160 ideas
| 7170 | 'Wisdom' attempts to get beyond perspectives, making it hostile to life [Nietzsche] |
| 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] |
| 7132 | Philosophers should create and fight for their concepts, not just clean and clarify them [Nietzsche] |
| 3426 | If one theory is reduced to another, we make fewer independent assumptions about the world [Kim] |
| 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] |
| 8729 | Intuitionists deny excluded middle, because it is committed to transcendent truth or objects [Shapiro] |
| 8763 | The number 3 is presumably identical as a natural, an integer, a rational, a real, and complex [Shapiro] |
| 18249 | Cauchy gave a formal definition of a converging sequence. [Shapiro] |
| 8764 | Categories are the best foundation for mathematics [Shapiro] |
| 8762 | Two definitions of 3 in terms of sets disagree over whether 1 is a member of 3 [Shapiro] |
| 8760 | Numbers do not exist independently; the essence of a number is its relations to other numbers [Shapiro] |
| 8761 | A 'system' is related objects; a 'pattern' or 'structure' abstracts the pure relations from them [Shapiro] |
| 8744 | Logicism seems to be a non-starter if (as is widely held) logic has no ontology of its own [Shapiro] |
| 8749 | Term Formalism says mathematics is just about symbols - but real numbers have no names [Shapiro] |
| 8750 | Game Formalism is just a matter of rules, like chess - but then why is it useful in science? [Shapiro] |
| 8752 | Deductivism says mathematics is logical consequences of uninterpreted axioms [Shapiro] |
| 8753 | Critics resent the way intuitionism cripples mathematics, but it allows new important distinctions [Shapiro] |
| 8731 | Conceptualist are just realists or idealist or nominalists, depending on their view of concepts [Shapiro] |
| 8730 | 'Impredicative' definitions refer to the thing being described [Shapiro] |
| 3431 | Supervenience suggest dependence without reduction (e.g. beauty) [Kim] |
| 7153 | We can't be realists, because we don't know what being is [Nietzsche] |
| 3437 | 'Physical facts determine all the facts' is the physicalists' slogan [Kim] |
| 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] |
| 3430 | Resemblance or similarity is the core of our concept of a property [Kim] |
| 3432 | Is weight a 'resultant' property of water, but transparency an 'emergent' property? [Kim] |
| 3434 | Emergent properties are 'brute facts' (inexplicable), but still cause things [Kim] |
| 3436 | Should properties be individuated by their causal powers? [Kim] |
| 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] |
| 3406 | Counterfactuals are either based on laws, or on nearby possible worlds [Kim, by PG] |
| 7154 | We can't use our own self to criticise our own capacity for knowledge! [Nietzsche] |
| 7146 | Belief in the body is better established than belief in the mind [Nietzsche] |
| 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] |
| 8725 | Rationalism tries to apply mathematical methodology to all of knowledge [Shapiro] |
| 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] |
| 7139 | Explanation is just showing the succession of things ever more clearly [Nietzsche] |
| 7131 | The intellect and senses are a simplifying apparatus [Nietzsche] |
| 3368 | Mind is basically qualities and intentionality, but how do they connect? [Kim] |
| 3392 | Mind is only interesting if it has causal powers [Kim] |
| 3396 | Experiment requires mental causation [Kim] |
| 3397 | Beliefs cause other beliefs [Kim] |
| 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] |
| 3367 | Both thought and language have intentionality [Kim] |
| 3365 | Intentionality involves both reference and content [Kim] |
| 3360 | Are pains pure qualia, or do they motivate? [Kim] |
| 3366 | Pain has no reference or content [Kim] |
| 3389 | Inverted qualia and zombies suggest experience isn't just functional [Kim] |
| 3391 | Crosswiring would show that pain and its function are separate [Kim, by PG] |
| 3422 | Externalism about content makes introspection depend on external evidence [Kim] |
| 7157 | We think each thought causes the next, unaware of the hidden struggle beneath [Nietzsche] |
