38 ideas
1606 | You have to be a Platonist to debate about reality, so every philosopher is a Platonist [Roochnik] |
1595 | Philosophy aims to satisfy the chief human desire - the articulation of beauty itself [Roochnik] |
1571 | 'Logos' ranges from thought/reasoning, to words, to rational structures outside thought [Roochnik] |
1572 | In the seventeenth century the only acceptable form of logos was technical knowledge [Roochnik] |
1573 | The hallmark of a person with logos is that they give reasons why one opinion is superior to another [Roochnik] |
1592 | Logos cannot refute the relativist, and so must admit that it too is a matter of desire (for truth and agreement) [Roochnik] |
1593 | Human desire has an ordered structure, with logos at the pinnacle [Roochnik] |
1603 | Logos is not unconditionally good, but good if there is another person willing to engage with it [Roochnik] |
1598 | We prefer reason or poetry according to whether basics are intelligible or not [Roochnik] |
1584 | Modern science, by aiming for clarity about the external world, has abandoned rationality in the human world [Roochnik] |
1591 | Unfortunately for reason, argument can't be used to establish the value of argument [Roochnik] |
1599 | Attempts to suspend all presuppositions are hopeless, because a common ground must be agreed for the process [Roochnik] |
23853 | Truth is not a object we love - it is the radiant manifestation of reality [Weil] |
23855 | Creation produced a network or web of determinations [Weil] |
1605 | Reality can be viewed neutrally, or as an object of desire [Roochnik] |
1577 | Relativism is a disease which destroys the possibility of rational debate [Roochnik] |
1578 | If relativism is the correct account of human values, then rhetoric is more important than reasoning [Roochnik] |
1596 | Reasoning aims not at the understanding of objects, but at the desire to give beautiful speeches [Roochnik] |
23848 | The aesthete's treatment of beauty as amusement is sacreligious; beauty should nourish [Weil] |
23854 | Beauty is the proof of what is good [Weil] |
5845 | Niceratus learnt the whole of Homer by heart, as a guide to goodness [Xenophon] |
23837 | Respect is our only obligation, which can only be expressed through deeds, not words [Weil] |
23844 | The most important human need is to have multiple roots [Weil] |
23838 | The need for order stands above all others, and is understood via the other needs [Weil] |
23836 | Obligations only bind individuals, not collectives [Weil] |
23840 | A citizen should be able to understand the whole of society [Weil] |
23843 | Even the poorest should feel collective ownership, and participation in grand display [Weil] |
23846 | Culture is an instrument for creating an ongoing succession of teachers [Weil] |
23839 | A lifelong head of society should only be a symbol, not a ruler [Weil] |
23842 | Party politics in a democracy can't avoid an anti-democratic party [Weil] |
23847 | Socialism tends to make a proletariat of the whole population [Weil] |
23845 | The capitalists neglect the people and the nation, and even their own interests [Weil] |
23841 | By making money the sole human measure, inequality has become universal [Weil] |
23835 | People have duties, and only have rights because of the obligations of others to them [Weil] |
23852 | To punish people we must ourselves be innocent - but that undermines the desire to punish [Weil] |
23850 | The soldier-civilian distinction should be abolished; every citizen is committed to a war [Weil] |
23851 | Education is essentially motivation [Weil] |
23849 | Religion should quietly suffuse all human life with its light [Weil] |