152 ideas
23890 | For Plato true wisdom is supernatural [Plato, by Weil] |
20383 | The wisest man is full of contradictions, and attuned to other people, with occasional harmony [Nietzsche] |
3060 | Plato never mentions Democritus, and wished to burn his books [Plato, by Diog. Laertius] |
4520 | I don't want to persuade anyone to be a philosopher; they should be rare plants [Nietzsche] |
17240 | Definitions are the first step in philosophy [Hobbes] |
4545 | Could not the objective character of things be merely a difference of degree within the subjective? [Nietzsche] |
4530 | Reason is a mere idiosyncrasy of a certain species of animal [Nietzsche] |
4523 | What can be 'demonstrated' is of little worth [Nietzsche] |
4531 | Our inability to both affirm and deny a single thing is merely an inability, not a 'necessity' [Nietzsche] |
4541 | Everything simple is merely imaginary [Nietzsche] |
23891 | Two contradictories force us to find a relation which will correlate them [Plato, by Weil] |
17237 | Definitions of things that are caused must express their manner of generation [Hobbes] |
17239 | Definition is resolution of names into successive genera, and finally the difference [Hobbes] |
17241 | A defined name should not appear in the definition [Hobbes] |
17242 | 'Petitio principii' is reusing the idea to be defined, in disguised words [Hobbes] |
20357 | Truth was given value by morality, but eventually turned against its own source [Nietzsche] |
4534 | 'Truth' is the will to be master over the multiplicity of sensations [Nietzsche] |
4548 | Only because there is thought is there untruth [Nietzsche] |
5652 | True beliefs are those which augment one's power [Nietzsche, by Scruton] |
4508 | The truth is what gives us the minimum of spiritual effort, and avoids the exhaustion of lying [Nietzsche] |
4538 | Judgements can't be true and known in isolation; the only surety is in connections and relations [Nietzsche] |
17245 | A part of a part is a part of a whole [Hobbes] |
17258 | If we just say one, one, one, one, we don't know where we have got to [Hobbes] |
20361 | We need 'unities' for reckoning, but that does not mean they exist [Nietzsche] |
4533 | Logic and maths refer to fictitious entities which we have created [Nietzsche] |
20359 | The nature of being, of things, is much easier to understand than is becoming [Nietzsche] |
17253 | Change is nothing but movement [Hobbes] |
4525 | There are no facts in themselves, only interpretations [Nietzsche] |
4543 | There are no 'facts-in-themselves', since a sense must be projected into them to make them 'facts' [Nietzsche] |
4484 | Nihilism results from valuing the world by the 'categories of reason', because that is fiction [Nietzsche] |
14502 | Plato's idea of 'structure' tends to be mathematically expressed [Plato, by Koslicki] |
16670 | Accidents are just modes of thinking about bodies [Hobbes] |
16621 | Accidents are not parts of bodies (like blood in a cloth); they have accidents as things have a size [Hobbes] |
4546 | We realise that properties are sensations of the feeling subject, not part of the thing [Nietzsche] |
16734 | The complete power of an event is just the aggregate of the qualities that produced it [Hobbes] |
4544 | A thing has no properties if it has no effect on other 'things' [Nietzsche] |
3039 | When Diogenes said he could only see objects but not their forms, Plato said it was because he had eyes but no intellect [Plato, by Diog. Laertius] |
20906 | Platonists argue for the indivisible triangle-in-itself [Plato, by Aristotle] |
17948 | Plato's Forms meant that the sophists only taught the appearance of wisdom and virtue [Plato, by Nehamas] |
556 | If there is one Form for both the Form and its participants, they must have something in common [Aristotle on Plato] |
563 | If gods are like men, they are just eternal men; similarly, Forms must differ from particulars [Aristotle on Plato] |
557 | A Form is a cause of things only in the way that white mixed with white is a cause [Aristotle on Plato] |
565 | The Forms cannot be changeless if they are in changing things [Aristotle on Plato] |
17247 | The only generalities or universals are names or signs [Hobbes] |
9607 | The greatest discovery in human thought is Plato's discovery of abstract objects [Brown,JR on Plato] |
13263 | We can grasp whole things in science, because they have a mathematics and a teleology [Plato, by Koslicki] |
14960 | Bodies are independent of thought, and coincide with part of space [Hobbes] |
17250 | If you separate the two places of one thing, you will also separate the thing [Hobbes] |
17249 | If you separated two things in the same place, you would also separate the places [Hobbes] |
13261 | Plato sees an object's structure as expressible in mathematics [Plato, by Koslicki] |
13265 | Plato was less concerned than Aristotle with the source of unity in a complex object [Plato, by Koslicki] |
17248 | If a whole body is moved, its parts must move with it [Hobbes] |
