35 ideas
| 22864 | Philosophy is the study and criticsm of cultural beliefs, to achieve new possibilities [Dewey] |
| 22873 | Liberalism should improve the system, and not just ameliorate it [Dewey] |
| 21642 | If quantification is all substitutional, there is no ontology [Quine] |
| 1633 | Absolute ontological questions are meaningless, because the answers are circular definitions [Quine] |
| 18964 | Ontology is relative to both a background theory and a translation manual [Quine] |
| 16185 | Causality indicates which properties are real [Cartwright,N] |
| 18965 | We know what things are by distinguishing them, so identity is part of ontology [Quine] |
| 22869 | Knowledge is either the product of competent enquiry, or it is meaningless [Dewey] |
| 22867 | The quest for certainty aims for peace, and avoidance of the stress of action [Dewey] |
| 22870 | No belief can be so settled that it is not subject to further inquiry [Dewey] |
| 1634 | Two things are relative - the background theory, and translating the object theory into the background theory [Quine] |
| 16182 | Two main types of explanation are by causes, or by citing a theoretical framework [Cartwright,N] |
| 16184 | An explanation is a model that fits a theory and predicts the phenomenological laws [Cartwright,N] |
| 16167 | Laws get the facts wrong, and explanation rests on improvements and qualifications of laws [Cartwright,N] |
| 16169 | Laws apply to separate domains, but real explanations apply to intersecting domains [Cartwright,N] |
| 16176 | Covering-law explanation lets us explain storms by falling barometers [Cartwright,N] |
| 16177 | I disagree with the covering-law view that there is a law to cover every single case [Cartwright,N] |
| 16180 | You can't explain one quail's behaviour by just saying that all quails do it [Cartwright,N] |
| 16171 | The covering law view assumes that each phenomenon has a 'right' explanation [Cartwright,N] |
| 16183 | In science, best explanations have regularly turned out to be false [Cartwright,N] |
| 22866 | Mind is never isolated, but only exists in its interactions [Dewey] |
| 8470 | Reference is inscrutable, because we cannot choose between theories of numbers [Quine, by Orenstein] |
| 18963 | Indeterminacy translating 'rabbit' depends on translating individuation terms [Quine] |
| 22872 | Liberals aim to allow individuals to realise their capacities [Dewey] |
| 22880 | The things in civilisation we prize are the products of other members of our community [Dewey] |
| 16175 | A cause won't increase the effect frequency if other causes keep interfering [Cartwright,N] |
| 6781 | There are fundamental explanatory laws (false!), and phenomenological laws (regularities) [Cartwright,N, by Bird] |
| 16166 | Laws of appearances are 'phenomenological'; laws of reality are 'theoretical' [Cartwright,N] |
| 16179 | Good organisation may not be true, and the truth may not organise very much [Cartwright,N] |
| 16170 | To get from facts to equations, we need a prepared descriptions suited to mathematics [Cartwright,N] |
| 16181 | Simple laws have quite different outcomes when they act in combinations [Cartwright,N] |
| 16178 | There are few laws for when one theory meets another [Cartwright,N] |
| 22879 | 'God' is an imaginative unity of ideal values [Dewey] |
| 22877 | We should try attaching the intensity of religious devotion to intelligent social action [Dewey] |
| 22878 | Religions are so shockingly diverse that they have no common element [Dewey] |