55 ideas
21474 | Metaphysics studies the inexplicable ends of explanation [Schopenhauer] |
15879 | The Square of Opposition has two contradictory pairs, one contrary pair, and one sub-contrary pair [Harré] |
11211 | If a sound conclusion comes from two errors that cancel out, the path of the argument must matter [Rumfitt] |
11210 | Standardly 'and' and 'but' are held to have the same sense by having the same truth table [Rumfitt] |
11212 | The sense of a connective comes from primitively obvious rules of inference [Rumfitt] |
15891 | Traditional quantifiers combine ordinary language generality and ontology assumptions [Harré] |
15878 | Some quantifiers, such as 'any', rule out any notion of order within their range [Harré] |
21470 | For me the objective thing-in-itself is the will [Schopenhauer] |
15874 | Scientific properties are not observed qualities, but the dispositions which create them [Harré] |
15884 | Laws of nature remain the same through any conditions, if the underlying mechanisms are unchanged [Harré] |
21479 | Knowledge is not power! Ignorant people possess supreme authority [Schopenhauer] |
21476 | A priori propositions are those we could never be seriously motivated to challenge [Schopenhauer] |
15880 | In physical sciences particular observations are ordered, but in biology only the classes are ordered [Harré] |
15869 | Reports of experiments eliminate the experimenter, and present results as the behaviour of nature [Harré] |
15881 | We can save laws from counter-instances by treating the latter as analytic definitions [Harré] |
15882 | Since there are three different dimensions for generalising laws, no one system of logic can cover them [Harré] |
15888 | The grue problem shows that natural kinds are central to science [Harré] |
15887 | 'Grue' introduces a new causal hypothesis - that emeralds can change colour [Harré] |
15889 | It is because ravens are birds that their species and their colour might be connected [Harré] |
15890 | Non-black non-ravens just aren't part of the presuppositions of 'all ravens are black' [Harré] |
21473 | All knowledge and explanation rests on the inexplicable [Schopenhauer] |
15885 | The necessity of Newton's First Law derives from the nature of material things, not from a mechanism [Harré] |
21478 | Half our thinking is unconscious, and we reach conclusions while unaware of premises [Schopenhauer] |
15868 | Idealisation idealises all of a thing's properties, but abstraction leaves some of them out [Harré] |
21477 | We don't control our own thinking [Schopenhauer] |
21475 | All of our concepts are borrowed from perceptual knowledge [Schopenhauer] |
11214 | We learn 'not' along with affirmation, by learning to either affirm or deny a sentence [Rumfitt] |
21372 | Aesthetics concerns how we can take pleasure in an object, with no reference to the will [Schopenhauer] |
21488 | The beautiful is a perception of Plato's Forms, which eliminates the will [Schopenhauer] |
21483 | Man is essentially a dreadful wild animal [Schopenhauer] |
21466 | Pleasure is weaker, and pain stronger, than we expect [Schopenhauer] |
21484 | A man's character can be learned from a single characteristic action [Schopenhauer] |
21482 | The five Chinese virtues: pity, justice, politeness, wisdom, honesty [Schopenhauer] |
21481 | Buddhists wisely start with the cardinal vices [Schopenhauer] |
21480 | Boredom is only felt by those clever enough to need activity [Schopenhauer] |
21469 | Human life is a mistake, shown by boredom, which is direct awareness of the fact [Schopenhauer] |
21485 | The state only exists to defend citizens, from exterior threats, and from one another [Schopenhauer] |
21486 | Poverty and slavery are virtually two words for the same thing [Schopenhauer] |
21487 | The freedom of the press to sell poison outweighs its usefulness [Schopenhauer] |
21471 | If suicide was quick and easy, most people would have done it by now [Schopenhauer] |
21467 | Would humanity still exist if sex wasn't both desired and pleasurable? [Schopenhauer] |
15886 | Science rests on the principle that nature is a hierarchy of natural kinds [Harré] |
15864 | Classification is just as important as laws in natural science [Harré] |
15865 | Newton's First Law cannot be demonstrated experimentally, as that needs absence of external forces [Harré] |
15862 | Laws can come from data, from theory, from imagination and concepts, or from procedures [Harré] |
15870 | Are laws of nature about events, or types and universals, or dispositions, or all three? [Harré] |
15871 | Are laws about what has or might happen, or do they also cover all the possibilities? [Harré] |
15876 | Maybe laws of nature are just relations between properties? [Harré] |
15860 | We take it that only necessary happenings could be laws [Harré] |
15867 | Laws describe abstract idealisations, not the actual mess of nature [Harré] |
15872 | Must laws of nature be universal, or could they be local? [Harré] |
15892 | Laws of nature state necessary connections of things, events and properties, based on models of mechanisms [Harré] |
15875 | In counterfactuals we keep substances constant, and imagine new situations for them [Harré] |
21472 | Only religion introduces serious issues to uneducated people [Schopenhauer] |
21468 | The Creator created the possibilities for worlds, so should have made a better one than this possible [Schopenhauer] |