20362 | We saw unity in things because our ego seemed unified (but now we doubt the ego!) [Nietzsche] |
593 | Plato's holds that there are three substances: Forms, mathematical entities, and perceptible bodies [Plato, by Aristotle] |
16790 | A body is always the same, whether the parts are together or dispersed [Hobbes] |
13260 | Plato says wholes are either containers, or they're atomic, or they don't exist [Plato, by Koslicki] |
17244 | To make a whole, parts needn't be put together, but can be united in the mind [Hobbes] |
11237 | Only universals have essence [Plato, by Politis] |
17233 | Particulars contain universal things [Hobbes] |
11238 | Plato and Aristotle take essence to make a thing what it is [Plato, by Politis] |
17246 | Some accidental features are permanent, unless the object perishes [Hobbes] |
17251 | The feature which picks out or names a thing is usually called its 'essence' [Hobbes] |
17257 | It is the same river if it has the same source, no matter what flows in it [Hobbes] |
12853 | Some individuate the ship by unity of matter, and others by unity of form [Hobbes] |
17256 | If a new ship were made of the discarded planks, would two ships be numerically the same? [Hobbes] |
16794 | As an infant, Socrates was not the same body, but he was the same human being [Hobbes] |
17255 | Two bodies differ when (at some time) you can say something of one you can't say of the other [Hobbes] |
4528 | For me, a priori 'truths' are just provisional assumptions [Nietzsche] |
16582 | We can imagine a point swelling and contracting - but not how this could be done [Hobbes] |
4537 | We can't know whether there is knowledge if we don't know what it is [Nietzsche] |
4485 | Every belief is a considering-something-true [Nietzsche] |
4487 | A note for asses: What convinces is not necessarily true - it is merely convincing [Nietzsche] |
4539 | The forms of 'knowledge' about logic which precede experience are actually regulations of belief [Nietzsche] |
4529 | All sense perceptions are permeated with value judgements (useful or harmful) [Nietzsche] |
4532 | We can have two opposite sensations, like hard and soft, at the same time [Nietzsche] |
4486 | The extreme view is there are only perspectives, no true beliefs, because there is no true world [Nietzsche] |
17085 | A good explanation totally rules out the opposite explanation (so Forms are required) [Plato, by Ruben] |
17238 | Science aims to show causes and generation of things [Hobbes] |
4536 | It is a major blunder to think of consciousness as a unity, and hence as an entity, a thing [Nietzsche] |
17260 | Imagination is just weakened sensation [Hobbes] |
19373 | A 'conatus' is an initial motion, experienced by us as desire or aversion [Hobbes, by Arthur,R] |
4551 | Great self-examination is to become conscious of oneself not as an individual, but as mankind [Nietzsche] |
4527 | Perhaps we are not single subjects, but a multiplicity of 'cells', interacting to create thought [Nietzsche] |
20374 | Consciousness is a terminal phenomenon, and causes nothing [Nietzsche] |
2948 | Sensation is merely internal motion of the sentient being [Hobbes] |
23938 | Passions are ranked, as if they are non-rational and animal pleasure seeking [Nietzsche] |
17261 | Apart from pleasure and pain, the only emotions are appetite and aversion [Hobbes] |
23939 | We fail to see that reason is a network of passions, and every passion contains some reason [Nietzsche] |
1651 | Plato wanted to somehow control and purify the passions [Vlastos on Plato] |
17236 | Words are not for communication, but as marks for remembering what we have learned [Hobbes] |
3324 | Plato's whole philosophy may be based on being duped by reification - a figure of speech [Benardete,JA on Plato] |
4554 | The concept of the 'will' is just a false simplification by our understanding [Nietzsche] |
4552 | There is no such things a pure 'willing' on its own; the aim must always be part of it [Nietzsche] |
4521 | None of the ancients had the courage to deny morality by denying free will [Nietzsche] |
7503 | Plato never refers to examining the conscience [Plato, by Foucault] |
4496 | 'Conscience' is invented to value actions by intention and conformity to 'law', rather than consequences [Nietzsche] |
20136 | There is an extended logic to a great man's life, achieved by a sustained will [Nietzsche] |
20358 | The highest man can endure and control the greatest combination of powerful drives [Nietzsche] |
20369 | The highest man directs the values of the highest natures over millenia [Nietzsche] |
4506 | There is a conspiracy (a will to power) to make morality dominate other values, like knowledge and art [Nietzsche] |
4514 | The basic tendency of the weak has always been to pull down the strong, using morality [Nietzsche] |
2173 | As religion and convention collapsed, Plato sought morals not just in knowledge, but in the soul [Williams,B on Plato] |
