103 ideas
| 20262 | Don't use wisdom in order to become clever! [Nietzsche] |
| 13773 | For the truth you need Prodicus's fifty-drachma course, not his one-drachma course [Socrates] |
| 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] |
| 7421 | A philosopher is one who cares about what other people care about [Socrates, by Foucault] |
| 1649 | Socrates opened philosophy to all, but Plato confined moral enquiry to a tiny elite [Vlastos on Socrates] |
| 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] |
| 5842 | Philosophical discussion involves dividing subject-matter into categories [Socrates, by Xenophon] |
| 648 | Socrates began the quest for something universal with his definitions, but he didn't make them separate [Socrates, by Aristotle] |
| 164 | It is legitimate to play the devil's advocate [Socrates] |
| 1647 | In Socratic dialogue you must say what you believe, so unasserted premises are not debated [Vlastos on Socrates] |
| 115 | Socrates was pleased if his mistakes were proved wrong [Socrates] |
| 22099 | The method of Socrates shows the student is discovering the truth within himself [Socrates, by Carlisle] |
| 5844 | Socrates always proceeded in argument by general agreement at each stage [Socrates, by Xenophon] |
| 11389 | Socrates sought essences, which are the basis of formal logic [Socrates, by Aristotle] |
| 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] |
| 639 | Socrates developed definitions as the basis of syllogisms, and also inductive arguments [Socrates, by Aristotle] |
| 10807 | Mathematics reduces to set theory, which reduces, with some mereology, to the singleton function [Lewis] |
| 10809 | We can accept the null set, but not a null class, a class lacking members [Lewis] |
| 10811 | The null set plays the role of last resort, for class abstracts and for existence [Lewis] |
| 10812 | The null set is not a little speck of sheer nothingness, a black hole in Reality [Lewis] |
| 10813 | What on earth is the relationship between a singleton and an element? [Lewis] |
| 10814 | Are all singletons exact intrinsic duplicates? [Lewis] |
| 10806 | Megethology is the result of adding plural quantification to mereology [Lewis] |
| 10816 | We can use mereology to simulate quantification over relations [Lewis] |
| 10808 | Mathematics is generalisations about singleton functions [Lewis] |
| 10815 | We don't need 'abstract structures' to have structural truths about successor functions [Lewis] |
| 1652 | Socrates did not consider universals or definitions as having separate existence, but Plato made Forms of them [Socrates, by Aristotle] |
| 10810 | I say that absolutely any things can have a mereological fusion [Lewis] |
| 20258 | Most people treat knowledge as a private possession [Nietzsche] |
| 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] |
| 20131 | We can cultivate our drives, of anger, pity, curiosity, vanity, like a gardener, with good or bad taste [Nietzsche] |
| 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] |
| 1650 | For Socrates our soul, though hard to define, is our self [Vlastos on Socrates] |
| 20231 | People used to think that outcomes were from God, rather than consequences of acts [Nietzsche] |
| 23252 | Socrates first proposed that we are run by mind or reason [Socrates, by Frede,M] |
| 20266 | It is essential that wise people learn to express their wisdom, possibly even as foolishness [Nietzsche] |
| 195 | No one willingly commits an evil or base act [Socrates] |
| 1653 | Socrates did not accept the tripartite soul (which permits akrasia) [Vlastos on Socrates] |
| 5843 | People do what they think they should do, and only ever do what they think they should do [Socrates, by Xenophon] |
| 5253 | Socrates was shocked by the idea of akrasia, but observation shows that it happens [Aristotle on Socrates] |
| 199 | The common belief is that people can know the best without acting on it [Socrates] |
| 5839 | For Socrates, wisdom and prudence were the same thing [Socrates, by Xenophon] |
| 5867 | For Socrates, virtues are forms of knowledge, so knowing justice produces justice [Socrates, by Aristotle] |
| 5069 | Socrates was the first to base ethics upon reason, and use reason to explain it [Taylor,R on Socrates] |
| 5836 | All human virtues are increased by study and practice [Socrates, by Xenophon] |
| 5840 | The wise perform good actions, and people fail to be good without wisdom [Socrates, by Xenophon] |
| 20251 | Actions done for a purpose are least understood, because we complacently think it's obvious [Nietzsche] |
| 20271 | Beauty in art is the imitation of happiness [Nietzsche] |
| 185 | Socrates despised good looks [Socrates, by Plato] |
| 20230 | The very idea of a critique of morality is regarded as immoral! [Nietzsche] |
| 20234 | Morality prevents us from developing better customs [Nietzsche] |
| 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] |
| 5070 | Socrates conservatively assumed that Athenian conventions were natural and true [Taylor,R on Socrates] |
| 5838 | A well-made dung basket is fine, and a badly-made gold shield is base, because of function [Socrates, by Xenophon] |
| 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] |
| 5837 | Things are both good and fine by the same standard [Socrates, by Xenophon] |
| 3017 | The only good is knowledge, and the only evil is ignorance [Socrates, by Diog. Laertius] |
| 20233 | Punishment has distorted the pure innocence of the contingency of outcomes [Nietzsche] |
| 1646 | Socrates was the first to put 'eudaimonia' at the centre of ethics [Socrates, by Vlastos] |
| 20248 | People do nothing for their real ego, but only for a phantom ego created by other people [Nietzsche] |
| 20246 | If you feel to others as they feel to themselves, you must hate a self-hater [Nietzsche] |
| 1663 | By 'areté' Socrates means just what we mean by moral virtue [Vlastos on Socrates] |
| 4323 | Socrates is torn between intellectual virtue, which is united and teachable, and natural virtue, which isn't [PG on Socrates] |
| 8003 | Socrates agrees that virtue is teachable, but then denies that there are teachers [Socrates, by MacIntyre] |
| 126 | We should ask what sort of people we want to be [Socrates] |
| 4111 | Socrates believed that basically there is only one virtue, the power of right judgement [Socrates, by Williams,B] |
| 7808 | Socrates made the civic values of justice and friendship paramount [Socrates, by Grayling] |
| 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] |
| 23907 | Courage is scientific knowledge [Socrates, by Aristotle] |
| 20257 | Cool courage and feverish bravery have one name, but are two very different virtues [Nietzsche] |
| 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] |
| 7585 | Socrates emphasises that the knower is an existing individual, with existence his main task [Socrates, by Kierkegaard] |
| 20275 | Most people think they are already complete, but we can cultivate ourselves [Nietzsche] |
| 20229 | No authority ever willingly accepts criticism [Nietzsche] |
| 20254 | People govern for the pleasure of it, or just to avoid being governed [Nietzsche] |
| 20273 | The French Revolution gave trusting Europe the false delusion of instant recovery [Nietzsche] |
| 5841 | Obedience to the law gives the best life, and success in war [Socrates, by Xenophon] |
| 20232 | Get rid of the idea of punishment! It is a noxious weed! [Nietzsche] |
| 1661 | Socrates was the first to grasp that a cruelty is not justified by another cruelty [Vlastos on Socrates] |
| 20253 | Modern wars arise from the study of history [Nietzsche] |
| 20261 | History does not concern what really happened, but supposed events, which have all the influence [Nietzsche] |
| 5846 | A lover using force is a villain, but a seducer is much worse, because he corrupts character [Socrates, by Xenophon] |
| 20241 | Enquirers think finding our origin is salvation, but it turns out to be dull [Nietzsche] |
| 1657 | Socrates holds that right reason entails virtue, and this must also apply to the gods [Vlastos on Socrates] |
| 1662 | A new concept of God as unswerving goodness emerges from Socrates' commitment to virtue [Vlastos on Socrates] |
| 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] |