32 ideas
22659 | It is wisdom to believe what you desire, because belief is needed to achieve it [James] |
22657 | All good philosophers start from a dumb conviction about which truths can be revealed [James] |
22647 | A complete system is just a classification of the whole world's ingredients [James] |
22648 | A single explanation must have a single point of view [James] |
22644 | Our greatest pleasure is the economy of reducing chaotic facts to one single fact [James] |
22649 | Classification can only ever be for a particular purpose [James] |
16730 | If matter is entirely atoms, anything else we notice in it can only be modes [Gassendi] |
22655 | Scientific genius extracts more than other people from the same evidence [James] |
22658 | Experimenters assume the theory is true, and stick to it as long as result don't disappoint [James] |
22654 | We can't know if the laws of nature are stable, but we must postulate it or assume it [James] |
22656 | Trying to assess probabilities by mere calculation is absurd and impossible [James] |
16619 | We observe qualities, and use 'induction' to refer to the substances lying under them [Gassendi] |
22646 | We have a passion for knowing the parts of something, rather than the whole [James] |
22652 | The mind has evolved entirely for practical interests, seen in our reflex actions [James] |
22651 | Dogs' curiosity only concerns what will happen next [James] |
22650 | How can the ground of rationality be itself rational? [James] |
22643 | It seems that we feel rational when we detect no irrationality [James] |
22660 | Evolution suggests prevailing or survival as a new criterion of right and wrong [James] |
23529 | Conduct is not isolated from its effect on the moral code [Hart,HLA] |
23530 | The great danger of democracy is that the oppression of the minority becomes unobjectionable [Hart,HLA] |
23522 | In an organised society all actions have some effect on other people [Hart,HLA] |
23528 | The value of liberty allows freedom of action, even if that distresses other people [Hart,HLA] |
23523 | The principle of legality requires crimes to be precisely defined in advance of any action [Hart,HLA] |
23524 | Some private moral issues are no concern of the law [Hart,HLA] |
23521 | Do morals influence law? Is morality an aspect of law? Can law be morally criticised? [Hart,HLA] |
23525 | Is the enforcement of morality morally justifiable? [Hart,HLA] |
23526 | Modern law still suppresses practices seen as immoral, and yet harmless [Hart,HLA] |
23527 | Moral wickedness of an offence is always relevant to the degree of punishment [Hart,HLA] |
16593 | Atoms are not points, but hard indivisible things, which no force in nature can divide [Gassendi] |
16729 | How do mere atoms produce qualities like colour, flavour and odour? [Gassendi] |
22645 | Understanding by means of causes is useless if they are not reduced to a minimum number [James] |
22653 | Early Christianity says God recognises the neglected weak and tender impulses [James] |