105 ideas
14857 | The highest wisdom has the guise of simplicity [Nietzsche] |
20801 | A wise man's chief strength is not being tricked; nothing is worse than error, frivolity or rashness [Zeno of Citium, by Cicero] |
1771 | When shown seven versions of the mowing argument, he paid twice the asking price for them [Zeno of Citium, by Diog. Laertius] |
20770 | Philosophy has three parts, studying nature, character, and rational discourse [Zeno of Citium, by Diog. Laertius] |
14854 | Deep thinkers know that they are always wrong [Nietzsche] |
14833 | Comedy is a transition from fear to exuberance [Nietzsche] |
6420 | Only by analysing is progress possible in philosophy [Russell] |
6432 | Analysis gives new knowledge, without destroying what we already have [Russell] |
6437 | The theory of types makes 'Socrates and killing are two' illegitimate [Russell] |
14853 | Truth finds fewest champions not when it is dangerous, but when it is boring [Nietzsche] |
6442 | Truth belongs to beliefs, not to propositions and sentences [Russell] |
24075 | Convictions, more than lies, are the great enemy of truth [Nietzsche] |
6022 | Someone who says 'it is day' proposes it is day, and it is true if it is day [Zeno of Citium, by Diog. Laertius] |
6436 | I gradually replaced classes with properties, and they ended as a symbolic convenience [Russell] |
7528 | Leibniz bases everything on subject/predicate and substance/property propositions [Russell] |
6439 | Names are meaningless unless there is an object which they designate [Russell] |
7555 | Zeno achieved the statement of the problems of infinitesimals, infinity and continuity [Russell on Zeno of Citium] |
6423 | We tried to define all of pure maths using logical premisses and concepts [Russell] |
6424 | Formalists say maths is merely conventional marks on paper, like the arbitrary rules of chess [Russell] |
6425 | Formalism can't apply numbers to reality, so it is an evasion [Russell] |
6426 | Intuitionism says propositions are only true or false if there is a method of showing it [Russell] |
20860 | Whatever participates in substance exists [Zeno of Citium, by Stobaeus] |
6419 | In 1899-1900 I adopted the philosophy of logical atomism [Russell] |
6438 | Complex things can be known, but not simple things [Russell] |
6434 | Facts are everything, except simples; they are either relations or qualities [Russell] |
6440 | Universals can't just be words, because words themselves are universals [Russell] |
21397 | Perception an open hand, a fist is 'grasping', and holding that fist is knowledge [Zeno of Citium, by Long] |
6430 | In epistemology we should emphasis the continuity between animal and human minds [Russell] |
20799 | A grasp by the senses is true, because it leaves nothing out, and so nature endorses it [Zeno of Citium, by Cicero] |
14858 | Being certain presumes that there are absolute truths, and means of arriving at them [Nietzsche] |
6441 | Pragmatism judges by effects, but I judge truth by causes [Russell] |
6431 | Empiricists seem unclear what they mean by 'experience' [Russell] |
14830 | Intuition only recognises what is possible, not what exists or is certain [Nietzsche] |
20797 | If a grasped perception cannot be shaken by argument, it is 'knowledge' [Zeno of Citium, by Cicero] |
6444 | True belief about the time is not knowledge if I luckily observe a stopped clock at the right moment [Russell] |
21398 | A presentation is true if we judge that no false presentation could appear like it [Zeno of Citium, by Cicero] |
20378 | Just as skin hides the horrors of the body, vanity conceals the passions of the soul [Nietzsche] |
1770 | When a slave said 'It was fated that I should steal', Zeno replied 'Yes, and that you should be beaten' [Zeno of Citium, by Diog. Laertius] |
3799 | A dog tied to a cart either chooses to follow and is pulled, or it is just pulled [Zeno of Citium, by Hippolytus] |
21402 | Incorporeal substances can't do anything, and can't be acted upon either [Zeno of Citium, by Cicero] |
6433 | Behaviourists struggle to explain memory and imagination, because they won't admit images [Russell] |
20816 | A body is required for anything to have causal relations [Zeno of Citium, by Cicero] |
6443 | Surprise is a criterion of error [Russell] |
6427 | Unverifiable propositions about the remote past are still either true or false [Russell] |
1773 | A sentence always has signification, but a word by itself never does [Zeno of Citium, by Diog. Laertius] |
6435 | You can believe the meaning of a sentence without thinking of the words [Russell] |
14820 | People always do what they think is right, according to the degree of their intellect [Nietzsche] |
14856 | Our judgment seems to cause our nature, but actually judgment arises from our nature [Nietzsche] |
14842 | Why are the strong tastes of other people so contagious? [Nietzsche] |
14835 | Artists are not especially passionate, but they pretend to be [Nietzsche] |
22473 | Nietzsche said the will doesn't exist, so it can't ground moral responsibility [Nietzsche, by Foot] |
14807 | The history of morality rests on an error called 'responsibility', which rests on an error called 'free will' [Nietzsche] |
14823 | Ceasing to believe in human responsibility is bitter, if you had based the nobility of humanity on it [Nietzsche] |
