60 ideas
23183 | Different abilities are needed for living in an incomplete and undogmatic system [Nietzsche] |
23188 | Bad writers use shapeless floating splotches of concepts [Nietzsche] |
23212 | A text has many interpretations, but no 'correct' one [Nietzsche] |
9847 | A contextual definition permits the elimination of the expression by a substitution [Dummett] |
23199 | What is the search for truth if it isn't moral? [Nietzsche] |
23202 | Like all philosophers, I love truth [Nietzsche] |
9820 | In classical logic, logical truths are valid formulas; in higher-order logics they are purely logical [Dummett] |
23196 | Logic is a fiction, which invents the view that one thought causes another [Nietzsche] |
23186 | Numbers enable us to manage the world - to the limits of counting [Nietzsche] |
9896 | A prime number is one which is measured by a unit alone [Dummett] |
18255 | Addition of quantities is prior to ordering, as shown in cyclic domains like angles [Dummett] |
9895 | A number is a multitude composed of units [Dummett] |
9852 | We understand 'there are as many nuts as apples' as easily by pairing them as by counting them [Dummett] |
9829 | The identity of a number may be fixed by something outside structure - by counting [Dummett] |
9828 | Numbers aren't fixed by position in a structure; it won't tell you whether to start with 0 or 1 [Dummett] |
9876 | Set theory isn't part of logic, and why reduce to something more complex? [Dummett] |
23211 | Events are just interpretations of groups of appearances [Nietzsche] |
9884 | The distinction of concrete/abstract, or actual/non-actual, is a scale, not a dichotomy [Dummett] |
9869 | Realism is just the application of two-valued semantics to sentences [Dummett] |
9880 | Nominalism assumes unmediated mental contact with objects [Dummett] |
9885 | The existence of abstract objects is a pseudo-problem [Dummett] |
9858 | Abstract objects nowadays are those which are objective but not actual [Dummett] |
9859 | It is absurd to deny the Equator, on the grounds that it lacks causal powers [Dummett] |
9860 | 'We've crossed the Equator' has truth-conditions, so accept the Equator - and it's an object [Dummett] |
9872 | Abstract objects need the context principle, since they can't be encountered directly [Dummett] |
16157 | Insurance on the original ship would hardly be paid out if the plank version was wrecked! [Frede,M] |
9848 | Content is replaceable if identical, so replaceability can't define identity [Dummett, by Dummett] |
9842 | Frege introduced criteria for identity, but thought defining identity was circular [Dummett] |
23201 | The 'I' does not think; it is a construction of thinking, like other useful abstractions [Nietzsche] |
23207 | Appearance is the sole reality of things, to which all predicates refer [Nietzsche] |
23197 | Memory is essential, and is only possible by means of abbreviation signs [Nietzsche] |
23206 | Schematic minds think thoughts are truer if they slot into a scheme [Nietzsche] |
23209 | Each of our personal drives has its own perspective [Nietzsche] |
23184 | The mind is a simplifying apparatus [Nietzsche] |
23190 | Consciousness is our awareness of our own mental life [Nietzsche] |
23191 | Minds have an excluding drive to scare things off, and a selecting one to filter facts [Nietzsche] |
23213 | The greatest drive of life is to discharge strength, rather than preservation [Nietzsche] |
23210 | That all events are necessary does not mean they are compelled [Nietzsche] |
23189 | Concepts are rough groups of simultaneous sensations [Nietzsche] |
23192 | Concepts don’t match one thing, but many things a little bit [Nietzsche] |
23187 | Whatever their origin, concepts survive by being useful [Nietzsche] |
9849 | Maybe a concept is 'prior' to another if it can be defined without the second concept [Dummett] |
9850 | An argument for conceptual priority is greater simplicity in explanation [Dummett] |
9873 | Abstract terms are acceptable as long as we know how they function linguistically [Dummett] |
9993 | There is no reason why abstraction by equivalence classes should be called 'logical' [Dummett, by Tait] |
9857 | We arrive at the concept 'suicide' by comparing 'Cato killed Cato' with 'Brutus killed Brutus' [Dummett] |
9833 | To abstract from spoons (to get the same number as the forks), the spoons must be indistinguishable too [Dummett] |
9836 | Fregean semantics assumes a domain articulated into individual objects [Dummett] |
23205 | Thought starts as ambiguity, in need of interpretation and narrowing [Nietzsche] |
23198 | Aesthetics can be more basic than morality, in our pleasure in certain patterns of experience [Nietzsche] |
23208 | Caesar and Napoleon point to the future, when they pursue their task regardless of human sacrifice [Nietzsche] |
23193 | Napoleon was very focused, and rightly ignored compassion [Nietzsche] |
23214 | For the strongest people, nihilism gives you wings! [Nietzsche] |
23203 | The great question is approaching, of how to govern the earth as a whole [Nietzsche] |
23200 | The controlling morality of aristocracy is the desire to resemble their ancestors [Nietzsche] |
23194 | People feel united as a nation by one language, but then want a common ancestry and history [Nietzsche] |
23204 | To be someone you need property, and wanting more is healthy [Nietzsche] |
23195 | Laws of nature are actually formulas of power relations [Nietzsche] |
18257 | Why should the limit of measurement be points, not intervals? [Dummett] |
23185 | In chemistry every substance pushes, and thus creates new substances [Nietzsche] |