20370 | All evaluation is from some perspective, and aims at survival [Nietzsche] |
20354 | The ruling drives of our culture all want to be the highest court of our values [Nietzsche] |
4505 | How can it be that I should prefer my neighbour to myself, but he should prefer me to himself? [Nietzsche] |
9274 | Plato's legacy to European thought was the Good, the Beautiful and the True [Plato, by Gray] |
94 | Pleasure is better with the addition of intelligence, so pleasure is not the good [Plato, by Aristotle] |
4509 | Utilitarians prefer consequences because intentions are unknowable - but so are consequences! [Nietzsche] |
4500 | It is a sign of degeneration when eudaimonistic values begin to prevail [Nietzsche] |
4558 | We have no more right to 'happiness' than worms [Nietzsche] |
17947 | Plato decided that the virtuous and happy life was the philosophical life [Plato, by Nehamas] |
4550 | Pleasure and pain are mere epiphenomena, and achievement requires that one desire both [Nietzsche] |
4518 | The question about egoism is: what kind of ego? since not all egos are equal [Nietzsche] |
4519 | The ego is only a fiction, and doesn't exist at all [Nietzsche] |
4517 | Egoism is inescapable, and when it grows weak, the power of love also grows weak [Nietzsche] |
4560 | The Golden Rule prohibits harmful actions, with the premise that actions will be requited [Nietzsche] |
6015 | Plato, unusually, said that theoretical and practical wisdom are inseparable [Plato, by Kraut] |
4555 | The great error is to think that happiness derives from virtue, which in turn derives from free will [Nietzsche] |
4494 | Not "return to nature", for there has never yet been a natural humanity [Nietzsche] |
4498 | 'Love your enemy' is unnatural, for the natural law says 'love your neighbour and hate your enemy' [Nietzsche] |
4493 | Be natural! But how, if one happens to be "unnatural"? [Nietzsche] |
4511 | We would avoid a person who always needed reasons for remaining decent [Nietzsche] |
4512 | Virtue is pursued from self-interest and prudence, and reduces people to non-entities [Nietzsche] |
20372 | The instinct of the herd, the majority, aims for the mean, in the middle [Nietzsche] |
4510 | A path to power: to introduce a new virtue under the name of an old one [Nietzsche] |
4515 | Modesty, industriousness, benevolence and temperance are the virtues of a good slave [Nietzsche] |
4516 | Many virtues are merely restraints on the most creative qualities of a human being [Nietzsche] |
4559 | When powerless one desires freedom; if power is too weak, one desires equal power ('justice') [Nietzsche] |
4557 | The supposed great lovers of honour (Alexander etc) were actually great despisers of honour [Nietzsche] |
4507 | The categorical imperative needs either God behind it, or a metaphysic of the unity of reason [Nietzsche] |
4501 | Utilitarianism criticises the origins of morality, but still believes in it as much as Christians [Nietzsche] |
4489 | If faith is lost, people seek other authorities, in order to avoid the risk of willing personal goals [Nietzsche] |
2912 | Plato is boring [Nietzsche on Plato] |
4513 | Virtuous people are inferior because they are not 'persons', but conform to a fixed pattern [Nietzsche] |
4504 | Morality used to be for preservation, but now we can only experiment, giving ourselves moral goals [Nietzsche] |
4495 | The high points of culture and civilization do not coincide [Nietzsche] |
4491 | In modern society virtue is 'equal rights', but only because everyone is zero, so it is a sum of zeroes [Nietzsche] |
16600 | Prime matter is body considered with mere size and extension, and potential [Hobbes] |
17252 | Acting on a body is either creating or destroying a property in it [Hobbes] |
4542 | Science has taken the meaning out of causation; cause and effect are two equal sides of an equation [Nietzsche] |
4553 | We derive the popular belief in cause and effect from our belief that our free will causes things [Nietzsche] |
17254 | An effect needs a sufficient and necessary cause [Hobbes] |
17235 | A cause is the complete sum of the features which necessitate the effect [Hobbes] |
17234 | Motion is losing one place and acquiring another [Hobbes] |
17259 | 'Force' is the quantity of movement imposed on something [Hobbes] |
17243 | Past times can't exist anywhere, apart from in our memories [Hobbes] |
1526 | Almost everyone except Plato thinks that time could not have been generated [Plato, by Aristotle] |
4535 | A 'species' is a stable phase of evolution, implying the false notion that evolution has a goal [Nietzsche] |
4497 | The concept of 'God' represents a turning away from life, and a critique of life [Nietzsche] |
4488 | Those who have abandoned God cling that much more firmly to the faith in morality [Nietzsche] |
4502 | Morality cannot survive when the God who sanctions it is missing [Nietzsche] |
4499 | Primitive Christianity is abolition of the state; it is opposed to defence, justice, patriotism and class [Nietzsche] |