Aesthetics / Aesthetic Experience / Beauty /
5
Influential Ideas
✓ An ignorant soul is ugly-Plato
✓ Anything fine is difficult-Plato
✓ Beauty,benefit and pleasure guide action-Aristotle
✓ Beauty and goodness are the same-Plato
Thought / Artificial Intelligence / Turing Test /
3
Influential Ideas
✓ A machine might just use a vast lookup table-Block
✓ Cats couldn't pass the Turing test-Kim
✓ Computers will % imitate humans-Turing
✓ Machines may speak, but not hold conversation-Descartes
Aesthetics / Aesthetics / Aesthetics /
2
Influential Ideas
✓ Aesthetics assumes distinctive subject matter-Gardner
✓ Aesthetics is tied to Romanticism-Scruton
✓ Baumgarten founded aesthetics in the-Baumgarten
✓ Kant and Hegel founded aesthetics-Scruton
Applied Ethics / Death Issues / Suicide /
2
Influential Ideas
✓ Contradiction if assisting suicide is illegal-Grayling
✓ Die unreconciled, not from free will-Camus
✓ No one in essence desires suicide-Spinoza
✓ Partake of life even if you go blind-Epicurus
Applied Ethics / Practical Rights / Animal Rights /
2
Influential Ideas
✓ Animal intentionality causes our sympathy-Scruton
✓ Animals can't form justice contracts-Hermarchus
✓ Animals cannot claim to have rights-Ross
✓ Animals lack rights but we have duties to them-Scruton
Applied Ethics / Death Issues / Euthanasia /
1
Influential Ideas
✓ Legal euthanasia is an honourable death-More,T
✓ Nazi murders originated in their euthanasia-Glover
✓ People seek death to please other people-Kamisar
✓ Saving life, or prolonging death?-Glover
Mathematics / Nature Of Mathematics / Mathematics /
1
Influential Ideas
✓ += is true in the way stories are true-Field,H
✓ A priori by concepts, construction or reality-Kitcher
✓ Aesthetics in maths is explanatory-Kitcher
✓ All mathematical problems are solvable-Hilbert
Smile, breathe and go slowly. - thich nhat hanhperson_outline
Mathematics / Nature Of Mathematics / Numbers / Infinity /
1
Influential Ideas
✓ Actual infinity awaits potential infinity-Read
✓ Adding two infinities is absurd-Locke
✓ An infinite set is similar to its proper part-Dedekind
✓ Ban infinities; allow boundless increase-Gauss
Mathematics / Nature Of Mathematics / Numbers / One /
1
Influential Ideas
✓ 'One' is the basis of numbers, not a number-Pythagoras
✓ 'One' is the most obvious idea of all-Locke
✓ 'One' isn't a property like 'wise'-Frege
✓ A unit makes something one-Euclid
Mathematics / Nature Of Mathematics / Numbers / Zero /
1
Influential Ideas
✓ '' is refusal to answer 'how many?'-Husserl
✓ 'Zero' is defined, not primitive-Frege
✓ Geometrical maths links to lack of zero-Clegg
✓ Get from 'not identical with itself'-Frege
Metaethics / Ethical Ends / Happiness / Nature Of Happiness /
1
Influential Ideas
✓ Animals can never he happy-Aristotle
✓ For some 'not bad' is happiness-Nietzsche
✓ Happiness has no location or moment-Taylor,R
✓ Happiness is advancement towards perfection-Leibniz
Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely. -john dalberg-actonperson_outline
Metaethics / Ethical Ends / Happiness / Routes To Happiness /
1
Influential Ideas
✓ Both mind and body should be exercised-Plato
✓ Children and animals cannot be happy-Aristotle
✓ Ecstasy is the highest state of man-Plotinus
✓ Freedom is the route to happiness-Aristippus elder
Metaethics / Ethical Ends / Happiness / Value Of Happiness /
1
Influential Ideas
✓ Are good acts just a means to eudaimonia?-Ackrill
✓ Aristotle has two sorts of eudaimonia-Nagel
✓ Consciousness must focus on pleasure and pain-Locke
✓ Ethics of flourishing is consequentialist-Harman
Metaethics / Ethical Ends / Love /
1
Influential Ideas
✓ Do good to him who has done you an injury-Lao Tzu
✓ Hate is conquered by love
✓ Love, and do what you will-Augustine
✓ Love for my children has intrinsic value-Frankfurt
If you can’t handle me at my worst, then you sure as hell don’t deserve me at my best. -marilyn monroeperson_outline
Metaethics / Ethical Ends / Pleasure / Sources Of Pleasure /
1
Influential Ideas
✓ Achieve pleasure by developing character-Annas
✓ Diseased people like bad pleasures-Aristotle
✓ Moderation improves pleasure-Democritus
✓ Noble works give the greatest pleasure-Democritus
Metaethics / Ethical Ends / Pleasure / Types Of Pleasure /
1
Influential Ideas
✓ All pleasures are essentially equal-Epicurus
✓ Choose only pleasures involving beauty-Democritus
✓ Existing is the only true pleasure-Hadot
✓ Food used to matter much more than sex-Foucault
Mind And Body / Mind-Body Dualism / Dualism /
1
Influential Ideas
✓ Cartesian souls are not immaterial stuff-Lowe
✓ Descartes' 'mind' is not a substance-Crane
✓ The Ghost in the Machine is a category mistake-Ryle
Mind And Body / Mind-Body Dualism / Dualism Of Mind Critique /
1
Influential Ideas
✓ A dualist mind needs several 'special' powers-Papineau
✓ Accepting dualism is just giving up-Dennett
✓ Brain events with no cause or effect?-Kirk,R
✓ Dualism breaches conservation laws-Lycan
Natural Theory / Concepts Of Nature / Time /
1
Influential Ideas
✓ Bone is a ratio of three elements-Empedocles
✓ Earth,air,fire and water are primary elements-Chrysippus
✓ Elements are atomic monads-Leibniz
✓ Elements are changed by Love and Hate-Empedocles
Natural Theory / Concepts Of Nature / Time / Existence Of Time /
1
Influential Ideas
✓ A year must be complete to exist-Augustine
✓ All of time is non existent, in past or future-Aristotle
✓ Maybe past and future are real-Dummett
✓ No coexisting parts, so no time-Leibniz
Natural Theory / Concepts Of Nature / Time / Future /
1
Influential Ideas
✓ How can the future be short but non existent?-Augustine
✓ Past and present are necessary, but not future-Aristotle
✓ Present and past exist, but not future-Broad
✓ If the future is unreal, this is the end! Elements of Nature-Lewis
I haven’t failed, i’ve found 10,000 ways that don’t work. -thomas edisonperson_outline
Natural Theory / Concepts Of Nature / Time / Time /
1
Influential Ideas
✓ A places things in time; B is always relative-McTaggart
✓ A theory time exists; B theory is relative-Le Poidevin
✓ Define the present by light and Big Bang-Ellis
✓ Fix simultaneity by the Big Bang?-Ellis
First do no harm. -hippocratesperson_outline
Nature Of Minds / Features Of Minds / Consciousness / Consciousness /
1
Influential Ideas
✓ Consciousness is memory of immediate past-Marshall
✓ Mental states have qualities; everything has!-Heil
✓ Our phenomenal concepts are too vague-Papineau
✓ Sentience comes in degrees-Dennett
Nature Of Minds / Features Of Minds / Consciousness / Essence Of Consciousness /
1
Influential Ideas
✓ Consciousness a process, not thing or property-Edelman&Tononi
✓ Consciousness is not experienced as spatial-Searle
✓ Consciousness must involve experience-Nagel
✓ Mind is directedness to externals-Sartre
Nature Of Minds / Features Of Minds / Consciousness / Purpose Of Consciousness /
1
Influential Ideas
✓ Computers can't create axioms, minds can-Edelman&Tononi
✓ Consciousness is a malfunction of evolution-Zizek
✓ Consciousness is just a tool-Nietzsche
✓ Consciousness is not always a benefit-Dretske
Nature Of Minds / Features Of Minds / Qualia /
1
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Red' is a point in neural space-Edelman&Tononi
✓ Are pains motivational as well as qualia?-Kim
✓ Are qualia inexpressible knowledge?-Perry
✓ Are qualia more basic than intentionality?-Gildersleve
Nature Of Minds / Mind / Other Minds / Knowing Other Minds /
1
Influential Ideas
✓ Adopt behaviourism about other minds-Ayer
✓ Behaviour proves other minds-Locke
✓ By definition behaviour proves consciousness-Ayer
✓ Experience shows other minds exist-Berkeley
Ontology / Identity / Intrinsic Identity / Self-Identity /
1
Influential Ideas
✓ A 'thisness' is being identical with itself-Adams,RM
✓ A thing might exist relative to itself-Benardete,JA
✓ Frege made identity a logical notion-Frege
✓ Holmes exists, but is not self identical-McGinn
It is always darkest just before the dawn. -thomas fullerperson_outline
Religion / Monotheistic Religion / Christianity /
1
Influential Ideas
✓ Allah has no son; he is self sufficient-Mohammed
✓ Christianity equates the world with evil-Schopenhauer
✓ Christianity is humility denying the elevated-Nietzsche
✓ Christianity is Platonism for the people-Nietzsche
Religion / Monotheistic Religion / Islam /
1
Influential Ideas
✓ Do not split your religion into sects-Mohammed
✓ Knowingly killing a believer leads to Hell-Mohammed
✓ Leave unbelievers to the judgement of Allah-Mohammed
✓ Make war on the unbelievers-Mohammed
Religion / Monotheistic Religion / Judaism /
1
Influential Ideas
✓ Amos introduced justice and compassion-Amos
✓ Family is basic to Judaism and Christianity-Berlin
✓ Judaism stabilised in CE-Watson
✓ Religious heroes begin as outlaws-Johnson,P
Religion / Polytheistic Religion / Hinduism /
1
Influential Ideas
✓ Brahman first, then Atman and Karma
✓ Damayata! Datta! Dayadhwam!
✓ Hindu's reincarnation is a very late idea-Flanagan
✓ Hinduism has no founder or organisation-Watson
Religion / Polytheistic Religion / Paganism /
1
Influential Ideas
✓ Everyone should think clearly about the gods-Empedocles
✓ Paganism thanks and affirms life-Nietzsche
✓ The gods know evil deeds and thoughts-Thales
✓ There are many unmoved movers-Aristotle
Nothing is certain except for death and taxes. -christopher bullockperson_outline
Religion / Problem Of Evil / Human Evil /
1
Influential Ideas
✓ Evil helps greater good and higher pleasure-Leibniz
✓ Moral evil may be needed to achieve free will-Plantinga
✓ People have enough autonomy for responsibility-Berkeley
✓ Sinful Adam's existence was preferred-Leibniz
Religion / Religions / Religious Belief /
1
Influential Ideas
✓ A city without religion is impossible-Plutarch
✓ Charity & ritual aren't the point of religion
✓ Do not love the world-John
✓ Mankind has produced , religions-Wilson,EO
In three words i can sum up everything i’ve learned about life: it goes on. -robert frostperson_outline
Religion / Spiritual Disciplines / Buddhism /
1
Influential Ideas
✓ A Buddha is a fully enlightened one-Conze
✓ Be mild, honest and generous
✓ Compassion, truth and sobriety save us-Buddha
✓ Eight steps to morality, wisdom, tranquillity-Ashvaghosha
Religion / Spiritual Disciplines / Confucianism /
1
Influential Ideas
✓ Confucius was spiritual in a remote way-Watson
Religion / Spiritual Disciplines / Taoism /
1
Influential Ideas
✓ Escape world, body, mind and nature-Watson
✓ Go with the flow, and be one with the void-Chuang Tzu
✓ People forget each other in the Tao-Chuang Tzu
Religion / Spiritual Disciplines / Zen Buddhism /
1
Influential Ideas
✓ Feel the cosmic essence within you
✓ Feel the joy of being everywhere
✓ The serenity in blue sky beyond clouds
Society / Elements / Elements Of Society /
1
Influential Ideas
✓ A shared morality is the basis of a society-Aristotle
✓ Good laws and armies make a good state-Machiavelli
✓ Man is by nature a political animal-Aristotle
✓ People like company, not just mutual aid-Aristotle
Society / Elements / History /
1
Influential Ideas
✓ All history of societies is of class struggles-Marx&Engels
✓ Historians share the illusions of their epoch-Marx&Engels
✓ History can never repeat itself
✓ History is a matter of industry and exchange-Marx&Engels
Society / Elements / Law / Law /
1
Influential Ideas
✓ All legislation is just-Aristotle
✓ Crimes are sins, and sins are crimes-Johnson,P
✓ Easily changing the law weakens it-Aristotle
✓ Law is as vital as a city wall-Heraclitus
It is always darkest just before the dawn. -thomas fullerperson_outline
Society / Elements / Law / Natural Law /
1
Influential Ideas
✓ Kant gave a non religious base for natural law-Scruton
✓ Medieval natural law was revived at Nuremberg-Jolley
✓ Natural justice benefits the exploiting wicked-Rousseau
✓ Natural justice is the same everywhere-Aristotle
Society / Elements / War /
1
Influential Ideas
✓ Conquest is normal, and never criticised-Machiavelli
✓ Fighting a just war is good
✓ Only Utopians fail to see glory in warfare-More,T
✓ Peace through war is fish up trees-Mencius
On your last day on earth, the person you became will meet the person you could have become. ” — anonymousperson_outline
Society / Principles / General Will /
1
Influential Ideas
✓ General will is said to back private property-Marx&Engels
✓ Society is each submitting to a general will-Rousseau
✓ Sum individual interests to get a community's-Bentham
✓ The 'general will' is not the 'will of all'-Rousseau
Society / Principles / Legal Rights /
1
Influential Ideas
✓ Duties without rights needs good payment-Goethe
✓ Society bestows rights to liberty and property-Rousseau
Society / Principles / Natural Rights /
1
Influential Ideas
✓ Allegiance comes before rights-Scruton
✓ For Hume property is merely conventional-Hume
✓ For Locke ownership is natural based on labour-Locke
✓ Freedom is absence of a contract-MacIntyre
Society / Principles / Social Equality /
1
Influential Ideas
✓ Democracy does not really support equality-Nagel
✓ Each constitution has its own distinct aim-Aristotle
✓ Egalitarianism must favour those at the bottom-Nagel
✓ Equal private whim or long term & objective?-Nagel
Society / Principles / Social Freedom /
1
Influential Ideas
✓ Abolition of slavery needs the steam engine-Marx&Engels
✓ Aim for maximum mutual freedom-Kant
✓ Appetite is slavery; inner laws are freedom-Rousseau
✓ Bondage and liberation frighten the fearful
Without music, life would be a mistake. -friedrich nietzscheperson_outline
Society / Structure / Anarchism /
1
Influential Ideas
✓ Governments unite against terrorist peoples-Baudrillard
✓ Nothing is worse for mankind than anarchy-Antiphon
✓ Powerlessness and goodness are linked-Jeremiah
✓ Why do anarchists drink herbal tea?-Summers
Society / Structure / Communitarianism /
1
Influential Ideas
✓ Communities need friendship more than justice-Aristotle
✓ Extend family values into society-Mencius
✓ Freedom is only possible within a community-Marx&Engels
✓ Friendship involves sharing-Aristotle
Society / Structure / Conservatism /
1
Influential Ideas
✓ Allegiance is basic to the conservative view-Scruton
✓ Modern societies are conspiracies of the rich-More,T
Society / Structure / Democracy /
1
Influential Ideas
✓ A group of fools is not collectively wise-Cicero
✓ Autonomous people can control governments-Mill
✓ Democracy encourages friendship-Aristotle
✓ Democracy is freedom for ignorance & passion-Plato
Society / Structure / Liberalism /
1
Influential Ideas
✓ Benefits of freedom outweigh drawbacks-Scruton
✓ Freedom, natural rights and tolerance-Scruton
✓ Locke shows implications of contractual state-Locke
✓ Rawls rests everything on conventional morals-Gray
Society / Structure / Rulers /
1
Influential Ideas
✓ Active authorities make restless people-Lao Tzu
✓ Elective aristocracy is the best government-Rousseau
✓ Good candidates shouldn't seek office-Aristotle
✓ Great rulers are invisible,the worst exploited-Lao Tzu
Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional. - m. Kathleen caseyperson_outline
Society / Structure / Tyranny /
1
Influential Ideas
✓ Balance disseminated power and efficiency-Mill
✓ Be generous, or destroy totally-Machiavelli
✓ Do all the nasty things at the start-Machiavelli
✓ Excess government power is evil-Mill
Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country. -john f. Kennedyperson_outline
Thought / Content / Ideas /
1
Influential Ideas
✓ Are 'ideas' concepts or propositions?-Scruton
✓ Berkeley used 'idea' for thing and act-Russell
✓ Simple ideas build complex ideas-Locke
✓ Thoughts involve senses, ideas don't-Leibniz
Thought / Mechanics Of Thought / Psychology /
1
Influential Ideas
✓ Most psychologists are now cognitivists-Hanna
✓ Psychology won't reduce to physical science-Davidson
Thought / Modes Of Thought / Emotions /
1
Influential Ideas
✓ Are reason and virtue to do with emotion?-Plutarch
✓ Are there just a few primary passions?-Cottingham
✓ Babies are emotional, but unaware of emotions-Carter,R
✓ Emotion is bad if it prevents thought-Spinoza
Thought / Modes Of Thought / Imagination /
1
Influential Ideas
✓ Pure understanding cannot be imagined-Kant
✓ Understanding is needed for imagination-Betteridge
✓ Imagination discovers more than the eye does-Joubert
✓ Imagination is crucial to thinking-Lowe
Thought / Modes Of Thought / Rationality /
1
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Intuition' links reasoning to experience-Kant
✓ Emotions can be part of reason-Hursthouse
✓ Frogs starve to death surrounded by dead flies-Carter,R
✓ Human reason cannot be fully formalized-Nagel&Newman
Thought / Modes Of Thought / Thought /
1
Influential Ideas
✓ A thought is as real as a cannon ball-Joubert
✓ Association loses sense, reference, truth-Fodor
✓ Composing concepts in connectionism?-Fodor
✓ Depictive or descriptive mental imagery?-Hanna
Truth / Truth Problems / Subjective Truth /
1
Influential Ideas
✓ A theory of truth requires a subject-Kierkegaard
✓ The intrinsic mark of truth is 'adequacy'-Spinoza
✓ The truth is just economy of effort-Nietzsche
✓ True beliefs augment one's power-Nietzsche
The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good. -malcolm forbesperson_outline
Truth / Truth Problems / Truth /
1
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Truth' is the will to master sensations-Nietzsche
✓ Anselm said truth is God-Anselm
✓ Epistemic truth allows ontological relativism-Putnam
✓ Falsehood must be possible in truth theories-Russell
Wisdom / Nature Of Philosophy / Humour /
1
Influential Ideas
✓ Funny things needn't be real-Scruton
✓ Humour describes and changes our lives-Critchley
✓ Humour is incongruity-Schopenhauer
✓ Humour is practical philosophy-Critchley
Wisdom / Nature Of Philosophy / Philosophy / Aims Of Philosophy /
1
Influential Ideas
✓ All humans desire to understand-Aristotle
✓ Always asking the use of things is pathetic-Aristotle
✓ Being and essence begin understanding-Avicenna
✓ How is actual possible if it looks impossible?-Macdonald
Eighty percent of success is showing up. -woody allenperson_outline
Wisdom / Nature Of Philosophy / Philosophy / Philosophy /
1
Influential Ideas
✓ A good argument is worth a lot of money-Zeno of Citium
✓ Challenge problems to single combat!-Nietzsche
✓ Every philosopher is a Platonist-Roochnik
✓ Expect absurdities in philosophy-Russell
Action / Rational Action / Intellectualism /
Influential Ideas
✓ Bad people are ignorant-Aristotle
✓ Can pure reason determine the will?-Kant
✓ Courage is knowledge of what should be feared-Plato
✓ Cynicism was simple, needing no education-Diogenes of Sin
Action / Rational Action / Practical Reason /
Influential Ideas
✓ A ruler just needs practical wisdom-Aristotle
✓ All practical reason aims at good or evil-Kant
✓ Deliberation can influence our preferences-Searle
✓ Deliberation is about means to an end-Aristotle
Action / Rational Action / Reasons To Act /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Internal' reasons provide a motive-Williams,B
✓ Belief and desire are reasons to act-Lowe
✓ Reasoned acts are the most responsible-Aristotle
✓ The reason for an action is its cause-Davidson
A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. So is a lot. -albert einsteinperson_outline
Action / Sources Of Action / Action Theory /
Influential Ideas
✓ Action is moved caused by intentional states-Rowlands
✓ Actions are activities or performances-Simons
✓ Motive, reasons, or cause explain actions-Lowe
Action / Sources Of Action / Action Theory / Volition, Belief/
Influential Ideas
✓ desire, or agent-Lowe
Action / Willed Action / Weakness Of Will /
Influential Ideas
✓ Akrasia and enkrateia separate will and desire-Aristotle
✓ Akrasia is bad reason, not opposed to it-Achtenberg
✓ Akrasia is judged after the event-Williams,B
✓ All actions follow from 'ought'-Socrates
Action / Willed Action / Will /
Influential Ideas
✓ All acts of will are bodily movements-Schopenhauer
✓ Libet gives empirical support for the will-Lowe
✓ Real motive is in the will, not in intellect-Schopenhauer
✓ Schopenhauer should have deified the will-Nietzsche
Aesthetics / Aesthetic Concepts / Artistic Intentions /
Influential Ideas
✓ Biography can show us more than intentions-Wimsatt&Beardsley
✓ Poetry needn't communicate intentions-Wimsatt&Beardsley
✓ The author's intentions are irrelevant-Wimsatt&Beardsley
✓ The intentional fallacy is a romantic one-Wimsatt&Beardsley
Aesthetics / Aesthetic Concepts / Artistic Representation /
Influential Ideas
✓ Art is two steps away from the truth-Plato
✓ Art treats truth as untrue-Scruton
✓ We admire resemblance to unadmirable things-Pascal
Aesthetics / Aesthetic Concepts / Expression In Art /
Influential Ideas
✓ Art as expression is Romantic-Scruton
✓ Expressing is good, arousing is bad-Scruton
✓ Expression refers without predication-Scruton
First do no harm. -hippocratesperson_outline
When the going gets tough, the tough get going. -proverbperson_outline
Aesthetics / Aesthetic Concepts / Interpretation Of Art /
Influential Ideas
✓ We can recapture the author's view-Croce
Aesthetics / Aesthetic Experience / Aesthetic Attitude /
Influential Ideas
✓ Aesthetic enjoyment is pleasure plus insight-Ross
✓ The aesthetic contains our values-Scruton
Aesthetics / Aesthetic Experience / Taste /
Influential Ideas
✓ Critics need causal links to their objects-Fogelin
✓ Taste needs both ability and experience-Hume
✓ Traditions show relevant comparisons-Scruton
✓ We can't tolerate a taste for poisons!-Leibniz
Aesthetics / Aesthetic Judgement / Objectivism In Art /
Influential Ideas
✓ Conventions are objective, traditions aren't-Scruton
✓ Groups of people are the best judge of art-Aristotle
✓ Pleasure is in us, but essential to art-Gardner
✓ We must treat aesthetics as objective-Kant
Aesthetics / Aesthetic Judgement / Subjectivism In Art /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'It's all taste' ignores the particulars-Fogelin
✓ One man's meat is another man's poison-Lucretius
Aesthetics / Art Theories / Art And Morality /
Influential Ideas
✓ A King is promising if he likes music-Mencius
✓ Beauty is the good, and they are identical-Chrysippus
✓ Good is active, but beauty can be static-Aristotle
✓ Judge books by writing, not morality-Wilde
Aesthetics / Art Theories / Art As Expression /
Influential Ideas
✓ Art improves the feelings of mankind-Tolstoy
✓ Art is like understanding language-Goodman
✓ Art needs beauty of form, idea and expression-Winckelmann
✓ Art uses signs to hand on a man's feelings-Tolstoy
Aesthetics / Art Theories / Art As Form /
Influential Ideas
✓ Beauty is order, and linked to maths-Aristotle
✓ Beauty is order of parts and whole-Baumgarten
✓ Only artists can discern significant form-Bell,C
Aesthetics / Art Theories / Ontology Of Art /
Influential Ideas
✓ Art works exist in the artist's mind-Gardner
Aesthetics / Art Theories / Value Of Art /
Influential Ideas
✓ All art is quite useless-Wilde
✓ Art's purpose is to reveal humanity's beauty-Schopenhauer
✓ Art can liberate us from selfhood-Schopenhauer
✓ Artists stir up the irrational against reason-Plato
Aesthetics / Arts / Literature /
Influential Ideas
✓ Poetry is the rival of mathematics-Badiou
Be yourself, everyone else is taken. -oscar wildeperson_outline
Aesthetics / Arts / Music /
Influential Ideas
✓ Music is a form of love-Plato
✓ Music is not representational-Scruton
✓ Music is the harmony of numbers-Leibniz
✓ Must every note of a performance be accurate?-Simons
Applied Ethics / Death Issues / Abortion /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Sanctity of life' will increase abnormalities-Glover
✓ A brainless foetus is easier to abort-Dennett
✓ A right to life is not a right to your mother-Thomson
✓ Abortion and non conception are similar-Glover
Applied Ethics / Death Issues / Causing Death /
Influential Ideas
✓ A killing must prevent other deaths-Glover
✓ A life is worth saving if it is worth living-Glover
✓ Any unjust killing is like mass murder-Mohammed
✓ Kill, provide the deceased is replaced?-Glover
Applied Ethics / Death Issues / Death /
Influential Ideas
✓ Are we real or unreal after we die?-Le Poidevin
✓ Death is permanent loss of consciousness-Glover
✓ Death may be no worse than dreamless sleep-Socrates
✓ Death terrifies if one hasn't lived-Svendsen
Applied Ethics / Decision Conflicts / Applied Ethics /
Influential Ideas
✓ Doing and allowing need clearer distinction-Jackson
✓ Food first, then ethics-Critchley
✓ Life isn't sacred or a right but good & wanted-Glover
✓ Intended harm bad; foreseen harm possible-Glover
Applied Ethics / Decision Conflicts / Autonomy /
Influential Ideas
✓ Autonomy favours actual present opinions-Glover
✓ Autonomy matters more if it is important-Glover
✓ Others' benefit justifies restricting freedom-Glover
✓ If people don't mind death, you can kill them?-Glover
Applied Ethics / Decision Conflicts / Dilemmas /
Influential Ideas
✓ Better to die than do extreme evil-Aristotle
✓ Dilemmas are apparent rule conflicts-Hursthouse
✓ Forced dishonesty is not the vice itself-Hursthouse
✓ Forced vices are bad if they ruin a good life-Hursthouse
Applied Ethics / Decision Conflicts / Double Effect /
Influential Ideas
✓ An unintended side effect harm is legitimate-Grayling
✓ Four conditions for double effect actions-Mautner
