67 ideas
13310 | Wisdom does not lie in books, and unread people can also become wise [Seneca] |
6200 | Wisdom is knowing the highest good, and conforming the will to it [Kant] |
13295 | Wise people escape necessity by willing it [Seneca] |
6207 | What fills me with awe are the starry heavens above me and the moral law within me [Kant] |
13317 | Philosophy aims at happiness [Seneca] |
13293 | What philosophy offers humanity is guidance [Seneca] |
6184 | Consistency is the highest obligation of a philosopher [Kant] |
6203 | Metaphysics is just a priori universal principles of physics [Kant] |
13309 | That something is a necessary condition of something else doesn't mean it caused it [Seneca] |
13313 | Even philosophers have got bogged down in analysing tiny bits of language [Seneca] |
6215 | 'Contingent' means that the cause is unperceived, not that there is no cause [Hobbes] |
6181 | Necessity cannot be extracted from an empirical proposition [Kant] |
13297 | To the four causes Plato adds a fifth, the idea which guided the event [Seneca] |
13307 | If everything can be measured, try measuring the size of a man's soul [Seneca] |
21399 | Referring to a person, and speaking about him, are very different [Seneca] |
6183 | Can pure reason determine the will, or are empirical conditions relevant? [Kant] |
6191 | The will is the faculty of purposes, which guide desires according to principles [Kant] |
6190 | The sole objects of practical reason are the good and the evil [Kant] |
18235 | Only human reason can confer value on our choices [Kant, by Korsgaard] |
6196 | People cannot come to morality through feeling, because morality must not be sensuous [Kant] |
13325 | Trouble in life comes from copying other people, which is following convention instead of reason [Seneca] |
18675 | Kant may rate two things as finally valuable: having a good will, and deserving happiness [Orsi on Kant] |
22007 | An autonomous agent has dignity [Würde], which has absolute worth [Kant, by Pinkard] |
18234 | The good will is unconditionally good, because it is the only possible source of value [Kant, by Korsgaard] |
6192 | Good or evil cannot be a thing, but only a maxim of action, making the person good or evil [Kant] |
22239 | Humans acquired the concept of virtue from an analogy with bodily health and strength [Seneca, by Allen] |
13294 | We know death, which is like before birth; ceasing to be and never beginning are the same [Seneca] |
13299 | Living is nothing wonderful; what matters is to die well [Seneca] |
13300 | It is as silly to lament ceasing to be as to lament not having lived in the remote past [Seneca] |
13321 | Is anything sweeter than valuing yourself more when you find you are loved? [Seneca] |
13292 | Selfishness does not produce happiness; to live for yourself, live for others [Seneca] |
6197 | Morality involves duty and respect for law, not love of the outcome [Kant] |
13303 | A man is as unhappy as he has convinced himself he is [Seneca] |
6193 | Our happiness is all that matters, not as a sensation, but as satisfaction with our whole existence [Kant] |
1452 | Happiness is the condition of a rational being for whom everything goes as they wish [Kant] |
13302 | Life is like a play - it is the quality that matters, not the length [Seneca] |
1454 | Morality is not about making ourselves happy, but about being worthy of happiness [Kant] |
13301 | We are scared of death - except when we are immersed in pleasure! [Seneca] |
13323 | The whole point of pleasure-seeking is novelty, and abandoning established ways [Seneca] |
6194 | The highest worth for human beings lies in dispositions, not just actions [Kant] |
6198 | Virtue is the supreme state of our pursuit of happiness, and so is supreme good [Kant] |
13318 | Nature doesn't give us virtue; we must unremittingly pursue it, as a training and an art [Seneca] |
13324 | Living contrary to nature is like rowing against the stream [Seneca] |
1456 | Moral law is holy, and the best we can do is achieve virtue through respect for the law [Kant] |
13305 | Character is ruined by not looking back over our pasts, since the future rests on the past [Seneca] |
13308 | It's no good winning lots of fights, if you are then conquered by your own temper [Seneca] |
13312 | Excessive curiosity is a form of intemperance [Seneca] |
6185 | No one would lend money unless a universal law made it secure, even after death [Kant] |
6187 | Universality determines the will, and hence extends self-love into altruism [Kant] |
6201 | Everyone (even God) must treat rational beings as ends in themselves, and not just as means [Kant] |
6186 | A holy will is incapable of any maxims which conflict with the moral law [Kant] |
6195 | Reason cannot solve the problem of why a law should motivate the will [Kant] |
13315 | To govern used to mean to serve, not to rule; rulers did not test their powers over those who bestowed it [Seneca] |
13290 | One joy of learning is making teaching possible [Seneca] |
13322 | Both teachers and pupils should aim at one thing - the improvement of the pupil [Seneca] |
13298 | Suicide may be appropriate even when it is not urgent, if there are few reasons against it [Seneca] |
13319 | If we control our own death, no one has power over us [Seneca] |
13320 | Sometimes we have a duty not to commit suicide, for those we love [Seneca] |
6188 | A permanent natural order could not universalise a rule permitting suicide [Kant] |
13311 | Does time exist on its own? Did anything precede it? Did it pre-exist the cosmos? [Seneca] |
6199 | Obligation does not rest on the existence of God, but on the autonomy of reason [Kant] |
1453 | We have to postulate something outside nature which makes happiness coincide with morality [Kant] |
1455 | Belief in justice requires belief in a place for justice (heaven), a time (eternity), and a cause (God) [Kant, by PG] |
6205 | To know if this world must have been created by God, we would need to know all other possible worlds [Kant] |
6204 | Using God to explain nature is referring to something inconceivable to explain what is in front of you [Kant] |
6206 | From our limited knowledge we can infer great virtues in God, but not ultimate ones [Kant] |
6202 | In all naturalistic concepts of God, if you remove the human qualities there is nothing left [Kant] |