106 ideas
| 23350 | A wise philosophers uses reason to cautiously judge each aspect of living [Epictetus] |
| 23355 | The task of philosophy is to establish standards, as occurs with weights and measures [Epictetus] |
| 21394 | Philosophy is knowing each logos, how they fit together, and what follows from them [Epictetus] |
| 20876 | Philosophy investigates the causes of disagreements, and seeks a standard for settling them [Epictetus] |
| 2056 | Philosophers are always switching direction to something more interesting [Plato] |
| 2083 | Either a syllable is its letters (making parts as knowable as whole) or it isn't (meaning it has no parts) [Plato] |
| 2086 | Understanding mainly involves knowing the elements, not their combinations [Plato] |
| 19917 | Without reason and human help, human life is misery [Spinoza] |
| 2082 | A rational account is essentially a weaving together of things with names [Plato] |
| 23344 | Reason itself must be compounded from some of our impressions [Epictetus] |
| 23343 | Because reason performs all analysis, we should analyse reason - but how? [Epictetus] |
| 2052 | Eristic discussion is aggressive, but dialectic aims to help one's companions in discussion [Plato] |
| 15854 | A primary element has only a name, and no logos, but complexes have an account, by weaving the names [Plato] |
| 10216 | We master arithmetic by knowing all the numbers in our soul [Plato] |
| 2060 | There seem to be two sorts of change: alteration and motion [Plato] |
| 2084 | If a word has no parts and has a single identity, it turns out to be the same kind of thing as a letter [Plato] |
| 15844 | A sum is that from which nothing is lacking, which is a whole [Plato] |
| 15843 | The whole can't be the parts, because it would be all of the parts, which is the whole [Plato] |
| 2080 | Things are only knowable if a rational account (logos) is possible [Plato] |
| 16126 | Expertise is knowledge of the whole by means of the parts [Plato] |
| 2050 | It is impossible to believe something which is held to be false [Plato] |
| 2076 | How can a belief exist if its object doesn't exist? [Plato] |
| 23359 | We can't believe apparent falsehoods, or deny apparent truths [Epictetus] |
| 23356 | Self-evidence is most obvious when people who deny a proposition still have to use it [Epictetus] |
| 2045 | Perception is infallible, suggesting that it is knowledge [Plato] |
| 2067 | Our senses could have been separate, but they converge on one mind [Plato] |
| 2068 | With what physical faculty do we perceive pairs of opposed abstract qualities? [Plato] |
| 2078 | You might mistake eleven for twelve in your senses, but not in your mind [Plato] |
| 2069 | Thought must grasp being itself before truth becomes possible [Plato] |
| 2089 | An inadequate rational account would still not justify knowledge [Plato] |
| 2085 | Parts and wholes are either equally knowable or equally unknowable [Plato] |
| 2091 | Without distinguishing marks, how do I know what my beliefs are about? [Plato] |
| 2087 | A rational account might be seeing an image of one's belief, like a reflection in a mirror [Plato] |
| 2090 | A rational account involves giving an image, or analysis, or giving a differentiating mark [Plato] |
| 2081 | Maybe primary elements can be named, but not receive a rational account [Plato] |
| 2088 | A rational account of a wagon would mean knowledge of its hundred parts [Plato] |
| 2047 | What evidence can be brought to show whether we are dreaming or not? [Plato] |
| 2053 | If you claim that all beliefs are true, that includes beliefs opposed to your own [Plato] |
| 2059 | How can a relativist form opinions about what will happen in the future? [Plato] |
| 2054 | Clearly some people are superior to others when it comes to medicine [Plato] |
| 23329 | We make progress when we improve and naturalise our choices, asserting their freedom [Epictetus] |
| 23342 | Freedom is acting by choice, with no constraint possible [Epictetus] |
| 23330 | Freedom is making all things happen by choice, without constraint [Epictetus] |
| 23332 | Zeus gave me a nature which is free (like himself) from all compulsion [Epictetus] |
| 19922 | People are only free if they are guided entirely by reason [Spinoza] |
| 23331 | Not even Zeus can control what I choose [Epictetus] |
| 23338 | You can fetter my leg, but not even Zeus can control my power of choice [Epictetus] |
| 20875 | If we could foresee the future, we should collaborate with disease and death [Epictetus] |
| 23347 | If I know I am fated to be ill, I should want to be ill [Epictetus] |
| 23325 | Epictetus developed a notion of will as the source of our responsibility [Epictetus, by Frede,M] |
| 20873 | Tragedies are versified sufferings of people impressed by externals [Epictetus] |
| 23364 | Homer wrote to show that the most blessed men can be ruined by poor judgement [Epictetus] |
| 23340 | We consist of animal bodies and god-like reason [Epictetus] |
| 23358 | Every species produces exceptional beings, and we must just accept their nature [Epictetus] |