✓ What is foreseen, and what is intended-Mautner
Applied Ethics / Decision Conflicts / Omissions /
Influential Ideas
✓ Disaster better if omission rather than action-Glover
✓ Neglect can be as a bad action-Glover
✓ Omissions are inevitable, but bad acts aren't-Glover
✓ Initial fatal events is worse than diversion-Foot
Applied Ethics / Practical Rights / Rights /
Influential Ideas
✓ Rights imply the capacity for desire-Glover
✓ There is no 'right to life'-Glover
Applied Ethics / Practical Rights / Sexual Morality /
Influential Ideas
✓ Love of pleasure leads humans to homosexuality-Plutarch
✓ Lust is pleasure, and awareness of power-Hobbes
✓ Seduction is worse than rape-Socrates
✓ Sex looks contemptible and should be secret-Plato
Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time. -marthe troly-curtinperson_outline
Applied Ethics / Punishment / Deterrence /
Influential Ideas
✓ Our robbers are undeterred by threats of death-Cicero
Applied Ethics / Punishment / Punishment /
Influential Ideas
✓ Only execute if there is unanimity-Mencius
✓ Protagoras separated punishment & revenge-Protagoras
✓ Punish theft by cutting off hands-Mohammed
✓ Purposes of punishment can conflict-Fogelin
Applied Ethics / Punishment / Retribution /
Influential Ideas
✓ Greek had one word for avenge and punish-Vlastos
✓ Pardon faults, which are never intentional-Aristippus elder
✓ Punishment is either reform or deterrence-Hobbes
✓ Retribution is better than hospital for crimes-Kant
Ethics / Contract Ethics / Contract Strategies /
Influential Ideas
✓ One who always does good is a doormat-Hobbes
✓ Return justice for injustice-Socrates
✓ To seem upright, be upright-Hare
Ethics / Contract Ethics / Contractarianism /
Influential Ideas
✓ A contract needs prior shared values-MacIntyre
✓ A society is needed to make contracts-Hegel
✓ Aim at agreement which excludes selfishness-Rawls
✓ Benefit is mutual, like two hands washing-Epicharmus
Ethics / Contract Ethics / Contractualism /
Influential Ideas
✓ Right actions have reasonable justifications-Sext Empiricus
Ethics / Contract Ethics / Free Rider /
Influential Ideas
✓ All social morality has the free rider problem-Scruton
✓ Contractarians have problems with the strong-Williams,B
✓ Deliberate contract breakers can't be citizens-Hobbes
✓ Penance isn't virtue-Plato
Ethics / Contract Ethics / Game Theory /
Influential Ideas
✓ Game theory misses impersonal motivation-Nagel
Ethics / Contract Ethics / Golden Rule /
Influential Ideas
✓ Don't do to others what you wouldn't like-Confucius
✓ The 'golden rule' implies no duties-Kant
✓ The Golden Rule assumes acts will be requited-Nietzsche
✓ The Golden Rule is the basis of morality-Voltaire
Ethics / Contract Ethics / Prisoner's Dilemma /
Influential Ideas
✓ The first actor in a contract is vulnerable-Hobbes
Ethics / Contract Ethics / Promise Keeping /
Influential Ideas
✓ A promise gives me a reason to act-Searle
✓ Men are bad, so you can break promises-Machiavelli
✓ Promise keeping is relative-Plato
✓ Promises concern the past, not consequences-Ross
If you are going through hell, keep going. -winston churchillperson_outline
Ethics / Contract Ethics / Value Of Authority /
Influential Ideas
✓ Authority prevents breaking of contracts-Hobbes
✓ Hobbes can only accept authority through fear-MacIntyre
✓ Morality is imposed by the powerful-Plato
✓ The merciful shall obtain mercy-Jesus
Ethics / Deontological Ethics / Deontology /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Deon' meant 'what one must do'-Williams,B
✓ Christianity introduced ethics as law-Anscombe
✓ Codifiable morals have rules, not wisdom-Hursthouse
✓ Consequences can make a rule apparent-Hursthouse
Ethics / Deontological Ethics / Duty /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Duty to myself' is nonsense-Williams,B
✓ A holy will has no duties, but IS moral law-Kant
✓ An ethics of duty needs religion-Taylor,R
✓ Be faithful, grateful, just, kind, improved-Ross
Ethics / Deontological Ethics / Motivation For Duty /
Influential Ideas
✓ A holy will has to follow the moral law-Kant
✓ Autonomous rational beings ignore others-Williams,B
✓ Duty doesn't explain outstanding moral deeds-Annas
✓ Good actions for fun are not moral-Kant
Ethics / Deontological Ethics / Persons As Ends /
Influential Ideas
✓ For rational beings their existence is an end-Kant
✓ Rational beings are ends, not just means-Kant
✓ Treat humanity as an end, not a means-Kant
Ethics / Deontological Ethics / Universalisability /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'What if everybody cheats?' misses the point-Graham
✓ A maxim can be highly personalised-Kant
✓ Acts can be described in innumerable ways-Ross
✓ Aim to be objective without total detachment-Nagel
Ethics / Egoism / Cyrenaic School /
Influential Ideas
✓ All pleasures are the same-Aristippus young
✓ People often prefer money to pleasure-Aristippus elder
✓ Physical pleasure is better than mental-Aristippus young
✓ Pleasure is desired and final, pain avoided-Aristippus elder
Ethics / Egoism / Ethical Egoism /
Influential Ideas
✓ A healthy mind behaves well even if invisible-Plato
✓ A powerful ego and powerful love go together-Nietzsche
✓ Aristocrats don't worry about 'egoism'-Nietzsche
✓ Egoism can't guide the formation of desires-Graham
Ethics / Egoism / Hedonism /
Influential Ideas
✓ A jellyfish can experience pure pleasure-Plato
✓ All human activity aims at pleasure-Metrodorus of Lamp
✓ Good and evil are pleasure and pain-Locke
✓ Happiness is sensual self indulgence-Plato
Ethics / Existentialism / Boredom /
Influential Ideas
✓ Boredom is lack of personal meaning in things-Svendsen
✓ Boredom itself can be boring-Svendsen
✓ Boredom threatens our psychic survival-Frankfurt
✓ Even suicide could not overcome boredom-Svendsen
Ethics / Existentialism / Existentialism /
Influential Ideas
✓ All we have left is experiments in morality-Nietzsche
✓ Can existentialism condemn the sincere Nazi?-Graham
✓ Death, and intensity of life, matter-Camus
✓ Essence must precede existence-Descartes
Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving. -albert einsteinperson_outline
Ethics / Existentialism / Nihilism /
Influential Ideas
✓ Belief in invented categories brings nihilism-Nietzsche
✓ Freedom is the end of moral certainty-Nietzsche
✓ Happiness and the absurd go together-Camus
✓ Jacobi introduced the idea of nihilism-Jacobi
Ethics / Utilitarianism / Ideal Utilitarianism /
Influential Ideas
✓ Utilitarianism seeks ideals, not just pleasure-Rashdall
Ethics / Utilitarianism / Ideal Of Pleasure /
Influential Ideas
✓ Better Socrates dissatisfied than a happy fool-Mill
✓ Only pleasure and no pain are desirable-Mill
✓ Value pleasure and pain by their force-Bentham
✓ What has value is prior to what is useful-Russell
Ethics / Utilitarianism / Motivation For Altruism /
Influential Ideas
✓ People don't want to inflict pointless pain-Hume
✓ Private affection motivates better than public-Hume
✓ The general good is collective self interest-Mill
✓ Utilitarianism is slave morality-Nietzsche
Ethics / Utilitarianism / Rule Utilitarianism /
Influential Ideas
✓ General rules override local rules-Mill
✓ Only act utilitarianism makes sense-Glover
Ethics / Utilitarianism / Unfairness /
Influential Ideas
✓ Some murders seem to increase happiness-PG
✓ Imagine millions happy at the expense of one-James
Ethics / Utilitarianism / Utilitarianism /
Influential Ideas
✓ Aim at greatest happiness of greatest number-Hutcheson
✓ All individuals are obviously equal-Sidgwick
✓ Consequences and responsibility are different-Graham
✓ Do utilitarians oversimplify hard cases?-Hursthouse
Ethics / Virtue Theory / Elements Of Virtue Theory / Absolute Virtues /
Influential Ideas
✓ Adultery is just wrong, without a mean-Aristotle
✓ One must avoid even speaking of evil deeds-Democritus
✓ Virtue allows more than one right action-Hursthouse
Ethics / Virtue Theory / Elements Of Virtue Theory / Character /
Influential Ideas
✓ Activity develops character-Aristotle
✓ Adjust your own character-Socrates
✓ Avoid vice, akrasia and brutishness-Aristotle
✓ Character concerns our non rational part-Aristotle
Ethics / Virtue Theory / Elements Of Virtue Theory / Desires /
Influential Ideas
✓ Too many desires is the worst crime-Lao Tzu
Ethics / Virtue Theory / Elements Of Virtue Theory / Living Naturally /
Influential Ideas
✓ How to be natural, if you are 'unnatural'?-Nietzsche
✓ Humanity has never yet been 'natural'-Nietzsche
✓ Life is more like wrestling than dancing-Aurelius
✓ Live according to our natural starting points-Panaetius
The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good. -malcolm forbesperson_outline
Ethics / Virtue Theory / Elements Of Virtue Theory / Mean /
Influential Ideas
✓ Be indifferent to intermediate things-Ariston
✓ Excess and deficiency are both wrong-Confucius
✓ Feelings also have a mean-Aristotle
✓ Making anger appropriate is hard-Aristotle
Ethics / Virtue Theory / Elements Of Virtue Theory / Motivation For Virtue /
Influential Ideas
✓ A bad life is just a drawn out death-Democritus
✓ A strong desire for virtue is unusual-Plato
✓ All the virtues should be pursued-Plato
✓ All virtues must be beneficial to someone-Hume
Ethics / Virtue Theory / Elements Of Virtue Theory / Natural Virtue /
Influential Ideas
✓ Good animals have characteristic virtues-Hursthouse
✓ Natural virtue without brains can be harmful-Aristotle
✓ Virtue is unnatural, unlike falling stones-Aristotle
✓ We are partly responsible for our virtues-Aristotle
Ethics / Virtue Theory / Elements Of Virtue Theory / Right Feelings /
Influential Ideas
✓ Emotivism means you can't judge emotions-MacIntyre
✓ Goodness is a state of mental health-Plato
✓ Lusting after a woman is adultery-Jesus
✓ Morality involves desires about desires-Rey
Ethics / Virtue Theory / Elements Of Virtue Theory / Teaching Virtue /
Influential Ideas
✓ Aquinas wants to transform our desires-Aquinas
✓ Education is training correct feelings-Aristotle
✓ Habitual good deeds lead to virtue-Aristotle
✓ Law aims at creating virtue-Plato
Ethics / Virtue Theory / Elements Of Virtue Theory / Unity Of Virtue /
Influential Ideas
✓ A strong virtue may diminish the others-Hursthouse
✓ A vicious person cannot have virtues-Hursthouse
✓ Aims become good when they are united-Boethius
✓ Knowing a part of virtue involves the whole-Plato
Ethics / Virtue Theory / External Goods / External Goods /
Influential Ideas
✓ Do not desire external goods-Taylor,R
✓ Fine deeds need external resources-Aristotle
✓ Good men are NOT happy under torture-Aristotle
✓ The goods within the soul are best-Aristotle
Ethics / Virtue Theory / External Goods / Friendship /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Philia' is much wider term than 'friendship'-Cooper,JM
✓ Aristotle doesn't crudely divide friendship-Cooper,JM
✓ Bad men are incapable of friendship-Plato
✓ Bad politics makes friendship difficult-Aristotle
Ethics / Virtue Theory / External Goods / Health /
Influential Ideas
✓ First health, then good looks, then wealth-Plato
Ethics / Virtue Theory / External Goods / Wealth /
Influential Ideas
✓ All men except philosophers fear poverty-Cicero
✓ Desire for great wealth leads to misery-Democritus
✓ Extremes of wealth corrupt character-Plato
✓ Great wealth makes virtue impossible-Plato
Ethics / Virtue Theory / Virtue Theory / Basis Of Virtue /
Influential Ideas
✓ All creatures have a right state & natural end-Shaftesbury
✓ Are acting well and virtue circular?-Aristotle
✓ Excellence is based on function-Aristotle
✓ Excellence is good function-Aristotle
Whatever you are, be a good one. -abraham lincolnperson_outline
Ethics / Virtue Theory / Virtue Theory / Nature Of Virtue /
Influential Ideas
✓ A virtuous life can be marred, but not ruined-Hursthouse
✓ All goods can be misused except virtue-Aristotle
✓ All virtue is good, but not always praised-Chrysippus
✓ Choose a virtue in which to excel-Panaetius
Ethics / Virtue Theory / Virtue Theory / Virtue Theory Critique /
Influential Ideas
✓ Boring people advocate virtue-Nietzsche
✓ Greeks don't explain virtue very clearly-Descartes
✓ Groups and their values dominate together-Marx&Engels
✓ How can priority be shown among virtues?-Hursthouse
Ethics / Virtue Theory / Virtues / Compassion /
Influential Ideas
✓ Be sympathetic, but not pitying-Epictetus
✓ Generosity and pity falsely imply superiority-Kant
✓ Joy and pity are complementary, not separable-Scruton
✓ Pity in the old is self interested-Aristotle
Ethics / Virtue Theory / Virtues / Contemplation /
Influential Ideas
✓ Contemplation, when possible, is our best good-Aristotle
✓ Contemplation increases happiness-Aristotle
✓ Contemplation is essential for happiness-Aristotle
✓ Contemplation is supreme pleasure and virtue-Aristotle
Ethics / Virtue Theory / Virtues / Courage /
Influential Ideas
✓ Bravery is not just lack of fear-Plato
✓ Civic courage is finer than military courage-Panaetius
✓ Courage is enduring honourable death-Aristotle
✓ Courage without virtue is madness-Hutcheson
Ethics / Virtue Theory / Virtues / Honour /
Influential Ideas
✓ Alexander etc actually despised honour!-Nietzsche
✓ Can dishonour laugh at greater dishonour?-Mencius
✓ Honour becomes dependent on approval-Aristotle
✓ Honour depends on the audience-Aristotle
Ethics / Virtue Theory / Virtues / Justice /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Dikaiosune' is justice, fairness & integrity-MacIntyre
✓ Between friends there is no need for justice-Aristotle
✓ Criminals should want to be punished-Plato
✓ Distribute according to desert-Diogenes of Bab
Ethics / Virtue Theory / Virtues / Temperance /
Influential Ideas
✓ Absence of desire cannot be happiness-Plato
✓ Excessive laughter and tears are bad-Plato
✓ Moderation doesn't guarantee happiness-Aristotle
✓ Self indulgence prevents true friendship-Plato
Ethics / Virtue Theory / Virtues / Virtues /
Influential Ideas
✓ All is vanity, saith the Preacher
✓ Courage, compassion, insight and solitude-Nietzsche
✓ Essential virtues are superior-Aristotle
✓ Excess is OK in the best virtues-Aristotle
Free Will / Free Will / Free Will Critique /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Free' means 'unhindered',or it is meaningless-Hobbes
✓ 'Free will' makes humans more interesting-Nietzsche
✓ A priori we're free;experience shows necessity-Schopenhauer
✓ Brains initiate free acts unconsciously-Edelman&Tononi
Free Will / Free Will / Nature Of Free Will /
Influential Ideas
✓ A free act is determined by the thing alone-Spinoza
✓ Aristotle never discusses free will-Aristotle
✓ Awareness of awareness is powerful-Dennett
✓ Control of acts, or also thought and feeling?-Flanagan
If at first you don’t succeed, try, try, try again. -william edward hicksonperson_outline
Free Will / Free Will / Pro-Free Will /
Influential Ideas
✓ A first beginning makes others possible-Kant
✓ Choice between reasons shows free will-Searle
✓ Rational decisions assume free will-Searle
✓ Responsible events must be caused by people-Chisholm
Free Will / Free Will Theories / Compatibilism /
Influential Ideas
✓ Agents, not wills, have liberty-Locke
✓ Freedom is following our preferences-Locke
✓ Liberty is being able to enact your will-Hume
✓ Past determiners of action are beyond control-Inwagen
Free Will / Free Will Theories / Determinism /
Influential Ideas
✓ A thought comes when it wants not when I want-Nietzsche
✓ Determinism needs an underlying system-Anscombe
✓ Determinism says identical world stay that way-Lewis
✓ Each act of will has a prior unwilled cause-Hobbes
Free Will / Free Will Theories / Fate /
Influential Ideas
✓ Cause is not sufficient, but only predisposing-Chrysippus
✓ Dogs follow carts with or without choice-Hippolytus
✓ There is some necessity, but we are also free-Epicurus
✓ There once was a man who said 'Damn!-Summers
God / Attitudes To God / Atheism /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Nature' could replace Spinoza's 'God'-Spinoza
✓ A manmade statue cannot be a god-Stilpo
✓ Atheism arises from desire to perceive God-Descartes
✓ Atheism can be an instinct rather than reason-Nietzsche
God / Attitudes To God / Deism /
Influential Ideas
✓ God has no role in heavenly movements-Epicurus
✓ The gods are indifferent to humans-Lucretius
✓ The gods may be non existent or indifferent-Plato
✓ There would be justice if gods cared for us-Thrasymachus
God / Attitudes To God / Monotheism /
Influential Ideas
✓ God is one, though known by many names-Chrysippus
✓ The gods can't all be equally beautiful-Cicero
✓ With monotheism came intolerance-Armstrong,K
✓ Zoroaster and Hebrews developed monotheism-Zoroaster
God / Attitudes To God / Pantheism /
Influential Ideas
✓ Earth, food, fire, sun are forms of Brahman
✓ God is matter, or is inseparable from it-Zeno of Citium
✓ God is not the substance of all things-Leibniz
✓ Our minds are part of God's intellect-Spinoza
God / Divine Nature / Divine Contradictions /
Influential Ideas
✓ Can the gods be sure they are eternal?-Cicero
✓ God can't make equality be inequality-Cudworth
✓ God cannot share our unwanted pain-Sorensen
✓ God couldn't be ignorant of strife and evil-Aristotle
God / Divine Nature / Divine Morality / Divine Morality /
Influential Ideas
✓ A nice God is particularly unbelievable-Nietzsche
✓ Atheists cling more strongly to morality-Nietzsche
✓ Maybe God has a moral sense like ours-Hutcheson
✓ Why God and evil; why good and no God?-Boethius
God / Divine Nature / Divine Morality / Euthyphro Question /
Influential Ideas
✓ And God saw that the light was good
✓ Assessment of God's will needs morality-Bentham
✓ Do the gods love piety, or create it?-Plato
✓ For Socrates morality binds gods and men-Vlastos
You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough. -mae westperson_outline
God / Divine Nature / Divine Morality / God Decrees Morality /
Influential Ideas
✓ Can God command that wickedness becomes good?-Cudworth
✓ God's authority precedes his commands-Cudworth
✓ God gives value to his own ideas-Descartes
✓ Law and right reason are identical with Zeus-Chrysippus
God / Divine Nature / Divine Morality / God Is The Good /
Influential Ideas
✓ Evil doers have not seen God-John
✓ God is above any source of goodness-Boethius
✓ God is good because he seeks human happiness-Hutcheson
✓ God is love-John
God / Divine Nature / Divine Nature /
Influential Ideas
✓ A God who answers prayers is absurd-Nietzsche
✓ Allah is lord of creation and a merciful judge-Mohammed
✓ Divine things are unchanging, unlike body-Plato
✓ God as power, not goodness or wisdom!-Nietzsche
God / Divine Nature / Divine Perfections /
Influential Ideas
✓ Deception would be a defect in a perfect God-Descartes
✓ Everything possibly perfect exists-Leibniz
✓ God's perfections cannot be contradictory-Leibniz
✓ God acts perfectly and rationally-Leibniz
God / Divine Nature / God /
Influential Ideas
✓ Anaxagoras said universe under divine control-Anaxagoras
✓ Beside me there is no God-Isaiah
✓ Brahma, the supreme god, arose spontaneously
✓ Everything comes from me, says Krishna
God / Divine Nature / God Reflecting Humanity /
Influential Ideas
✓ God is an augmentation of human virtues-Hume
✓ God is an empty idea filled by man-Feuerbach
✓ God is the essence of thought-Hegel
✓ God is usually just human qualities-Kant
God / Divine Nature / God And Time /
Influential Ideas
✓ Does God hear prayers outside time?-Augustine
God / Proofs Of Evidence / Cosmological Proof /
Influential Ideas
✓ A first cause doesn't follow from my ignorance-Descartes
✓ A good soul must originate all movement-Plato
✓ All motion must begin with a self moving thing-Plato
✓ Brahman is the Uncaused Cause
God / Proofs Of Evidence / Miracles /
Influential Ideas
✓ A 'miracle' must be contrary to all experience-Hume
✓ Even miracles belong to order-Leibniz
✓ Good miracles need to be surprising-Locke
✓ Keep miracles to a minimum-Leibniz
God / Proofs Of Evidence / Religious Experience /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Holy' experience is no different from others-Taylor,AE
God / Proofs Of Evidence / Teleological Proof /
Influential Ideas
✓ A baffling artefact still shows design-Paley
✓ Allah made night for rest and day for light-Mohammed
✓ Creation of the world by luck is ridiculous-Cicero
✓ Even barbarians see design in machines-Cicero
What's the point in being clever, if you can't prove it. -sherlock holmesperson_outline
God / Proofs Of Evidence / Teleological Proof Critique /
Influential Ideas
✓ A designer God should be like a human-Hume
✓ Analogy suggests God is like humans-Hume
✓ Can you infer a whole from a glimpsed part?-Hume
✓ Causes can't be greater than their effects-Hume
God / Proving God / Fideism /
Influential Ideas
✓ Faith is not wanting to know the truth-Nietzsche
✓ Faith is putting trust in our beliefs-Armstrong,K
✓ Faith is the peak of human subjectivity-Kierkegaard
✓ Fideist have problems with other fideists C Proofs of Reason-O'Grady
God / Proving God / Moral Argument /
Influential Ideas
✓ Absolute morality can only exist in one Mind-Rashdall
✓ Belief in justice requires a religion-Kant
✓ Conduct is only reasonable in a rational world-Rashdall
✓ Something supreme explains graded values-Aquinas
God / Proving God / Ontological Proof /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Exists' sometimes is a predicate-Crane
✓ 'There is no God' leads to contradiction-Benardete,JA
✓ A supreme island might have to exist-Anselm
✓ All ideas must originate in some first idea-Descartes
God / Proving God / Ontological Proof Critique /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Existence' is a predicate of predicates-Scruton
✓ 'Exists' is actually a quantifier-Frege
✓ 'God' is a description, not a name-Russell
✓ 'God is' adds nothing to His concept-Kant
God / Proving God / Pascal's Wager /
Influential Ideas
✓ False belief in heaven is pleasant and safe-Peirce
✓ Hypothesising God is just more fun-Baudrillard
✓ Living piously sacrifices pleasure-Hacking
✓ Pascal assumes God is fifty percent likely-Hacking
God / Proving God / Proof Of God /
Influential Ideas
✓ God must exist to perceive things-Berkeley
✓ My mind couldn't function without God-Berkeley
✓ Theology is too big for humans-Hume
✓ There are just three proofs of God's existence-Kant
Knowledge Aims / Certain Knowledge / Certainty /
Influential Ideas
✓ Believe everything, or believe nothing?-Pollock&Cruz
✓ Certain knowledge is rooted in principles-Aristotle
✓ Certainty is only found in ideas-Locke
✓ Descartes accepts uncertainty about values-Roochnik
Knowledge Aims / Certain Knowledge / Cogito /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Thought' includes feeling-Descartes
✓ 'I exist' is necessarily true when thought-Descartes
✓ Both God and I exist because thinkable-Feuerbach
✓ Cogito is not a priori but transcendental-Rey
Knowledge Aims / Certain Knowledge / Cogito Critique /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'I' may be like 'it' in 'it is raining'-Lowe
✓ 'I am thinking' presupposes my existence-Leibniz
✓ 'I think' contains heaps of unprovable ideas-Nietzsche
✓ Adding a 'thinker' is a grammatical custom-Nietzsche
Knowledge Aims / Certain Knowledge / Error /
Influential Ideas
✓ Error is my will exceeding the understanding-Descartes
✓ Must non existence exist to explain error?-Russell
✓ Reason doesn't actually make errors-Spinoza
✓ Surprise is a criterion of error-Russell
It is never too late to be who you might have been. - george eliotperson_outline
Knowledge Aims / Knowledge / Belief / Aim Of Beliefs /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'My belief is true' is a tautology-Peirce
✓ A belief is a commitment to truth-Searle
✓ Belief and fear are similar-Wittgenstein
✓ Beliefs are maps by which we steer-Ramsey
Knowledge Aims / Knowledge / Belief / Animal Beliefs /
Influential Ideas
✓ Belief implies both error and learning-Scruton
✓ Belief needs concepts and understanding-Dretske
✓ Defeasible reasoning requires meta thought-Pollock
✓ Dogs have beliefs, and hence concepts-Lockwood
Knowledge Aims / Knowledge / Belief / Belief Holism /
Influential Ideas
✓ Beliefs can't be counted-Fodor
✓ Beliefs need a network and a background-Searle
✓ Beliefs need background distinctions-Davidson
✓ Beliefs only function as part of a network-Searle
Knowledge Aims / Knowledge / Belief / Beliefs /
Influential Ideas
✓ Belief content is their normal circumstances-Papineau
✓ Belief is a stronger feeling than imagination-Hume
✓ Belief is our central propositional attitude-Lyons
✓ Belief is the power of metarepresentation-Dretske
Knowledge Aims / Knowledge / Belief / Cause Of Beliefs /
Influential Ideas
✓ Belief can't exist if it has no object-Plato
✓ Beliefs are encouraged but not chosen-Pryor
✓ Beliefs build by associating experiences-Hume
✓ Beliefs can't just be caused by the world-Lowe
Knowledge Aims / Knowledge / Belief / Elements Of Beliefs /
Influential Ideas
✓ Belief and judgement may be the same thing-Monk
✓ Belief and truth are linked concepts-Davidson
✓ Belief is feeling attached to conjoined ideas-Hume
✓ Belief relates mind to several external things-Russell
Knowledge Aims / Knowledge / Belief / False Beliefs /
Influential Ideas
✓ Beliefs must be about complex things-Russell
Knowledge Aims / Knowledge / Fallibilism /
Influential Ideas