14824 | It is absurd to blame nature and necessity; we should no more praise actions than we praise plants or artworks [Nietzsche] |
14812 | Intellect is tied to morality, because it requires good memory and powerful imagination [Nietzsche] |
14810 | Originally it was the rulers who requited good for good and evil for evil who were called 'good' [Nietzsche] |
20841 | Zeno said live in agreement with nature, which accords with virtue [Zeno of Citium, by Diog. Laertius] |
1774 | Since we are essentially rational animals, living according to reason is living according to nature [Zeno of Citium, by Diog. Laertius] |
20863 | The goal is to 'live in agreement', according to one rational consistent principle [Zeno of Citium, by Stobaeus] |
14831 | No one has ever done anything that was entirely for other people [Nietzsche] |
14855 | Simultaneous love and respect are impossible; love has no separation or rank, but respect admits power [Nietzsche] |
14815 | We get enormous pleasure from tales of noble actions [Nietzsche] |
14849 | We can only achieve happy moments, not happy eras [Nietzsche] |
2662 | Zeno saw virtue as a splendid state, not just a source of splendid action [Zeno of Citium, by Cicero] |
14818 | First morality is force, then custom, then acceptance, then instinct, then a pleasure - and finally 'virtue' [Nietzsche] |
20103 | You are mastered by your own virtues, but you must master them, and turn them into tools [Nietzsche] |
14817 | The 'good' man does the moral thing as if by nature, easily and gladly, after a long inheritance [Nietzsche] |
21395 | One of Zeno's books was 'That Which is Appropriate' [Zeno of Citium, by Long] |
14809 | All societies of good men give a priority to gratitude [Nietzsche] |
5964 | Zeno says there are four main virtues, which are inseparable but distinct [Zeno of Citium, by Plutarch] |
14816 | Justice (fairness) originates among roughly equal powers (as the Melian dialogues show) [Nietzsche] |
20112 | Pity consoles those who suffer, because they see that they still have the power to hurt [Nietzsche] |
14821 | Apart from philosophers, most people rightly have a low estimate of pity [Nietzsche] |
14841 | Many people are better at having good friends than being a good friend [Nietzsche] |
14843 | Women can be friends with men, but only some physical antipathy will maintain it [Nietzsche] |
14811 | In Homer it is the contemptible person, not the harmful person, who is bad [Nietzsche] |
20111 | We could live more naturally, relishing the spectacle, and not thinking we are special [Nietzsche] |
14844 | People do not experience boredom if they have never learned to work properly [Nietzsche] |
14808 | Over huge periods of time human character would change endlessly [Nietzsche] |
14822 | If self-defence is moral, then so are most expressions of 'immoral' egoism [Nietzsche] |
14838 | The state aims to protect individuals from one another [Nietzsche] |
14852 | Culture cannot do without passions and vices [Nietzsche] |
14846 | If we want the good life for the greatest number, we must let them decide on the good life [Nietzsche] |
14819 | Slavery cannot be judged by our standards, because the sense of justice was then less developed [Nietzsche] |
14847 | Laws that are well thought out, or laws that are easy to understand? [Nietzsche] |
14814 | Execution is worse than murder, because we are using the victim, and really we are the guilty [Nietzsche] |
14836 | People will enthusiastically pursue an unwanted war, once sacrifices have been made [Nietzsche] |
14845 | Don't crush girls with dull Gymnasium education, the way we have crushed boys! [Nietzsche] |
14848 | Education in large states is mediocre, like cooking in large kitchens [Nietzsche] |
14839 | Interest in education gains strength when we lose interest in God [Nietzsche] |
14834 | Teachers only gather knowledge for their pupils, and can't be serious about themselves [Nietzsche] |
14825 | In religious thought nature is a complex of arbitrary acts by conscious beings [Nietzsche] |
14826 | Modern man wants laws of nature in order to submit to them [Nietzsche] |
20822 | There is no void in the cosmos, but indefinite void outside it [Zeno of Citium, by Ps-Plutarch] |
2648 | Things are more perfect if they have reason; nothing is more perfect than the universe, so it must have reason [Zeno of Citium] |
20811 | Since the cosmos produces what is alive and rational, it too must be alive and rational [Zeno of Citium] |
20810 | Rational is better than non-rational; the cosmos is supreme, so it is rational [Zeno of Citium] |
2649 | If tuneful flutes grew on olive trees, you would assume the olive had some knowledge of the flute [Zeno of Citium] |
20807 | The cosmos and heavens are the substance of god [Zeno of Citium, by Diog. Laertius] |
14827 | The Greeks saw the gods not as their masters, but as idealised versions of themselves [Nietzsche] |
14813 | Science rejecting the teaching of Christianity in favour of Epicurus shows the superiority of the latter [Nietzsche] |
14832 | The Sermon on the Mount is vanity - praying to one part of oneself, and demonising the rest [Nietzsche] |
14850 | Christ was the noblest human being [Nietzsche] |
14837 | Christ seems warm hearted, and suppressed intellect in favour of the intellectually weak [Nietzsche] |
14828 | Religion is tempting if your life is boring, but you can't therefore impose it on the busy people [Nietzsche] |