90 ideas
| 24146 | All the major problems were formulated before Socrates [Nietzsche] |
| 13773 | For the truth you need Prodicus's fifty-drachma course, not his one-drachma course [Socrates] |
| 7421 | A philosopher is one who cares about what other people care about [Socrates, by Foucault] |
| 24142 | What matters is how humans can be developed [Nietzsche] |
| 24143 | Thinkers might agree some provisional truths, as methodological assumptions [Nietzsche] |
| 1649 | Socrates opened philosophy to all, but Plato confined moral enquiry to a tiny elite [Vlastos on Socrates] |
| 24125 | Aristotle enjoyed the sham generalities of a system, as the peak of happiness! [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] |
| 24147 | Thoughts are uncertain, and are just occasions for interpretation [Nietzsche] |
| 3646 | There is always a reason why things are thus rather than otherwise [Leibniz] |
| 2104 | No reason could limit the quantity of matter, so there is no limit [Leibniz] |
| 2098 | The principle of sufficient reason is needed if we are to proceed from maths to physics [Leibniz] |
| 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] |
| 639 | Socrates developed definitions as the basis of syllogisms, and also inductive arguments [Socrates, by Aristotle] |
| 24137 | Mathematics is just accurate inferences from definitions, and doesn't involve objects [Nietzsche] |
| 24131 | There is no 'being'; it is just the opposition to nothingness [Nietzsche] |
| 19385 | All simply substances are in harmony, because they all represent the one universe [Leibniz] |
| 24151 | I only want thinking that is anchored in body, senses and earth [Nietzsche] |
| 21346 | The ratio between two lines can't be a feature of one, and cannot be in both [Leibniz] |
| 1652 | Socrates did not consider universals or definitions as having separate existence, but Plato made Forms of them [Socrates, by Aristotle] |
| 24150 | We can only understand through concepts, which subsume particulars in generalities [Nietzsche] |
| 24138 | Strongly believed a priori is not certain; it may just be a feature of our existence [Nietzsche] |
| 24130 | An affirmative belief is present in every basic sense impression [Nietzsche] |
| 24124 | We now have innumerable perspectives to draw on [Nietzsche] |
| 24145 | Mind is a mechanism of abstraction and simplification, aimed at control [Nietzsche] |
| 24144 | A cognitive mechanism wanting to know itself is absurd! [Nietzsche] |
| 1650 | For Socrates our soul, though hard to define, is our self [Vlastos on Socrates] |
| 24139 | A 'person' is just one possible abstraction from a bundle of qualities [Nietzsche] |
| 24133 | I have perfected fatalism, as recurrence and denial of the will [Nietzsche] |
| 24152 | Fate is inspiring, if you understand you are part of it [Nietzsche] |
| 23252 | Socrates first proposed that we are run by mind or reason [Socrates, by Frede,M] |
| 24129 | We start with images, then words, and then concepts, to which emotions attach [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] |
| 24127 | Judging actions by intentions - like judging painters by their thoughts! [Nietzsche] |
| 185 | Socrates despised good looks [Socrates, by Plato] |
| 5070 | Socrates conservatively assumed that Athenian conventions were natural and true [Taylor,R on Socrates] |
| 24149 | Values need a perspective, of preserving some aspect of life [Nietzsche] |
| 5838 | A well-made dung basket is fine, and a badly-made gold shield is base, because of function [Socrates, by Xenophon] |
| 24148 | If you love something, it is connected with everything, so all must be affirmed as good [Nietzsche] |
| 5837 | Things are both good and fine by the same standard [Socrates, by Xenophon] |
| 24135 | Egoism should not assume that all egos are equal [Nietzsche] |
| 3017 | The only good is knowledge, and the only evil is ignorance [Socrates, by Diog. Laertius] |
| 1646 | Socrates was the first to put 'eudaimonia' at the centre of ethics [Socrates, by Vlastos] |
| 1663 | By 'areté' Socrates means just what we mean by moral virtue [Vlastos on Socrates] |
| 24132 | After Socrates virtue is misunderstood, as good for all, not for individuals [Nietzsche] |
| 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] |
| 24126 | We contain multitudes of characters, which can brought into the open [Nietzsche] |
| 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] |
| 23907 | Courage is scientific knowledge [Socrates, by Aristotle] |
| 7585 | Socrates emphasises that the knower is an existing individual, with existence his main task [Socrates, by Kierkegaard] |
| 24136 | Who can endure the thought of eternal recurrence? [Nietzsche] |
| 24154 | If you want one experience repeated, you must want all of them [Nietzsche] |
| 24153 | Humans are determined by community, so its preservation is their most valued drive [Nietzsche] |
| 5841 | Obedience to the law gives the best life, and success in war [Socrates, by Xenophon] |
| 24134 | There is always slavery, whether we like it or not [Nietzsche] |
| 1661 | Socrates was the first to grasp that a cruelty is not justified by another cruelty [Vlastos on Socrates] |
| 24128 | After history following God, or a people, or an idea, we now see it in terms of animals [Nietzsche] |
| 5846 | A lover using force is a villain, but a seducer is much worse, because he corrupts character [Socrates, by Xenophon] |
| 2102 | Atomism is irrational because it suggests that two atoms can be indistinguishable [Leibniz] |
| 2106 | The only simple things are monads, with no parts or extension [Leibniz] |
| 2105 | Things are infinitely subdivisible and contain new worlds, which atoms would make impossible [Leibniz] |
| 24140 | Cause and effect is a hypothesis, based on our supposed willing of actions [Nietzsche] |
| 20965 | Leibniz upheld conservations of momentum and energy [Leibniz, by Papineau] |
| 2103 | The idea that the universe could be moved forward with no other change is just a fantasy [Leibniz] |
| 24141 | Having a sense of time presupposes absolute time [Nietzsche] |
| 2100 | Space and time are purely relative [Leibniz] |
| 2107 | No time exists except instants, and instants are not even a part of time, so time does not exist [Leibniz] |
| 2101 | If everything in the universe happened a year earlier, there would be no discernible difference [Leibniz] |
| 22894 | If time were absolute that would make God's existence dependent on it [Leibniz, by Bardon] |
| 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] |
| 2099 | The existence of God, and all metaphysics, follows from the Principle of Sufficient Reason [Leibniz] |