✓ All knowledge claims are provisional-Mautner
✓ Know P and allow not P? Contradiction?-Lewis
✓ Sense knowledge is less certain knowledge-Locke
Knowledge Aims / Knowledge / Knowing How /
Influential Ideas
✓ Experience knows particulars, skill universals-Aristotle
✓ Knowing how can also be propositional-Crane
✓ Knowing that is a richer kind of knowing how-Gulick
✓ Knowing that precedes knowing how-Fodor
Knowledge Aims / Knowledge / Knowing How / The Knowing How/
Influential Ideas
✓ that division is simplistic-Maund
Knowledge Aims / Knowledge / Knowledge /
Influential Ideas
✓ All understanding is of causation-Schopenhauer
✓ Aristotelian knowledge is explanatory-Aristotle
✓ Do nothing; know nothing; be empty-Chuang Tzu
✓ Episteme gives cause and explanation-Aristotle
Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. -mark twainperson_outline
Knowledge Aims / Knowledge / Understanding /
Influential Ideas
✓ Understand grasps concordance of ideas-Leibniz
✓ Understanding is a very vague concept-Salmon
✓ Understanding is knowing 'why'-Salmon
✓ Understanding is knowing explanations-Aristotle
Knowledge Aims / Reality / Anti-Realism /
Influential Ideas
✓ The best anti realism concerns laws-Bird
✓ Waves and particles are incompatible-O'Grady
Knowledge Aims / Reality / Anti-Realism / The Realist/
Influential Ideas
✓ anti realist debate is hopeless-Williamson
Knowledge Aims / Reality / Idealism /
Influential Ideas
✓ All is one to reason, but plural to the senses-Aristotle
✓ Being is Thought-Hegel
✓ Berkeley misunderstood ideas and things-Russell
✓ Bodies are just appearances of the senses-Kant
Knowledge Aims / Reality / Idealism / Mind/
Influential Ideas
✓ world separation gives bad idealism-Rowlands
Knowledge Aims / Reality / Phenomenalism /
Influential Ideas
✓ Are parts of reality 'indeterminate'?-Cardinal&Hayward&Jones
✓ Berkeley needs a phenomenalist view of self-Ayer
✓ Berkely did not deny material things-Berkeley
✓ Dreams are fine, if it is all coherent-Leibniz
Knowledge Aims / Reality / Realism / Direct Realism /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Acquaintance' is direct awareness of things-Russell
✓ Defeasibility makes direct realism false-Galloway
✓ Direct realism can't explain perceptual error-Dancy,J
✓ Existence isn't perceived, directly or not-Berkeley
Knowledge Aims / Reality / Realism / Naïve Realism /
Influential Ideas
✓ Air near red objects is not red-Robinson,H
✓ Physics shows naïve realism false-Russell
✓ Presumably a sixth sense would enlarge reality-PG
✓ Unperceived objects have all their properties-Dancy,J
Knowledge Aims / Reality / Realism / Realism /
Influential Ideas
✓ Are phenomena contrained or free floating?-Talbot
✓ Being is unknown, so realism is impossible-Nietzsche
✓ Cut nature accurately at the joints-Plato
✓ Doubting reality is not true dissatisfaction-Peirce
Knowledge Aims / Reality / Realism / Representative Realism /
Influential Ideas
✓ Four arguments support indirect realism-Dancy,J
✓ Hume says imagination produces objects-Hume
✓ Objects do not have colours-Russell
✓ Phenomena resemble reality abstractly-Russell
Knowledge Aims / Reality / Reality /
Influential Ideas
✓ Actual knowledge is of particulars-Aristotle
✓ Causal power is the mark of what is real-Kim
✓ Forms are Parmenidean, appearance Heraclitean-Plato
✓ How does commonsense realism see things AS?-Lockwood
That which does not kill us makes us stronger. -friedrich nietzscheperson_outline
Knowledge Aims / Reality / Solipsism /
Influential Ideas
✓ Methodological Solipsism:one mind could do all-Kusch
✓ My mind may create all my experiences-Descartes
✓ Relaxed solipsists include past and future-Dancy,J
✓ Solipsism is not illogical-Russell
Knowledge Criteria / Justification / Coherentism / Coherence As Justification /
Influential Ideas
✓ A long series gives warrant to reasons-Klein
✓ Beliefs don't need reasons, to begin with-Harman
✓ Coherence is a set of best explanations-Harman
✓ Coherence is intuitive and primitive-Shapiro
Knowledge Criteria / Justification / Coherentism / Coherentism Critique /
Influential Ideas
✓ Coherence accepts non empirical external facts-Bonjour
✓ Coherence can't accommodate perception-Pollock&Cruz
✓ Coherence can't make falsehoods true-Cartwright,R
✓ Coherence is the a priori basis of coherentism-Williams,M
Knowledge Criteria / Justification / Coherentism / Pro-Coherentism /
Influential Ideas
✓ A rational account needs explanation of parts-Plato
✓ Bayesians get near certainty from probability-Sorensen
✓ Coherentism may solve induction & scepticism-Dancy,J
✓ Make sets of empirical propositions coherent-Dancy,J
Knowledge Criteria / Justification / External Justification / Anti External Justification /
Influential Ideas
✓ Externalism leads to scepticism-Bonjour
✓ Rational beliefs rest on known facts-Bonjour
✓ Scepticism makes externalism look false-Williams,M
✓ We can't act on external considerations-Pollock
Knowledge Criteria / Justification / External Justification / Causal Justification /
Influential Ideas
✓ Beliefs about the future aren't caused by it-Scruton
✓ Beliefs must be caused by the facts-Williams,M
✓ Cause and content of belief are different-Wittgenstein
✓ Causes and reasons are not the same-Searle
Knowledge Criteria / Justification / External Justification / External Justification /
Influential Ideas
✓ Animals have well formed beliefs-Goldman
✓ Epistemic 'entitlement' is external-Burge
✓ External theories: probabilism and reliabilism-Pollock&Cruz
✓ Externalism drops traditional justification-Kornblith
Knowledge Criteria / Justification / External Justification / Naturalised Epistemology /
Influential Ideas
✓ Drop justification; how is knowledge acquired?-Quine
✓ Giving up justification is giving up knowledge-Kim
✓ How do you naturalize normativity?-Kim
✓ Just study how theories relate to evidence-Quine
Knowledge Criteria / Justification / External Justification / Reliabilism /
Influential Ideas
✓ Arrogant character is irrelevant to knowledge-Feldman&Conee
✓ Believing nothing is very reliable-Field,H
✓ Does reliability have further requirements?-Bonjour
✓ Justification depends on reliable processes-Goldman
Knowledge Criteria / Justification / External Justification / Social Justification /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Know' doesn't vary in its meaning-Unger
✓ Coherence makes justification a social act-Dancy,J
✓ Justifications end when we want them to-Nagel
✓ Knowledge is a group social status-Kusch
Knowledge Criteria / Justification / Foundationalism / Basic Beliefs /
Influential Ideas
✓ A priori justification can vary in degree-Bonjour
✓ A priori needs understanding, not experience-Bonjour
✓ All knowledge is based on acquaintance-Russell
✓ Basic judgements safely lack content-Williams,M
You know you're in love when you can't fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams. -dr. Seussperson_outline
Knowledge Criteria / Justification / Foundationalism / Foundationalism /
Influential Ideas
✓ All certainties need foundations-Leibniz
✓ Externalism is a type of foundationalism-Bonjour
✓ Facts ultimately rest on senses or memory-Hume
✓ False beliefs should challenge the foundations-Dancy,J
Knowledge Criteria / Justification / Foundationalism / Foundationalism Critique /
Influential Ideas
✓ A sufficient sign of truth is impossible-Kant
✓ Either all beliefs are basic, or none are-Pollock&Cruz
✓ Eliminating all error destroys some knowledge-Williams,M
✓ First principles are non existent or useless-Hume
Knowledge Criteria / Justification / Foundationalism / Pro-Foundations /
Influential Ideas
✓ A belief's regresses are finite and infinite?-Sosa
✓ Endless justification lacks ultimate support-Ginet
✓ Examples prove immediate justification-Pryor
✓ Foundations avoid the regress to scepticism-Bonjour
Knowledge Criteria / Justification / Justification / Agrippa's Trilemma /
Influential Ideas
✓ Basics are non belief, self justified, or none-Dancy,J
✓ Five responses available for the regress-Cleve
✓ Justification infinite, arbitrary or circular?-Agrippa
✓ Knowledge is unfounded and so impossible-Aristotle
Knowledge Criteria / Justification / Justification / Contextual Justification /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'S knows p' can have fixed content-Bach
✓ Are sentences baffling out of context?-Bach
✓ No standards are ever fixed for knowledge-Cohen,S
✓ Scepticism is true, in context-Cohen,S
Knowledge Criteria / Justification / Justification / Epistemic Virtues /
Influential Ideas
✓ Is process reliabilism virtue epistemology?-Kusch
Knowledge Criteria / Justification / Justification / Gettier Problem /
Influential Ideas
✓ Badly reasoned true belief is not knowledge-Russell
✓ Justification must be responsive to the truth-Nozick
✓ Lucky true belief is not knowledge-Russell
✓ True belief may not be knowledge-Russell
Knowledge Criteria / Justification / Justification / Internal Justification /
Influential Ideas
✓ A distinguishing mark is a rational account-Plato
✓ A rational account needs more than elements-Plato
✓ Beliefs don't need conscious justification-Goldman
✓ Can you eliminate alternatives to your belief?-Dretske
Knowledge Criteria / Justification / Justification / Justification /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Warrant' turns a true belief into knowledge-Merricks
✓ Are people justified, or propositions?-Williams,M
✓ Audience and social role decide justification-Kusch
✓ Follow Bayes' Theorem and the Simple Rule-Pollock&Cruz
Knowledge Criteria / Justification / Justification / Pragmatic Justification /
Influential Ideas
✓ Belief is what matters to us, not knowledge-Nagel
✓ Beliefs should be fixed by external things-Peirce
✓ Justification is what is acceptable to oneself-Foley
✓ Knowledge and true opinion are equal as guides-Plato
Knowledge Criteria / Justification / Justification / Testimony /
Influential Ideas
✓ A rational source is a foundation-Kusch
✓ Are powerless people unreliable?-Kusch
✓ Belief in others is innate, not an inference-Putnam
✓ Don't trust witnesses who will benefit-Laplace
Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving. -albert einsteinperson_outline
Knowledge Criteria / Relativism / Culture /
Influential Ideas
✓ Acceptability depends totally on circumstances
✓ Classification is not just social-Ellen
✓ Comparing moralities shows the problems-Nietzsche
✓ Cultural relativism itself is above culture-Quine
Knowledge Criteria / Relativism / Knowledge As Convention /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Subjective knowledge' is based on fiction-Nietzsche
✓ An object feels hotter if you are cold-Berkeley
✓ Appearances can only be true for an observer-Aristotle
✓ Contrast makes good things appreciated-Heraclitus
Knowledge Criteria / Relativism / Language Relativism /
Influential Ideas
✓ Relativism involves two theories & translation-Quine
Knowledge Criteria / Relativism / Relativism /
Influential Ideas
✓ Animals see beauty in their own species-Epicharmus
✓ Animals vary in their perceptions-Pyrrho
✓ Beauty is a relative opinion & absolute idea-Plato
✓ Colour depends on eye adjustment-Epicurus
Knowledge Criteria / Relativism / Relativism Critique /
Influential Ideas
✓ Are predictions all equal to relativists?-Plato
✓ Ethics extends beyond its home culture-Williams,B
✓ God is the measure of all things-Plato
✓ Maybe even the gods disagree about forms-Plato
Knowledge Criteria / Relativism / Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis /
Influential Ideas
✓ Hopi focuses on events, not things-Whorf
✓ Language orders our experience-Whorf
✓ The Hopi do have time concepts and words!-Devlin
✓ We can separate culture from language-Cooper,DE
Knowledge Criteria / Scepticism / Dreams /
Influential Ideas
✓ A real world will explain dreams-Russell
✓ After a dream, am I Chuang Tzu or a butterfly?-Chuang Tzu
✓ Dreams are daft to wakers, but not vice versa-Hobbes
✓ Maybe we are dreaming right now-Plato
Knowledge Criteria / Scepticism / Illusions /
Influential Ideas
✓ Could experience remain, but nothing exist?-Berkeley
✓ Judgement decides which senses to trust-Descartes
✓ Judgement makes errors, not the senses-Gassendi
✓ Pain in missing limbs makes all pain uncertain-Descartes
Knowledge Criteria / Scepticism / Interference /
Influential Ideas
✓ Maybe God creates false maths and experiences-Descartes
✓ Imagine a devil giving me false experiences-Descartes
Knowledge Criteria / Scepticism / Scepticism /
Influential Ideas
✓ Belief is too individual to produce knowledge-Democritus
✓ Cartesian, Humean & Pyrrhonian sceptics-Fogelin
✓ Complete certainty is impossible for men-Xenophanes
✓ Cratylus was silent and waggled a finger-Cratylus
Knowledge Criteria / Scepticism / Scepticism Critique /
Influential Ideas
✓ Externalism and relevance attack sceptics-Bernecker&Dretske
✓ No good comes of excessive scepticism-Hume
✓ Once doubt ends, argument is pointless-Peirce
✓ One can never abandon ALL beliefs-Descartes
Live fast, die young, and leave a good-looking corpse. -irene l. Luceperson_outline
Knowledge Sources / A Priori Knowledge / A Priori Knowledge /
Influential Ideas
✓ A priori arithmetic can be fallible-Jackson
✓ A priori ideas can be of experienced concepts-Audi
✓ A priori is a way of demonstrating truth-Baggini&Fosl
✓ A priori knowledge just needs the concepts-Kitcher
Knowledge Sources / A Priori Knowledge / A Priori Knowledge / The A Priori/
Influential Ideas
✓ a posteriori gap is still alive-Kripke
Knowledge Sources / A Priori Knowledge / A Priori From Convention /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Snow is or isn't white' isn't stipulated-Boghossian
✓ A priori commitment precedes meaning-Horwich
✓ A priori truth by definition can't get started-Boghossian
✓ All a priori truths are tautologies-Ayer
Knowledge Sources / A Priori Knowledge / Denying The A Priori /
Influential Ideas
✓ A priori belief may not be knowledge-Horwich
✓ A priori is indirectly holistically empirical-Devitt
✓ A priori is too obscure to explain anything-Devitt
✓ Are necessities only known a priori?-Devitt
Knowledge Sources / A Priori Knowledge / Denying The A Priori / The A Priori/
Influential Ideas
✓ empirical boundary gets blurred-Quine
Knowledge Sources / A Priori Knowledge / Innate Ideas /
Influential Ideas
✓ A triangle's properties prove its existence-Descartes
✓ All inquiry requires previous knowledge-Epicurus
✓ All thoughts are innate-Leibniz
✓ Arithmetic is implicity innate-Leibniz
Knowledge Sources / A Priori Knowledge / Pure A Priori /
Influential Ideas
✓ A priori from stipulation presupposes a priori-Horwich
✓ A priori is derived from unproved generalities-Frege
✓ A priori knowledge is relations of universals-Russell
✓ A priority is mental, not propositional-Burge
Knowledge Sources / A Priori Knowledge / Self-Evidence /
Influential Ideas
✓ Can two self evident propositions contradict?-Grayling
✓ Particulars are more evident than principles-Russell
✓ Prefer the more to the less self evident-Russell
✓ Self evidence, logical or intuitive, will do-Frege
Knowledge Sources / Direct Knowledge / Intuition /
Influential Ideas
✓ Bolzano wanted proof, not Kantian intuition-Bolzano
✓ Eliminative or reductive about memory?-Dancy,J
✓ Geometrical intuitions turned out wrong-Boghossian
✓ How can we remember what is false?-Cicero
Knowledge Sources / Empiricism / Associationism / Association By Cause /
Influential Ideas
✓ Possessions best remind us of the dead-Hume
Knowledge Sources / Empiricism / Associationism / Associationism /
Influential Ideas
✓ A mind is an all purpose learning device-Pinker
✓ Associationism can't explain truth-Fodor
✓ Associationism explains intentionality-Robinson,H
✓ Associations are natural or conventional-Locke
When the going gets tough, the tough get going. -proverbperson_outline
Knowledge Sources / Empiricism / Associationism / Contiguity /
Influential Ideas
✓ Home becomes more vivid as we approach it-Hume
✓ We connect pain with where it happened-Locke
Knowledge Sources / Empiricism / Associationism / Resemblance /
Influential Ideas
✓ Countings needs correspondence and relation-Dedekind
✓ Everything resembles everything else a bit-Plato
✓ Hume needs degrees of resemblance-Shoemaker
✓ Pictures conjure up absent friends-Hume
Knowledge Sources / Empiricism / Empiricism / Empiricism /
Influential Ideas
✓ Aim to match experience as simply as possible-Quine
✓ All ideas are copied from impressions-Hume
✓ All our ideas come from experience-Locke
✓ Analytic & synthetic propositions, or verbiage-Ayer
Knowledge Sources / Empiricism / Empiricism / Empiricism Critique /
Influential Ideas
✓ Breaking all ideas into experiences is tough-Dancy,J
✓ Concepts contain more than raw experiences-Fodor
✓ Empiricism and science are incompatible-MacIntyre
✓ Extreme empiricists can't explain things-Swoyer
Knowledge Sources / Empiricism / Empiricism / Empiricism Critique / Empiricism Can't Explain Necessary Maths/
Influential Ideas
✓ logic-Katz
Knowledge Sources / Empiricism / Empiricism / Empiricism Critique / Empiricism Needs A Scheme/
Influential Ideas
✓ content distinction-Davidson
Knowledge Sources / Empiricism / Empiricism / Pro-Empiricism /
Influential Ideas
✓ All knowledge rests on observation-Comte
✓ Clear concepts need good experience-Mill
✓ Creativity is just the joining of ideas-Hume
✓ Geometry is sensed, so isn't pure ideas-Berkeley
Knowledge Sources / Perception / Adverbial Theory /
Influential Ideas
✓ Adverbialism is direct, with no sense data-Maund
✓ Complex perceptions can't be adverbial-Lowe
✓ Minds must apprehend sense data adverbially-Bonjour
✓ Mountains are adverbial, but have properties-Maund
Knowledge Sources / Perception / Causal Perception /
Influential Ideas
✓ A causal theorist can be a direct realist-Lowe
✓ Blindsight undermines the causal theory-Lowe
✓ Causal perception refers to unobservables-Ayer
✓ Perception is for belief, not experience-Armstrong
Knowledge Sources / Perception / Inference In Perception /
Influential Ideas
✓ Broad rejects inference in representation-Broad
✓ Can't perception be its own justification?-Fodor
✓ Can a newly sighted man distinguish shapes?-Locke
✓ Can non conceptual experience be rational?-Maund
Knowledge Sources / Perception / Interpretation /
Influential Ideas
✓ All perception is intellectual-Schopenhauer
✓ Classify, then name, locate, associate, feel-Carter,R
✓ For Kant cognition and sensing are inseparable-Kant
✓ How can we judge if senses match reality?-Sext Empiricus
Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far. -theodore rooseveltperson_outline
Knowledge Sources / Perception / Perception /
Influential Ideas
✓ Adverbialism sees sense contents as modes-Robinson,H
✓ Are properties of experiences, not objects-Crane
✓ Can felt shapes be known by looking?-Robinson,H
✓ Choc taste is finer grained than sweetness-Polger
Knowledge Sources / Perception / Perception / Perception Gives Pleasure/
Influential Ideas
✓ pain, hence appetite-Aristotle
Knowledge Sources / Perception / Primary/Secondary / Primary/Secondary /
Influential Ideas
✓ Maths covers primary qualities, not secondary-Cardinal&Hayward&Jones
✓ Primary qualities are essential to objects-Cardinal&Hayward&Jones
✓ Spectrum colour bands arise from biology-Sorensen
Knowledge Sources / Perception / Primary/Secondary / Primary/Secondary / Essentialists Like Primary/
Influential Ideas
✓ secondary-Ellis
Knowledge Sources / Perception / Primary/Secondary / Primary/Secondary / Radiant/
Influential Ideas
✓ diffused colour isn't surface property-Heil
Knowledge Sources / Perception / Primary/Secondary / Primary/Secondary / Science Needs A Primary/
Influential Ideas
✓ secondary division-Nagel
Knowledge Sources / Perception / Primary/Secondary / Primary/Secondary Critique /
Influential Ideas
✓ A theory is bad if it says tomatoes aren't red-Heil
✓ Apparent size varies with distance away-Berkeley
✓ Are secondary qualities blurred primaries?-Armstrong
✓ Both primary and secondary are apparent-Leibniz
Knowledge Sources / Perception / Primary/Secondary / Primary/Secondary Critique / Subjective/Objective And Prim/
Influential Ideas
✓ sec are linked-Svendsen
Knowledge Sources / Perception / Representation /
Influential Ideas
✓ Berkeley got idealism from fear of scepticism-Berkeley
✓ Do perceptions inevitably cause beliefs?-Audi
✓ How do we get 'direct' information of reality?-Lowe
✓ Moderate empiricists like representation-Robinson,H
Knowledge Sources / Perception / Sense Data / Nature Of Sense-Data /
Influential Ideas
✓ Are sense data in objects, or like them?-Robinson,H
✓ For Russell, we are aware of our own brain-Russell
✓ Loss of mind would not destroy sense data-Russell
✓ Maybe sense data are public aspects of things-Lacey
Knowledge Sources / Perception / Sense Data / Sense-Data Problems /
Influential Ideas
✓ Are hallucination and perception separate?-Lowe
✓ Are sense data subjective?-Russell
✓ Are we 'acquainted' with sense data?-Williams,M
✓ Can non propositional sense data be knowledge?-Williams,M
Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional. - m. Kathleen caseyperson_outline
Knowledge Sources / Perception / Sense Data / Sense-Data Theory /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Sense data' is a concept in early empiricism-Mautner
✓ Appearances can be separated from objects-Hobbes
✓ Data plus understanding is perception-Schopenhauer
✓ Russell abandoned sense data in-Russell
Knowledge Sources / Perception / Sense Data / Unperceived Sense-Data /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Sensibilia' are unexperienced sense data-Russell
✓ Sense data must be given to exist-Russell
✓ We don't know if sense data exist unobserved-Russell
Knowledge Sources / Rationalism / Proof /
Influential Ideas
✓ Are all truths provable?-Leibniz
✓ Proof goes from agreement to the non evident-Sext Empiricus
✓ Proof reveals the interdependence of truths-Frege
✓ Things that need proof have little value-Nietzsche
Knowledge Sources / Rationalism / Rationalism /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Circumspect rationalism' says intellect rules-Fogelin
✓ 'Substance' is essential to rationalism-Cottingham
✓ A soul without understanding is ugly-Plato
✓ Astronomy is known by experience or reason-Leibniz
Language / Interpretation / Charity /
Influential Ideas
✓ Assume people correctly infer further beliefs-Kim
✓ Assume people don't utter nonsense-Kim
✓ Chairty involves logic and true beliefs-Davidson
✓ Charity is inappropriate in some areas-Putnam
Language / Interpretation / Indeterminacy /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Gavagai' and 'rabbit' may not be coextensive-Quine
✓ A language could be simulated with no ontology-Quine
✓ Correct translations explain behaviour-Putnam
✓ Final translation of 'gavagai' is impossible-Quine
Language / Language / Ambiguity /
Influential Ideas
✓ Ambiguity builds on logical forms-Harman
Language / Language / Language /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Universal grammar' explains nothing-Searle
✓ A language is a form of life-Wittgenstein
✓ Can we read reality from our language?-Heil
✓ Contextual variation isn't determination-Bach
Language / Language / Metaphor /
Influential Ideas
✓ Don't use metaphors in definition or argument-Aristotle
✓ Metaphors have only their literal meaning-Davidson
✓ Most words can be metaphors-Yablo
✓ Seeing falsehood leads to metaphor-Davidson
Language / Language / Predicates /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Distributive' predicates; individuals = group-Linnebo
✓ Logic predicates vastly simplify language-Swoyer
✓ Nominalist, platonist or Montague predicates-Orenstein
✓ Predicates are said of many things-Aristotle
Language / Language / Private Language /
Influential Ideas
✓ A logically perfect language has private names-Russell
✓ An inner process needs outward criteria-Wittgenstein
✓ Are communities sure they are rule following?-Grayling
✓ Foundations can't be totally private-Scruton
Smooth seas do not make skillful sailors. - african proverbperson_outline
Language / Language / Rhetoric /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Phaedrus' pioneers philosophical rhetoric-Lawson Tancred
✓ End seriousness or laughter with its opposite-Gorgias
✓ Good rhetoric requires truth-Plato
✓ Often only socialising persuades-Kusch
Language / Meaning / Denial Of Meanings /
Influential Ideas
✓ Focus on analytic and synonymous, not meaning-Quine
✓ Lovers of meaning confuse it with reference-Orenstein
✓ Meaning is an empty concept-Kripke
✓ Meaning is either significance or synonymy-Quine
Language / Meaning / Meaning /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Sense' explains two key phenomena-Frege
✓ 'Sense' was to solve three problems-Frege
✓ Broad semantics relies on truth and denotation-Fodor
✓ Concept don't involve beliefs or inferences-Fodor
Language / Meaning / Meaning Holism /
Influential Ideas
✓ All the inferences will fix the meanings-Fodor&Lepore
✓ Are meaning and belief tied together?-Rorty
✓ Background isn't needed to learn a concept-Fodor
✓ Composition with non existents?-Read
Language / Meaning / Meaning Holism / Holism Blurs The Language/
Influential Ideas
✓ rules boundary-Dummett
Language / Meaning / Meaning As Mental /
Influential Ideas
✓ All experience is meaning-Derrida