| 23339 | I will die as becomes a person returning what he does not own [Epictetus] |
| 23345 | Don't be frightened of pain or death; only be frightened of fearing them [Epictetus] |
| 23357 | Knowledge of what is good leads to love; only the wise, who distinguish good from evil, can love [Epictetus] |
| 23363 | The evil for everything is what is contrary to its nature [Epictetus] |
| 23328 | The essences of good and evil are in dispositions to choose [Epictetus] |
| 23362 | All human ills result from failure to apply preconceptions to particular cases [Epictetus] |
| 23353 | We have a natural sense of honour [Epictetus] |
| 23354 | If someone harms themselves in harming me, then I harm myself by returning the harm [Epictetus] |
| 23324 | In the Discourses choice [prohairesis] defines our character and behaviour [Epictetus, by Frede,M] |
| 23361 | Health is only a good when it is used well [Epictetus] |
| 23346 | A person is as naturally a part of a city as a foot is part of the body [Epictetus] |
| 19935 | Peoples are created by individuals, not by nature, and only distinguished by language and law [Spinoza] |
| 23351 | We are citizens of the universe, and principal parts of it [Epictetus] |
| 19914 | In nature everything has an absolute right to do anything it is capable of doing [Spinoza] |
| 19915 | Natural rights are determined by desire and power, not by reason [Spinoza] |
| 7487 | Society exists to extend human awareness [Spinoza, by Watson] |
| 19943 | The state aims to allow personal development, so its main purpose is freedom [Spinoza] |
| 19930 | Sovereignty must include the power to make people submit to it [Spinoza] |
| 20874 | A citizen is committed to ignore private advantage, and seek communal good [Epictetus] |
| 23352 | A citizen should only consider what is good for the whole society [Epictetus] |
| 19936 | Kings tend to fight wars for glory, rather than for peace and liberty [Spinoza] |
| 19937 | Monarchs are always proud, and can't back down [Spinoza] |
| 19940 | Deposing a monarch is dangerous, because the people are used to royal authority [Spinoza] |
| 19931 | Every state is more frightened of its own citizens than of external enemies [Spinoza] |
| 19920 | Democracy is a legitimate gathering of people who do whatever they can do [Spinoza] |
| 19933 | If religion is law, then piety is justice, impiety is crime, and non-believers must leave [Spinoza] |
| 19938 | Allowing religious ministers any control of the state is bad for both parties [Spinoza] |
| 19923 | Slavery is not just obedience, but acting only in the interests of the master [Spinoza] |
| 19939 | Government is oppressive if opinions can be crimes, because people can't give them up [Spinoza] |
| 19944 | Without liberty of thought there is no trust in the state, and corruption follows [Spinoza] |
| 19942 | Treason may be committed as much by words as by deeds [Spinoza] |
| 19924 | The freest state is a rational one, where people can submit themselves to reason [Spinoza] |
| 7827 | Spinoza wanted democracy based on individual rights, and is thus the first modern political philosopher [Stewart,M on Spinoza] |
| 19926 | The sovereignty has absolute power over citizens [Spinoza] |
| 19918 | Forming a society meant following reason, and giving up dangerous appetites and mutual harm [Spinoza] |
| 19919 | People only give up their rights, and keep promises, if they hope for some greater good [Spinoza] |
| 19921 | Once you have given up your rights, there is no going back [Spinoza] |
| 19925 | In democracy we don't abandon our rights, but transfer them to the majority of us [Spinoza] |
| 19928 | No one, in giving up their power and right, ceases to be a human being [Spinoza] |
| 19929 | Everyone who gives up their rights must fear the recipients of them [Spinoza] |
| 19932 | The early Hebrews, following Moses, gave up their rights to God alone [Spinoza] |
| 19916 | The order of nature does not prohibit anything, and allows whatever appetite produces [Spinoza] |
| 22604 | Punishing a criminal for moral ignorance is the same as punishing someone for being blind [Epictetus] |
| 19927 | State and religious law can clash, so the state must make decisions about religion [Spinoza] |
| 23349 | Asses are born to carry human burdens, not as ends in themselves [Epictetus] |
| 23341 | God created humans as spectators and interpreters of God's works [Epictetus] |
| 23348 | Both god and the good bring benefits, so their true nature seems to be the same [Epictetus] |
| 2058 | God must be the epitome of goodness, and we can only approach a divine state by being as good as possible [Plato] |
| 19934 | Hebrews were very hostile to other states, who had not given up their rights to God [Spinoza] |
| 4300 | The Bible has nothing in common with reasoning and philosophy [Spinoza] |
| 23360 | Each of the four elements in you is entirely scattered after death [Epictetus] |
| 2057 | There must always be some force of evil ranged against good [Plato] |