92 ideas
| 20262 | Don't use wisdom in order to become clever! [Nietzsche] |
| 20255 | Early 19th century German philosophers enjoyed concepts, rather than scientific explanations [Nietzsche] |
| 20260 | Carlyle spent his life vainly trying to make reason appear romantic [Nietzsche] |
| 20256 | What we think is totally dictated by the language available to express it [Nietzsche] |
| 20265 | The desire for a complete system requires making the weak parts look equal to the rest [Nietzsche] |
| 23277 | Modern pragmatism sees objectivity as possible, despite its gradual evolution [Misak] |
| 14227 | We could refer to tables as 'xs that are arranged tablewise' [Inwagen] |
| 20380 | Why should truth be omnipotent? It is enough that it is very powerful [Nietzsche] |
| 20235 | Like animals, we seek truth because we want safety [Nietzsche] |
| 10662 | Mereology is 'nihilistic' (just atoms) or 'universal' (no restrictions on what is 'whole') [Inwagen, by Varzi] |
| 17587 | The 'Law' of Excluded Middle needs all propositions to be definitely true or definitely false [Inwagen] |
| 17558 | Variables are just like pronouns; syntactic explanations get muddled over dummy letters [Inwagen] |
| 17583 | There are no heaps [Inwagen] |
| 17578 | I reject talk of 'stuff', and treat it in terms of particles [Inwagen] |
| 17582 | Singular terms can be vague, because they can contain predicates, which can be vague [Inwagen] |
| 17556 | Material objects are in space and time, move, have a surface and mass, and are made of some stuff [Inwagen] |
| 8264 | Maybe table-shaped particles exist, but not tables [Inwagen, by Lowe] |
| 17565 | Nihilism says composition between single things is impossible [Inwagen] |
| 14228 | If there are no tables, but tables are things arranged tablewise, the denial of tables is a contradiction [Liggins on Inwagen] |
| 14468 | Actions by artefacts and natural bodies are disguised cooperations, so we don't need them [Inwagen] |
| 17571 | Every physical thing is either a living organism or a simple [Inwagen] |
| 17562 | The statue and lump seem to share parts, but the statue is not part of the lump [Inwagen] |
| 17574 | If you knead clay you make an infinite series of objects, but they are rearrangements, not creations [Inwagen] |
| 17531 | I assume matter is particulate, made up of 'simples' [Inwagen] |
| 17560 | If contact causes composition, do two colliding balls briefly make one object? [Inwagen] |
| 17561 | If bricks compose a house, that is at least one thing, but it might be many things [Inwagen] |
| 17566 | I think parthood involves causation, and not just a reasonably stable spatial relationship [Inwagen] |
| 14230 | We can deny whole objects but accept parts, by referring to them as plurals within things [Inwagen, by Liggins] |
| 17557 | Special Composition Question: when is a thing part of something? [Inwagen] |
| 17564 | The essence of a star includes the released binding energy which keeps it from collapse [Inwagen] |
| 17575 | The persistence of artifacts always covertly involves intelligent beings [Inwagen] |
| 17577 | When an electron 'leaps' to another orbit, is the new one the same electron? [Inwagen] |
| 17589 | If you reject transitivity of vague identity, there is no Ship of Theseus problem [Inwagen] |
| 17588 | We should talk of the transitivity of 'identity', and of 'definite identity' [Inwagen] |
| 17572 | Actuality proves possibility, but that doesn't explain how it is possible [Inwagen] |
| 17579 | Counterparts reduce counterfactual identity to problems about similarity relations [Inwagen] |
| 17590 | A merely possible object clearly isn't there, so that is a defective notion [Inwagen] |
| 17591 | Merely possible objects must be consistent properties, or haecceities [Inwagen] |
| 20258 | Most people treat knowledge as a private possession [Nietzsche] |
| 20250 | We may be unable to remember, but we may never actually forget [Nietzsche] |
| 20270 | There is no one scientific method; we must try many approaches, and many emotions [Nietzsche] |
| 20131 | We can cultivate our drives, of anger, pity, curiosity, vanity, like a gardener, with good or bad taste [Nietzsche] |
| 20242 | Things are the boundaries of humanity, so all things must be known, for self-knowledge [Nietzsche] |
| 20249 | Our knowledge of the many drives that constitute us is hopelessly incomplete [Nietzsche] |
| 20231 | People used to think that outcomes were from God, rather than consequences of acts [Nietzsche] |