✓ How to picture 'cat NOT on mat'?-Lowe
✓ Meanings are abstract, not mental-Frege
✓ Names stand for ideas-Berkeley
Language / Meaning / Meaning As Speaker's Intention /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Deferential' usage conforms to others-Evans
✓ Linguistic intentions are like non linguistic-Grice
✓ Meaning concerns primary intentions-Grice
✓ Meaning needs spotting speakers' intentions-Grice
Language / Meaning / Meaning As Truth-Conditions /
Influential Ideas
✓ All necessary truths match the same worlds-Fine,K
✓ Deflationary truth just needs syntax-Miller,A
✓ Possible worlds best for truth conditions-Lycan
✓ Possible worlds explain sentence entailment-Lycan
Language / Meaning / Meaning As Truth-Conditions / Renate/
Influential Ideas
✓ cordate a truth conditions problem-Lycan
Language / Meaning / Meaning As Use /
Influential Ideas
✓ Conceptual role semantics isn't very plausible-Rey
✓ Elocution sentences differ in use & meaning-Cooper,DE
✓ Meaning contains all possible uses-Nagel
✓ Meaning is use in concept calculation-Harman
Language / Meaning / Meaning As Use / True/
Influential Ideas
✓ false is only grasped through use-Dummett
Believe you can and you’re halfway there. -theodore rooseveltperson_outline
Language / Meaning / Meaning As Verification /
Influential Ideas
✓ Acquaintances make all understood propositions-Russell
✓ Contradiction, but also unjustifed assertion-Brouwer
✓ Factual propositions imply experiences-Ayer
✓ Foundationalism mirrors logical positivism-Dancy,J
Language / Meaning / Meaning By Role /
Influential Ideas
✓ Conceptual role semantics isn't just internal-Harman
✓ Conceptual role semantics seeks context-Boghossian
✓ Role in inference fixes meanings?-Fodor
✓ The content of thought is relational-Harman
Language / Meaning / Meaning Through Sentences /
Influential Ideas
✓ Proposition sense is constructed from words-Frege
✓ Sentences always mean, but words don't-Zeno of Citium
✓ Sentences first, because they say something-Dummett
✓ Words for foundations, sentences for coherence-Williams,M
Language / Meaning / Synonymy /
Influential Ideas
✓ Meaning can be similar, not the same-Harman
✓ Meaning implies possibly synonymy-Boghossian
✓ Same content doesn't give same reference-Fodor
✓ Same sense, if possible, is equivalence-Kaplan
Language / Propositions / Analytic/Synthetic /
Influential Ideas
✓ Epistemological and metaphysical analyticity-Boghossian
✓ False predicates are not contradictions-Miller,A
✓ Many conceptual truths are not analytic-Hale&Wright
✓ Particular terms produce the analyticity-Fine,K
Language / Propositions / Analytic/Synthetic / Analysis Requires Analytic/
Influential Ideas
✓ synthetic division-Fodor
Language / Propositions / Analytic/Synthetic / Meaning/Extras, Essence/
Influential Ideas
✓ accident vague!-Quine
Language / Propositions / Analytic/Synthetic / The Analytic/
Influential Ideas
✓ synthetic distinction is useless-Harman
Language / Propositions / Propositions /
Influential Ideas
✓ A proposition is a saturated property-Swoyer
✓ A proposition is a set of possible worlds-Lewis
✓ A proposition is a set of possible worlds-Perry
✓ A proposition is a world set where it is true-Lewis
Language / Propositions / Propositions Critique /
Influential Ideas
✓ Can abstract propositions have causal powers?-Lowe
✓ Can we interact with abstract propositions?-Heil
✓ How can propositions have truth values?-Heil
✓ Propositions need a link to sentences-Davidson
Language / Propositions / Propositions Critique / Skip Propositions; Just Sentences/
Influential Ideas
✓ equivalence-Quine
In the middle of every difficulty lies opportunity. -albert einsteinperson_outline
Language / Reference / Causal Reference /
Influential Ideas
✓ A baptism of nothing might launch a name-Sainsbury
✓ A referent must cause a speaker's information-Evans
✓ Ancient reference is a matter of tradition-Dummett
✓ Category is by appearance not essence-Locke
Language / Reference / De Re/De Dicto /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'De re' of things, 'de dicto' of propositions-Melia
✓ Reference can be to two properties of a thing-Fodor
✓ Sense can't fix reference, or vice versa-Fodor
Language / Reference / De Re/De Dicto / De Dicto/
Influential Ideas
✓ De re originates with Abelard-Abelard
Language / Reference / Descriptions / Descriptions /
Influential Ideas
✓ Definite description won't intrinsically refer-Bach
✓ Description can't be sufficient for reference-Evans
✓ Descriptions are rigid in subject position-Sainsbury
✓ Descriptions change as referents change-Bach
Language / Reference / Descriptions / Descriptions / Attributive/
Influential Ideas
✓ referential definite descriptions-Donnellan
Language / Reference / Descriptions / Theory Of Definite Descriptions /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'The x if F' only presumes that x exists-Donnellan
✓ A term can't refer just by its meaning-Cooper,DE
✓ Definite descriptions aren't proper names-Russell
✓ Definite descriptions can fail to refer-Sainsbury
Language / Reference / Failure Of Reference /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Nobody' is a quantifier, not a singular term-Russell
✓ All thought objects have some being-Meinong
✓ Know this man, but not that he is Orestes-Eucleides
✓ Negations don't exist when we negate them-Aristotle
Language / Reference / Indexicals /
Influential Ideas
✓ We can't just replace 'I'-Perry
✓ Indexicals depend on utterance circumstances-Mautner
Language / Reference / Names / Logically Proper Names /
Influential Ideas
✓ Logically proper names introduce objects-Russell
✓ If sense fixes an object, it’s a proper name-Frege
✓ Individuals are just those with names-Simons
Language / Reference / Names / Names /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Etna' can't refer to the whole of actual Etna-Frege
✓ 'Paderewski' has two names in mentalese-Fodor
✓ A 'name' is whatever refers
✓ Existence claims don't require naming-Quine
Language / Reference / Reference / Reference /
Influential Ideas
✓ A reference is what makes beliefs true-Peacocke
✓ Alluding or describing is not referring-Bach
✓ Alluding to someone is not reference-Bach
✓ Distinguish senses by their causal powers-Fodor
You know you're in love when you can't fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams. -dr. Seussperson_outline
Language / Reference / Reference / Reference / Referential/
Influential Ideas
✓ attributive:semantic or pragmatic?-Bach
Language / Reference / Reference / Reference By Context /
Influential Ideas
✓ Context is just something speakers exploit-Bach
✓ Expressions refer, but relative to context-Bach
✓ Reference is mainly a social phenomenon-Strawson,P
✓ Society and reality help fix reference-Putnam
Language / Reference / Reference / Reference By Semantics /
Influential Ideas
✓ For Frege sense determines reference-Katz
✓ Names denote if objects satisfy-Tarski
✓ Refer by names, indexicals or descriptions-Adams,RM
✓ Referring is not the same as denoting-Donnellan
Language / Reference / Reference / Reference By Speaker /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'That duck' may not be the obvious duck-Bach
✓ Anaphora reveals speakers's intentions-Bach
✓ Even quantifiers can be referential-Sainsbury
✓ Same meaning doesn't imply same thought-Frege
Language / Reference / Reference / Singular Terms /
Influential Ideas
✓ A 'singulariser' usefully converts plurals-Cartwright,H
✓ Adjectives contribute to noun phrases-Hofweber
✓ Frege attributes reference very broadly-Frege
✓ Genuine singular terms can't be eliminated-Hale
Mathematics / Basis Of Mathematics / Adjectival Numbers /
Influential Ideas
✓ Adjectival numbers may just be quantifiers-Hofweber
✓ Are numbers based on objects or properties?-Brown,JR
✓ Numbers are a very general property of objects-Mill
✓ Numbers are like quantifiers-Frege
Mathematics / Basis Of Mathematics / Constructivism / Conceptualism /
Influential Ideas
✓ Conceptualism isn't a maths ontology-Shapiro
✓ Conceptualism says universals are mind made-Quine
✓ Numbers in concepts, not in things-Frege
Mathematics / Basis Of Mathematics / Constructivism / Constructivism /
Influential Ideas
✓ Can ideal constructors destroy objects?-Shapiro
✓ Can possible operations be blocked?-Shapiro
✓ Constructivism rejects too much mathematics-Friend
✓ Convention, yes! Arbitrary, no!-Poincaré
Mathematics / Basis Of Mathematics / Constructivism / Intuitionism /
Influential Ideas
✓ Bivalence OK, but not excluded middle-Friend
✓ Maths isn't proofs if there are unprovables-Scruton
✓ Maths needs more than intuitionist ontology-Quine
✓ Only contradiction stops maths object existing-Waterfield
Mathematics / Basis Of Mathematics / Constructivism / Psychologism /
Influential Ideas
✓ Fluctuations of mind irrelevant to maths-Frege
Mathematics / Basis Of Mathematics / Empirical Arithmetic /
Influential Ideas
✓ =+ presupposes collections of objects-Mill
✓ A priori knowledge merely assists experience-Hume
✓ Abstaction won't count repetitions-Geach
✓ Abstract numbers do no exist-Mill
Nothing is certain except for death and taxes. -christopher bullockperson_outline
Mathematics / Basis Of Mathematics / Finitism /
Influential Ideas
✓ Bounded quantification is originally finitary-George&Velleman
✓ Finite proofs, to secure infinity-Hilbert
✓ Much infinite maths is finitely justified-George&Velleman
Mathematics / Basis Of Mathematics / Formalism /
Influential Ideas
✓ Application makes arithmetic a science-Frege
✓ Does some maths depend on notation?-Brown,JR
✓ Formalism denies all meaning to notations-Quine
✓ Formalism excludes creative maths-Musgrave
Mathematics / Basis Of Mathematics / Intuition Of Mathematics /
Influential Ideas
✓ Geometry needs intuition-Frege
✓ Proving the obvious blocks intuition-Bolzano
✓ Relevance? Impossibility? Exactness?-Kitcher
✓ Intuition can be a hindrance to geometry-Shapiro
Mathematics / Basis Of Mathematics / Logicism / Early Logicism /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Principia' needs more precise syntax-Gödel
✓ += has the necessity of logic-Wittgenstein
✓ Arithmetic is analytic a priori logic-Frege
✓ Arithmetic is analytic-Frege
Mathematics / Basis Of Mathematics / Logicism / Logicism Critique /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Princ Mathematica' exceeds logic in domains-Bernays
✓ Can logic show Caesar isn't a number?-Frege
✓ Can numbers be both logic and objects?-Hodes
✓ Can there be truth without reference?-Kitcher
Mathematics / Basis Of Mathematics / Logicism / Neo-Logicism /
Influential Ideas
✓ Hume's Principle, nd order logic logicism!-Hale&Wright
✓ Hume's Principle implies Peano Postulates-George&Velleman
✓ Hume's Principle is a definition, not a truth-Fine,K
✓ Hume's Principle isn't adequate and defining-Fine,K
Mathematics / Basis Of Mathematics / Logicism / Neo-Logicism / Necessity/
Influential Ideas
✓ priori shows maths is logic-Yablo
Mathematics / Basis Of Mathematics / Logicism / Type Theory /
Influential Ideas
✓ Chihara's system is a variant of type theory-Chihara
✓ Each type level is finite-George&Velleman
✓ Frege's logic is hierarchical-Frege
✓ Numbers are classes of classes, hence fictions-Russell
Mathematics / Basis Of Mathematics / Mathematical Platonism /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Abstract entities' is a label, not a solution-George&Velleman
✓ Abstracta exist, as references for terms-Williamson
✓ Abstraction enters before mathematics-Boolos
✓ Arithemtic is about inference, not entities-Hofweber
Mathematics / Basis Of Mathematics / Structuralism / Nominalist Structuralism /
Influential Ideas
✓ Can structuralism combine with nominalism?-Burgess&Rosen
✓ Focus on relations and functions, not objects-Friend
✓ Formalist Structuralism has minimal commitment-Reck&Price
✓ Mathematics studies possible structures-Hellman
Mathematics / Basis Of Mathematics / Structuralism / Platonist Structuralism /
Influential Ideas
✓ A structure is one over many {systems}-Shapiro
✓ Abstraction is pattern spotting-Friend
✓ Maths can't all be mental or physical-Resnik
✓ Maths proof and truth are based on patterns-Resnik
Be yourself, everyone else is taken. -oscar wildeperson_outline
Mathematics / Basis Of Mathematics / Structuralism / Structuralism /
Influential Ideas
✓ '' defines the role of 'third'-Benacerraf
✓ 'Particular' and 'universal' structures-Reck&Price
✓ Abstraction to positions, or to objects?-Fine,K
✓ All versions of structuralism are equivalent-Shapiro
Mathematics / Basis Of Mathematics / Structuralism / Structuralism Critique /
Influential Ideas
✓ Algebra studies relations, not relation theory-Burgess
✓ Circular definition of sets and structures?-Burgess
✓ Counting, not structure, defines-Dummett
✓ Does structure start with or ?-Dummett
Mathematics / Logic Of Mathematics / Axioms Of Geometry /
Influential Ideas
✓ A straight line is the shortest one-Archimedes
✓ Axioms are assumptions to prove-Aristotle
✓ Construction in Euclid, existence in Hilbert-Bernays
✓ Euclid's fifth postulate defines parallels-Euclid
Mathematics / Logic Of Mathematics / Baby Arithmetic /
Influential Ideas
✓ Baby Arithmetic is complete but dumb-Smith,P
✓ Baby arithmetic just does + and x-Smith,P
Mathematics / Logic Of Mathematics / Greek Arithmetic /
Influential Ideas
✓ Arithmetic has definitions and two axioms-Mill
✓ Quantities are discrete or continuous-Aristotle
✓ If equals are taken from equals, equals remain-Euclid
Mathematics / Logic Of Mathematics / Incompleteness Of Arithmetic /
Influential Ideas
✓ Arithmetic is incomplete OR inconsistent-Rey
✓ Arithmetic must always be incomplete-Gödel
✓ Assumptions beyond arithmetic are needed-Gödel
✓ Axioms and rules won't deliver arithmetic-Gödel
Mathematics / Logic Of Mathematics / Logic Of Mathematics /
Influential Ideas
✓ Axioms: self evident, stipulated or fallible?-Brown,JR
✓ Build on equality, addition and successors-Mill
✓ Conclusions may be clearer than the axioms-Russell
✓ Define 'successor' by an object lacking G-Smith,P
Mathematics / Logic Of Mathematics / Mathematical Induction /
Influential Ideas
✓ Arithmetic needs nd order for induction-Smith,P
✓ Induction definition allows induction proof-Zalabardo
Mathematics / Logic Of Mathematics / Peano Arithmetic /
Influential Ideas
✓ Define , successor and universal predicate-Peano
✓ Natural numbers: start, successor, induction-Shapiro
✓ Numbers can be defined just using 'class'-Russell
Mathematics / Logic Of Mathematics / Peano Arithmetic 2nd-Order /
Influential Ideas
✓ Arithmetic has a second order model-Read
✓ nd order arithmetic can ensure categoricity-Read
✓ Peano Arithmetic PA has three axioms-Reck&Price
✓ Plural language gives one induction axiom-Hossack
Mathematics / Logic Of Mathematics / Robinson Arithmetic /
Influential Ideas
✓ Q has basics, quantifiers, and st order logic-Smith,P
✓ Robinson Arithmetic is not complete-Smith,P
That’s one small step for a man, a giant leap for mankind. -neil armstrongperson_outline
Mathematics / Nature Of Mathematics / Application Of Mathematics /
Influential Ideas
✓ Application is counting and measurement-Benacerraf
✓ Applied maths needs possibility, not truth-Field,H
✓ Can I know numbers but can't count things?-Scruton
✓ Maths is applicable because it is general-George&Velleman
Mathematics / Nature Of Mathematics / Geometry /
Influential Ideas
✓ A priori spatial perception is Euclidean-Kant
✓ All geometries are equally true-Poincaré
✓ Analytic geometry can be logicist-Quine
✓ Can circles be understood but not recognised?-Plato
Mathematics / Nature Of Mathematics / Numbers / Axioms For Numbers /
Influential Ideas
✓ A set theory approach is unified and explicit-Reck&Price
✓ Sets instantiate the numeric properties-Hossack
✓ The axioms of arithmetic are revisable-Putnam
✓ Is part of , or not?-Benacerraf
Mathematics / Nature Of Mathematics / Numbers / Fregean Numbers /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Extension of a concept' is indeterminate-Cantor
✓ 'Many' won't behave like 'four'-Rumfitt
✓ 'Ten' may not attach to a concept-Rumfitt
✓ A motive for number objects won't justify it-Hale&Wright
Mathematics / Nature Of Mathematics / Numbers / Numbers /
Influential Ideas
✓ A natural number is a property of sets-Maddy
✓ Accept complexes iff geometrical?-Kitcher
✓ Are numbers substances?-Aristotle
✓ Denial of continuity gives us number-Aristotle
Mathematics / Nature Of Mathematics / Numbers / Ordinal Numbers /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Ordinal' is a set theoretic concept-Horsten
✓ Cantor introduced the 'ordinals'-Cantor
✓ Cantor took the ordinal numbers to be primary-Tait
✓ Define ordinals by transitive sets-Badiou
Mathematics / Nature Of Mathematics / Numbers / Real Numbers /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Analysis' is the theory of the real numbers-Reck&Price
✓ A cut creates an irrational number-Dedekind
✓ Cantor proved you can't list the reals-Cantor
✓ Line parts must be continuous-Aristotle
Mathematics / Nature Of Mathematics / Numbers / Types Of Number /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Rational' numbers are all the fractions-Friend
✓ A largest prime is a contradiction-Euclid
✓ Cardinals and reals do quite different jobs-Frege
✓ Cardinals are totals with no order-Friend
Mathematics / Nature Of Mathematics / Numbers / Unit /
Influential Ideas
✓ A number is a multitude of units-Dummett
✓ Abstraction won't find numbers in objects-Frege
✓ Multiplicity is just one, one, one-Husserl
✓ Multiplicity requires units-Leibniz
Mathematics / Nature Of Mathematics / Numbers / Von Neumann Numbers /
Influential Ideas
✓ Von Neumann numbers are helpful but wrong-Read
Mathematics / Nature Of Mathematics / Numbers / Zermelo Numbers /
Influential Ideas
✓ The Peano Postulates can be proven in ZFC-George&Velleman
✓ Is a member of , or not?-Shapiro
Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle. -platoperson_outline
Mathematics / Nature Of Mathematics / Proof /
Influential Ideas
✓ No explanation in computer proofs-Horsten
✓ The four colour map proof used computers-Brown,JR
✓ There are endless ways to prove something-Brown,JR
✓ Trade off of rules and axioms-Beall&Restall
Metaethics / Basis Of Ethics / Is/Ought /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Treachery' unites facts and values-Williams,B
✓ All seems good to God, but not to us-Heraclitus
✓ Beauty might be a key fact about a patch-Ross
✓ Experience cannot reveal moral laws-Kant
Metaethics / Basis Of Ethics / Moral Theory /
Influential Ideas
✓ All moral theories are meta ethical-Ayer
✓ Are thin or thick concepts conceptually prior?-Jackson
✓ Duty to act rightly is taken for granted-Aristotle
✓ Ethics is the science of flourishing-Flanagan
Metaethics / Basis Of Ethics / Morality /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Person' is too vague for a moral basis-Williams,B
✓ Ethical facts are seen as queer facts-Ayer
✓ Ethics cannot be put into words-Wittgenstein
✓ Ethics is the practice of freedom-Foucault
Metaethics / Basis Of Ethics / Morality As Convention /
Influential Ideas
✓ A river can't mark the limits of justice-Pascal
✓ Aristotle's virtue is convention or intellect-Taylor,R
✓ Betrayal, sacrilege & murder can be right
✓ Bravery is conventional, not natural-Plutarch
Metaethics / Basis Of Ethics / Morality Critique /
Influential Ideas
✓ Morality is just extra moral interpretations-Nietzsche
✓ No moral facts, so no moral knowledge-Mackie
✓ People prefer appearances to excellence-Confucius
✓ The weak pull down the strong with morality-Nietzsche
Metaethics / Basis Of Ethics / Responsibility /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Wantons' lack second order volitions-Frankfurt
✓ Are we responsible for our bad desires?-Chisholm
✓ Caused and causeless acts lack responsibility-Chisholm
✓ Cyrenaics never blame wrong doers-Aristippus young
Metaethics / Basis Of Ethics / Right /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Right' and 'good' differ in meaning-Ross
✓ 'Right' is what produces good-Moore,GE
✓ 'Right' means 'useful'-Moore,GE
✓ 'Right' used to be conventional acceptance Moral Motives-Ross
Metaethics / Basis Of Ethics / Superman /
Influential Ideas
✓ The superman is just a monstrous oddity-MacIntyre
Metaethics / Consequentialism / Benefit /
Influential Ideas
✓ Actions may benefit but also corrupt-Glover
Metaethics / Consequentialism / Chaotic Outcome /
Influential Ideas
✓ Both intentions AND consequences are unknown-Nietzsche
The ballot is stronger than the bullet. -lincolnperson_outline
Metaethics / Consequentialism / Consequentialism /
Influential Ideas
✓ A character is judged by its feelings-Shaftesbury
✓ Achievement does not decide if a will is good-Kant
✓ Act and consequences are not separate-Crisp,R
✓ Actions are judged by the doer's character-Plato
Metaethics / Consequentialism / Moral Luck /
Influential Ideas
✓ Moral luck has four different elements-Nagel
✓ Moral luck should influence judgement a little-Plato
✓ We condemn acts with bad outcome more-Smith,A
Metaethics / Ethical Ends / Altruism /
Influential Ideas
✓ Altruism is based on egoism of the weak-Nietzsche
✓ Altruistic people are closer to others-Schopenhauer
✓ Are your interests mine, or reasons for me?-Scruton
✓ Friendship is an extension of self love-Aristotle
Metaethics / Ethical Ends / Form Of The Good /
Influential Ideas
✓ All activity aims at the good-Plato
✓ All value and advantage derives from goodness-Plato
✓ All values and good conduct derive from Good-Plato
✓ Bad is destruction, good is preservation-Plato
Metaethics / Ethical Ends / Good /
Influential Ideas
✓ A person's life could be a work of art-Foucault
✓ Can natural qualities define 'good'?-Moore,GE
✓ For Aristotle 'telos' is the good-Achtenberg
✓ For Cyrenaics there is no moral end-Aristippus elder
Metaethics / Ethical Ends / Goodness /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Good' was conceived by aristocrats-Nietzsche
✓ Action aims at good, as thought aims at truth-Aquinas
✓ Akratic actions don't aim at a good-Burnyeat
✓ All good is relative to a desiring will-Schopenhauer
Metaethics / Ethical Ends / Happiness / Eudaimonia /
Influential Ideas
✓ Aim at fulfilment, not happiness-Critolaus
✓ Aristotle noting eudaimonia or recommending?-McDowell
✓ Eudaimonia includes behaving and faring well-MacIntyre
✓ Eudaimonia is having a good demon-Taylor,R
Metaethics / Ethical Ends / Happiness / Routes To Happiness / Is Virtue Necessary/
Influential Ideas
✓ sufficient for eudaimonia?-Hursthouse
Metaethics / Ethical Ends / Happiness / Value Of Happiness / Good/Evil Has Become Happiness/
Influential Ideas
✓ misfortune-Baudrillard
Metaethics / Ethical Ends / Pleasure / Dangers Of Pleasure /
Influential Ideas
✓ Fool's submit to insatiable desire-Plato
✓ Pleasure is bad if it hinders action-Spinoza
✓ Pleasure is insatiable, and leads to pain
✓ Pleasure is the toughest opponent-Heraclitus
Metaethics / Ethical Ends / Pleasure / Nature Of Pleasure /
Influential Ideas
✓ Avoid pain, and confusion of the soul-Epicurus
✓ People want to sustain their desires-Frankfurt
✓ Pleasure and pain can be false-Plato
✓ Pleasure is a perception of goodness-Aristotle
Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far. -theodore rooseveltperson_outline
Metaethics / Ethical Ends / Pleasure / Role Of Pleasure /
Influential Ideas
✓ Animals like to breed not have sexual pleasure-Plutarch
✓ Capacity for intense feeling is bad, not good-Plato
✓ Everything natural is pleasant-Plato
✓ Pleasure and pain control duty and desires-Bentham
Metaethics / Ethical Ends / Pleasure / Value Of Pleasure /
Influential Ideas
✓ Accept no pleasure unless it is beneficial-Democritus
✓ Animals without reason choose pleasure-Epicurus
✓ Bad pleasures prove pleasure isn't the good-Plato
✓ Bravery requires resistance to pleasure-Democritus
Metaethics / Ethical Ends / Selfishness /
Influential Ideas
✓ A living being is totally 'egoistic'-Nietzsche
✓ All voluntary acts are selfish-Hobbes
✓ Clever criminals can't flourish forever-Plato
✓ Good self love is of the higher soul-Aristotle
Metaethics / Ethical Ends / Value /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Inconsiderate' shows facts and values blur-Putnam
✓ Aesthetics, unlike ethics, must be first hand-Gardner
✓ Criteria for lifestyles are life values-Frankfurt
✓ Freedom is the foundation of all values-Sartre
Metaethics / Sources Of Ethics / Ethics From Reason /
Influential Ideas
✓ Confucius shows ethics from reason-Wolff
✓ Every moral rule must have a reason-Locke
✓ Kant based law on reason, not faith-Taylor,R
✓ Moral and rational disapproval differ totally-Frankfurt
Metaethics / Sources Of Ethics / Expressivism /
Influential Ideas
✓ Approving old murders allows imitation-Ayer
✓ Disapproval is an addition to moral ideas-Miller,A
✓ Emotion is a type of evaluation-Achtenberg
✓ Emotivism can't cope with moral truth or error-Brink
Metaethics / Sources Of Ethics / Expressivism / Good And Evil Are Just Objects Of Love/
Influential Ideas
✓ hate-Hobbes
Metaethics / Sources Of Ethics / Human Nature /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Essentialism' says there is a human nature-Mautner
✓ A natural appetite replenishes deficiency-Aristotle
✓ A whole man has a function, like his organs-Aristotle
✓ Abstraction divides humans from animals-Locke
