73 ideas
19917 | Without reason and human help, human life is misery [Spinoza] |
192 | Only one thing can be contrary to something [Plato] |
190 | If asked whether justice itself is just or unjust, you would have to say that it is just [Plato] |
20185 | The most important things in life are wisdom and knowledge [Plato] |
20184 | The only real evil is loss of knowledge [Plato] |
191 | Everything resembles everything else up to a point [Plato] |
19922 | People are only free if they are guided entirely by reason [Spinoza] |
203 | Courage is knowing what should or shouldn't be feared [Plato] |
202 | No one willingly and knowingly embraces evil [Plato] |
193 | Some things are good even though they are not beneficial to men [Plato] |
197 | Some pleasures are not good, and some pains are not evil [Plato] |
200 | People tend only to disapprove of pleasure if it leads to pain, or prevents future pleasure [Plato] |
188 | Socrates did not believe that virtue could be taught [Plato] |
204 | Socrates is contradicting himself in claiming virtue can't be taught, but that it is knowledge [Plato] |
189 | If we punish wrong-doers, it shows that we believe virtue can be taught [Plato] |
19935 | Peoples are created by individuals, not by nature, and only distinguished by language and law [Spinoza] |
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] |
22849 | Rawls's theory cannot justify liberalism, since it presupposes free and equal participants [Charvet] |
22848 | People with strong prior beliefs would have nothing to do with a veil of ignorance [Charvet] |
19943 | The state aims to allow personal development, so its main purpose is freedom [Spinoza] |
7487 | Society exists to extend human awareness [Spinoza, by Watson] |
19930 | Sovereignty must include the power to make people submit to it [Spinoza] |
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] |
22838 | Societies need shared values, so conservatism is right if rational discussion of values is impossible [Charvet] |
22846 | The universalism of utilitarianism implies a world state [Charvet] |
19920 | Democracy is a legitimate gathering of people who do whatever they can do [Spinoza] |
22835 | Liberals value freedom and equality, but the society itself must decide on its values [Charvet] |
22831 | Modern libertarian societies still provide education and some housing [Charvet] |
22839 | Liberalism needs people to either have equal autonomy, or everyone to have enough autonomy [Charvet] |
22847 | Kant places a higher value on the universal rational will than on the people asserting it [Charvet] |
22821 | Liberalism asserts maximum freedom, but that must be equal for all participants [Charvet] |
22834 | Egalitarian liberals prefer equality (either of input or outcome) to liberty [Charvet] |
22822 | Liberals promote community and well-being - because all good societies need them [Charvet] |
22841 | Identity multiculturalism emerges from communitarianism, preferring community to humanity [Charvet] |
22842 | For communitarians it seems that you must accept the culture you are born into [Charvet] |
22830 | Give by ability and receive by need, rather than a free labour market [Charvet] |
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] |
22829 | Allowing defamatory speech is against society's interests, by blurring which people are trustworthy [Charvet] |
19942 | Treason may be committed as much by words as by deeds [Spinoza] |
22836 | 'Freedom from' is an empty idea, if the freedom is not from impediments to my desires [Charvet] |
22837 | Positive freedom can lead to coercion, if you are forced to do what you chose to do [Charvet] |
22844 | First level autonomy is application of personal values; second level is criticising them [Charvet] |
19924 | The freest state is a rational one, where people can submit themselves to reason [Spinoza] |
22840 | Mere equality, as in two trees being the same height, has no value at all [Charvet] |
22843 | Inequalities are worse if they seem to be your fault, rather than social facts [Charvet] |
22845 | Money allows unlimited inequalities, and we obviously all agree to money [Charvet] |
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] |
22823 | The rule of law is mainly to restrict governments [Charvet] |
22825 | The 1689 Bill of Rights denied the monarch new courts, or the right to sit as judge [Charvet] |
22826 | From 1701 only parliament could remove judges, whose decisions could not be discussed [Charvet] |
22827 | Justice superior to the rule of law is claimed on behalf of the workers, or the will of the nation [Charvet] |
22828 | The rule of law mainly benefits those with property and liberties [Charvet] |
19916 | The order of nature does not prohibit anything, and allows whatever appetite produces [Spinoza] |
19927 | State and religious law can clash, so the state must make decisions about religion [Spinoza] |
22832 | Welfare is needed if citizens are to accept the obligations of a liberal state [Charvet] |
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] |