110 ideas
7170 | 'Wisdom' attempts to get beyond perspectives, making it hostile to life [Nietzsche] |
3879 | Philosophy aims to provide a theory of everything [Scruton] |
7167 | Words such as 'I' and 'do' and 'done to' are placed at the point where our ignorance begins [Nietzsche] |
7196 | Pessimism is laughable, because the world cannot be evaluated [Nietzsche] |
7137 | Is a 'philosopher' now impossible, because knowledge is too vast for an overview? [Nietzsche] |
3891 | If p entails q, then p is sufficient for q, and q is necessary for p [Scruton] |
7132 | Philosophers should create and fight for their concepts, not just clean and clarify them [Nietzsche] |
3894 | We may define 'good' correctly, but then ask whether the application of the definition is good [Scruton] |
3883 | A true proposition is consistent with every other true proposition [Scruton] |
3884 | The pragmatist does not really have a theory of truth [Scruton] |
7188 | Logic tries to understand the world according to a man-made scheme [Nietzsche] |
7145 | Logic is not driven by truth, but desire for a simple single viewpoint [Nietzsche] |
7144 | Logic must falsely assume that identical cases exist [Nietzsche] |
3907 | Could you be intellectually acquainted with numbers, but unable to count objects? [Scruton] |
3908 | If maths contains unprovable truths, then maths cannot be reduced to a set of proofs [Scruton] |
7153 | We can't be realists, because we don't know what being is [Nietzsche] |
7174 | Categories are not metaphysical truths, but inventions in the service of needs [Nietzsche] |
7175 | Philosophers find it particularly hard to shake off belief in necessary categories [Nietzsche] |
3906 | If possible worlds are needed to define properties, maybe we should abandon properties [Scruton] |
7189 | Maybe there are only subjects, and 'objects' result from relations between subjects [Nietzsche] |
7207 | Counting needs unities, but that doesn't mean they exist; we borrowed it from the concept of 'I' [Nietzsche] |
7161 | The essence of a thing is only an opinion about the 'thing' [Nietzsche] |
7134 | Something can be irrefutable; that doesn't make it true [Nietzsche] |
7186 | There are no necessary truths, but something must be held to be true [Nietzsche] |
3888 | Hume assumes that necessity can only be de dicto, not de re [Scruton] |
3903 | The conceivable can't be a test of the possible, if there are things which are possible but inconceivable [Scruton] |
3897 | Epistemology is about the justification of belief, not the definition of knowledge [Scruton] |
7154 | We can't use our own self to criticise our own capacity for knowledge! [Nietzsche] |
3881 | In the Cogito argument consciousness develops into self-consciousness [Scruton] |
7146 | Belief in the body is better established than belief in the mind [Nietzsche] |
3887 | Maybe our knowledge of truth and causation is synthetic a priori [Scruton] |
3901 | Touch only seems to reveal primary qualities [Scruton] |
3885 | We only conceive of primary qualities as attached to secondary qualities [Scruton] |
3910 | If primary and secondary qualities are distinct, what has the secondary qualities? [Scruton] |
3899 | The representational theory says perceptual states are intentional states [Scruton] |
7156 | Sense perceptions contain values (useful, so pleasant) [Nietzsche] |
7181 | Pain shows the value of the damage, not what has been damaged [Nietzsche] |
7129 | Perception is unconscious, and we are only conscious of processed perceptions [Nietzsche] |
3898 | My belief that it will rain tomorrow can't be caused by its raining tomorrow [Scruton] |
3880 | Logical positivism avoids scepticism, by closing the gap between evidence and conclusion [Scruton] |
7149 | Comprehending everything is impossible, because it abolishes perspectives [Nietzsche] |
7169 | Is the perspectival part of the essence, or just a relation between beings? [Nietzsche] |
7182 | 'Perspectivism': the world has no meaning, but various interpretations give it countless meanings [Nietzsche] |
7183 | 'Subjectivity' is an interpretation, since subjects (and interpreters) are fictions [Nietzsche] |
7133 | There are different eyes, so different 'truths', so there is no truth [Nietzsche] |
3916 | Hopi consistently prefers verbs and events to nouns and things [Whorf] |
3878 | Why should you believe someone who says there are no truths? [Scruton] |
3917 | Scientific thought is essentially a specialised part of Indo-European languages [Whorf] |
7139 | Explanation is just showing the succession of things ever more clearly [Nietzsche] |
7131 | The intellect and senses are a simplifying apparatus [Nietzsche] |
7152 | With protoplasm ½+½=2, so the soul is not an indivisible monad [Nietzsche] |
7130 | Unity is not in the conscious 'I', but in the organism, which uses the self as a tool [Nietzsche] |
7155 | Consciousness exists to the extent that consciousness is useful [Nietzsche] |
7143 | Consciousness is a 'tool' - just as the stomach is a tool [Nietzsche] |
7157 | We think each thought causes the next, unaware of the hidden struggle beneath [Nietzsche] |