Metaethics / Sources Of Ethics / Intuitionism /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Conscience' values intention, not consequence-Nietzsche
✓ 'Intuition' just conceals bad argument-MacIntyre
✓ Brainwashing a feeling of guilt is easy-Mill
✓ Can the moral sense make mistakes?-Hutcheson
Metaethics / Sources Of Ethics / Particularism /
Influential Ideas
✓ Morality only seems graspable locally-Prichard
✓ Theory and moral behaviour are separate-Camus
✓ We don't prove morality; we see it directly-Prichard
✓ We need an instance to see a duty-Prichard
Metaethics / Sources Of Ethics / Prescriptivism /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Ought' implies consistent principles-Hare
✓ 'I don't like staying at good hotels'-Williams,B
✓ Abandon our own ideals for the many?-Williams,B
✓ Acquire and then aim at everyone's preferences-Hare
Believe you can and you’re halfway there. -theodore rooseveltperson_outline
Mind And Body / Behaviourism / Behavioural Dispositions /
Influential Ideas
✓ Belief and desire help define dispositions-Harman
✓ Defining dispositions must mention qualia-Putnam
✓ Desires aren't directly linked to actions-Block
✓ Different mental states are just dispositions-Geach
Mind And Body / Behaviourism / Behaviourism /
Influential Ideas
✓ Behaviourism avoids oversimplification of mind-Kirk,R
✓ Behaviourism explains some things well-Kirk,R
✓ Behaviourism is reduction via definitions-Kim
✓ Define a mind as the cause of behaviour-Armstrong
Mind And Body / Behaviourism / Behaviourism Critique /
Influential Ideas
✓ Abstract beliefs don't lead to behaviour-Kim
✓ An inverted spectrum contradicts behaviourism-Kirk,R
✓ Animals learn for fun as well as reward-Rey
✓ Animals use minds, not just responses-Rey
Mind And Body / Behaviourism / Instrumentalism /
Influential Ideas
✓ Self is a fiction to explain motivation-Dennett
✓ The 'intentional stance' is for interpretation-Dennett
✓ The intentional strategy need believers-Rey
✓ Intentionality just predicts others' behaviour-Dennett
Mind And Body / Functionalism / Causal Functionalism /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Pain' contingently names a causal role-Lewis
✓ Are function and realiser identical?-Armstrong
✓ Combine type type identity and functionalism-Lewis
✓ Experiences are causal, and hence physical-Lewis
Mind And Body / Functionalism / Chinese Room /
Influential Ideas
✓ A program is person and manual-Lowe
✓ A vey simple program cannot understand-Dennett
✓ Can the Room ask itself questions?-Westaway
✓ Chinese Room attacks machine intentionality-Chalmers
Mind And Body / Functionalism / Functionalism /
Influential Ideas
✓ Allow inverted spectrum, but avoid chauvinism-Lycan
✓ Aristotle's soul can't accommodate reason-Ackrill
✓ Behaviour not brains proves minds exist-Rey
✓ Blurred vision has no function at all-Burge
Mind And Body / Functionalism / Functionalism Critique /
Influential Ideas
✓ Computation presupposes consciousness-Searle
✓ Could Bolivia's economy have mental states?-Block
✓ Environment is needed to define a belief-Putnam
✓ Formal structures have varied interpretations-Rey
Mind And Body / Functionalism / Homuncular Functionalism /
Influential Ideas
✓ All functionalism is 'homuncular'-Dennett
✓ Mind is hierarchical complex homunculi-Fodor
✓ Parts of the soul might be build on machines-Rey
✓ We are made of crude intentional systems-Dennett
Mind And Body / Functionalism / Machine Functionalism /
Influential Ideas
✓ Mind has physical, functional & mental levels-Lycan
Mind And Body / Functionalism / Machine Functionalism / The Software/
Influential Ideas
✓ hardware distinction is unclear-Lycan
The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time. person_outline
Mind And Body / Functionalism / Psycho-Functionalism /
Influential Ideas
✓ Being a heart is not a physical property-Heil
✓ Functional organisation causes consciousness-Chalmers
Mind And Body / Functionalism / Teleological Functionalism /
Influential Ideas
✓ Causal mental theories need teleology-Armstrong
✓ Function is reason for existence or activity-Polger
✓ Functions must serve an organism's purpose-Lycan
✓ Mental types are abstract teleological types-Lycan
Mind And Body / Mind-Body Dualism / Dualism / Soul/
Influential Ideas
✓ body link physical, harmony or assistance-Kant
Mind And Body / Mind-Body Dualism / Dualism Of Mind Critique / Even Descartes Says Mind/
Influential Ideas
✓ brain is united-Lycan
Mind And Body / Mind-Body Dualism / Dualism Of Mind Critique / Mind/
Influential Ideas
✓ body problems are errors about substance-Ayer
Mind And Body / Mind-Body Dualism / Epiphenomenalism /
Influential Ideas
✓ A total epiphenomenon is undetectable-Dennett
✓ Epiphenomanlism is a weird causal dangler-Papineau
✓ Epiphenomenalism's consistent with physicalism-Perry
✓ Epiphenomenalism makes mind pointless-Alexander,S
Mind And Body / Mind-Body Dualism / Interactionism /
Influential Ideas
✓ All causes are odd, not just mental ones-Heil
✓ Descartes saw the interaction problem-Descartes
✓ For Cartesians interaction is just a miracle-Fodor
✓ How can thoughts be semantic and causal?-Fodor
Mind And Body / Mind-Body Dualism / Occasionalism /
Influential Ideas
✓ God's laws, not God's miracles-Molnar
✓ No mind body interaction or intervention-Leibniz
✓ Occasionalism leads to false doctrines-Leibniz
Mind And Body / Mind-Body Dualism / Panpsychism /
Influential Ideas
✓ Bodies contain sense and appetite-Leibniz
✓ Maybe minimal souls are everywhere-Leibniz
✓ Ordinary matter is potentially conscious-McGinn
✓ Particles seem not to have sensation-Lucretius
Mind And Body / Mind-Body Dualism / Parallelism /
Influential Ideas
✓ How does the mind know about the body?-Crease
Mind And Body / Mind-Body Dualism / Parallelism / Mind/
Influential Ideas
✓ body knowledge, but no influence-Leibniz
When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains however improbable must be the truth. -sherlock holmesperson_outline
Mind And Body / Mind-Body Dualism / Zombies /
Influential Ideas
✓ Are inverted or absent qualia possible?-Kim
✓ Are mind and body contingently related?-Heil
✓ Brain state without the pain seems possible-Kripke
✓ Explain experience to the non conscious-Nagel
Mind And Body / Physicalism / Anti-Physicalism / Explanatory Gap /
Influential Ideas
✓ Conceptual differences cause the gap-Papineau
✓ Only phenomenal states have a gap-Levine
✓ Physicalism needn't explain what it is like-Kirk,R
✓ Why do those neurons cause that feeling?-Levine
Mind And Body / Physicalism / Anti-Physicalism / Knowledge Argument /
Influential Ideas
✓ Colour adds to the physical information-Jackson
✓ Headaches and their physiology are different-Heil
✓ Mary meets new concepts, not new properties-Papineau
✓ Qualia inversion undermines functionalism-Kim
Mind And Body / Physicalism / Anti-Physicalism / Modal Argument /
Influential Ideas
✓ Are brain events and pain inseparable?-Kripke
✓ Pain is not necessarily a brain state-Kripke
✓ Pain is picked out by an essential property-Kripke
✓ Pain must be pain; brain states needn't be-Kripke
Mind And Body / Physicalism / Anti-Physicalism / Multiple Realisability /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Multiple realisabilty' needs separate levels-Heil
✓ Brains need speed, and transducers-Dennett
✓ Expalin qualia less behaviour and vice versa-Lewis
✓ Functional but not phenomenal similarity?-PG
Mind And Body / Physicalism / Anti-Physicalism / Physicalism Critique /
Influential Ideas
✓ Atoms alone cannot produce a mind-Plutarch
✓ Complexity is no sort of explanation-Rey
✓ Do new ideas make brains weigh more?-Dance
✓ Eight features of mind are hard to explain-Rey
Mind And Body / Physicalism / Causal Argument /
Influential Ideas
✓ Are physical effects caused twice over?-Papineau
✓ Cause unites our picture of the universe-Davidson
✓ Double causation is the proof of physicalism-Sturgeon
✓ Higher levels don't add causal powers-Kim
Mind And Body / Physicalism / Conceptual Dualism /
Influential Ideas
✓ Body and mind are exclusive concepts-Descartes
✓ Dualism is conceptual, not ontological-Papineau
✓ Simply identify mental states with their host-Quine
Mind And Body / Physicalism / Connectionism /
Influential Ideas
✓ Connectionism explains pattern recognition-Rey
✓ Connectionism has node and branch levels-Rey
✓ Connectionism is good on irrationality-Rey
✓ Connectionism is just modern associationism-Fodor
Mind And Body / Physicalism / Eliminativism /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Consciousness' is a nonentity-James
✓ Can eliminativism account for logic?-Putnam
✓ Consciousness exists, but is misunderstood-Dennett
✓ Folk psychology may be irreducible but true-Kirk,R
Mind And Body / Physicalism / Physicalism /
Influential Ideas
✓ Body type affects conceptual scheme-Margolis&Laurence
✓ Martian pain might be a different feeling-Lewis
✓ Mind is state, event, process or property-Polger
✓ Physicalism allows that bodies have experience-Papineau
It is always darkest just before the dawn. -thomas fullerperson_outline
Mind And Body / Physicalism / Physicalism / Pain/
Influential Ideas
✓ brain identity is non rigid & contingent-Lewis
Mind And Body / Physicalism / Reductionism /
Influential Ideas
✓ A priori reductionism seems right-Lewis
✓ Biology presumes uncontradictable chemistry-Friend
✓ Brain causes mind, but they may differ-Searle
✓ Formerly identical 'processes', now properties-Heil
Mind And Body / Property Dualism / Anomalous Monism /
Influential Ideas
✓ All mind links causally to matter-Davidson
✓ Anomalous monism is uninformative-Kim
✓ Mental events aren't extra physical events-Davidson
✓ Only mental causation denies epiphenomenalism-Maslin
Mind And Body / Property Dualism / Anomalous Monism / Mind & Matter Can Be One Event/
Influential Ideas
✓ two properties-Davidson
Mind And Body / Property Dualism / Emergentism /
Influential Ideas
✓ Emergentism just accepts supervenience-Crane
✓ Emergentism may be right about qualia-Kim
✓ For emergentists supervenience is inexplicable-Kim
✓ Physics doesn't entail mind, but causes it-Chalmers
Mind And Body / Property Dualism / Mysterianism /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Consciousness' seems indefinable-Searle
✓ Bat behaviour may not be 'like' anything-Dennett
✓ Can't think the neurons, can't see the thought-McGinn
✓ Consciousness is inexplicable at the moment-Heil
Mind And Body / Property Dualism / Property Dualism /
Influential Ideas
✓ Beliefs are high level physical processes-Lyons
✓ Consciousness is like water's liquidity-Searle
✓ Mental causation needs physical properties-Davidson
✓ No one is dualist about 'liquidity' of water-Chalmers
Mind And Body / Property Dualism / Reductionism Critique /
Influential Ideas
✓ Boundaries of higher sciences are irreducible-Heil
✓ Can reductionisms explain intentional error?-Crane
✓ High level properties disappear if reduced-Heil
✓ Mind as anomaly makes reduction impossible-Davidson
Mind And Body / Property Dualism / Supervenience Of Mind /
Influential Ideas
✓ Are all souls identical to one another?-Kim
✓ Epiphenomenalism is non physical supervenience-Papineau
✓ Maybe supervenience can't avoid reductionism-Kim
✓ Non causal supervenience is epiphenomenal-Searle
Mind And Body / Property Dualism / Supervenience Of Mind / Mind/Brain Are Cause/
Influential Ideas
✓ effect supervenient-Searle
Natural Reality / Components Of Nature / Atoms /
Influential Ideas
✓ All infinitely divisible objects are the same-Lucretius
✓ All things differ, so there can't be atoms-Leibniz
✓ Appearances are convention; atoms are real-Democritus
✓ Are the surfaces of a cut cone equal or not?-Democritus
Whenever you do a thing, act as if all the world were watching. -thomas jeffersonperson_outline
Natural Reality / Components Of Nature / Energy /
Influential Ideas
✓ Realists must believe in energy-Ellis
Natural Reality / Components Of Nature / Force /
Influential Ideas
✓ Force gives reality and identity-Leibniz
✓ Force is like a soul causing change-Leibniz
✓ Force is what produces action-Leibniz
✓ Forces are inferred, and predict-Newton
Natural Reality / Components Of Nature / Mass /
Influential Ideas
✓ Newton conserves mass, Einstein doesn't-Bird
Natural Reality / Components Of Nature / Matter /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Gunk' is an atomless individual-Chihara
✓ All things with identity have matter-Aristotle
✓ Aristotelain matter transforms-Aristotle
✓ Aristotle's matter is active-Aristotle
Natural Reality / Components Of Nature / Movement /
Influential Ideas
✓ A single body cannot move-Berkeley
✓ Animals initiate movement; why not the cosmos?-Aristotle
✓ Atomism makes all velocities equal-Sext Empiricus
✓ Atoms move themselves-Lucretius
Natural Reality / Components Of Nature / Physical Change /
Influential Ideas
✓ Change is either alteration or motion-Plato
✓ Everything is in continuous destruction-Aurelius
✓ Human concepts of change are just words-Parmenides
✓ Love and hatred are the cause of all change-Empedocles
Natural Reality / Cosmos / Beginning /
Influential Ideas
✓ All motion derives from something self moving-Plato
✓ Creation from existence or non existence?-Aristotle
✓ Earth was created, because it changes-Augustine
✓ Existence must precede non existence
Natural Reality / Cosmos / Cosmology /
Influential Ideas
✓ Destruction is quicker than construction-Lucretius
✓ Earth casts a spherical shadow on the moon-Aristotle
✓ Hesperus and Lucifer are the same star-Parmenides
✓ Joshua said, Sun, stand thou still
Natural Reality / Cosmos / Cosmology / Cosmos Open/
Influential Ideas
✓ closed, purpose, alive, eternal?-Robinson,TM
Natural Reality / Cosmos / Infinite /
Influential Ideas
✓ Actual infinity is incoherent-Aristotle
✓ Gods are eternal, humans transient
✓ Nothing could exist to limit the universe-Lucretius
✓ Some infinities are bigger than others-Spinoza
Natural Reality / Cosmos / Unique Cosmos /
Influential Ideas
✓ There may be more than one cosmos-Aristotle
You’ve gotta dance like there’s nobody watching, love like you’ll never be hurt, sing like there’s nobody listening, and live like it’s heaven on earth. -william w. Purkeyperson_outline
Natural Reality / Life / Biology /
Influential Ideas
✓ Biology is a type of engineering-Dennett
✓ Eurytus made Pythagorean pictures with pebbles-Eurytus
Natural Reality / Life / Ecology /
Influential Ideas
✓ Humans are %+ of all living tissue-Gray
✓ What gives nature value? Life? Diversity?-Rowlands
✓ Is the environment intrinsically valuable?-Crisp,R
Natural Reality / Life / Evolution /
Influential Ideas
✓ Apart from language, we are just animals-La Mettrie
✓ Cultural evolution is Lamarckian and fast-Wilson,EO
✓ Darwin's idea was the best idea ever-Dennett
✓ Darwin overestimates 'external circumstances'-Nietzsche
Natural Reality / Life / Life /
Influential Ideas
✓ Are plants just slow animals?-Dennett
✓ Life is just chemistry, not a magic gel-Pinker
✓ Life is largely an informational process-Gulick
✓ Move,Breathe,Sense,Eat,Excrete,Reproduce,Grow-PG
Natural Theory / Causation / Causation / Causation /
Influential Ideas
✓ A cause was any valid explanation-Scruton
✓ A priori reasoning can lead to nonsense-Hume
✓ Causal statements have five uses-Kim
✓ Causation precedes explanation-Psillos
Natural Theory / Causation / Causation / Causation As Primitive /
Influential Ideas
✓ Causation is primitive if all accounts need it-Schaffer,J
✓ The concept of cause is built into language-Anscombe
✓ Three objections to primitivist causation-Schaffer,J
Natural Theory / Causation / Causation / Direction Of Causation /
Influential Ideas
✓ Add cause to physics to explain directionality-Field,H
✓ Assuming causal direction goes too far-Lewis
✓ Causal direction may not be time direction-Schaffer,J
✓ Causation theories should explain direction-Lewis
Natural Theory / Causation / Causation / Eliminating Causation /
Influential Ideas
✓ Causation is in science, not in equations-Schaffer,J
✓ Many explanations need causation-Schaffer,J
✓ Use powers to analyse causation-Molnar
Natural Theory / Causation / Causation / Eliminating Causation / Cause/
Influential Ideas
✓ event contiguity creates problems-Russell
Natural Theory / Causation / Causation / Final Causes /
Influential Ideas
✓ Final cause is just human desire-Spinoza
✓ Material, Formal, Efficient and Final causes-Aristotle
✓ We can't know final causes-Hume
✓ Wisdom links efficient and final causes-Leibniz
Natural Theory / Causation / Causation / Naturalised Causation /
Influential Ideas
✓ A process's connection may not be causal-Schaffer,J
✓ A process needs causation to explain it-Schaffer,J
✓ Absences cause, so cause isn't in nature-Schaffer,J
✓ Analyse causation in terms of powers-Molnar
Do one thing every day that scares you. -eleanor rooseveltperson_outline
Natural Theory / Causation / Causation / Types Of Cause /
Influential Ideas
✓ Are causal relata events or facts?-Bennett
✓ Causation is singular not constant conjunction-Ducasse
✓ Cause in own right, and cause coincidentally-Aristotle
✓ Cause is counterfactual, probable, or energy-Crane
Natural Theory / Causation / General Causation / Constant Conjunction /
Influential Ideas
✓ A spread out conjunction is not a cause-Shoemaker
✓ All causation is seen by constant conjunction-Hume
✓ Appearances can't show necessity in causes-Kant
✓ Causation is extrinsic to events-Psillos
Natural Theory / Causation / General Causation / Counterfactual Causation /
Influential Ideas
✓ Abandon counterfactuals; take causes literally-Mumford
✓ Analyse counterfactuals using causation!-Horwich
✓ Causal counterfactuals must avoid backtracking-Lewis
✓ Causation explains the counterfactuals-Molnar
Natural Theory / Causation / General Causation / Natural Necessity /
Influential Ideas
✓ Can a situation involve necessary causation?-Sosa
✓ Causation may be naturally necessary, no more-Lowe
✓ Causation obviously involves necessity-Kant
✓ Effects necessarily follow causes-Spinoza
Natural Theory / Causation / General Causation / Nomological Causation /
Influential Ideas
✓ Causal laws don't explain its direction-Tooley
✓ Causality may have to involve a law-Maslin
✓ Causation comes from reason, not perception-Lockwood
✓ Causation follows strict unconditional laws-Davidson
Natural Theory / Causation / Particular Causation / Causal Relata /
Influential Ideas
✓ Causal conditions are tropes-Campbell,K
✓ Causal explanation depends on descriptions-Davidson
✓ Causal relata are relative to description-Anscombe
✓ Causal relata are spacetime regions-Quine
Natural Theory / Causation / Particular Causation / Conditions Of Causation /
Influential Ideas
✓ A cause is all the preceding conditions-Mill
✓ A cause is part of a sufficient set-Mackie
✓ Are causes sufficient, necessary, or both?-Sosa&Tooley
✓ Are the total necessities sufficient?-Sanford
Natural Theory / Causation / Particular Causation / Observation Of Causation /
Influential Ideas
✓ Are causal relations observed, or theoretical?-Sosa&Tooley
✓ Bodily pressure and action show causation-Tooley
✓ Causation is deduced from supposed free will-Nietzsche
✓ Causation is presupposed in psychology-Psillos
Natural Theory / Causation / Particular Causation / Probabilistic Causation /
Influential Ideas
✓ Actual causes may make an event less likely-Schaffer,J
✓ Actual causes may not be very efficacious-Tooley
✓ Causes make effects more probable-Mellor
✓ Probabilistic causes makes effects more likely-Mellor
Natural Theory / Causation / Particular Causation / Selecting The Cause /
Influential Ideas
✓ A cause is an INUS condition-Mackie
✓ Causation depends on cause selection-Schaffer,J
✓ Causes are adjacent in time and space-Ducasse
✓ Causes are members of sufficient sets-Lewis
Natural Theory / Concepts Of Nature / Basis Of Nature /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Physical' is in physics or just in space time-Lycan
✓ All things are one-Heraclitus
✓ Anaxagoras thought the basics were infinite-Anaxagoras
✓ Being, space and becoming are eternal-Plato
We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are. - anais ninperson_outline
Natural Theory / Concepts Of Nature / Natural Kinds /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Cats are animals' is a necessary truth-Kripke
✓ 'Water' is a natural kind, but not 'HO'-Putnam
✓ A 'mule' is just a combination of kinds-Aristotle
✓ All water is roughly the same-Aristotle
Natural Theory / Concepts Of Nature / Space /
Influential Ideas
✓ Energy fields are discontinuous-Molnar
✓ How can a 'place' have a location?-Zeno of Elea
✓ How could we tell if God shifted the universe?-Leibniz
✓ No extra points in extra dimensions-Clegg
Natural Theory / Concepts Of Nature / Substance / Substance /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Ousia' is 'being', not 'substance'-Aristotle
✓ 'Ousia' is NOT 'substance'-Aristotle
✓ Aggregates must reduce to substances-Leibniz
✓ Attributes suffice to reveal a substance-Descartes
Natural Theory / Concepts Of Nature / Substance / Substance Critique /
Influential Ideas
✓ A bundle substance keeps changing-Macdonald
✓ A die is no more than its properties-Berkeley
✓ Phenomenalism implies the bundle view-Macdonald
✓ Physicists' belief in substance is dubious-Russell
Natural Theory / Concepts Of Nature / Substance / Substance Defined /
Influential Ideas
✓ Activity is the essence of substance-Leibniz
✓ Add concept, law, force, form, soul-Leibniz
✓ Bundles mean indiscernibles identical-Macdonald
✓ Diverse universals are not substances-Witt
Natural Theory / Concepts Of Nature / Substance / Types Of Substance /
Influential Ideas
✓ A point is a substance with a position-Aristotle
✓ A subject has a 'primary' substance-Aristotle
✓ Are substances particulars, or kinds?-Aristotle
✓ Everyone agrees on about ten substances-Aristotle
Natural Theory / Concepts Of Nature / Time / Beginning Of Time /
Influential Ideas
✓ Most agree that time can have no beginning-Democritus
✓ Time was created with the cosmos-Plato
Natural Theory / Concepts Of Nature / Time / Presentism /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Presentism' says there is only the present-Moreland
✓ An instant is the time of a single idea-Locke
✓ How can past and future exist?-Augustine
✓ Presentism implies the present cannot change-Dummett
Natural Theory / Concepts Of Nature / Time / Time / A Is Past/Future; B Is Before/
Influential Ideas
✓ after-McTaggart
Natural Theory / Concepts Of Nature / Time / Time And Change /
Influential Ideas
✓ Cyclical freezes might coincide for one year-Shoemaker
✓ No one can sense time without movement-Lucretius
✓ Observing the cosmos leads to time and number-Plato
✓ There is no time prior to change happening-Dummett
Natural Theory / Concepts Of Nature / Time / Time As Subjective /
Influential Ideas
✓ Does time depend on mind?-Aristotle
✓ Maybe time is an extension of mind-Augustine
✓ Time is just the flow of our ideas-Berkeley
✓ We cannot imagine the non existence of time-Kant
Do one thing every day that scares you. -eleanor rooseveltperson_outline
Natural Theory / Concepts Of Nature / Unlimited /
Influential Ideas
✓ Existence combines the Limited and Unlimited-Philolaus
✓ Reality is the unlimited moving in a cycle-Anaximander
✓ The boundless is the first principle of things-Anaximander
✓ The unlimited has no form-Plato
Natural Theory / Heart Of Nature / Natural Function /
Influential Ideas
✓ Are events unnatural if they happen by force?-Aristotle
✓ Each thing's function is its end-Aristotle
✓ Function is entirely relative to our desires-Searle
✓ Function is unique or superior ability-Plato
Natural Theory / Heart Of Nature / Natural Purpose /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Purpose' is a human invention-Nietzsche
✓ 'Purpose' is a tiny part of the wasted energy-Nietzsche
✓ A thing's end determines its nature-Aristotle
✓ A thing's nature is its end and purpose-Aristotle
Natural Theory / Heart Of Nature / Nature /
Influential Ideas
✓ Actions aren't natural when willed-Hegel
✓ Change is the basis of nature-Aristotle
✓ Humans invented the idea of nature-Empedocles
✓ Nature does nothing in vain-Aristotle
Natural Theory / Heart Of Nature / One /
Influential Ideas
✓ Being is not divisible, since it is all alike-Parmenides
✓ Being is one-Melissus
✓ Endless division culminates in nothingness-Parmenides
✓ Parts of the cosmos change, not the whole-Anaximander
Natural Theory / Heart Of Nature / Pythagoreanism /
Influential Ideas
✓ Everything is knowable through numbers-Philolaus
✓ Maths is essential to understand nature-Galileo
✓ Number & harmony are limited and always true-Philolaus
✓ Only numbers can make an orderly universe-Philolaus
Natural Theory / Laws Of Nature / Closure Of Physics /
Influential Ideas
✓ Leibniz accepted the completeness of physic-Leibniz
Natural Theory / Laws Of Nature / Counterfactual Claims /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'If he jumped, there was a net'-Psillos
✓ Causes are explained by counterfactuals-Lewis
✓ Causes are what make a difference-Psillos
✓ Counterfactuals are ok if you understand laws-Cohen,LJ
Natural Theory / Laws Of Nature / Laws From Universals /
Influential Ideas
✓ Armstrong gives a fictionalist view of laws-Bird
✓ Causal law 'events' must be particulars-Russell
✓ Contingent necessity? Can it necessitate?-Bird
