathematics [Benardete,JA] |
3327 | The set of Greeks is included in the set of men, but isn't a member of it [Benardete,JA] |
3335 | The standard Z-F Intuition version of set theory has about ten agreed axioms [Benardete,JA, by PG] |
3332 | Greeks saw the science of proportion as the link between geometry and arithmetic [Benardete,JA] |
3330 | Negatives, rationals, irrationals and imaginaries are all postulated to solve baffling equations [Benardete,JA] |
3337 | Natural numbers are seen in terms of either their ordinality (Peano), or cardinality (set theory) [Benardete,JA] |
3310 | If slowness is a property of walking rather than the walker, we must allow that events exist [Benardete,JA] |
12793 | Early pre-Socratics had a mass-noun ontology, which was replaced by count-nouns [Benardete,JA] |
3353 | If there is no causal interaction with transcendent Platonic objects, how can you learn about them? [Benardete,JA] |
3304 | Why should packed-together particles be a thing (Mt Everest), but not scattered ones? [Benardete,JA] |
3350 | Could a horse lose the essential property of being a horse, and yet continue to exist? [Benardete,JA] |
3309 | If a soldier continues to exist after serving as a soldier, does the wind cease to exist after it ceases to blow? [Benardete,JA] |
3351 | One can step into the same river twice, but not into the same water [Benardete,JA] |
3323 | Maybe self-identity isn't existence, if Pegasus can be self-identical but non-existent [Benardete,JA] |
3314 | Absolutists might accept that to exist is relative, but relative to what? How about relative to itself? [Benardete,JA] |
3306 | The clearest a priori knowledge is proving non-existence through contradiction [Benardete,JA] |
3349 | If we know truths about prime numbers, we seem to have synthetic a priori knowledge of Platonic objects [Benardete,JA] |
3341 | Logical positivism amounts to no more than 'there is no synthetic a priori' [Benardete,JA] |
3344 | Assertions about existence beyond experience can only be a priori synthetic [Benardete,JA] |
3345 | Appeals to intuition seem to imply synthetic a priori knowledge [Benardete,JA] |
3546 | 'Phronesis' should translate as 'practical intelligence', not as prudence [Annas] |
5078 | Kant and Mill both try to explain right and wrong, without a divine lawgiver [Taylor,R] |
5067 | Morality based on 'forbid', 'permit' and 'require' implies someone who does these things [Taylor,R] |
5079 | Pleasure can have a location, and be momentary, and come and go - but happiness can't [Taylor,R] |
5068 | 'Eudaimonia' means 'having a good demon', implying supreme good fortune [Taylor,R] |
3547 | Epicureans achieve pleasure through character development [Annas] |
3543 | Cyrenaics pursue pleasure, but don't equate it with happiness [Annas] |
5076 | To Greeks it seemed obvious that the virtue of anything is the perfection of its function [Taylor,R] |
3541 | Ancient ethics uses attractive notions, not imperatives [Annas] |
3550 | Principles cover life as a whole, where rules just cover actions [Annas] |
5077 | The modern idea of obligation seems to have lost the idea of an obligation 'to' something [Taylor,R] |
5065 | The ethics of duty requires a religious framework [Taylor,R] |
5066 | If we are made in God's image, pursuit of excellence is replaced by duty to obey God [Taylor,R] |
3551 | Virtue theory tries to explain our duties in terms of our character [Annas] |
3552 | If excessively good actions are admirable but not required, then duty isn't basic [Annas] |
3542 | We should do good when necessary, not maximise it [Annas] |
3334 | Rationalists see points as fundamental, but empiricists prefer regions [Benardete,JA] |
3308 | In the ontological argument a full understanding of the concept of God implies a contradiction in 'There is no God' [Benardete,JA] |