7148 | The 'I' is a conceptual synthesis, not the governor of our being [Nietzsche] |
7138 | The 'I' is a fiction used to make the world of becoming 'knowable' [Nietzsche] |
7135 | 'Freedom of will' is the feeling of having a dominating force [Nietzsche] |
3892 | Every event having a cause, and every event being determined by its cause, are not the same [Scruton] |
3911 | The very concept of a substance denies the possibility of mutual interaction and dependence [Scruton] |
7171 | Rationality is a scheme we cannot cast away [Nietzsche] |
3882 | Wittgenstein makes it impossible to build foundations from something that is totally private [Scruton] |
7209 | There is no will; weakness of will is splitting of impulses, strong will is coordination under one impulse [Nietzsche] |
7194 | Experiencing a thing as beautiful is to experience it wrongly [Nietzsche] |
7136 | Morality is a system of values which accompanies a being's life [Nietzsche] |
7163 | Morality is merely interpretations, which are extra-moral in origin [Nietzsche] |
7147 | Values are innate and inherited [Nietzsche] |
7190 | Our values express an earlier era's conditions for survival and growth [Nietzsche] |
7201 | Knowledge, wisdom and goodness only have value relative to a goal [Nietzsche] |
7205 | Altruism is praised by the egoism of the weak, who want everyone to be looked after [Nietzsche] |
7141 | A living being is totally 'egoistic' [Nietzsche] |
7168 | Modest people express happiness as 'Not bad' [Nietzsche] |
7159 | The only happiness is happiness with illusion [Nietzsche] |
7197 | Pleasure needs dissatisfaction, boundaries and resistances [Nietzsche] |
3896 | Any social theory of morality has the problem of the 'free rider', who only pretends to join in [Scruton] |
7165 | Virtue is wasteful, as it reduces us all to being one another's nurse [Nietzsche] |
7193 | Virtue for everyone removes its charm of being exceptional and aristocratic [Nietzsche] |
7191 | What does not kill us makes us stronger [Nietzsche] |
7151 | Courage, compassion, insight, solitude are the virtues, with courtesy a necessary vice [Nietzsche] |
7185 | Replace the categorical imperative by the natural imperative [Nietzsche] |
3886 | Membership is the greatest source of obligation [Scruton] |
3895 | The categorical imperative is not just individual, but can be used for negotiations between strangers [Scruton] |
7164 | Not feeling harnessed to a system of 'ends' is a wonderful feeling of freedom [Nietzsche] |
7198 | Nihilism results from measuring the world by our categories which are purely invented [Nietzsche] |
7150 | By developing herd virtues man fixes what has up to now been the 'unfixed animal' [Nietzsche] |
7177 | Virtues from outside are dangerous, and they should come from within [Nietzsche] |
7172 | Existence without meaning or goal or end, eternally recurring, is a terrible thought [Nietzsche] |
7166 | Man is above all a judging animal [Nietzsche] |
7204 | The upholding of the military state is needed to maintain the strong human type [Nietzsche] |
7173 | Rights arise out of contracts, which need a balance of power [Nietzsche] |
7176 | 'Purpose' is like the sun, where most heat is wasted, and a tiny part has 'purpose' [Nietzsche] |
7195 | If the world aimed at an end, it would have reached it by now [Nietzsche] |
3890 | 'Cause' used to just mean any valid explanation [Scruton] |
7206 | Things are strong or weak, and do not behave regularly or according to rules or compulsions [Nietzsche] |
7140 | Chemical 'laws' are merely the establishment of power relations between weaker and stronger [Nietzsche] |
7142 | All motions and 'laws' are symptoms of inner events, traceable to the will to power [Nietzsche] |
3904 | Measuring space requires no movement while I do it [Scruton] |
3915 | The Hopi have no concept of time as something flowing from past to future [Whorf] |
7180 | Darwin overestimates the influence of 'external circumstances' [Nietzsche] |
7179 | Survival might undermine an individual's value, or prevent its evolution [Nietzsche] |
7178 | The utility of an organ does not explain its origin, on the contrary! [Nietzsche] |
7192 | Remove goodness and wisdom from our concept of God. Being the highest power is enough! [Nietzsche] |
7158 | Morality kills religion, because a Christian-moral God is unbelievable [Nietzsche] |
7199 | It is dishonest to invent a being containing our greatest values, thus ignoring why they exist and are valuable [Nietzsche] |
7162 | Morality can only be upheld by belief in God and a 'hereafter' [Nietzsche] |
3905 | 'Existence' is not a predicate of 'man', but of the concept of man, saying it has at least one instance [Scruton] |
7208 | Paganism is a form of thanking and affirming life? [Nietzsche] |
7160 | Christian belief is kept alive because it is soothing - the proof based on pleasure [Nietzsche] |
7203 | In heaven all the interesting men are missing [Nietzsche] |
7200 | A combination of great power and goodness would mean the disastrous abolition of evil [Nietzsche] |