156 ideas
2196 | The observation of human blindness and weakness is the result of all philosophy [Hume] |
3722 | Metaphysics goes beyond the empirical, so doesn't need examples [Kant] |
2187 | If we suspect that a philosophical term is meaningless, we should ask what impression it derives from [Hume] |
2200 | All experimental conclusions assume that the future will be like the past [Hume] |
3738 | The hallmark of rationality is setting itself an end [Kant] |
4636 | All reasoning concerning matters of fact is based on analogy (with similar results of similar causes) [Hume] |
2197 | Reason assists experience in discovering laws, and in measuring their application [Hume] |
7700 | We can't think about the abstract idea of triangles, but only of particular triangles [Hume] |
13602 | We cannot form an idea of a 'power', and the word is without meaning [Hume] |
2216 | We transfer the frequency of past observations to our future predictions [Hume] |
2215 | There is no such thing as chance [Hume] |
2209 | Belief is stronger, clearer and steadier than imagination [Hume] |
2207 | Belief can't be a concept plus an idea, or we could add the idea to fictions [Hume] |
2208 | Belief is just a particular feeling attached to ideas of objects [Hume] |
2213 | Beliefs are built up by resemblance, contiguity and causation [Hume] |
3661 | 'Natural beliefs' are unavoidable, whatever our judgements [Hume, by Strawson,G] |
3726 | The categorical imperative is a practical synthetic a priori proposition [Kant] |
2191 | Relations of ideas are known by thought, independently from the world [Hume] |
2239 | If secondary qualities (e.g. hardness) are in the mind, so are primary qualities like extension [Hume] |
2237 | It never occurs to people that they only experience representations, not the real objects [Hume] |
2182 | Impressions are our livelier perceptions, Ideas the less lively ones [Hume] |
2190 | All objects of enquiry are Relations of Ideas, or Matters of Fact [Hume] |
2246 | If books don't relate ideas or explain facts, commit them to the flames [Hume] |
2184 | All ideas are copies of impressions [Hume] |
23631 | Hume is loose when he says perceptions of different strength are different species [Reid on Hume] |
2192 | All reasoning about facts is causal; nothing else goes beyond memory and senses [Hume] |
2189 | All ideas are connected by Resemblance, Contiguity in time or place, and Cause and Effect [Hume] |
2186 | We cannot form the idea of something we haven't experienced [Hume] |
2702 | Only madmen dispute the authority of experience [Hume] |
2217 | When definitions are pushed to the limit, only experience can make them precise [Hume] |
2205 | You couldn't reason at all if you lacked experience [Hume] |
2194 | How could Adam predict he would drown in water or burn in fire? [Hume] |
2183 | We can only invent a golden mountain by combining experiences [Hume] |
23421 | If a person had a gap in their experience of blue shades, they could imaginatively fill it in [Hume] |
3902 | Hume mistakenly lumps sensations and perceptions together as 'impressions' [Scruton on Hume] |
2206 | Reasons for belief must eventually terminate in experience, or they are without foundation [Hume] |
2235 | There is no certain supreme principle, or infallible rule of inference [Hume] |
10328 | We think testimony matches reality because of experience, not some a priori connection [Hume] |
2230 | Good testimony needs education, integrity, motive and agreement [Hume, by PG] |
2238 | Reason can never show that experiences are connected to external objects [Hume] |
2242 | Mitigated scepticism draws attention to the limitations of human reason, and encourages modesty [Hume] |
2243 | Mitigated scepticism sensibly confines our enquiries to the narrow capacity of human understanding [Hume] |
2236 | Examples of illusion only show that sense experience needs correction by reason [Hume] |
2240 | It is a very extravagant aim of the sceptics to destroy reason and argument by means of reason and argument [Hume] |
2241 | The main objection to scepticism is that no good can come of it [Hume] |
2198 | We assume similar secret powers behind similar experiences, such as the nourishment of bread [Hume] |
2201 | Induction can't prove that the future will be like the past, since induction assumes this [Hume] |
2203 | If we infer causes from repetition, this explains why we infer from a thousand objects what we couldn't infer from one [Hume] |
2204 | All inferences from experience are effects of custom, not reasoning [Hume] |
2199 | Reason cannot show why reliable past experience should extend to future times and remote places [Hume] |
2202 | Fools, children and animals all learn from experience [Hume] |
6350 | Premises can support an argument without entailing it [Pollock/Cruz on Hume] |
3598 | Hume just shows induction isn't deduction [Williams,M on Hume] |
2210 | A picture of a friend strengthens our idea of him, by resemblance [Hume] |
17712 | General ideas are the connection by resemblance to some particular [Hume] |
