20 ideas
| 12790 | Generalisations must be invariant to explain anything [Leuridan] |
| 12789 | Biological functions are explained by disposition, or by causal role [Leuridan] |
| 14388 | Mechanisms must produce macro-level regularities, but that needs micro-level regularities [Leuridan] |
| 14386 | Mechanisms are ontologically dependent on regularities [Leuridan] |
| 12787 | Mechanisms can't explain on their own, as their models rest on pragmatic regularities [Leuridan] |
| 14384 | We can show that regularities and pragmatic laws are more basic than mechanisms [Leuridan] |
| 14389 | There is nothing wrong with an infinite regress of mechanisms and regularities [Leuridan] |
| 7127 | If men are good you should keep promises, but they aren't, so you needn't [Machiavelli] |
| 6309 | The principle foundations of all states are good laws and good armies [Machiavelli] |
| 6306 | People are vengeful, so be generous to them, or destroy them [Machiavelli] |
| 6305 | To retain a conquered state, wipe out the ruling family, and preserve everything else [Machiavelli] |
| 6308 | A sensible conqueror does all his harmful deeds immediately, because people soon forget [Machiavelli] |
| 6307 | A desire to conquer, and men who do it, are always praised, or not blamed [Machiavelli] |
| 7486 | Machiavelli emancipated politics from religion [Machiavelli, by Watson] |
| 13304 | Learned men gain more in one day than others do in a lifetime [Posidonius] |
| 14387 | Rather than dispositions, functions may be the element that brought a thing into existence [Leuridan] |
| 14382 | Pragmatic laws allow prediction and explanation, to the extent that reality is stable [Leuridan] |
| 14385 | Strict regularities are rarely discovered in life sciences [Leuridan] |
| 14383 | A 'law of nature' is just a regularity, not some entity that causes the regularity [Leuridan] |
| 20820 | Time is an interval of motion, or the measure of speed [Posidonius, by Stobaeus] |