64 ideas
13786 | Wisdom is called 'beautiful', because it performs fine works [Plato] |
13780 | Good people are no different from wise ones [Plato] |
23250 | Desired responsible actions result either from rational or from irrational desire [Aristotle] |
5847 | It is the role of dialectic to survey syllogisms [Aristotle] |
13778 | A dialectician is someone who knows how to ask and to answer questions [Plato] |
13776 | Truths say of what is that it is, falsehoods say of what is that it is not [Plato] |
13777 | A name is a sort of tool [Plato] |
13790 | A name-giver might misname something, then force other names to conform to it [Plato] |
13791 | Things must be known before they are named, so it can't be the names that give us knowledge [Plato] |
13789 | Anyone who knows a thing's name also knows the thing [Plato] |
2063 | How can beauty have identity if it changes? [Plato] |
13775 | We only succeed in cutting if we use appropriate tools, not if we approach it randomly [Plato] |
13787 | Doesn't each thing have an essence, just as it has other qualities? [Plato] |
13774 | Things don't have every attribute, and essence isn't private, so each thing has an essence [Plato] |
13772 | Is the being or essence of each thing private to each person? [Plato] |
13788 | If we made a perfect duplicate of Cratylus, there would be two Cratyluses [Plato] |
13792 | There can't be any knowledge if things are constantly changing [Plato] |
17405 | If a theory can be fudged, so can observations [Scerri] |
5862 | A single counterexample is enough to prove that a truth is not necessary [Aristotle] |
17397 | The periodic system is the big counterexample to Kuhn's theory of revolutionary science [Scerri] |
5854 | Nobody fears a disease which nobody has yet caught [Aristotle] |
17393 | Scientists eventually seek underlying explanations for every pattern [Scerri] |
17403 | The periodic table suggests accommodation to facts rates above prediction [Scerri] |
13781 | Soul causes the body to live, and gives it power to breathe and to be revitalized [Plato] |
5849 | Rhetoric is a political offshoot of dialectic and ethics [Aristotle] |
5851 | Pentathletes look the most beautiful, because they combine speed and strength [Aristotle] |
5858 | Men are physically prime at thirty-five, and mentally prime at forty-nine [Aristotle] |
5855 | We all feel universal right and wrong, independent of any community or contracts [Aristotle] |
5850 | Happiness is composed of a catalogue of internal and external benefits [Aristotle] |
5856 | Self-interest is a relative good, but nobility an absolute good [Aristotle] |
13785 | 'Arete' signifies lack of complexity and a free-flowing soul [Plato] |
5853 | The best virtues are the most useful to others [Aristotle] |
5848 | All good things can be misused, except virtue [Aristotle] |
5857 | The young feel pity from philanthropy, but the old from self-concern [Aristotle] |
5859 | Rich people are mindlessly happy [Aristotle] |
5852 | The four constitutions are democracy (freedom), oligarchy (wealth), aristocracy (custom), tyranny (security) [Aristotle] |
1660 | It is noble to avenge oneself on one's enemies, and not come to terms with them [Aristotle] |
17394 | Natural kinds are what are differentiated by nature, and not just by us [Scerri] |
17421 | If elements are natural kinds, might the groups of the periodic table also be natural kinds? [Scerri] |
5861 | People assume events cause what follows them [Aristotle] |
17396 | The colour of gold is best explained by relativistic effects due to fast-moving inner-shell electrons [Scerri] |
17420 | The stability of nuclei can be estimated through their binding energy [Scerri] |
17411 | If all elements are multiples of one (of hydrogen), that suggests once again that matter is unified [Scerri] |
17407 | The electron is the main source of chemical properties [Scerri] |
17415 | A big chemistry idea is that covalent bonds are shared electrons, not transfer of electrons [Scerri] |
17392 | How can poisonous elements survive in the nutritious compound they compose? [Scerri] |
17391 | Periodicity and bonding are the two big ideas in chemistry [Scerri] |
17404 | Chemistry does not work from general principles, but by careful induction from large amounts of data [Scerri] |
17409 | Does radioactivity show that only physics can explain chemistry? [Scerri] |
17418 | It is now thought that all the elements have literally evolved from hydrogen [Scerri] |
17398 | 19th C views said elements survived abstractly in compounds, but also as 'material ingredients' [Scerri] |
17406 | Moseley, using X-rays, showed that atomic number ordered better than atomic weight [Scerri] |
17408 | Some suggested basing the new periodic table on isotopes, not elements [Scerri] |
17412 | Elements are placed in the table by the number of positive charges - the atomic number [Scerri] |
17413 | Elements in the table are grouped by having the same number of outer-shell electrons [Scerri] |
17416 | Orthodoxy says the periodic table is explained by quantum mechanics [Scerri] |
17414 | Pauli explained the electron shells, but not the lengths of the periods in the table [Scerri] |
17410 | Moseley showed the elements progress in units, and thereby clearly identified the gaps [Scerri] |
17395 | Elements were ordered by equivalent weight; later by atomic weight; finally by atomic number [Scerri] |
17422 | The best classification needs the deepest and most general principles of the atoms [Scerri] |
17419 | Since 99.96% of the universe is hydrogen and helium, the periodic table hardly matters [Scerri] |
17417 | To explain the table, quantum mechanics still needs to explain order of shell filling [Scerri] |
13779 | The natural offspring of a lion is called a 'lion' (but what about the offspring of a king?) [Plato] |
13783 | Even the gods love play [Plato] |