108 ideas
| 18330 | Judging by the positive forces, the Renaissance was the last great age [Nietzsche] |
| 2900 | I revere Heraclitus [Nietzsche] |
| 13773 | For the truth you need Prodicus's fifty-drachma course, not his one-drachma course [Socrates] |
| 2913 | Thucydides was the perfect anti-platonist sophist [Nietzsche] |
| 2909 | Thinking has to be learned in the way dancing has to be learned [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] |
| 2892 | Wanting a system in philosophy is a lack of integrity [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] |
| 2896 | I want to understand the Socratic idea that 'reason equals virtue equals happiness' [Nietzsche] |
| 164 | It is legitimate to play the devil's advocate [Socrates] |
| 2897 | With dialectics the rabble gets on top [Nietzsche] |
| 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] |
| 2898 | Anything which must first be proved is of little value [Nietzsche] |
| 639 | Socrates developed definitions as the basis of syllogisms, and also inductive arguments [Socrates, by Aristotle] |
| 18317 | The 'real being' of things is a nothingness constructed from contradictions in the actual world [Nietzsche] |
| 18315 | We get the concept of 'being' from the concept of the 'ego' [Nietzsche] |
| 4986 | A weaker kind of reductionism than direct translation is the use of 'bridge laws' [Kirk,R] |
| 18316 | The grounds for an assertion that the world is only apparent actually establish its reality [Nietzsche] |
| 1652 | Socrates did not consider universals or definitions as having separate existence, but Plato made Forms of them [Socrates, by Aristotle] |
| 18314 | In language we treat 'ego' as a substance, and it is thus that we create the concept 'thing' [Nietzsche] |
| 18309 | The evidence of the senses is falsified by reason [Nietzsche] |
| 18323 | Any explanation will be accepted as true if it gives pleasure and a feeling of power [Nietzsche] |
| 5001 | Maybe we should see intentionality and consciousness as a single problem, not two [Kirk,R] |
| 4993 | If a bird captures a worm, we could say its behaviour is 'about' the worm [Kirk,R] |
| 5000 | Behaviourism says intentionality is an external relation; language of thought says it's internal [Kirk,R] |
| 18310 | The 'highest' concepts are the most general and empty concepts [Nietzsche] |
| 1650 | For Socrates our soul, though hard to define, is our self [Vlastos on Socrates] |
| 20368 | There are no 'individual' persons; we are each the sum of humanity up to this moment [Nietzsche] |
| 4982 | Dualism implies some brain events with no physical cause, and others with no physical effect [Kirk,R] |
| 4991 | Behaviourism seems a good theory for intentional states, but bad for phenomenal ones [Kirk,R] |
| 4994 | Behaviourism offers a good alternative to simplistic unitary accounts of mental relationships [Kirk,R] |
| 4992 | In 'holistic' behaviourism we say a mental state is a complex of many dispositions [Kirk,R] |
| 4990 | The inverted spectrum idea is often regarded as an objection to behaviourism [Kirk,R] |
| 4984 | All meaningful psychological statements can be translated into physics [Kirk,R] |
| 4998 | Instead of representation by sentences, it can be by a distribution of connectionist strengths [Kirk,R] |
| 4985 | If mental states are multiply realisable, they could not be translated into physical terms [Kirk,R] |
| 23252 | Socrates first proposed that we are run by mind or reason [Socrates, by Frede,M] |
| 2899 | The fanatical rationality of Greek philosophy shows that they were in a state of emergency [Nietzsche] |
| 4997 | It seems unlikely that most concepts are innate, if a theory must be understood to grasp them [Kirk,R] |
| 4999 | For behaviourists language is just a special kind of behaviour [Kirk,R] |
| 4995 | Behaviourists doubt whether reference is a single type of relation [Kirk,R] |
| 18313 | The big error is to think the will is a faculty producing effects; in fact, it is just a word [Nietzsche] |
| 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] |
| 1653 | Socrates did not accept the tripartite soul (which permits akrasia) [Vlastos on Socrates] |
| 195 | No one willingly commits an evil or base act [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] |
| 20133 | The 'motive' is superficial, and may even hide the antecedents of a deed [Nietzsche] |
| 185 | Socrates despised good looks [Socrates, by Plato] |
| 18326 | The beautiful never stands alone; it derives from man's pleasure in man [Nietzsche] |
| 20101 | Without music life would be a mistake [Nietzsche] |
| 2902 | Healthy morality is dominated by an instinct for life [Nietzsche] |
| 18311 | Philosophers hate values having an origin, and want values to be self-sufficient [Nietzsche] |
| 18324 | There are no moral facts, and moralists believe in realities which do not exist [Nietzsche] |
| 2904 | The doctrine of free will has been invented essentially in order to blame and punish people [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] |
| 18321 | To evaluate life one must know it, but also be situated outside of it [Nietzsche] |
| 2893 | In every age the wisest people have judged life to be worthless [Nietzsche] |
| 2894 | Value judgements about life can never be true [Nietzsche] |
| 18322 | When we establish values, that is life itself establishing them, through us [Nietzsche] |
| 18308 | A philosopher fails in wisdom if he thinks the value of life is a problem [Nietzsche] |
| 2895 | The value of life cannot be estimated [Nietzsche] |
| 18319 | Love is the spiritualisation of sensuality [Nietzsche] |
| 5837 | Things are both good and fine by the same standard [Socrates, by Xenophon] |
| 2903 | A good human will be virtuous because they are happy [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] |
| 2891 | Only the English actually strive after happiness [Nietzsche] |
| 18327 | A wholly altruistic morality, with no egoism, is a thoroughly bad thing [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] |
| 15606 | Military idea: what does not kill me makes me stronger [Nietzsche] |
| 23907 | Courage is scientific knowledge [Socrates, by Aristotle] |
| 18328 | Invalids are parasites [Nietzsche] |
| 7585 | Socrates emphasises that the knower is an existing individual, with existence his main task [Socrates, by Kierkegaard] |
| 18331 | Democracy is organisational power in decline [Nietzsche] |
| 18332 | The creation of institutions needs a determination which is necessarily anti-liberal [Nietzsche] |
| 5841 | Obedience to the law gives the best life, and success in war [Socrates, by Xenophon] |
| 2911 | True justice is equality for equals and inequality for unequals [Nietzsche] |
| 1661 | Socrates was the first to grasp that a cruelty is not justified by another cruelty [Vlastos on Socrates] |
| 18320 | To renounce war is to renounce the grand life [Nietzsche] |
| 2908 | There is a need for educators who are themselves educated [Nietzsche] |
| 18329 | Sometimes it is an error to have been born - but we can rectify it [Nietzsche] |
| 5846 | A lover using force is a villain, but a seducer is much worse, because he corrupts character [Socrates, by Xenophon] |
| 2905 | 'Purpose' is just a human fiction [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] |
| 18312 | The supreme general but empty concepts must be compatible, and hence we get 'God' [Nietzsche] |
| 2906 | By denying God we deny human accountability, and thus we redeem the world [Nietzsche] |
| 18325 | Christians believe that only God can know what is good for man [Nietzsche] |
| 2901 | How could the Church intelligently fight against passion if it preferred poorness of spirit to intelligence? [Nietzsche] |
| 18318 | People who disparage actual life avenge themselves by imagining a better one [Nietzsche] |