✓ Laws are necessities between universals-Mumford
Natural Theory / Laws Of Nature / Laws Of Nature /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Laws of nature' a medieval invention-Hall
✓ Are our laws exceptionless, or real?-Russell
✓ Benefits are always lost, never gained-Aristotle
✓ Existence requires laws-Bird
Natural Theory / Laws Of Nature / Regularities / Best System Theory /
Influential Ideas
✓ A law is a coherent system of regularities-Psillos
✓ Choose axioms where best theories intersect-Mumford
✓ Laws are axioms of the best deductive system-Lewis
✓ Laws are axioms of the simplest system-Ramsey
It is never too late to be who you might have been. - george eliotperson_outline
Natural Theory / Laws Of Nature / Regularities / Regularity Theory /
Influential Ideas
✓ Essentialist laws are guaranteed regularities-Bird
✓ Lots of laws, each with a few instances?-Bird
✓ No best fit, if laws are just their instances-Bird
✓ Other hard diamonds don't explain this one-Bird
Natural Theory / Laws Of Nature / Regularities / Regularity Theory / Is 'Uranium/
Influential Ideas
✓ Gold lumps are small' a law?-Bird
Natural Theory / Laws Of Nature / Scientific Essentialism / Anti Scientific Essentialism /
Influential Ideas
✓ Essentialism blocks science progress-Popper
✓ Gravity is not innate in matter-Newton
✓ How can essence generate appropriate force?-Armstrong
✓ Physical dispositions need modal quantifiers-Quine
Natural Theory / Laws Of Nature / Scientific Essentialism / Necessity From Essence /
Influential Ideas
✓ A law necessitates salt dissolving in water-Bird
✓ Different laws needs different properties-Shoemaker
✓ Essentialists say natural laws are necessary-Ellis
✓ Fire can never be cold-Aristotle
Natural Theory / Laws Of Nature / Scientific Essentialism / Scientific Essentialism /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Gold' includes a real unknown essence-Leibniz
✓ 'Laws' are merely power relations-Nietzsche
✓ 'Laws' are symptoms of the will to power-Nietzsche
✓ Assess essential by examining possibilities-Mumford
Nature Of Minds / Features Of Minds / Blindsight /
Influential Ideas
✓ Blindsight destroys one of two visual systems-Lowe
✓ Blindsight is a bit like our peripheral vision-Dennett
✓ Blindsight isn't truly aware-Chalmers
✓ Blindsighters get very little information-Dennett
Nature Of Minds / Features Of Minds / Consciousness / Cause Of Consciousness /
Influential Ideas
✓ Awareness plus something is consciousness-Chalmers
✓ Consciousness could be quantum binding-Penrose
✓ Consciousness is in our frontal lobes-Carter,R
✓ Consciousness is interacting neuron groups-Edelman&Tononi
Nature Of Minds / Features Of Minds / Consciousness / Consciousness / The Conscious/
Influential Ideas
✓ unconscious line is blurred-Dennett
Nature Of Minds / Features Of Minds / Consciousness / Higher-Order Thought /
Influential Ideas
✓ Actual higher thought makes consciousness-Papineau
✓ Animals may experience without knowing-Perry
✓ Can a thought become conscious if remembered?-Papineau
✓ Consciousness is conscious of itself-Sartre
Nature Of Minds / Features Of Minds / Consciousness / Parts Of Consciousness /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Phenomenal' and 'apperceptive' consciousness-Lowe
✓ Consciousness has five components-Carter,R
✓ Language is crucial to consciousness-Dennett
✓ Let's unify intentionality and qualia-Kirk,R
Nature Of Minds / Features Of Minds / Intentionality / Character Of Intentionality /
Influential Ideas
✓ Attitudes can aim at objects and propositions-Crane
✓ Bird behaviour is 'about' worms-Kirk,R
✓ Dreams generate meaning without input-Edelman&Tononi
✓ Every mental event has an object-Brentano
Go to heaven for the climate and hell for the company. -mark twainperson_outline
Nature Of Minds / Features Of Minds / Intentionality / Intentionality Theories /
Influential Ideas
✓ Are qualia intentional, or a bonus property?-Crane
✓ Berkeley denies intentionality-Berkeley
✓ Consciousness makes intentionality unreducible-Sturgeon
✓ Does intentional content need causal links?-Heil
Nature Of Minds / Features Of Minds / Inverted Qualia /
Influential Ideas
✓ Change of qualia may change behaviour-Dennett
✓ Crosswired qualia undermine functionalism-Kim
✓ Qualia shifts undermine causal role-Kim
✓ Violet and marigold could be inverted-Locke
Nature Of Minds / Features Of Minds / Privacy /
Influential Ideas
✓ A lion that talked would be unlike other lions-Dennett
✓ Bat minds aren't that private or mysterious-Dennett
✓ Complete physics doesn't predict consciousness-Chalmers
✓ Penetrate privacy by scan and experience-Douglas,A
Nature Of Minds / Features Of Minds / Unconscious Mind /
Influential Ideas
✓ Are unconscious states mental or not?-Searle
✓ Beliefs and desires without consciousness?-Lockwood
✓ Consciousness can't see or speak-McGinn
✓ Disguised self love implies an unconscious-Rochefoucauld
Nature Of Minds / Features Of Minds / Unity Of Mind /
Influential Ideas
✓ Are parts of the soul separate, or not?-Aristotle
✓ Consciousness is not a united entity-Nietzsche
✓ Eternal truths unite thinking minds-Sartre
✓ How do lots of neurons give smooth experience?-Chalmers
Nature Of Minds / Mind / Animal Minds /
Influential Ideas
✓ Animal thought is imagination, not reason-Leibniz
✓ Animals cannot entertain general ideas-Locke
✓ Animals have ideas, so they have reason-Berkeley
✓ Animals have soul, but not consciousness-Leibniz
Nature Of Minds / Mind / Anti-Individualism /
Influential Ideas
✓ Broad concepts extend the mind outwards-Burge
✓ Externalism denies privileged access-Rowlands
✓ No border between inner and outer-Harman
✓ Others can know your thoughts better than you-Rowlands
Nature Of Minds / Mind / Brain /
Influential Ideas
✓ Big primate social groups produce big brains-Carter,R
✓ Brain at seven weeks; all neurons by birth-Carter,R
✓ Conscious states last milliseconds-Edelman&Tononi
✓ Dualist concepts hamper our brain research-Papineau
Nature Of Minds / Mind / Mental Causation /
Influential Ideas
✓ Beliefs are caused by other beliefs-Kim
✓ Causation is our central belief about mind-Kim
✓ Cause events by causing thoughts-Perry
✓ Does mind or body move the pineal gland?-Spinoza
Nature Of Minds / Mind / Mind / Features Of Mind /
Influential Ideas
✓ Mental states have causal powers-Fodor
✓ Mind consists of qualities and intentionality-Kim
✓ Mind is neither intentional nor phenomenal-Rorty
✓ Mind moves, perceives, and is incorporeal-Aristotle
Nature Of Minds / Mind / Mind / Location Of Mind /
Influential Ideas
✓ Alcmaeon said thinking is in the brain-Alcmaeon
✓ Experiments prove brain controls body-Galen
✓ Externalists say minds depend on environment-Lowe
✓ Head injuries prove soul is in the brain-Montaigne
Live fast, die young, and leave a good-looking corpse. -irene l. Luceperson_outline
Nature Of Minds / Mind / Mind / Mind /
Influential Ideas
✓ Minds as intentional, or conscious?-Molnar
✓ Reject properties to ditch mind body problems-Rorty
✓ The mind is the idea of the body-Spinoza
✓ There are no minds, only mental properties-Davidson
Nature Of Minds / Mind / Mind / Purpose Of Mind /
Influential Ideas
✓ A mind is an organ of representation-Lewis
✓ Mind is a thinking substance-Leibniz
✓ Presumably the mind evolved to think with-Fodor
✓ Intellect and senses simplify everything-Nietzsche
Nature Of Minds / Mind / Mind / Questions About Mind /
Influential Ideas
✓ Is mind separate, and is it unique?-Lowe
Nature Of Minds / Mind / Mind / Questions About Mind / Are Mental And Physical Types/
Influential Ideas
✓ tokens distinct?-Sturgeon
Nature Of Minds / Mind / Other Minds / Other Minds /
Influential Ideas
✓ Feel the consciousnesses of others
✓ Other people are possible worlds-Deleuze&Guattari
Nature Of Minds / Mind / Other Minds / Other Minds By Analogy /
Influential Ideas
✓ Analogy to other minds has insufficient basis-Maslin
✓ Analogy treats mind as separate but knowable-Dancy,J
✓ Analogy with myself reveals other minds-Mill
✓ Analogy won't prove a robot conscious-Grayling
Nature Of Minds / Mind / Other Minds / Scepticism Of Other Minds /
Influential Ideas
✓ Are other minds quite unlike my own?-Davidson
✓ Consciousness can't grasp other consciousness-Sartre
✓ Empiricists can say nothing of other minds-Ayer
✓ No induction can prove something unobservable-Ayer
Nature Of Minds / Mind / Psuché /
Influential Ideas
✓ Appetite can even drive out reason-Aristotle
✓ Appetite is close to the body and reason not-Plato
✓ Aristotle's soul is, roughly, personality-MacIntyre
✓ Nourishment implies a vegetative soul-Aristotle
Ontology / Categories / Categories / Categories /
Influential Ideas
✓ A criterion of identity fixes a category-Westerhoff
✓ Categories are axioms, not absolutes-Westerhoff
✓ Categories are basic bits of states of affairs-Westerhoff
✓ Categories are conventional, not intrinsic-Westerhoff
Ontology / Categories / Categories / Categories / Reality Is Facts/
Influential Ideas
✓ states of affairs, not things-Armstrong
Ontology / Categories / Categories / Categories / The Role/
Influential Ideas
✓ occupant distinction is basic-Lycan
Never delay kissing a pretty girl or opening a bottle of whiskey. - ernest hemingwayperson_outline
Ontology / Categories / Categories / Categories / Universal/Particular, Or Abstract/
Influential Ideas
✓ concrete?-Lowe
Ontology / Categories / Categories / Proposed Categories /
Influential Ideas
✓ Nominalism, Extensionalism or Intensionalism?-Orenstein
Ontology / Categories / Categories / Proposed Categories / Continget/Necessary;Individual/State/
Influential Ideas
✓ non state-Chisholm
Ontology / Categories / Categories / Proposed Categories / Norm:Property/Relation/Entity/Abstracta/Set/
Influential Ideas
✓ -Westerhoff
Ontology / Categories / Categories / Proposed Categories / Universal/Particular;Kind/Concrete/
Influential Ideas
✓ abstract-Lowe
Ontology / Categories / Objects / Abstract/Concrete /
Influential Ideas
✓ Do abstractions depend on all concreta?-Szabó
✓ Token words concrete, type words abstract-Hale
Ontology / Categories / Objects / Abstract/Concrete / Abstract/
Influential Ideas
✓ concrete is a misfit in physics-Ladyman&Ross
Ontology / Categories / Objects / Abstract/Concrete / Are Colours Or Points Concrete/
Influential Ideas
✓ abstract?-Hale
Ontology / Categories / Objects / Abstract/Concrete / Concrete/
Influential Ideas
✓ abstract is a sliding scale-Dummett
Ontology / Categories / Objects / Abstract/Concrete / Maths Divides Concrete/
Influential Ideas
✓ abstract differently-Shapiro
Ontology / Categories / Objects / Abstract/Concrete / Sharp Concrete/
Influential Ideas
✓ abstract divide is unnecessary-Dummett
On your last day on earth, the person you became will meet the person you could have become. ” — anonymousperson_outline
Ontology / Categories / Objects / Abstract Objects /
Influential Ideas
✓ A Fregean 'object' is broader than normal-Hale
✓ A temporal non spatial mind is abstract-Hale
✓ Abstract nouns like identity criteria-Dummett
✓ Abstract objects are a pseudo problem-Dummett
Ontology / Categories / Objects / Levels Of Abstraction /
Influential Ideas
✓ Abstraction levels go from sets to formulas-Burgess&Rosen
✓ Higher degree abstractions represent more-Arnauld,A&Nicole,P
✓ Mathematical abstraction steadily ascends-Burgess&Rosen
✓ Maybe abstraction is in ordered stages-Fine,K
Ontology / Categories / Objects / Objects Of Thought /
Influential Ideas
✓ A thing is fixed by all possible thought of it-Dedekind
✓ An object of thought is a unified entity-Russell
✓ For us, objects require concepts-Frege
✓ Frege needs objects for names and predicates-Frege
Ontology / Categories / Objects / Physical Objects /
Influential Ideas
✓ Accept objects if they explain things-Lowe
✓ An 'object' is a structural concept-Shapiro
✓ Assuming objects simplifies experience-Quine
✓ Bodies are coextensions with spaces-Hobbes
Ontology / Categories / Powers / Against Powers /
Influential Ideas
✓ Powers are their exercise-Hume
✓ Propensities in situations, not objects-Popper
✓ We can't tell what properties are causal-Lewis
✓ We cannot experience the powers-Hume
Ontology / Categories / Powers / Causal Powers /
Influential Ideas
✓ A power's type is its manifestation-Molnar
✓ Action is occurrences within substances-Leibniz
✓ Actions give the idea of 'power'-Locke
✓ Activity is the source of change-Aristotle
Ontology / Categories / Powers / Dispositions /
Influential Ideas
✓ All genuine properties are dispositional-Shoemaker
✓ Are property dispositions built in or added?-Heil
✓ Capacities only exist during activity-Aristotle
✓ Dispositions are powers, not properties-Shoemaker
Ontology / Categories / Powers / Powers And Dispositions /
Influential Ideas
✓ All powers are ultimately intrinsic-Molnar
✓ Casual power is a kind of disposition-Ellis
✓ Dispositions make properties detectable-Heil
✓ Real essences are powers-Copi
Ontology / Categories / Powers / Powers And Properties /
Influential Ideas
✓ Abstract properties are a separate problem-Shoemaker
✓ Non causal properties are eliminable-Shoemaker
✓ Peripheral powers give the qualities-Leibniz
✓ Properties and causes are closely related-Shoemaker
Ontology / Categories / Processes / Events /
Influential Ideas
✓ Adverbs need events to predicate of-Davidson
✓ Each event has a unique causal history-Bennett
✓ Events are changes in objects-Lowe
✓ Events don't have identity conditions-Simons
Ontology / Categories / Processes / Events As Primitive /
Influential Ideas
✓ Explanation of normal talk needs events-Davidson
✓ Knowing events precedes causes and effects-Dummett
✓ Russell reduced force & matter to events-Russell
✓ Singular causation needs events-Lowe
In the middle of every difficulty lies opportunity. -albert einsteinperson_outline
Ontology / Categories / Processes / Moments /
Influential Ideas
✓ A smile is a thing, not an event-Simons
✓ A wave isn't itself a process-Simons
✓ Disturbances are changing moments-Simons
Ontology / Categories / Processes / Processes /
Influential Ideas
✓ Objects are a type of process-Ellis
✓ One thing with stages is a process-Quine
✓ Process ontology mustn't refer to objects!-Simons
✓ Processes are stuff, events are countable-Simons
Ontology / Categories / Processes / Reduction Of Events /
Influential Ideas
✓ An event is a change in or to an object-Lombard
✓ Events are changes in energy distribution-Ellis
✓ Events are exemplifications of properties-Kim
✓ Events are fast changes of interest to us-O'Connor
Ontology / Categories / Processes / Reduction Of Events / Events Are Changes In Properties/
Influential Ideas
✓ relations-Lowe
Ontology / Categories / Properties / Categorical Properties /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Categorial' properties rest on categories-Wedin
✓ A property is no more than distinctive-Bird
✓ Any class of things whatever is a property-Lewis
✓ Categorical is non causal, but causes-Ellis
Ontology / Categories / Properties / Denial Of Properties /
Influential Ideas
✓ Are infinite properties needed to know one?-Macdonald
✓ Just 'all red things are coloured things'-Quine
✓ Only particulars exist-Putnam
✓ Predicates are not names-Quine
Ontology / Categories / Properties / Emergent Properties /
Influential Ideas
✓ Are there resultant and emergent properties?-Crane
✓ Causation can operate above mere physics-Kim
✓ Complex properties are not new properties-Heil
✓ Complex properties do not 'emerge'-Heil
Ontology / Categories / Properties / Natural Properties /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Being physical' is second order-Molnar
✓ Examine things to find natural properties-Lewis
✓ Natural properties for resemblance and causes-Lewis
✓ Naturalness is just featuring in content-Lewis
Ontology / Categories / Properties / Natural Properties / Demarcation Fixes Objects/
Influential Ideas
✓ natural properties-Lewis
Ontology / Categories / Properties / Nature Of Properties /
Influential Ideas
✓ An object on its own has intrinsic properties-Merricks
✓ Are properties abstract or concrete?-Oliver
✓ Can properties have parts?-Swoyer
✓ Just treat 'property' and 'set' the same-Shapiro
Ontology / Categories / Properties / Nature Of Properties / Particular/
Influential Ideas
✓ property has four conditions-Oliver
If you want something done right, do it yourself. -charles-guillaume étienneperson_outline
Ontology / Categories / Properties / Nature Of Properties / Particular/Property: Sui Generis/
Influential Ideas
✓ construction?-Oliver
Ontology / Categories / Properties / Nature Of Properties / Trilateral/
Influential Ideas
✓ triangular are always coextensive-Lewis
Ontology / Categories / Properties / Properties As Predicates /
Influential Ideas
✓ Abundant properties are concepts or predicates-Bird
✓ Are qualities Fregean objects?-Hale
✓ Attributes are functions, not objects-Geach
✓ Every property has a possible predicate-Mellor
Ontology / Categories / Properties / Structural Properties /
Influential Ideas
✓ Categorical properties are structural-Ellis
✓ Structural properties are derivate-Molnar
✓ There are no 'structural properties'-Molnar
Ontology / Categories / Relations / Ancestral Relation /
Influential Ideas
✓ An qancestral creates a chain of relations-Smith,P
✓ Ancestral relations are transitive-Wiggins
✓ Backwards iteration derives an 'ancestral'-Frege
Ontology / Categories / Relations / Equivalence /
Influential Ideas
✓ A symmetrical transitive relation is equality-Russell
Ontology / Categories / Relations / Internal Relations /
Influential Ideas
✓ Relational properties are non essential-Macdonald
✓ The order of numbers is an internal relation-Wittgenstein
✓ Things always contain external references-Hegel
✓ Internal relations appear necessary-Wittgenstein
Ontology / Categories / Relations / Nature Of Relations /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'North of' is a non mental universal-Russell
✓ External relations imply an infinite regress-Bradley
✓ Relations are separate predicates-Cover&O'Leary Hawthorne
✓ Relations are sets of ordered pairs-Potter
Ontology / Categories / Relations / Reflexivity /
Influential Ideas
✓ Reflexive relations are ontologically monadic-Molnar
✓ Reflexiveness is self referring, and basic-Russell
✓ Self relation is a special privileged relation-Benardete,JA
Ontology / Existence / Being /
Influential Ideas
✓ Being baffles because non being does-Politis
Ontology / Existence / Being / Being:Incidental,Per Se,Potential/
Influential Ideas
✓ actual,truth-Wedin
Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other. -john f. Kennedyperson_outline
Ontology / Existence / Criterion Of Existence /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Real' and 'fundamental' are different-Fine,K
✓ 'Something exists' instantiates no properties-McGinn
✓ Action is the criterion for existence-Chrysippus
✓ Causation delimits existence too narrowly-Bird
Ontology / Existence / Existence /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Exists' is predicate, not quantifier-Fine,K
✓ 'Ontology' means 'study of things which exist'-Maslin
✓ 'Thing' and 'to be' assert the same idea-William of Ockham
✓ Affirmation of existence is denial of zero-Frege
Ontology / Existence / Logical Atoms /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Simples' are inferred, not experienced-Russell
✓ 'Tractatus' is extreme logical atomism-Wittgenstein
✓ Assert facts, and name simples-Russell
✓ Basics are simple sensation and reflection-Locke
Ontology / Existence / Materialism /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Exist' varies, but so do things!-Fodor
✓ Abstract ideas are impossible-Berkeley
✓ Abstracta are existential metaphors-Yablo
✓ Abstraction is either trivial or problematic-Carnap
Ontology / Existence / Monads /
Influential Ideas
✓ A substantial chain links the monads-Leibniz
✓ Animated substantial points exist-Leibniz
✓ Atomists say body is sensible-Garber
✓ How do monads relate to bodies?-Garber
Ontology / Existence / Non-Being /
Influential Ideas
✓ No existence no properties-Azzouni
✓ Reference of that which is not?-Plato
✓ Some say non existents 'are'-Aristotle
✓ We affirm being of absences-Aquinas
Ontology / Existence / Ontological Commitment /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Pegasus is Pegasus' may be true-Hale&Wright
✓ 'Ideological' and 'ontological' commitment-Linnebo
✓ Abstractions exist with no causal powers-Lowe
✓ All truths must be logically expressible-Quine
Ontology / Existence / Ontological Commitment / To Be Is To Be The Value Of A Variable/
Influential Ideas
✓ pronoun-Quine
Ontology / Existence / Ontological Dependence /
Influential Ideas
✓ Essence is what founds dependence-Molnar
✓ Essence may need another's existence-Fine,K
✓ Exist separately, or entirely alone?-Simons
✓ Prior things can exist on their own-Aristotle
Ontology / Existence / Reason For Existence /
Influential Ideas
✓ Being cannot be created or perish-Empedocles
✓ Being is maximal consistency-Jacquette
✓ Existence is completeness and consistency-Jacquette
✓ Existence is logically impossible-Gorgias
Ontology / Existence / Stuff / Mixtures /
Influential Ideas
✓ Mixtures need similar quantities of stuff-Simons
✓ Water parts lose identity in mixtures-Laycock
I haven’t failed, i’ve found 10,000 ways that don’t work. -thomas edisonperson_outline
Ontology / Existence / Stuff / Pure Stuff /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Much' but not 'many' for masses-Simons
✓ Continuity establishes rocks, but not fluids-Russell
✓ Gold is not the same as its atoms-Simons
✓ Mass terms are indifferent to division-Simons
Ontology / Existence / Supervenience /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Supervenience' is hopelessly ambiguous-Searle
✓ Constitution is supervenience without identity-Crane
✓ Fixed relations make an 'expression'-Leibniz
✓ Mereological supervenience is parts fix whole-Kim
Ontology / Identity / Essentialism / Against Essentialism /
Influential Ideas
✓ Ancient essentialism is a bar to progress-Popper
✓ Are universal properties essential?-Mumford
✓ Aristotelian essence has become verbal-Quine
✓ Essences of things are merely opinions-Nietzsche
Ontology / Identity / Essentialism / Bare Essence /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Thisness' is no longer useful-Wiggins
✓ A 'substratum' is just a metaphor-Leibniz
✓ Activity is essential to substance-Leibniz
✓ Bare particulars need real properties-Stalnaker
Ontology / Identity / Essentialism / Definitional Essence /
Influential Ideas
✓ Define essence by properties or propositions-Fine,K
✓ Defining just is giving the essence-Fine,K
✓ Definition is of just one thing-Aristotle
✓ Definition is the account of essence-Aristotle
Ontology / Identity / Essentialism / Essence /
Influential Ideas
✓ A simple substance is its own essence-Aquinas
✓ A thing's essence is its real possibilities-Cover&O'Leary Hawthorne
✓ All constituting parts are essential-Brody
✓ Are essences universals?-Aristotle
Ontology / Identity / Essentialism / Essence Of Artefacts /
Influential Ideas
✓ Essential parthood is transitive-Simons
✓ Original parts are essential to artefacts-Simons
✓ There are artificial kinds-Locke
Ontology / Identity / Essentialism / Essential Properties /
Influential Ideas
✓ A property in all worlds is essential-Stalnaker
✓ Artefacts have fuzzy essences-Forbes,G
✓ Complete concepts include contingents-Leibniz
✓ Each property is unpredictable-Locke
Ontology / Identity / Essentialism / Explanatory Essence /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Form' is explanatory, not ontological-Wedin
✓ 'What is it?' points to persistance-Wiggins
✓ A distinct idea of gold is not a perfect idea-Leibniz
✓ Aristotelian essences are causal-Aristotle
Ontology / Identity / Essentialism / Haecceity /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Haecceitism' is belief in a thing's thisness-Kaplan
✓ 'Haecceitism' is shared or distinct thisness-Kaplan
✓ A haecceity does nothing but individuate-Duns Scotus
✓ A haecceity is being identical with that thing-Plantinga
Ontology / Identity / Essentialism / Hylomorphism /
Influential Ideas
✓ Add physical force to hylomorphism-Leibniz
✓ All properties essential, or almost none?-Rami
✓ Aristotelian and Individuating essentialism
✓ Bodies need a soul like unifier-Leibniz
A rose by any other name would smell as sweet. -julietperson_outline
Ontology / Identity / Essentialism / Individual Essence /
Influential Ideas
✓ An individual essence must be unique-Mackie,P
✓ Aristotle rejects individual essences-Aristotle
✓ Does Aristotle like propertyless subjects?-Aristotle
✓ Essence causes unified substances-Aristotle
Ontology / Identity / Essentialism / Modal Essence /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Must' for propositions, 'must' for essences-Simons
✓ 'Necessarily' doesn't replace 'essentially'
✓ 'Idion' is necessary but not essential-Aristotle
✓ Accidents can possibly not belong to a thing-Aristotle
Ontology / Identity / Essentialism / Natural Kind As Essence /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Same kind' won't support essentialism-Mackie,P
✓ A kind is necessary for a real essence-Suárez
✓ Being an x is consequent, not constitutive-Fine,K
✓ Essences determine natural kinds?-Brody