| 3412 | How do we distinguish our anger from embarrassment? [Kim] |
| 3363 | We often can't decide what emotion, or even sensation, we are experiencing [Kim] |
| 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] |
| 3409 | Mental substance causation makes physics incomplete [Kim] |
| 3399 | If epiphenomenalism were true, we couldn't report consciousness [Kim] |
| 3390 | Are inverted or absent qualia coherent ideas? [Kim] |
| 3414 | What could demonstrate that zombies and inversion are impossible? [Kim] |
| 3359 | Cartesian dualism fails because it can't explain mental causation [Kim] |
| 3369 | Logical behaviourism translates mental language to behavioural [Kim] |
| 3428 | Behaviourism reduces mind to behaviour via bridging principles [Kim] |
| 3380 | Are dispositions real, or just a type of explanation? [Kim] |
| 3370 | What behaviour goes with mathematical beliefs? [Kim] |
| 3371 | Behaviour depends on lots of mental states together [Kim] |
| 3372 | Behaviour is determined by society as well as mental states [Kim] |
| 3373 | Snakes have different pain behaviour from us [Kim] |
| 3388 | Machine functionalism requires a Turing machine, causal-theoretical version doesn't [Kim] |
| 3379 | Neurons seem to be very similar and interchangeable [Kim] |
| 3384 | The person couldn't run Searle's Chinese Room without understanding Chinese [Kim] |
| 3393 | How do functional states give rise to mental causation? [Kim] |
| 3427 | Reductionism is impossible if there aren't any 'bridge laws' between mental and physical [Kim] |
| 3439 | Reductionism gets stuck with qualia [Kim] |
| 3424 | Most modern physicalists are non-reductive property dualists [Kim] |
| 3376 | We can't assess evidence about mind without acknowledging phenomenal properties [Kim] |
| 3362 | Supervenience says all souls are identical, being physically indiscernible [Kim] |
| 3413 | Zombies and inversion suggest non-reducible supervenience [Kim] |
| 3374 | Token physicalism isn't reductive; it just says all mental events have some physical properties [Kim] |
| 3433 | The core of the puzzle is the bridge laws between mind and brain [Kim] |
| 3377 | Elimination can either be by translation or by causal explanation [Kim] |
| 3438 | Reductionists deny new causal powers at the higher level [Kim] |
| 3440 | Without reductionism, mental causation is baffling [Kim] |
| 3375 | If an orange image is a brain state, are some parts of the brain orange? [Kim] |
| 3411 | How do we distinguish our attitudes from one another? [Kim] |
| 3386 | Folk psychology has been remarkably durable [Kim] |
| 3394 | Maybe folk psychology is a simulation, not a theory [Kim] |
| 3387 | A culture without our folk psychology would be quite baffling [Kim] |
| 3410 | Folk psychology has adapted to Freudianism [Kim] |
| 7171 | Rationality is a scheme we cannot cast away [Nietzsche] |
| 3382 | A machine with a mind might still fail the Turing Test [Kim] |
| 3383 | The Turing Test is too specifically human in its requirements [Kim] |
| 3408 | Two identical brain states could have different contents in different worlds [Kim] |
| 3420 | Two types of water are irrelevant to accounts of behaviour [Kim] |
| 3416 | Content may match several things in the environment [Kim] |
| 3418 | 'Arthritis in my thigh' requires a social context for its content to be meaningful [Kim] |
| 3421 | Content is best thought of as truth conditions [Kim] |
| 3419 | Pain, our own existence, and negative existentials, are not external [Kim] |
| 3417 | Content depends on other content as well as the facts [Kim] |
| 3403 | We assume people believe the obvious logical consequences of their known beliefs [Kim] |
| 3402 | If someone says "I do and don't like x", we don't assume a contradiction [Kim] |
| 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] |
| 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] |
| 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] |
| 3401 | A common view is that causal connections must be instances of a law [Kim] |
| 3407 | Laws are either 'strict', or they involve a 'ceteris paribus' clause [Kim] |
| 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] |
| 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] |
| 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] |