54 ideas
22438 | Philosophy is largely concerned with finding the minimum that science could get by with [Quine] |
20121 | Grammar only reveals popular metaphysics [Nietzsche] |
22436 | Logicians don't paraphrase logic into language, because they think in the symbolic language [Quine] |
22431 | Good algorithms and theories need many occurrences of just a few elements [Quine] |
24082 | Is the will to truth the desire to avoid deception? [Nietzsche] |
22435 | The logician's '→' does not mean the English if-then [Quine] |
22433 | It is important that the quantification over temporal entities is timeless [Quine] |
22437 | Logical languages are rooted in ordinary language, and that connection must be kept [Quine] |
22434 | Reduction to logical forms first simplifies idioms and grammar, then finds a single reading of it [Quine] |
20360 | We Germans value becoming and development more highly than mere being of what 'is' [Nietzsche] |
24077 | Necessity is thought to require an event, but is only an after-effect of the event [Nietzsche] |
22432 | Normally conditionals have no truth value; it is the consequent which has a conditional truth value [Quine] |
20126 | The strength of knowledge is not its truth, but its entrenchment in our culture [Nietzsche] |
20119 | We became increasingly conscious of our sense impressions in order to communicate them [Nietzsche] |
20122 | We have no organ for knowledge or truth; we only 'know' what is useful to the human herd [Nietzsche] |
4423 | We assume causes, geometry, motion, bodies etc to live, but they haven't been proved [Nietzsche] |
6579 | Nietzsche's perspectivism says our worldview depends on our personality [Nietzsche, by Fogelin] |
24083 | It would be absurd to say we are only permitted our own single perspective [Nietzsche] |
17472 | Thick mechanisms map whole reactions, and thin mechanism chart the steps [Weisberg/Needham/Hendry] |
17471 | Using mechanisms as explanatory schemes began in chemistry [Weisberg/Needham/Hendry] |
20115 | All of our normal mental life could be conducted without consciousness [Nietzsche] |
20117 | Only the need for communication has led to consciousness developing [Nietzsche] |
20118 | Only our conscious thought is verbal, and this shows the origin of consciousness [Nietzsche] |
20116 | Most of our lives, even the important parts, take place outside of consciousness [Nietzsche] |
20120 | Whatever moves into consciousness becomes thereby much more superficial [Nietzsche] |
2932 | 'Know thyself' is impossible and ridiculous [Nietzsche] |
24078 | Thoughts cannot be fully reproduced in words [Nietzsche] |
24081 | Most of our intellectual activity is unconscious [Nietzsche] |
22430 | If we understand a statement, we know the circumstances of its truth [Quine] |
2933 | Why do you listen to the voice of your conscience? [Nietzsche] |
20141 | Higher human beings see and hear far more than others, and do it more thoughtfully [Nietzsche] |
24076 | A morality ranks human drives and actions, for the sake of the herd, and subordinating individuals [Nietzsche] |
22471 | Nietzsche thought it 'childish' to say morality isn't binding because it varies between cultures [Nietzsche, by Foot] |
2935 | No two actions are the same [Nietzsche] |
20198 | Many virtues are harmful traps, but that is why other people praise them [Nietzsche] |
4275 | You cannot advocate joyful wisdom while rejecting pity, because the two are complementary [Scruton on Nietzsche] |
2934 | To see one's own judgement as a universal law is selfish [Nietzsche] |
24080 | We should give style to our character - by applying an artistic plan to its strengths and weaknesses [Nietzsche] |
20125 | The ethical teacher exists to give purpose to what happens necessarily and without purpose [Nietzsche] |
9306 | To ward off boredom at any cost is vulgar [Nietzsche] |
24079 | The best life is the dangerous life [Nietzsche] |
2936 | Imagine if before each of your actions you had to accept repeating the action over and over again [Nietzsche] |
6842 | Nietzsche says facing up to the eternal return of meaninglessness is the response to nihilism [Nietzsche, by Critchley] |
17465 | Lavoisier's elements included four types of earth [Weisberg/Needham/Hendry] |
13713 | Quine holds time to be 'space-like': past objects are as real as spatially remote ones [Quine, by Sider] |
17468 | Over 100,000,000 compounds have been discovered or synthesised [Weisberg/Needham/Hendry] |
17470 | Water molecules dissociate, and form large polymers, explaining its properties [Weisberg/Needham/Hendry] |
17473 | It is unlikely that chemistry will ever be reduced to physics [Weisberg/Needham/Hendry] |
17474 | Quantum theory won't tell us which structure a set of atoms will form [Weisberg/Needham/Hendry] |
17475 | For temperature to be mean kinetic energy, a state of equilibrium is also required [Weisberg/Needham/Hendry] |
17469 | 'H2O' just gives the element proportions, not the microstructure [Weisberg/Needham/Hendry] |
17467 | Isotopes (such as those of hydrogen) can vary in their rates of chemical reaction [Weisberg/Needham/Hendry] |
17466 | Mendeleev systematised the elements, and also gave an account of their nature [Weisberg/Needham/Hendry] |
2931 | God is dead, and we have killed him [Nietzsche] |