Ontology / Identity / Essentialism / Nominal Essence /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Malleable' is in gold's nominal essence-Locke
✓ A sortal refers to a nominal essence-Wiggins
✓ Can one instance show a natural kind?-Leibniz
✓ Keep real and nominal essence separate-Ellis
Ontology / Identity / Essentialism / Origin As Essence /
Influential Ideas
✓ Necessity of origin is just identity-Forbes,G
✓ One's original sex couldn't differ-Forbes,G
✓ Only origin guarantees reference-Kripke
✓ Origin does not explain an essence-Aristotle
Ontology / Identity / Essentialism / Sortal Essentialism /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Sortal' comes from the word 'sort'-Locke
✓ A whole must fall under a kind-Wiggins
✓ Activity and relation guide sortals-Wiggins
✓ Did Aristotle accept species essence?-Aristotle
Ontology / Identity / Identity / Identity /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Partly broad' a relation, adverb, or segment?-Lowe
✓ No concept is more basic than identity-McGinn
✓ Number is the cause of recognition-Philolaus
✓ Over time and at a time are the same-Wiggins
Ontology / Identity / Identity / Perfect Identity /
Influential Ideas
✓ A form or soul must unite a body-Leibniz
✓ Phosphorus necessarily equals Hesperus-Wiggins
✓ Same ousia and essence? One thing!-Aristotle
✓ We see unities everywhere-Locke
Ontology / Identity / Identity / Relative Identity /
Influential Ideas
✓ Being just 'the same' is meaningless-Geach
✓ Does 'being same F' split in two?-Perry
✓ Kind concepts precede identity criteria-Lowe
✓ Relative identity is just resemblance-Perry
Ontology / Identity / Identity / Type Identity /
Influential Ideas
✓ Are types and tokens different objects?-Geach
✓ Best to just speak of identity or resemblance-McGinn
✓ Classify by paradigms, not pigeon holes-Sainsbury
✓ Numerical and generic sameness-Aristotle
Ontology / Identity / Identity Between Objects / Coincident Objects /
Influential Ideas
✓ Two objects in the same place?-Simons
✓ We can imagine interpenetrating bodies-Leibniz
Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor. - truman capoteperson_outline
Ontology / Identity / Identity Between Objects / Identity Between Objects /
Influential Ideas
✓ How can identities be informative?-Frege
✓ Leibniz's Law is essentialist-Oderberg
✓ Leibniz applies to '=' and 'same f'?-Wiggins
✓ Objects have synthetic a posteriori identity-Lycan
Ontology / Identity / Identity Between Objects / Indiscernible Objects /
Influential Ideas
✓ Leibniz had three versions of his Law-Macdonald
✓ Only discernible in counterparts?-Zimmerman,DW
✓ Identity of Indiscernibles is not necessary-Macdonald
✓ Indiscernibles have possible differences-Zimmerman,DW
Ontology / Identity / Identity Between Objects / Indiscernible Objects / Indiscernibles' Identity: Contentious/
Influential Ideas
✓ trivial-Melia
Ontology / Identity / Identity Over Time / Change And Identity /
Influential Ideas
✓ Cambridge Change is only relative change-Dummett
✓ Change components, qualities or substance-Lowe
✓ Change is new creation, or just phases?-Lowe
✓ Fix time to property, or object, or no change-Lowe
Ontology / Identity / Identity Over Time / Four-Dimensional Identity /
Influential Ideas
✓ D things are stretched and non entire-Fine,K
✓ Four dimensional objects are very odd-Simons
✓ Getting horses from horse stages?-Wiggins
✓ Only an object can individuate a temporal part-Lowe
Ontology / Identity / Identity Over Time / Identity Over Time /
Influential Ideas
✓ A boat is not the planks of which it is made-Heil
✓ Both ships satisfy a criterion-Simons
✓ Knowledge requires unchanging entities-Aristotle
✓ Limiting % change for identity won't work-Lowe
Ontology / Identity / Identity Over Time / Intermittent Objects /
Influential Ideas
✓ Are intermittent objects ever natural?-Simons
✓ Beginnings are unique to each thing-Locke
✓ Intermittence: rebuild a toy fort, same bricks-Chisholm
✓ Intermittent objects are less unified-Simons
Ontology / Identity / Identity Over Time / No Identity Over Time /
Influential Ideas
✓ A tree has no identity, strictly speaking-Butler
✓ Economy of language leads to identity-Reid
✓ Heraclitus implies nothing at all stays still-Plato
✓ Mind sees noises and churches as continuous-Hume
Ontology / Identity / Identity Over Time / Temporal Parts /
Influential Ideas
✓ Dists can accept temporal parts-Fine,K
Ontology / Identity / Identity Over Time / Three-Dimensional Identity /
Influential Ideas
✓ Can things endure while changing shape?-Lewis
✓ D has stretch and entirety conditions-Fine,K
✓ Enduring wholly present, perduring partially-Lowe
✓ Motion requires entire presence-Fine,K
Ontology / Identity / Intrinsic Identity / Composition /
Influential Ideas
✓ Can any two objects make a third?-Merricks
✓ Change of atoms is identity change-Locke
✓ Complexes: masses, composites, or sets-Hossack
✓ Composition is asymmetric and transitive-Simons
Whatever you are, be a good one. -abraham lincolnperson_outline
Ontology / Identity / Intrinsic Identity / Constitution /
Influential Ideas
✓ A statue and its matter are different-Macdonald
✓ A statue and lump of bronze are distinct-Heil
✓ A thing is its parts, or its whole substance-Merricks
✓ Hands constitute, but don't compose, fists-Simons
Ontology / Identity / Intrinsic Identity / Individuation /
Influential Ideas
✓ Distinction is by property or relation-Black
✓ Diversity is difference in space time-Lowe
✓ Fix identity now and over time-Mackie,P
✓ Four relations reveal unity-Leibniz
Ontology / Identity / Intrinsic Identity / Intrinsic Identity /
Influential Ideas
✓ Accidental unity comes in degrees-Leibniz
✓ Accidental unity has degrees-Leibniz
✓ Can we discover if a person is time slices?-Shapiro
✓ Concreta aren't bundles of abstracta-Oliver
Ontology / Identity / Intrinsic Identity / No Intrinsic Identity /
Influential Ideas
✓ At an instant we see unity but not identity-Hume
✓ Fluidity is basic, and we decide the entities-Leibniz
✓ Folk ontology is no better than the arbitrary-Merricks
✓ The unities counting needs may not exist-Nietzsche
Ontology / Identity / Mereology / Axioms Of Mereology /
Influential Ideas
✓ Combine set theory with mereology?-Fine,K
✓ Extensional mereology is concisely defined-Hossack
✓ Mereology bad on time and modality-Simons
✓ Parthood is transitive and asymmetric-Simons
Ontology / Identity / Mereology / Groups /
Influential Ideas
✓ Groups are united collections-Simons
✓ Same members, two groups-Simons
✓ Wolves and a pack have different identity-Simons
Ontology / Identity / Mereology / Mereology /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Part' is a word with several meanings-Simons
✓ A universal whole, but no universal part-Varzi
✓ Base mereology on natural divisions?-Abelard
✓ Classical mereology is weak in practice-Simons
Ontology / Identity / Mereology / Parts /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Part' has a huge variety of references-Varzi
✓ 'Part': reflexive, antisymmetric, transitive-Varzi
✓ Maybe identity is an extreme of parthood-Varzi
✓ Membership is intransitive, unlike parts-Lesniewski
Ontology / Identity / Mereology / Sums /
Influential Ideas
✓ Collections are fixed, fusions carvable-Potter
✓ No possible world with individuals-Simons
✓ Sum plurals and masses, not individuals-Simons
✓ We can sum things in different categories-Simons
Ontology / Identity / Mereology / Terminology Of Mereology /
Influential Ideas
✓ Atom: individual without parts, At x-Simons
✓ Difference: remainder of an overlap, x y-Simons
✓ Disjoint: don't overlap, x | y-Simons
✓ Dissective: all parts are still the stuff-Simons
Ontology / Identity / Mereology / Wholes /
Influential Ideas
✓ All parts are necessary for a whole-Leibniz
✓ Any things can fuse mereologically-Lewis
✓ Arrangement prevents parts fixing whole-Varzi
✓ Cat fusions involve no more commitment-Lewis
person_outline
Ontology / Identity / Vague Identity / Degrees Of Vagueness /
Influential Ideas
✓ Could million valued logics solve sorites?-Fisher
✓ Give vagueness a third or fuzzy value-Keefe&Smith
✓ How is a degree of redness to be decided?-Keefe&Smith
✓ People cannot be fully ordered by niceness-Keefe&Smith
Ontology / Identity / Vague Identity / Problem Of Vagueness /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Or' might drift from exclusive to inclusive-Sorensen
✓ A blurry border is still a border-Shapiro
✓ A or B might be true, but not A and not B-Dummett
✓ A precise borderline area is not vague-Keefe&Smith
Ontology / Identity / Vague Identity / Supervaluation /
Influential Ideas
✓ Borderline cases must be under our control-Fine,K
✓ Make vagueness precise to produce truth-Fine,K
✓ Meaning is actual and potential-Fine,K
✓ Supervaluation has non classical semantics-Keefe&Smith
Ontology / Identity / Vague Identity / Vagueness As Epistemic /
Influential Ideas
✓ A vague concept cannot be discriminated-Williamson
✓ Close ideas can't all be named-Locke
✓ More information won't settle borderline tall-Keefe&Smith
✓ No knowledge close to conceptual boundaries-Williamson
Ontology / Identity / Vague Identity / Vagueness In Reality /
Influential Ideas
✓ Baldness is indeterminate, unlike hair-Jackson
✓ Mount Everest has naturally fuzzy boundaries-Keefe&Smith
✓ Mountains are vague, so don't exist?-Williamson
✓ Only representations can be vague-Russell
Ontology / Knowledge Of Modality / A Posteriori Necessary /
Influential Ideas
✓ Natural laws are necessary a posteriori-Ellis
✓ Necessities about tables are not a priori-Kripke
✓ Necessity can only be known empirically-Dancy,J
✓ Quine said abstracta are known a posteriori-Quine
Ontology / Knowledge Of Modality / A Priori Analytic /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Things have one place' is verifiable-Ierubino
✓ 'Things have one place' might be tautological-Ayer
✓ Logic & definitions enough for analytic truths-Frege
✓ Logic & maths can't be synthetic-Wittgenstein
Ontology / Knowledge Of Modality / A Priori Contingent /
Influential Ideas
✓ Designation gives a priori contingent truths-Kripke
✓ Knowing God's choices: a priori contingent-Leibniz
✓ Stick a meter long is contingent a priori-Kripke
Ontology / Knowledge Of Modality / A Priori Necessary /
Influential Ideas
✓ Many necessities are inexpressible-Kitcher
✓ Maths is necessary, so it must be a priori-Kant
✓ Modal thought is part of normal thought-Williamson
✓ Necessary in fact, but contingent to us?-Putnam
Ontology / Knowledge Of Modality / A Priori Necessary / Maybe A Priori Logic/
Influential Ideas
✓ geometry are relative?-O'Grady
Ontology / Knowledge Of Modality / A Priori Synthetic /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'A cow is not a horse' is synthetic a priori-Dancy,J
✓ += is not analytic-Kant
✓ A 'faculty' can't explain synthetic a priori-Nietzsche
✓ A priori we don't know, we anticipate-Kant
Familiarity breeds contempt. -aesopperson_outline
Ontology / Knowledge Of Modality / Conceivable As Possible /
Influential Ideas
✓ Conceiving impossibilities is easy-Reid
✓ Necessity depends too much on conceivability-Segal
✓ Nothing we imagine is absolutely impossible-Hume
✓ Possibility is no longer seen as imaginability-Bird
Ontology / Modalities / Chance /
Influential Ideas
✓ Chance is a coincidental cause-Aristotle
✓ Chance is just a secondary cause-Aristotle
✓ Maybe choices cause coincidences-Aristotle
Ontology / Modalities / Conditionals /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Not' and 'and' explain some conditionals-Quine
✓ 'If' is conditional if A implies B-Enderton
✓ Are conditionals sometimes unassertible?-Grice
✓ Are conditionals truth functional?-Read
Ontology / Modalities / Contingency /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Contingent' is imperfect knowledge-Spinoza
✓ Contingency is an ignorant illusion-Spinoza
✓ Contingent existence needs a reason-Leibniz
✓ Contingent means the cause is unperceived-Hobbes
Ontology / Modalities / Counterfactuals /
Influential Ideas
✓ Counterfactuals are logical inferences-Mautner
✓ Counterfactuals are possible world facts-Mautner
✓ Counterfactuals are valid rather than true-Mautner
✓ Counterfactuals examine powers-Jacobs
Ontology / Modalities / Modality /
Influential Ideas
✓ Modal realism: modality is factual-McFetridge
✓ Modal truths are facts of this world-Jubien
✓ Modality is actual but abstract-Jubien
✓ Modality: metaphysical and epistemic-Edgington
Ontology / Modalities / Necessity / Denial Of Necessity /
Influential Ideas
✓ A priori truths are provisional assumptions-Nietzsche
✓ All necessity is verbal, hence 'de dicto'-Putnam
✓ De re necessity is a form of de dicto-Jubien
✓ Empiricists say modality is just regularity-Fine,K
Ontology / Modalities / Necessity / Metaphysical Necessity /
Influential Ideas
✓ Certainty must precede apriori synthetic-Quine
✓ Logical modality OK, thanks to models-Shapiro
✓ Logical necessities are deduced from anything-McFetridge
✓ Logical necessity blocks all falsehood-McFetridge
Ontology / Modalities / Necessity / Natural Necessity /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Gold is malleable' is necessary non analytic-Audi
✓ Apparent physical necessity is total necessity-Kripke
✓ Causal necessities hold, with the laws-Lewis
✓ Laws are based on a posteriori necessity-Kripke
Ontology / Modalities / Necessity / Necessity /
Influential Ideas
✓ All necessities are demonstrable-Leibniz
✓ Being must have a limit, to be perfect-Parmenides
✓ Even gods must accept necessity-Pittacus
✓ Everything happens by reason and necessity-Leucippus
Ontology / Modalities / Necessity / Types Of Necessity /
Influential Ideas
✓ Analytic truths of logic and of concepts-Girle
✓ De re needs transworld identity-Forbes,G
✓ How do we know 'events have causes'?-Baggini&Fosl
✓ Keep our concept of necessities simple-Jackson
Smile, breathe and go slowly. - thich nhat hanhperson_outline
Ontology / Modalities / Possibility / Epistemic Possibility /
Influential Ideas
✓ Epistemic is independent of logically possible-McFetridge
✓ Epistemically possible 'for all I know'-Rami
Ontology / Modalities / Possibility / Possibility /
Influential Ideas
✓ A perfect idea reveals possibility-Leibniz
✓ Actual world changes show possibilities-Shoemaker
✓ An objects possibilities must also beknown-Wittgenstein
✓ Essentialist are modal realists-Ellis
Ontology / Modalities / Probability /
Influential Ideas
✓ Probability of tails is a fact about a coin-Bird
✓ Probability was mastered-Hacking
✓ Statistical and epistemological probability-Hacking
✓ There is subjective and objective probability-Bird
Ontology / Possible Worlds / Nature Of Possible Worlds / Actualism /
Influential Ideas
✓ Armstrong's actualism is the best version-Armstrong
✓ Modality resides in actual properties-Jacobs
✓ Reductionist, or moderate realist actualism-Read
✓ Worlds rest on object possibilities-Wiggins
Ontology / Possible Worlds / Nature Of Possible Worlds / Modal Realism /
Influential Ideas
✓ A world is a maximal mereological sum-Lewis
✓ Are all possibilities really actual?-Oderberg
✓ Concrete worlds are at least evidence-Jacobs
✓ How can we know possible worlds?-Forbes,G
Ontology / Possible Worlds / Nature Of Possible Worlds / Nature Of Possible Worlds /
Influential Ideas
✓ Definitions of possible worlds include actual-Fine,K
✓ Possible world: linguistic or real or abstract-Perry
✓ Possible worlds are points of logical space-Forbes,G
✓ Possible worlds sets of possible tropes?-Bacon,John
Ontology / Possible Worlds / Nature Of Possible Worlds / Worlds As Fictions /
Influential Ideas
✓ A possible world implies true propositions-Melia
✓ Possible worlds are world stories-Adams,RM
✓ Stories may be impossible-Wiggins
✓ Three problems with linguistic possible worlds-Lewis
Ontology / Possible Worlds / Nature Of Possible Worlds / Worlds As Propositions /
Influential Ideas
✓ Are remote proposition structures worlds?-Jacquette
✓ Possible world fix domain truth values-Read
✓ Separating 'exists' and 'actual' seems odd-Jacquette
✓ The actual world is maximally consistent-Jacquette
Ontology / Possible Worlds / Possible Worlds / Against Possible Worlds /
Influential Ideas
✓ Could existence happen to be necessary?-Jubien
✓ Do possible worlds contain possible worlds?-Lowe
✓ How many 'possible worlds' are there?-Jubien
✓ Lewis's possible worlds are circular-Shalkowski
Ontology / Possible Worlds / Possible Worlds / Possible Worlds /
Influential Ideas
✓ Consistent states & properties make actuality-Jacquette
✓ Modals can be quantifiers in possible worlds-Melia
✓ Mythical possibilities give correct logic?-Shapiro
✓ Necessity & counterfactuals aren't primitives-Melia
Ontology / Possible Worlds / Transworld Identity / Counterparts /
Influential Ideas
✓ A counterpart is the unique resembler-Lewis
✓ Concrete worlds require counterparts-Read
✓ Counterparts are close and closest resemblers-Lewis
✓ Counterparts are under a relation-Mackie,P
Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get. -forrest gump’s momperson_outline
Ontology / Possible Worlds / Transworld Identity / Rigid Designation /
Influential Ideas
✓ Begin with actual objects, not possible worlds-Kripke
✓ Elizabeth II necessarily originated as she did-Kripke
✓ Empty designators have meaning-Evans
✓ Non existents can have rigid reference-Kripke
Ontology / Possible Worlds / Transworld Identity / Transworld Identity /
Influential Ideas
✓ A different life means a different person-Leibniz
✓ Bare particulars solve transworld identity-Kaplan
✓ Bizarre identities are pointless-Stalnaker
✓ Could Adam and Noah gradually swap?-Chisholm
Ontology / Sources Of Modality / Necessity As Primitive /
Influential Ideas
✓ Even God can't undo what is done-Agathon
✓ Some necessary truths are brute-Leibniz
Ontology / Sources Of Modality / Necessity By Convention /
Influential Ideas
✓ Can necessity rest on contingent conventions?-Hale
✓ Communication precedes conventions-Quine
✓ Convention needs a non conventional basis-Fogelin
Ontology / Sources Of Modality / Necessity From Concepts /
Influential Ideas
✓ Concepts don't explain necessities-Hale
✓ Concepts generate their own necessities-Fine,K
✓ De re necessity is conceptual-Forbes,G
Ontology / Sources Of Modality / Necessity From Essence /
Influential Ideas
✓ Essences make metaphysical necessities true-Ellis
✓ Essentialism is belief in de re necessity-Mautner
✓ Metaphysical necessity from all natures-Fine,K
✓ Necessary features may not be essential-Fine,K
Ontology / Sources Of Modality / Sources Of Necessity /
Influential Ideas
✓ De re necessity depends on the world-Newton Smith
✓ Divine nature makes everything necessary-Spinoza
✓ Do necessity or contingency explain necessity?-Hale
✓ Each area has its own source of necessity-Fine,K
Ontology / Universals / Instantiated Universals /
Influential Ideas
✓ Can unique universals be 'similar'?-Oliver
✓ Colour must be in individuals-Aristotle
✓ Locating universals creates absurdities-Oliver
✓ Must a real universal depend on a particular?-Bird
Ontology / Universals / Need For Universals /
Influential Ideas
✓ A priori knowledge requires universals-Russell
✓ Allow universals to make accepted theory true-Quine
✓ Causes and laws of nature need universals-Mellor
✓ Communication is impossible without the forms-Plato
Ontology / Universals / Nominalism / Class Nominalism /
Influential Ideas
✓ A property is not bestowed by set membership-Heil
✓ Class and Resemblance Nominalism the same-Lewis
✓ Having a property is class membership-Lewis
✓ Nominalist definitions of sets are circular?-Lowe
Ontology / Universals / Nominalism / Class Nominalism / Triangular/
Influential Ideas
✓ trilateral identical properties-Shoemaker
The unexamined life is not worth living. -socratesperson_outline
Ontology / Universals / Nominalism / Concept Nominalism /
Influential Ideas
✓ General terms are concepts, not properties-Swoyer
✓ Maybe concepts and predicates are universals?-Armstrong
✓ Mere ideas can't be universals-Russell
✓ Universals are just repeated concepts-Armstrong
Ontology / Universals / Nominalism / Mereological Nominalism /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Red' is one object in space time-Quine
✓ Nominalists can appeal to mereological sums-Reck&Price
✓ Red is the largest red thing-Quine
✓ Squareness can't be the unity of all squares-Armstrong
Ontology / Universals / Nominalism / Nominalism /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Porridge' nominalists deny natural joints-Mumford
✓ 'Is square' doesn't pick out an object-Quine
✓ A universal present in contradictory things?-Abelard
✓ Accepting universals is arbitrary or pragmatic-Quine
Ontology / Universals / Nominalism / Predicate Nominalism /
Influential Ideas
✓ Not all predicates denote properties-Lowe
✓ Physical changes don't need predicates-Armstrong
✓ Predicates and properties are separable-Moreland
✓ Predicates are relational, or non referring
Ontology / Universals / Nominalism / Resemblance Nominalism /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Resemblance' itself is a universal-Russell
✓ 'Respects' seem rather like properties-Armstrong
✓ Clusters of powers can resemble in degrees-Mumford
✓ Does resemblance just depend on us-Campbell,K
Ontology / Universals / Platonic Forms / Forms Critiques /
Influential Ideas
✓ A form can't contain 'many' or 'one'-Aquinas
✓ Forms are less real than their particulars-Aristotle
✓ Forms are nonsense, or irrelevant-Aristotle
✓ Forms aren't separate from matter-Bacon
Ontology / Universals / Platonic Forms / Partaking /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Beauty is beautiful' needs concept of beauty-Westaway
✓ Beauty is different from but present in things-Plato
✓ Concepts precede ideal cases of them-Fodor
✓ Forms can't be both universals and particulars-Aristotle
Ontology / Universals / Platonic Forms / Platonic Forms /
Influential Ideas
✓ All creation based on the Forms is good-Plato
✓ Anti Forms are parts of Forms-Plato
✓ Craftsmen know the form before the artefact-Plato
✓ Forms are the highest objects of desire-Plato
Ontology / Universals / Platonic Forms / Self-Predication /
Influential Ideas
✓ Forms have to be their own paradigms-Aristotle
✓ Justice itself must be just-Plato
✓ The Forms are not self predicating-Armstrong
✓ If ideas & things are alike, it causes a third-Plato
Ontology / Universals / Trope Theory / Tropes /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Modes' shows dependence, unlike 'tropes'-Lowe
✓ 'Is wise' means a sum holds a set member-Williams,DC
✓ A 'trope' is an abstract particular-Williams,DC
✓ A trope is a bit of a property or relation-Bacon,John
Ontology / Universals / Trope Theory / Tropes Critique /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Paint it red' is universal, not a trope-Moreland
✓ An object isn't properties, it owns them-Heil
✓ Can tropes be split into parts?-Oliver
✓ Can two tropes coincide in space?-Lowe
You can’t make an omelet without breaking a few eggs. -proverbperson_outline
Ontology / Universals / Uninstantiated Universals /
Influential Ideas
✓ Bare universals exist, having properties-Oliver
✓ Can being even exist in space?-Moreland
✓ Can redness be moving and stationary?-Moreland
✓ Facts about redness do not exist in space-Moreland
Ontology / Universals / Universals /
Influential Ideas
✓ Properties are one, but realised multiply-Moreland
Ontology / Universals / Universals / The Model/
Influential Ideas
✓ copy view is a possible Realism-Moreland
Ontology / Universals / Universals As Concepts /
Influential Ideas
✓ Children gradually come to group objects-Wilson,EO
✓ Universals result from brain self mapping-Edelman&Tononi
✓ Whiteness is not a thought, but its content-Russell
Personal Identity / Character Of The Self / Essential Self /
Influential Ideas
✓ All languages can express 'I'-Lowe
✓ All souls are identical-Plato
✓ Must the self be All or Nothing?-Dennett
✓ Old people change, but remain similar-Plato
Personal Identity / Character Of The Self / Ethical Self /
Influential Ideas
✓ Morality requires a belief in the self-Rashdall
✓ There are links between self and goodness-Taylor,C
✓ What counts as a good or bad 'person'?-Hursthouse
Personal Identity / Character Of The Self / External Properties /
Influential Ideas
✓ Know the world to know yourself?-Kim
✓ Man is the sum of his actions-Sartre
✓ Modern views of personal identity are external-Martin&Barresi
✓ Perception needs no self, but action does-Searle
Personal Identity / Character Of The Self / Inner Properties /
Influential Ideas
✓ A self has to be conscious-Searle
✓ Modern self is reason, explore, commit-Taylor,C
✓ Persons think, relate, feel and are self aware-Glover
✓ Self is aware,reasonable,active,responsible-Searle
Personal Identity / Character Of The Self / Persistence Of Self /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Self' at an instant, and 'person' over time-Locke
✓ 'Whose experience?' is a good question-Nagel
✓ A self is needed for responsibility and plans-Butler
✓ An agent necessarily has future self-Korsgaard
Personal Identity / Persons / Existence Of Persons /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Person' derives from Roman law-Scruton
✓ A person can die as well as a body-Williams,B
✓ Agency is the key to personal identity-Korsgaard
✓ Being 'an individual' is social-Kusch
