116 ideas
| 20262 | Don't use wisdom in order to become clever! [Nietzsche] |
| 19648 | Since Kant we think we can only access 'correlations' between thinking and being [Meillassoux] |
| 19674 | The Copernican Revolution decentres the Earth, but also decentres thinking from reality [Meillassoux] |
| 19657 | In Kant the thing-in-itself is unknowable, but for us it has become unthinkable [Meillassoux] |
| 20255 | Early 19th century German philosophers enjoyed concepts, rather than scientific explanations [Nietzsche] |
| 20260 | Carlyle spent his life vainly trying to make reason appear romantic [Nietzsche] |
| 20256 | What we think is totally dictated by the language available to express it [Nietzsche] |
| 20265 | The desire for a complete system requires making the weak parts look equal to the rest [Nietzsche] |
| 19675 | Since Kant, philosophers have claimed to understand science better than scientists do [Meillassoux] |
| 19649 | Since Kant, objectivity is defined not by the object, but by the statement's potential universality [Meillassoux] |
| 19767 | Reason leads to prudent selfishness, which overrules natural compassion [Rousseau] |
| 19666 | If we insist on Sufficient Reason the world will always be a mystery to us [Meillassoux] |
| 19656 | Non-contradiction is unjustified, so it only reveals a fact about thinking, not about reality? [Meillassoux] |
| 20380 | Why should truth be omnipotent? It is enough that it is very powerful [Nietzsche] |
| 20235 | Like animals, we seek truth because we want safety [Nietzsche] |
| 19663 | We can allow contradictions in thought, but not inconsistency [Meillassoux] |
| 19664 | Paraconsistent logics are to prevent computers crashing when data conflicts [Meillassoux] |
| 19665 | Paraconsistent logic is about statements, not about contradictions in reality [Meillassoux] |
| 19677 | What is mathematically conceivable is absolutely possible [Meillassoux] |
| 19659 | The absolute is the impossibility of there being a necessary existent [Meillassoux] |
| 19662 | It is necessarily contingent that there is one thing rather than another - so something must exist [Meillassoux] |
| 19654 | We must give up the modern criterion of existence, which is a correlation between thought and being [Meillassoux] |
| 19660 | Possible non-being which must be realised is 'precariousness'; absolute contingency might never not-be [Meillassoux] |
| 19671 | The idea of chance relies on unalterable physical laws [Meillassoux] |
| 19757 | No one would bother to reason, and try to know things, without a desire for enjoyment [Rousseau] |
| 20258 | Most people treat knowledge as a private possession [Nietzsche] |
| 19651 | Unlike speculative idealism, transcendental idealism assumes the mind is embodied [Meillassoux] |
| 19647 | The aspects of objects that can be mathematical allow it to have objective properties [Meillassoux] |
| 20250 | We may be unable to remember, but we may never actually forget [Nietzsche] |
| 20270 | There is no one scientific method; we must try many approaches, and many emotions [Nietzsche] |
| 19652 | How can we mathematically describe a world that lacks humans? [Meillassoux] |
| 19668 | Hume's question is whether experimental science will still be valid tomorrow [Meillassoux] |
| 19760 | General ideas are purely intellectual; imagining them is immediately particular [Rousseau] |
| 19759 | Only words can introduce general ideas into the mind [Rousseau] |
| 20131 | We can cultivate our drives, of anger, pity, curiosity, vanity, like a gardener, with good or bad taste [Nietzsche] |
| 19650 | The transcendental subject is not an entity, but a set of conditions making science possible [Meillassoux] |
| 20242 | Things are the boundaries of humanity, so all things must be known, for self-knowledge [Nietzsche] |
| 20249 | Our knowledge of the many drives that constitute us is hopelessly incomplete [Nietzsche] |
| 20231 | People used to think that outcomes were from God, rather than consequences of acts [Nietzsche] |
| 19758 | Language may aid thinking, but powerful thought was needed to produce language [Rousseau] |
| 20266 | It is essential that wise people learn to express their wisdom, possibly even as foolishness [Nietzsche] |
| 20251 | Actions done for a purpose are least understood, because we complacently think it's obvious [Nietzsche] |
| 19773 | Without love, what use is beauty? [Rousseau] |
| 20271 | Beauty in art is the imitation of happiness [Nietzsche] |
| 20230 | The very idea of a critique of morality is regarded as immoral! [Nietzsche] |
| 20234 | Morality prevents us from developing better customs [Nietzsche] |
| 19769 | Rational morality is OK for brainy people, but ordinary life can't rely on that [Rousseau] |
| 20237 | Moral feelings are entirely different from the moral concepts used to judge actions [Nietzsche] |
| 20238 | Treating morality as feelings is just obeying your ancestors [Nietzsche] |
| 20243 | Human beings are not majestic, either through divine origins, or through grand aims [Nietzsche] |
| 20268 | Most dying people have probably lost more important things than what they are about to lose [Nietzsche] |
| 20252 | Marriage is too serious to be permitted for people in love! [Nietzsche] |
| 20236 | Marriage upholds the idea that love, though a passion, can endure [Nietzsche] |
| 20263 | Fear reveals the natures of other people much more clearly than love does [Nietzsche] |
| 19752 | If we should not mistreat humans, it is mainly because of sentience, not rationality [Rousseau] |
| 20233 | Punishment has distorted the pure innocence of the contingency of outcomes [Nietzsche] |
| 20248 | People do nothing for their real ego, but only for a phantom ego created by other people [Nietzsche] |
| 19768 | The better Golden Rule is 'do good for yourself without harming others' [Rousseau] |