8544 | Hume does not distinguish real resemblances among degrees of resemblance [Shoemaker on Hume] |
2211 | When I am close to (contiguous with) home, I feel its presence more nearly [Hume] |
2212 | An object made by a saint is the best way to produce thoughts of him [Hume] |
2214 | Our awareness of patterns of causation is too important to be left to slow and uncertain reasoning [Hume] |
3739 | Free will is a kind of causality which works independently of other causes [Kant] |
3741 | We shall never be able to comprehend how freedom is possible [Kant] |
3740 | We cannot conceive of reason as being externally controlled [Kant] |
2222 | The doctrine of free will arises from a false sensation we have of freedom in many actions [Hume] |
5296 | Kant made the political will into a pure self-determined "free" will [Kant, by Marx/Engels] |
2223 | Liberty is merely acting according to the will, which anyone can do if they are not in chains [Hume] |
3655 | Hume makes determinism less rigid by removing the necessity from causation [Trusted on Hume] |
24011 | Kant thought emotions are too random and passive to be part of morality [Kant, by Williams,B] |
2220 | Only experience teaches us about our wills [Hume] |
2224 | Praise and blame can only be given if an action proceeds from a person's character and disposition [Hume] |
2225 | If you deny all necessity and causation, then our character is not responsible for our crime [Hume] |
2226 | Repentance gets rid of guilt, which shows that responsibility arose from the criminal principles in the mind [Hume] |
5074 | Kant united religion and philosophy, by basing obedience to law on reason instead of faith [Taylor,R on Kant] |
8024 | The categorical imperative says nothing about what our activities and ends should be [MacIntyre on Kant] |
22390 | Kant thought human nature was pure hedonism, so virtue is only possible via the categorical imperative [Foot on Kant] |
9750 | We must only value what others find acceptable [Kant, by Korsgaard] |
20160 | Kant focuses exclusively on human values, and neglects cultural and personal values [Kekes on Kant] |
9749 | Our rational choices confer value, arising from the sense that we ourselves are important [Kant, by Korsgaard] |
7671 | Values are created by human choices, and are not some intrinsic quality, out there [Kant, by Berlin] |
3720 | We may claim noble motives, but we cannot penetrate our secret impulses [Kant] |
3717 | Reverence is awareness of a value which demolishes my self-love [Kant] |
3712 | A good will is not good because of what it achieves [Kant] |
3725 | The good of an action is in the mind of the doer, not the consequences [Kant] |
3733 | The 'golden rule' cannot be a universal law as it implies no duties [Kant] |
3736 | Virtue lets a rational being make universal law, and share in the kingdom of ends [Kant] |
3544 | Kant thinks virtue becomes passive, and hence morally unaccountable [Kant, by Annas] |
7903 | The six perfections are giving, morality, patience, vigour, meditation, and wisdom [Nagarjuna] |
7674 | Generosity and pity are vices, because they falsely imply one person's superiority to another [Kant, by Berlin] |
21029 | Kantian respect is for humanity and reason (not from love or sympathy or solidarity) [Kant, by Sandel] |
7105 | If 'maxims' are deeper underlying intentions, Kant can be read as a virtue theorist [Kant, by Statman] |
7625 | We can ask how rational goodness is, but also why is rationality good [Putnam on Kant] |
3715 | Other causes can produce nice results, so morality must consist in the law, found only in rational beings [Kant] |
20715 | It is basic that moral actions must be done from duty [Kant] |
4024 | Kant follows Rousseau in defining freedom and morality in terms of each other [Taylor,C on Kant] |
3710 | The only purely good thing is a good will [Kant] |
3737 | The will is good if its universalised maxim is never in conflict with itself [Kant] |
3718 | Telling the truth from duty is quite different from doing so to avoid inconvenience [Kant] |
3723 | There are no imperatives for a holy will, as the will is in harmony with moral law [Kant] |
3735 | Men are subject to laws which are both self-made and universal [Kant] |
3724 | A categorical imperative sees an action as necessary purely for its own sake [Kant] |
3714 | Dutiful actions are judged not by purpose, but by the maxim followed [Kant] |
5295 | Kant was happy with 'good will', even if it had no result [Kant, by Marx/Engels] |
6695 | Kant has to attribute high moral worth to some deeply unattractive human lives [Kant, by Graham] |
8028 | Kantian duty seems to imply conformism with authority [MacIntyre on Kant] |
8026 | Almost any precept can be consistently universalized [MacIntyre on Kant] |
15673 | The intuition behind the categorical imperative is that one ought not to make an exception of oneself [Kant, by Finlayson] |
8068 | Universalising a maxim needs to first stipulate the right description for the action [Anscombe on Kant] |