| 20266 | It is essential that wise people learn to express their wisdom, possibly even as foolishness [Nietzsche] |
| 20251 | Actions done for a purpose are least understood, because we complacently think it's obvious [Nietzsche] |
| 20271 | Beauty in art is the imitation of happiness [Nietzsche] |
| 20230 | The very idea of a critique of morality is regarded as immoral! [Nietzsche] |
| 20234 | Morality prevents us from developing better customs [Nietzsche] |
| 20237 | Moral feelings are entirely different from the moral concepts used to judge actions [Nietzsche] |
| 20238 | Treating morality as feelings is just obeying your ancestors [Nietzsche] |
| 20243 | Human beings are not majestic, either through divine origins, or through grand aims [Nietzsche] |
| 20268 | Most dying people have probably lost more important things than what they are about to lose [Nietzsche] |
| 20252 | Marriage is too serious to be permitted for people in love! [Nietzsche] |
| 20236 | Marriage upholds the idea that love, though a passion, can endure [Nietzsche] |
| 20263 | Fear reveals the natures of other people much more clearly than love does [Nietzsche] |
| 20233 | Punishment has distorted the pure innocence of the contingency of outcomes [Nietzsche] |
| 20248 | People do nothing for their real ego, but only for a phantom ego created by other people [Nietzsche] |
| 20246 | If you feel to others as they feel to themselves, you must hate a self-hater [Nietzsche] |
| 20272 | Honesty is a new young virtue, and we can promote it, or not [Nietzsche] |
| 20240 | The Jews treated great anger as holy, and were in awe of those who expressed it [Nietzsche] |
| 20244 | Christianity replaces rational philosophical virtues with great passions focused on God [Nietzsche] |
| 20274 | The cardinal virtues want us to be honest, brave, magnanimous and polite [Nietzsche] |
| 20257 | Cool courage and feverish bravery have one name, but are two very different virtues [Nietzsche] |
| 20259 | Teach youth to respect people who differ with them, not people who agree with them [Nietzsche] |
| 20267 | Seeing duty as a burden makes it a bit cruel, and it can thus never become a habit [Nietzsche] |
| 20275 | Most people think they are already complete, but we can cultivate ourselves [Nietzsche] |
| 20229 | No authority ever willingly accepts criticism [Nietzsche] |
| 20254 | People govern for the pleasure of it, or just to avoid being governed [Nietzsche] |
| 20273 | The French Revolution gave trusting Europe the false delusion of instant recovery [Nietzsche] |
| 20232 | Get rid of the idea of punishment! It is a noxious weed! [Nietzsche] |
| 20253 | Modern wars arise from the study of history [Nietzsche] |
| 20261 | History does not concern what really happened, but supposed events, which have all the influence [Nietzsche] |
| 17563 | The strong force pulls, but also pushes apart if nucleons get too close together [Inwagen] |
| 17559 | Is one atom a piece of gold, or is a sizable group of atoms required? [Inwagen] |
| 17586 | At the lower level, life trails off into mere molecular interaction [Inwagen] |
| 17570 | The chemical reactions in a human life involve about sixteen elements [Inwagen] |
| 17585 | Life is vague at both ends, but could it be totally vague? [Inwagen] |
| 17584 | Some events are only borderline cases of lives [Inwagen] |
| 17569 | Unlike waves, lives are 'jealous'; it is almost impossible for them to overlap [Inwagen] |
| 17580 | One's mental and other life is centred on the brain, unlike any other part of the body [Inwagen] |
| 17567 | A flame is like a life, but not nearly so well individuated [Inwagen] |
| 17576 | If God were to 'reassemble' my atoms of ten years ago, the result would certainly not be me [Inwagen] |
| 17568 | A tumour may spread a sort of life, but it is not a life, or an organism [Inwagen] |
| 17581 | Being part of an organism's life is a matter of degree, and vague [Inwagen] |
| 20241 | Enquirers think finding our origin is salvation, but it turns out to be dull [Nietzsche] |
| 17573 | There is no reason to think that mere existence is a valuable thing [Inwagen] |
| 20245 | Christianity hoped for a short cut to perfection, that skipped the hard labour of morality [Nietzsche] |
| 20247 | Christianity was successful because of its heathen rituals [Nietzsche] |
| 20269 | 'I believe because it is absurd' - but how about 'I believe because I am absurd' [Nietzsche] |
| 20264 | The easy and graceful aspects of a person are called 'soul', and inner awkwardness is called 'soulless' [Nietzsche] |