| 20246 | If you feel to others as they feel to themselves, you must hate a self-hater [Nietzsche] |
| 20272 | Honesty is a new young virtue, and we can promote it, or not [Nietzsche] |
| 20240 | The Jews treated great anger as holy, and were in awe of those who expressed it [Nietzsche] |
| 20244 | Christianity replaces rational philosophical virtues with great passions focused on God [Nietzsche] |
| 20274 | The cardinal virtues want us to be honest, brave, magnanimous and polite [Nietzsche] |
| 20257 | Cool courage and feverish bravery have one name, but are two very different virtues [Nietzsche] |
| 19766 | The fact that we weep (e.g. in theatres) shows that we are naturally compassionate [Rousseau] |
| 20259 | Teach youth to respect people who differ with them, not people who agree with them [Nietzsche] |
| 20267 | Seeing duty as a burden makes it a bit cruel, and it can thus never become a habit [Nietzsche] |
| 20275 | Most people think they are already complete, but we can cultivate ourselves [Nietzsche] |
| 19756 | Humans are less distinguished from other animals by understanding, than by being free agents [Rousseau] |
| 19755 | Most human ills are self-inflicted; the simple, solitary, regular natural life is good [Rousseau] |
| 19762 | Is language a pre-requisite for society, or might it emerge afterwards? [Rousseau] |
| 19763 | I doubt whether a savage person ever complains of life, or considers suicide [Rousseau] |
| 19778 | Leisure led to envy, inequality, vice and revenge, which we now see in savages [Rousseau] |
| 19779 | Primitive man was very gentle [Rousseau] |
| 19751 | Our two starting principles are concern for self-interest, and compassion for others [Rousseau] |
| 19765 | Savages avoid evil because they are calm, and never think of it (not because they know goodness) [Rousseau] |
| 19771 | Savage men quietly pursue desires, without the havoc of modern frenzied imagination [Rousseau] |
| 19774 | A savage can steal fruit or a home, but there is no means of achieving obedience [Rousseau] |
| 19772 | In a state of nature people are much more equal; it is society which increases inequalities [Rousseau] |
| 19789 | It is against nature for children to rule old men, fools to rule the wise, and the rich to hog resources [Rousseau] |
| 19787 | People accept the right to be commanded, because they themselves wish to command [Rousseau] |
| 19780 | We seem to have made individual progress since savagery, but actually the species has decayed [Rousseau] |
| 20229 | No authority ever willingly accepts criticism [Nietzsche] |
| 20254 | People govern for the pleasure of it, or just to avoid being governed [Nietzsche] |
| 19747 | Revolutionaries usually confuse liberty with total freedom, and end up with heavier chains [Rousseau] |
| 20273 | The French Revolution gave trusting Europe the false delusion of instant recovery [Nietzsche] |
| 19748 | Plebiscites are bad, because they exclude the leaders from crucial decisions [Rousseau] |
| 19749 | In a direct democracy, only the leaders should be able to propose new laws [Rousseau] |
| 19775 | People must be made dependent before they can be enslaved [Rousseau] |
| 19784 | Enslaved peoples often boast of their condition, calling it a state of 'peace' [Rousseau] |
| 19785 | If the child of a slave woman is born a slave, then a man is not born a man [Rousseau] |
| 19746 | Like rich food, liberty can ruin people who are too weak to cope with it [Rousseau] |
| 19786 | Three stages of the state produce inequalities of wealth, power, and enslavement [Rousseau] |
| 19788 | The pleasure of wealth and power is largely seeing others deprived of them [Rousseau] |
| 19777 | Persuading other people that some land was 'owned' was the beginning of society [Rousseau] |
| 19782 | What else could property arise from, but the labour people add to it? [Rousseau] |
| 19781 | Land cultivation led to a general right of ownership, administered justly [Rousseau] |
| 19754 | If we have a natural right to property, what exactly does 'belonging to' mean? [Rousseau] |
| 19750 | Writers just propose natural law as the likely useful agreements among people [Rousseau] |
| 20232 | Get rid of the idea of punishment! It is a noxious weed! [Nietzsche] |
| 19770 | Primitive people simply redressed the evil caused by violence, without thought of punishing [Rousseau] |
| 20253 | Modern wars arise from the study of history [Nietzsche] |
| 19783 | A state of war remains after a conquest, if the losers don't accept the winners [Rousseau] |
| 20261 | History does not concern what really happened, but supposed events, which have all the influence [Nietzsche] |
| 19753 | Both men and animals are sentient, which should give the latter the right not to be mistreated [Rousseau] |
| 19761 | Men started with too few particular names, but later had too few natural kind names [Rousseau] |
| 19667 | If the laws of nature are contingent, shouldn't we already have noticed it? [Meillassoux] |
| 19670 | Why are contingent laws of nature stable? [Meillassoux] |
| 20241 | Enquirers think finding our origin is salvation, but it turns out to be dull [Nietzsche] |
| 19776 | Small uninterrupted causes can have big effects [Rousseau] |
| 19653 | The ontological proof of a necessary God ensures a reality external to the mind [Meillassoux] |
| 19658 | Now that the absolute is unthinkable, even atheism is just another religious belief (though nihilist) [Meillassoux] |
| 20245 | Christianity hoped for a short cut to perfection, that skipped the hard labour of morality [Nietzsche] |
| 20247 | Christianity was successful because of its heathen rituals [Nietzsche] |
| 20269 | 'I believe because it is absurd' - but how about 'I believe because I am absurd' [Nietzsche] |
| 20264 | The easy and graceful aspects of a person are called 'soul', and inner awkwardness is called 'soulless' [Nietzsche] |