39 ideas
22659 | It is wisdom to believe what you desire, because belief is needed to achieve it [James] |
22657 | All good philosophers start from a dumb conviction about which truths can be revealed [James] |
22647 | A complete system is just a classification of the whole world's ingredients [James] |
22648 | A single explanation must have a single point of view [James] |
22644 | Our greatest pleasure is the economy of reducing chaotic facts to one single fact [James] |
23755 | Genius and love of truth are always accompanied by great humility [Weil] |
22649 | Classification can only ever be for a particular purpose [James] |
22655 | Scientific genius extracts more than other people from the same evidence [James] |
22658 | Experimenters assume the theory is true, and stick to it as long as result don't disappoint [James] |
22654 | We can't know if the laws of nature are stable, but we must postulate it or assume it [James] |
22656 | Trying to assess probabilities by mere calculation is absurd and impossible [James] |
22646 | We have a passion for knowing the parts of something, rather than the whole [James] |
22652 | The mind has evolved entirely for practical interests, seen in our reflex actions [James] |
22651 | Dogs' curiosity only concerns what will happen next [James] |
23747 | What is sacred is not a person, but the whole physical human being [Weil] |
23756 | The mind is imprisoned and limited by language, restricting our awareness of wider thoughts [Weil] |
22650 | How can the ground of rationality be itself rational? [James] |
22643 | It seems that we feel rational when we detect no irrationality [James] |
23758 | Beauty is an attractive mystery, leaving nothing to be desired [Weil] |
22660 | Evolution suggests prevailing or survival as a new criterion of right and wrong [James] |
23760 | All we need are the unity of justice, truth and beauty [Weil] |
23748 | The sacred in every human is their expectation of good rather than evil [Weil] |
23759 | Everything which originates in love is beautiful [Weil] |
23762 | Evil is transmitted by comforts and pleasures, but mostly by doing harm to people [Weil] |
23750 | It is not more money which the wretched members of society need [Weil] |
23749 | The problem of the collective is not suppression of persons, but persons erasing themselves [Weil] |
23753 | People absurdly claim an equal share of things which are essentially privileged [Weil] |
23751 | Rights are asserted contentiously, and need the backing of force [Weil] |
23752 | Giving centrality to rights stifles all impulses of charity [Weil] |
23757 | The spirit of justice needs the full attention of truth, and that attention is love [Weil] |
23761 | Justice (concerning harm) is distinct from rights (concerning inequality) [Weil] |
23764 | The only thing in society worse than crime is repressive justice [Weil] |
23763 | Punishment aims at the good for men who don't desire it [Weil] |
17371 | Some kinds are very explanatory, but others less so, and some not at all [Devitt] |
22645 | Understanding by means of causes is useless if they are not reduced to a minimum number [James] |
17372 | The higher categories are not natural kinds, so the Linnaean hierarchy should be given up [Devitt] |
17373 | Species pluralism says there are several good accounts of what a species is [Devitt] |
23754 | The only choice is between supernatural good, or evil [Weil] |
22653 | Early Christianity says God recognises the neglected weak and tender impulses [James] |