8025 | The categorical imperative will not suggest maxims suitable for testing [MacIntyre on Kant] |
8027 | I can universalize a selfish maxim, if it is expressed in a way that only applies to me [MacIntyre on Kant] |
3728 | Suicide, false promises, neglected talent, and lack of charity all involve contradictions of principle [Kant, by PG] |
22008 | Always treat yourself and others as an end, and never simply as a means [Kant] |
3719 | If lying were the universal law it would make promises impossible [Kant] |
3762 | Why couldn't all rational beings accept outrageously immoral rules of conduct? [Mill on Kant] |
22009 | Morality is the creation of the laws that enable a Kingdom of Ends [Kant] |
4413 | The categorical imperative smells of cruelty [Nietzsche on Kant] |
3716 | Act according to a maxim you can will as a universal law [Kant] |
3727 | Act as if your maxim were to become a universal law of nature [Kant] |
22050 | The maxim of an action is chosen, and not externally imposed [Kant, by Bowie] |
6694 | Always treat humanity as an end and never as a means only [Kant] |
3731 | Rational beings necessarily conceive their own existence as an end in itself [Kant] |
4345 | For Kant, even a person who lacks all sympathy for others still has a motive for benevolence [Kant, by Hursthouse] |
4251 | If we are required to give moral thought the highest priority, this gives morality no content [Williams,B on Kant] |
16004 | If Kant lives by self-administered laws, this is as feeble as self-administered punishments [Kierkegaard on Kant] |
3711 | Only a good will makes us worthy of happiness [Kant] |
3713 | The function of reason is to produce a good will [Kant] |
3729 | Our inclinations are not innately desirable; in fact most rational beings would like to be rid of them [Kant] |
4344 | Actions where people spread happiness because they enjoy it have no genuine moral worth [Kant] |
3732 | Rational beings have a right to share in the end of an action, not just be part of the means [Kant] |
2233 | No government has ever suffered by being too tolerant of philosophy [Hume] |
7670 | Kant is the father of the notion of exploitation as an evil [Kant, by Berlin] |
7591 | Kant completed Grotius's project of a non-religious basis for natural law [Scruton on Kant] |
7673 | Retributive punishment is better than being sent to hospital for your crimes [Kant, by Berlin] |
3730 | Non-rational beings only have a relative value, as means rather than as ends [Kant] |
2195 | We can discover some laws of nature, but never its ultimate principles and causes [Hume] |
2245 | A priori it looks as if a cause could have absolutely any effect [Hume] |
4772 | If a singular effect is studied, its cause can only be inferred from the types of events involved [Hume] |
8341 | Hume never even suggests that there is no such thing as causation [Hume, by Strawson,G] |
8344 | At first Hume said qualities are the causal entities, but later he said events [Hume, by Davidson] |
3662 | Hume says we can only know constant conjunctions, not that that's what causation IS [Hume, by Strawson,G] |
4771 | In both of Hume's definitions, causation is extrinsic to the sequence of events [Psillos on Hume] |
5194 | Hume's definition of cause as constantly joined thoughts can't cover undiscovered laws [Ayer on Hume] |
2221 | A cause is either similar events following one another, or an experience always suggesting a second experience [Hume] |
2234 | It is only when two species of thing are constantly conjoined that we can infer one from the other [Hume] |
2193 | No causes can be known a priori, but only from experience of constant conjunctions [Hume] |
8422 | Cause is where if the first object had not been, the second had not existed [Hume] |
2218 | In observing causes we can never observe any necessary connections or binding qualities [Hume] |
15249 | Hume never shows how a strong habit could generate the concept of necessity [Harré/Madden on Hume] |
8339 | Hume's regularity theory of causation is epistemological; he believed in some sort of natural necessity [Hume, by Strawson,G] |
8046 | We can only know we should obey God if we already have moral standards for judging God [Kant, by MacIntyre] |
3721 | We judge God to be good by a priori standards of moral perfection [Kant] |
2244 | It can never be a logical contradiction to assert the non-existence of something thought to exist [Hume] |
20714 | God is not proved by reason, but is a postulate of moral thinking [Kant, by Davies,B] |
2232 | You can't infer the cause to be any greater than its effect [Hume] |
2228 | All experience must be against a supposed miracle, or it wouldn't be called 'a miracle' [Hume] |
2229 | To establish a miracle the falseness of the evidence must be a greater miracle than the claimed miraculous event [Hume] |
2227 | A miracle violates laws which have been established by continuous unchanging experience, so should be ignored [Hume] |
2185 | The idea of an infinite, intelligent, wise and good God arises from augmenting the best qualities of our own minds [Hume] |