47 ideas
354 | Wisdom makes virtue and true goodness possible [Plato] |
370 | Philosophy is a purification of the soul ready for the afterlife [Plato] |
350 | In investigation the body leads us astray, but the soul gets a clear view of the facts [Plato] |
362 | The greatest misfortune for a person is to develop a dislike for argument [Plato] |
13155 | If you add one to one, which one becomes two, or do they both become two? [Plato] |
5311 | If observation goes up a level, we expect the laws of the lower level to remain in force [Wilson,EO] |
21347 | If Simmias is taller than Socrates, that isn't a feature that is just in Simmias [Plato] |
12056 | An ancestral relation is either direct or transitively indirect [Wiggins] |
12050 | Substances contain a source of change or principle of activity [Wiggins] |
5312 | A child first sees objects as distinct, and later as members of groups [Wilson,EO] |
360 | We must have a prior knowledge of equality, if we see 'equal' things and realise they fall short of it [Plato] |
1 | There is only one source for all beauty [Plato] |
368 | Other things are named after the Forms because they participate in them [Plato] |
12052 | We never single out just 'this', but always 'this something-or-other' [Wiggins] |
12055 | Sortal predications are answers to the question 'what is x?' [Wiggins] |
12059 | A river may change constantly, but not in respect of being a river [Wiggins] |
12063 | Sortal classification becomes science, with cross reference clarifying individuals [Wiggins] |
12051 | If the kinds are divided realistically, they fall into substances [Wiggins] |
12053 | 'Human being' is a better answer to 'what is it?' than 'poet', as the latter comes in degrees [Wiggins] |
12054 | Secondary substances correctly divide primary substances by activity-principles and relations [Wiggins] |
12047 | We refer to persisting substances, in perception and in thought, and they aid understanding [Wiggins] |
12057 | Matter underlies things, composes things, and brings them to be [Wiggins] |
16516 | The ship which Theseus took to Crete is now sent to Delos crowned with flowers [Plato] |
5309 | Beliefs are really enabling mechanisms for survival [Wilson,EO] |
359 | If we feel the inadequacy of a resemblance, we must recollect the original [Plato] |
357 | People are obviously recollecting when they react to a geometrical diagram [Plato] |
9343 | To achieve pure knowledge, we must get rid of the body and contemplate things with the soul [Plato] |
15859 | To investigate the causes of things, study what is best for them [Plato] |
12064 | The category of substance is more important for epistemology than for ontology [Wiggins] |
12049 | Naming the secondary substance provides a mass of general information [Wiggins] |
13154 | Do we think and experience with blood, air or fire, or could it be our brain? [Plato] |
12065 | Seeing a group of soldiers as an army is irresistible, in ontology and explanation [Wiggins] |
364 | One soul can't be more or less of a soul than another [Plato] |
5310 | Philosophers study the consequences of ethics instead of its origins [Wilson,EO] |
5313 | The rules of human decision-making converge and overlap in a 'human nature' [Wilson,EO] |
5316 | We undermine altruism by rewarding it, but we reward it to encourage it [Wilson,EO] |
5318 | Pure hard-core altruism based on kin selection is the enemy of civilisation [Wilson,EO] |
361 | It is a mistake to think that the most violent pleasure or pain is therefore the truest reality [Plato] |
5317 | The actor is most convincing who believes that his performance is real [Wilson,EO] |
351 | War aims at the acquisition of wealth, because we are enslaved to the body [Plato] |
5308 | The only human purpose is that created by our genetic history [Wilson,EO] |
13156 | Fancy being unable to distinguish a cause from its necessary background conditions! [Plato] |
369 | If the Earth is spherical and in the centre, it is kept in place by universal symmetry, not by force [Plato] |
5314 | Cultural evolution is Lamarckian and fast, biological evolution is Darwinian and slow [Wilson,EO] |
5315 | Over 99 percent of human evolution has been in the hunter-gatherer phase [Wilson,EO] |
5320 | It is estimated that mankind has produced 100,000 religions [Wilson,EO] |
363 | Whether the soul pre-exists our body depends on whether it contains the ultimate standard of reality [Plato] |