70 ideas
2930 | The main aim of philosophy must be to determine the order of rank among values [Nietzsche] |
16512 | Semantic facts are preferable to transcendental philosophical fiction [Wiggins] |
20143 | Scientific knowledge is nothing without a prior philosophical 'faith' [Nietzsche] |
23722 | Objectivity is not disinterestedness (impossible), but the ability to switch perspectives [Nietzsche] |
4417 | Only that which has no history is definable [Nietzsche] |
23715 | Psychologists should be brave and proud, and prefer truth to desires, even when it is ugly [Nietzsche] |
11115 | 'All horses' either picks out the horses, or the things which are horses [Jubien] |
17529 | Maybe the concept needed under which things coincide must also yield a principle of counting [Wiggins] |
17530 | The sortal needed for identities may not always be sufficient to support counting [Wiggins] |
16523 | Realist Conceptualists accept that our interests affect our concepts [Wiggins] |
16524 | Conceptualism says we must use our individuating concepts to grasp reality [Wiggins] |
16526 | Animal classifications: the Emperor's, fabulous, innumerable, like flies, stray dogs, embalmed…. [Wiggins] |
11116 | Being a physical object is our most fundamental category [Jubien] |
16492 | Individuation needs accounts of identity, of change, and of singling out [Wiggins] |
16493 | Individuation can only be understood by the relation between things and thinkers [Wiggins] |
16496 | Singling out extends back and forward in time [Wiggins] |
11117 | Haecceities implausibly have no qualities [Jubien] |
16495 | The only singling out is singling out 'as' something [Wiggins] |
16501 | In Aristotle's sense, saying x falls under f is to say what x is [Wiggins] |
16506 | Every determinate thing falls under a sortal, which fixes its persistence [Wiggins] |
16509 | Natural kinds are well suited to be the sortals which fix substances [Wiggins] |
16514 | Artefacts are individuated by some matter having a certain function [Wiggins] |
16510 | Nominal essences don't fix membership, ignore evolution, and aren't contextual [Wiggins] |
16503 | 'What is it?' gives the kind, nature, persistence conditions and identity over time of a thing [Wiggins] |
16499 | A restored church is the same 'church', but not the same 'building' or 'brickwork' [Wiggins] |
16515 | A thing begins only once; for a clock, it is when its making is first completed [Wiggins] |
16517 | Priests prefer the working ship; antiquarians prefer the reconstruction [Wiggins] |
16498 | Identity cannot be defined, because definitions are identities [Wiggins] |
16497 | Leibniz's Law (not transitivity, symmetry, reflexivity) marks what is peculiar to identity [Wiggins] |
16502 | Identity is primitive [Wiggins] |
16521 | A is necessarily A, so if B is A, then B is also necessarily A [Wiggins] |
16505 | By the principle of Indiscernibility, a symmetrical object could only be half of itself! [Wiggins] |
16494 | We want to explain sameness as coincidence of substance, not as anything qualitative [Wiggins] |
11119 | De re necessity is just de dicto necessity about object-essences [Jubien] |
11118 | Modal propositions transcend the concrete, but not the actual [Jubien] |
11108 | Your properties, not some other world, decide your possibilities [Jubien] |
11111 | Modal truths are facts about parts of this world, not about remote maximal entities [Jubien] |
16522 | It is hard or impossible to think of Caesar as not human [Wiggins] |
11105 | We have no idea how many 'possible worlds' there might be [Jubien] |
11107 | If there are no other possible worlds, do we then exist necessarily? [Jubien] |
11106 | If all possible worlds just happened to include stars, their existence would be necessary [Jubien] |
11112 | Possible worlds just give parallel contingencies, with no explanation at all of necessity [Jubien] |
11109 | If other worlds exist, then they are scattered parts of the actual world [Jubien] |
11113 | Worlds don't explain necessity; we use necessity to decide on possible worlds [Jubien] |
11110 | We mustn't confuse a similar person with the same person [Jubien] |
4421 | Philosophers have never asked why there is a will to truth in the first place [Nietzsche] |
23719 | Forgetfulness is a strong positive ability, not mental laziness [Nietzsche] |
4420 | There is only 'perspective' seeing and knowing, and so the best objectivity is multiple points of view [Nietzsche] |
16525 | Our sortal concepts fix what we find in experience [Wiggins] |
4414 | Philosophers invented "free will" so that our virtues would be permanently interesting to the gods [Nietzsche] |
4419 | People who think in words are orators rather than thinkers, and think about facts instead of thinking facts [Nietzsche] |
16518 | We conceptualise objects, but they impinge on us [Wiggins] |
16511 | A 'conception' of a horse is a full theory of what it is (and not just the 'concept') [Wiggins] |
4411 | It is a delusion to separate the man from the deed, like the flash from the lightning [Nietzsche] |
3793 | We must question the very value of moral values [Nietzsche] |
4408 | The concept of 'good' was created by aristocrats to describe their own actions [Nietzsche] |
23716 | A strong rounded person soon forgets enemies, misfortunes, and even misdeeds [Nietzsche] |
20129 | All animals strive for the ideal conditions to express their power, and hate any hindrances [Nietzsche] |
4409 | Only the decline of aristocratic morality led to concerns about "egoism" [Nietzsche] |
3259 | Nietzsche rejects impersonal morality, and asserts the idea of living well [Nietzsche, by Nagel] |
4416 | Basic justice is the negotiation of agreement among equals, and the imposition of agreement [Nietzsche] |
4418 | A masterful and violent person need have nothing to do with contracts [Nietzsche] |
4407 | Plato, Spinoza and Kant are very different, but united in their low estimation of pity [Nietzsche] |
4415 | Guilt and obligation originated in the relationship of buying and selling, credit and debt [Nietzsche] |
23718 | If we say birds of prey could become lambs, that makes them responsible for being birds of prey [Nietzsche] |
23717 | Modern nihilism is now feeling tired of mankind [Nietzsche] |
23721 | Old tribes always felt an obligation to the earlier generations, and the founders [Nietzsche] |
20142 | The state begins with brutal conquest of a disorganised people, not with a 'contract' [Nietzsche] |
23720 | Punishment makes people harder, more alienated, and hostile [Nietzsche] |
4410 | The truly great haters in world history have always been priests [Nietzsche] |