Personal Identity / Persons / Persons As Reasoners /
Influential Ideas
✓ Rational agents must have selfhood-Searle
✓ Reasons for action require a self-Searle
✓ Self uses intellect to control the body
✓ Steps of reasoning require personal identity-Reid
First do no harm. -hippocratesperson_outline
Personal Identity / Persons / Persons As Responsible /
Influential Ideas
✓ Don't blame people for forgotten actions-Locke
✓ Past responsibility needs personal identity-Searle
✓ The law agrees that madness changes identity-Locke
Personal Identity / Rejection Of The Self / Denial Of The Self /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'I' is a fiction to simulate 'knowledge'-Nietzsche
✓ A reflective Ego is cut off from the world-Sartre
✓ Let individuality go, like the body's cells-Schopenhauer
✓ My own identity through change is boring-Parfit
Personal Identity / Self-Awareness / Introspection /
Influential Ideas
✓ Attention reveals any conscious state-Lehrer
✓ Blindsight shows introspection unreliable-Rey
✓ Empirical foundationalism is introspective-Shoemaker
✓ Experiments show introspection unreliable-Rey
Personal Identity / Self-Awareness / Self-Knowledge /
Influential Ideas
✓ Anti individualism denies self knowledge?-Burge
✓ Be conscious of yourself as mankind-Nietzsche
✓ Can self awareness be non perceptual?-Cassam
✓ Experiences do not intrinsically have an owner-Ayer
Personal Identity / Self-Awareness / Undetectable Self /
Influential Ideas
✓ A person is a bundle of fluctuating perception-Hume
✓ Like eyes, souls see things but not themselves-Cicero
✓ No self is observable apart from perceptions-Hume
✓ Self knowledge can only be appearance-Kant
Personal Identity / Self As Body / Animalism /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Animalism' says I am not a person-Olson
✓ A child can be held in your arms-Merricks
Personal Identity / Self As Body / Brain As The Self /
Influential Ideas
✓ We meet other people, not their brains-Maslin
✓ If my brain can survive, I am not my body-Lowe
Personal Identity / Self As Body / Role Of The Body /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Person' refers to consciousness plus body-Strawson,P
✓ Body and memory are joint criteria-Ayer
✓ Consciousnesses are identified by bodies-Ayer
✓ Deduce a self rationally to avoid materialism-Kant
Personal Identity / Self As Mind / Associated Self /
Influential Ideas
✓ A body is needed to identify experiences-Ayer
✓ Bundles of experience are united by memory-Ayer
✓ Experiences are felt to be continuous-Ayer
✓ Hume sketches a causal theory of identity-Perry
Personal Identity / Self As Mind / Psychological Continuity /
Influential Ideas
✓ A man is a succession, bound by causal laws-Russell
✓ Branching is a problem for memory criteria-Williams,B
✓ Can't remember doing it? Not guilty!-Locke
✓ Consciousness unites the self-Locke
Personal Identity / Self As Mind / Psychological Self Critique /
Influential Ideas
✓ Conscious states get identity from persons-Carruthers
✓ Consciousness can split into many persons-Reid
✓ Consciousness could pass to a new substance-Kant
✓ Consciousness is too unstable for identity-Reid
Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far. -theodore rooseveltperson_outline
Personal Identity / Self As Mind / Self And Memory /
Influential Ideas
✓ A person is made of memories-Leibniz
✓ All experience being remembered is a regress-Ayer
✓ Bodily identity is needed to confirm memories-Shoemaker
✓ Causation extends the self beyond memory-Hume
Personal Identity / Self As Mind / Self As Meta-Awareness /
Influential Ideas
✓ A person needs second order thought-Dennett
✓ A self is needed to co ordinate mind modules-Fodor
✓ Humans exercise downward causation-Merricks
✓ Personhood may need nested intentionality-Rey
Personal Identity / Self As Mind / Split Consciousness /
Influential Ideas
✓ Saving twins by merging them is fine-Parfit
✓ Survival and personal identity are different-Parfit
✓ I can't imagine my brain being split-Nagel
✓ Identity of merged persons is verbal-Parfit
Personal Identity / Self As Non-Physical / Cartesian Ego /
Influential Ideas
✓ A centre of gravity is not a substance-Kant
✓ Minds grasp objects, so they are the essence-Feuerbach
✓ My essence consists entirely of thinking-Descartes
✓ Some cause must unify stages of the mind-Descartes
Personal Identity / Self As Non-Physical / Spiritual Self /
Influential Ideas
✓ Fixed identity implies substance-Butler
✓ Mind doesn't need a place or a material base-Descartes
✓ Self and substance seem unconnected-Hume
✓ Self is either a substance or its property-Butler
Personal Identity / Self As Transcendent / A Priori Self /
Influential Ideas
✓ Personal identity can't be known a priori-Nagel
✓ The self must exist to be self aware-Butler
Personal Identity / Self As Transcendent / Kantian Ego /
Influential Ideas
✓ A transcendental ego splits consciousness-Sartre
✓ Kant's 'I' is formal, not substantial-Kant
✓ Thought must belong to a self consciousness-Kant
✓ We must view ourselves as noumena-Kant
Reason / Argument / Analogy /
Influential Ideas
✓ All matters of fact are deduced by analogy-Hume
✓ Any difference can undermine an analogy-Hume
✓ Babylonians mainly thought by analogy-Watson
✓ Examples distort our grasp of rules-Kant
Reason / Argument / Argument /
Influential Ideas
✓ Arguments serve to explain, not to coerce-Lewis
✓ Valid arguments can still be rejected-Martin,M
Reason / Argument / Open Question /
Influential Ideas
✓ Clearly 'good' might be definable-Scruton
Reason / Argument / Reductio Ad Absurdum /
Influential Ideas
✓ Proof by showing absurdity of denial-Friend
Honesty is an expensive gift. Don't expect it from cheap people. Warren buffetperson_outline
Reason / Argument / Thought Experiments /
Influential Ideas
✓ Reductionism is essential to thought-O'Grady
✓ Thinking is imagination and supposition-Aristotle
Reason / Argument / Transcendental Argument /
Influential Ideas
✓ Three requirements for transcendental ideas-Kant
✓ Transcendental arguments have preconceptions-Fodor
Reason / Fallacies / Ad Hominem /
Influential Ideas
✓ Ad Hominem attacks the man, not the argument-PG
✓ Face the consequences of your view-Locke
Reason / Fallacies / Category Mistake /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Socrates and killing are two' is illegitimate Logic-Russell
✓ Bizarre sentences are meaningless, not false-Russell
✓ Differentiae of differents are different-Aristotle
✓ Don't ask if sleep is fast, or virtue square-Locke
Reason / Fallacies / Circularity /
Influential Ideas
✓ Circular arguments are formally valid-Hanna
✓ Circularity of premisses, or of rules-Braithwaite
✓ For Christians God must guarantee the senses-Nietzsche
✓ God guarantees our sense of truth-Descartes
Reason / Fallacies / Fallacy /
Influential Ideas
✓ At least fourteen informal fallacies-Hanna
✓ Fallacies are errors in reasoning-PG
✓ More obscure explains the obscure?-Hale&Wright
✓ If P then Q, Q, so P??-Hanna
Reason / Fallacies / Fallacy Of Composition /
Influential Ideas
✓ Composition is a mereology fallacy-Hanna
✓ Don't assume the whole is like the parts-Mautner
✓ Things needn't have their parts' properties-Macdonald
✓ If parts follow natural law, so must the whole-Cicero
Reason / Fallacies / Fallacy Of Division /
Influential Ideas
✓ Truth about a set is true about its members-PG
Reason / Fallacies / Infinite Regress /
Influential Ideas
✓ Only explanations are vicious regresses-McGinn
✓ Proving everything means an infinite regress-Aristotle
Reason / Fallacies / Question Begging /
Influential Ideas
✓ Don't assume what is being challenged-PG
Reason / Inference / Entailment /
Influential Ideas
✓ Entailment is logical requirement-Mautner
Do one thing every day that scares you. -eleanor rooseveltperson_outline
Reason / Inference / Material Implication /
Influential Ideas
✓ Material implication has paradoxes-Lemmon
✓ The implications of a truth are always true-Russell
✓ If p then q is not{p and not q}-Sext Empiricus
Reason / Inference / Modus Ponens /
Influential Ideas
✓ Does modus ponens need complete proofs?-Shapiro
✓ Logical inference doesn't compel belief-Harman
Reason / Inference / Strict Implication /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Entailment' is successful strict implication-Girle
✓ Lewis & Russell were confused about 'if then'-Quine
✓ Should random sentences imply one another?-Lewis,CI
✓ Strict implication is paradoxical-Mautner
Reason / Laws Of Thought / Bivalence /
Influential Ideas
✓ Maybe truth is indeterminate, or variable-O'Grady
✓ No bivalence if no reference or vagueness-Dummett
✓ No excluded middle without bivalence-Rowlands
✓ No one has successfully denied bivalence-Sorensen
Reason / Laws Of Thought / Contraries /
Influential Ideas
✓ Both parts needn't exist among contraries-Aristotle
✓ Contraries are as far apart as possible-Aristotle
✓ Contrariety has degrees, unlike contradiction-Aristotle
✓ Contrary to good is bad, but not vice versa-Aristotle
Reason / Laws Of Thought / Excluded Middle /
Influential Ideas
✓ Anti realists want to ditch excluded middle-Dummett
✓ Discoveries depend on excluded middle-Russell
✓ Does excluded middle fail for vagueness?-Fine,K
✓ Every proposition is either true or false-Chrysippus
Reason / Laws Of Thought / Laws Of Thought /
Influential Ideas
✓ Contradiction refers to things, not thoughts-Russell
✓ Laws of thought are laws of reality-Feuerbach
✓ Laws of thought are true but not axiomatic-Bolzano
✓ Linked clear sentences become unclear-Sorensen
Reason / Laws Of Thought / Non-Contradiction /
Influential Ideas
✓ Affirming p¬ p is misusing 'and' or 'not'-Quine
✓ Contradiction is impossible
✓ Contradictions cannot be true at the same time-Aristotle
✓ Denial of contradiction changes the subject-Quine
Reason / Laws Of Thought / Ockham's Razor /
Influential Ideas
✓ Belief in entities require reasons-Mellor&Oliver
✓ Believe only in what is causal?-Oliver
✓ Don't multiply entities beyond necessity-William of Ockham
✓ Either we demand simplicity, or reality does-Moreland
Reason / Laws Of Thought / Opposites /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Everything is opposites' implies a regress-Aristotle
✓ Harmony arises from opposites-Heraclitus
✓ Only one thing can be contrary to something-Plato
✓ Opposite values prove that Forms are single-Plato
Reason / Laws Of Thought / Sufficient Reason /
Influential Ideas
✓ All existence has a cause-Plato
✓ Every event has a reason-Leibniz
✓ Every existence has a necessary cause-Spinoza
✓ Everything has a reason, demanding 'Why?'-Schopenhauer
People who live in glass houses should not throw stones. -proverbperson_outline
Reason / Modal Logic Ml / Alethic Modal Logic /
Influential Ideas
✓ Actual, necessary and possible differ in logic-Aristotle
✓ Modal logic has four main equivalences-Girle
✓ Modal logic is not an extensional language-Parsons,C
✓ Modal logic was only formalised later-Jacquette
Reason / Modal Logic Ml / Epistemic Logic /
Influential Ideas
✓ a knows P, and for all a knows, P-Fitting&Mendelsohn
✓ Knowers are assumed to know they know-Fitting&Mendelsohn
Reason / Modal Logic Ml / Modal Logic /
Influential Ideas
✓ First order predicate calculus is extensional-Melia
✓ Kripke's semantics has presuppositions-Zalta
✓ Modal logic is metalogical, not metaphysical-Burgess&Rosen
✓ Modality is normally treated as quantifiers-Shapiro
Reason / Modal Logic Ml / Modal Logic Systems / System B /
Influential Ideas
✓ B has relflexive and symmetric conditions-Fitting&Mendelsohn
Reason / Modal Logic Ml / Modal Logic Systems / System D /
Influential Ideas
✓ D has the serial condition-Fitting&Mendelsohn
✓ Must so does invalid in Deontic Logic D-Fitting&Mendelsohn
Reason / Modal Logic Ml / Modal Logic Systems / System K /
Influential Ideas
✓ K has no accessibility conditions-Fitting&Mendelsohn
Reason / Modal Logic Ml / Modal Logic Systems / System K4 /
Influential Ideas
✓ K has the 'transitive' condition-Fitting&Mendelsohn
Reason / Modal Logic Ml / Modal Logic Systems / System S4 /
Influential Ideas
✓ S has fourteen modalities-Girle
✓ S is reflexive and transitive-Fitting&Mendelsohn
Reason / Modal Logic Ml / Modal Logic Systems / System S5 /
Influential Ideas
✓ S has just six modalities-Girle
✓ S is reflexive, symmetric and transitive-Fitting&Mendelsohn
✓ S is the logic of metaphysics-Rumfitt
✓ S is the simplest possible worlds logic-Girle
Reason / Modal Logic Ml / Modal Logic Systems / System T /
Influential Ideas
✓ T has the reflexive condition-Fitting&Mendelsohn
Reason / Modal Logic Ml / Modal Logic Systems / Systems Of Modal Logic /
Influential Ideas
✓ Necessity: provable {S} always true {S}-Read
✓ Possible worlds S are sound and complete-Rossberg
✓ Varied accessibility shows multiple systems-Jacquette
First do no harm. -hippocratesperson_outline
Reason / Modal Logic Ml / Property {Λ-} /
Influential Ideas
✓ lambda abstraction disambiguates-Fitting
✓ Must a condition imply a property?-Fine,K
Reason / Modal Logic Ml / Temporal Logic / Will/Was Sometime, And Will/
Influential Ideas
✓ was always-Fitting&Mendelsohn
Reason / Modal Logic Ml / Tools Of Modal Logic / Derivation Rules Of Ml /
Influential Ideas
✓ Necessity is truth in all accesible worlds-Fitting&Mendelsohn
✓ Possibility is truth in some accesible world-Fitting&Mendelsohn
Reason / Modal Logic Ml / Tools Of Modal Logic / Symbols Of Ml /
Influential Ideas
✓ σ n: world accessible from σ-Fitting&Mendelsohn
✓ 'R' is accessibility, written yRx-Fitting&Mendelsohn
✓ Add box {necessarily} and diamond {possibly}-Fitting&Mendelsohn
✓ The symbol || is the 'forcing' relation-Fitting&Mendelsohn
Reason / Modal Logic Ml / Tools Of Modal Logic / Terminology Of Ml /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Predicate abstraction' give extra scoping-Fitting&Mendelsohn
✓ A 'frame' is possible worlds and accessibility-Fitting&Mendelsohn
✓ A 'model' is a frame plus truth specifications-Fitting&Mendelsohn
✓ Reflexive, transitive or symmetric relations-Fitting&Mendelsohn
Reason / Nature Of Reason / Aims Of Reason /
Influential Ideas
✓ Be cautious, analytical, systematic, panoramic-Descartes
✓ Consensus is the enemy of thought-Badiou
✓ Contradiction and reason giving are basic-Leibniz
✓ Doubt uncertain ideas as much as false ones-Descartes
Reason / Nature Of Reason / Limits Of Reason /
Influential Ideas
✓ A rich consistent world view may be impossible-Fogelin
✓ All discussion is uncertain and contradictory-Agrippa
✓ Being drunk can be the safer course-Baudrillard
✓ Chains of reasoning never terminate-Agrippa
Reason / Nature Of Reason / Logos /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Logos' was later identified with 'techné'-Roochnik
✓ Aristotle's logos is rational talk about value-Roochnik
✓ Descartes had too narrow a view of reason-Roochnik
✓ Humans are the only animals with logos-Aristotle
Reason / Nature Of Reason / Naturalising Reason /
Influential Ideas
✓ Naturalism and rationality are compatible-Fodor
✓ Rationalisation leads to mental causation-Segal
✓ Rationality is built into intentionality-Searle
✓ Rationality is coordination of intentionality-Searle
Reason / Nature Of Reason / On Reason /
Influential Ideas
✓ All reasoning begins voluntarily-Kant
✓ Consistency depends on what is possible-Melia
✓ Deductive reason, and demonstration-Aristotle
✓ Deductively invalid reason can be useful-Mumford
Reason / Nature Of Reason / On Reason / Reflective Equilibrium: Intuition/
Influential Ideas
✓ theory match-Fisher
Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away. - maya angelouperson_outline
Reason / Nature Of Reason / Pure Reason /
Influential Ideas
✓ A natural space of reasons enables freedom-McDowell
✓ Body is misleading, but thought brings truth-Plato
✓ Pure reason handles concepts-Kant
✓ Pure reason is confined to understandings-Kant
Reason / Nature Of Reason / Status Of Reason /
Influential Ideas
✓ Descartes was purely rational, and superficial-Nietzsche
✓ Everyone should enjoy argument-Plato
✓ For Fichte our religion is human reason-Fichte
✓ Opposing reason is opposing truth-Leibniz
Reason / Non-Classical Logics / Free Logic /
Influential Ideas
✓ Even free logic struggles with non existence-Bach
✓ Free logic is first order-Priest,G
✓ Free logic is for fictional objects-Friend
✓ Free logic makes no existence assumptions-Meinong
Reason / Non-Classical Logics / Fuzzy Logic /
Influential Ideas
✓ Fuzzy logic has a big range of truth values-Fisher
✓ Fuzzy logic has continuous truth-Williamson
✓ Fuzzy sets, quantifiiers and modifiers-Read
✓ Fuzzy sets ground fuzzy logic-Mautner
Reason / Non-Classical Logics / Intuitionist Logic /
Influential Ideas
✓ Is double negation elimination valid?-Friend
Reason / Non-Classical Logics / Many-Valued Logic /
Influential Ideas
✓ Basic logic can fail in three value logics-Fisher
✓ Three value logic has T, F and I{ndeterminate}-Lukasiewicz
Reason / Non-Classical Logics / Paraconsistency /
Influential Ideas
✓ Non contradiction is a psychological matter-Brouwer
Reason / Non-Classical Logics / Relevant Logic /
Influential Ideas
✓ Logic with relevance and inconsistency-Priest,G
Reason / Paradox / Antinomy /
Influential Ideas
✓ Deny or succumb to problems, they persist-Sorensen
Reason / Paradox / Aporia /
Influential Ideas
✓ A science for each type of being?-Aristotle
✓ All progress starts with puzzles-Aristotle
✓ Are ultimate and basic two sciences?-Aristotle
✓ Are universals or particulars basic?-Aristotle
Reason / Paradox / Paradoxes /
Influential Ideas
✓ Give up a choice if a rival is eliminated?-PG
✓ Lottery Paradox says it probably won't be won-Bonjour
✓ Naming vast numbers can be paradoxical-Brown,JR
✓ Socrates died when alive or when dead!-Sext Empiricus
I think therefore i am. - descartesperson_outline
Reason / Paradox / Paradoxes Of Set Theory /
Influential Ideas
✓ Can a barber shave all the non shavers?-Jacquette
✓ Can a powerset be greater than itself?-Friend
✓ Classes lacking self membership are odd-Russell
✓ Plural language avoids self ref paradox-Hossack
Reason / Paradox / Paradox Of Achilles /
Influential Ideas
✓ Where can infinite tasks come to an end?-Lowe
Reason / Paradox / Paradox Of Achilles / Zeno Covers Atomic And Divisible Space/
Influential Ideas
✓ time-Devlin
Reason / Paradox / Paradox Of The Liar /
Influential Ideas
✓ Cretans always lie, said a Cretan
✓ Saying truly you are lying is lying-Eubulides
✓ Self reference with falsity is the problem-Read
✓ The Liar is impossible with Tarski's truth-Fisher
Reason / Paradox / Paradox Of The Heap {'Sorites'} /
Influential Ideas
✓ A heap of sand can't be destroyed-Eubulides
✓ Members may lack the features of the group-Aristotle
✓ No one grain could create a heap-Dummett
✓ The smallest heap has four objects-Hart,WD
Reason / Predicate Calculus Pc / Definite Descriptions /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'The King is bald' presupposes his existence-Strawson,P
✓ 'The so and so' is a definite description-Russell
✓ Quantifiers, not names, explain descriptions-Russell
✓ Reduce 'the' to terms of predicate logic-Horwich
Reason / Predicate Calculus Pc / Logical Form /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'x' does not occur in 'x does not exist'-Russell
✓ A logical language gives a word to each object-Russell
✓ Do sentence types or tokens have form?-Fine,K
✓ First order logic has a fixed language-Melia
Reason / Predicate Calculus Pc / Logical Form / Forget Subject/
Influential Ideas
✓ predicate analysis-Frege
Reason / Predicate Calculus Pc / Logical Form / Not Subject/Predicate, But Function/
Influential Ideas
✓ argument-Frege
Reason / Predicate Calculus Pc / Logical Form / We Can Move Subject/
Influential Ideas
✓ predicate split-Frege
Reason / Predicate Calculus Pc / Names /
Influential Ideas
✓ A family of singular terms designates things-Rey
✓ A name's meaning is the object itself-Frege
✓ How do phrases name, if they change referent?-Evans
✓ Most names are really definite descriptions-Russell
Nothing is certain except for death and taxes. -christopher bullockperson_outline
Reason / Predicate Calculus Pc / Quantifiers / Existential Quantifier &Exist; /
Influential Ideas
✓ Existential quantifiers express existence-Russell
✓ Quantifiers express quantity, not existence-McGinn
✓ Quantify over 'something', not one 'thing'-Lowe
✓ Rename the 'existential' quantifier 'partial'-McGinn
Reason / Predicate Calculus Pc / Quantifiers / Quantifiers /
Influential Ideas
✓ Aristotelian logic has two quantifiers-Aristotle
✓ Frege introduced quantifiers for generality-Frege
Reason / Predicate Calculus Pc / Quantifiers / Universal Quantifier &Forall; /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Every' only signifies when added to a term-William of Ockham
✓ An existential quanifier defines a universal-Quine
✓ Quantification needs 'everything' and 'not'-Frege
✓ The universal quantifier concerns checkability-Friend
Reason / Predicate Calculus Pc / Quantifiers / Unorthodox Quantifiers /
Influential Ideas
✓ Boolos invented plural quantification-Boolos
✓ We need a new Intentional Quantifier-McGinn
Reason / Predicate Calculus Pc / Syllogism /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Equivocation' is shifting the meaning-Beall&Restall
✓ Aristotelian logic has four ingredients-Aristotle
✓ Aristotle listed nineteen valid syllogisms-Aristotle
✓ Good reasoning doesn't need syllogisms-Locke
Reason / Propositional Logic Pl / Boolean Logic /
Influential Ideas
✓ Boole aimed at an algebra of thought-Boole
✓ Boole represented syllogisms and propositions-Boole
✓ Proposition logic has three defined operators-Girle
Reason / Propositional Logic Pl / Completeness Of Pl /
Influential Ideas
✓ All tautologies derivable, so PL is complete-Lemmon
Reason / Propositional Logic Pl / Propositional Logic /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Contradictions' always differ in truth value-Lemmon
✓ Propositional logic has one inference rule-Devlin
✓ Propositional logic has three axiom schemas-Girle
✓ Sentence logic is consistent and complete-Orenstein
Reason / Propositional Logic Pl / Soundness Of Pl /
Influential Ideas
✓ The rules get tautologies from tautologies-Lemmon
✓ Validity is preserved, so no contradictions-Hughes&Cresswell
Reason / Propositional Logic Pl / Tools Of Propositional Logic / Axioms Of Pl /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Or' can be defined using 'not' and 'and'-Quine
✓ Axiom system logics have three elements-Girle
✓ Axioms aim to evade all rational objection-Baggini&Fosl
✓ Axioms are true before they are selected-Orenstein
Reason / Propositional Logic Pl / Tools Of Propositional Logic / Axioms Of Pl / Best Known Axioms Are Whitehead/
Influential Ideas
✓ Russell-Russell&Whitehead
To go fast, go alone. To go far, go together. (african proverb)person_outline
Reason / Propositional Logic Pl / Tools Of Propositional Logic / Basic Theorems Of Pl /
Influential Ideas
✓ A conditional becomes a non conjunction-Lemmon
✓ A conjunction becomes a non conditional-Lemmon
✓ Transposition:{if P then Q}then{if ¬Q then ¬P}-Hughes&Cresswell
Reason / Propositional Logic Pl / Tools Of Propositional Logic / Basic Theorems Of Pl / De Morgan's Laws Switch Conjuncts/
Influential Ideas
✓ disjuncts-Lemmon
Reason / Propositional Logic Pl / Tools Of Propositional Logic / Basic Theorems Of Pl / Distributive Laws Switch Con /
Influential Ideas
✓ dis junction-Lemmon
Reason / Propositional Logic Pl / Tools Of Propositional Logic / Derivation Rules Of Pl /
Influential Ideas
✓ A or B, if A then C, if B then C: so C-Lemmon
✓ From either A or B, we may derive A or B-Lemmon
✓ Given A, we may derive ¬¬A-Lemmon
✓ Given A and B, we may derive A and B-Lemmon
Reason / Propositional Logic Pl / Tools Of Propositional Logic / Symbols Of Pl /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'ι' forms definite descriptions-Forbes,G
✓ 'v' is the symbol for 'or'-Lemmon
✓ P rightarrow Q is 'P if and only if Q'-Lemmon
✓ right arrow is 'if then'-Lemmon
Reason / Propositional Logic Pl / Tools Of Propositional Logic / Terminology Of Pl /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Contrary' propositions are never both true-Lemmon
✓ 'Equivalent' propositions mirror their truth-Lemmon
✓ 'Scope' is marked by brackets-Lemmon
✓ 'Subcontrary' propositions aren't both false-Lemmon
Reason / Propositional Logic Pl / Truth Tables /
Influential Ideas
✓ Each line of a truth table is a model-Fitting&Mendelsohn
✓ The only semantics used to be truth tables-Enderton
✓ Truth tables are entirely mechanical-Lemmon
✓ Truth tables are good for showing invalidity-Lemmon
Reason / Set Theory St / Axioms For Sets / Axiom Of Choice /
Influential Ideas
✓ A function has a value for every member set-Shapiro
✓ Axiom of Choice is necessary but dodgy-Feferman&Feferman
✓ Cardinality of sets needs Choice-Dummett
✓ Choice and set theory are consistent-Feferman&Feferman
Reason / Set Theory St / Axioms For Sets / Axiom Of Comprehension Scheme /
Influential Ideas
✓ Comprehension: each definition gives a set-Kunen
Reason / Set Theory St / Axioms For Sets / Axiom Of Constructibility V = L /
Influential Ideas
✓ Constructibility: all sets are constructible-Kunen
✓ Quine controversially prefers V=L-Quine
✓ The relative consistency of V=L is proved-Putnam
✓ V = L just says all sets are constructible-Putnam
Reason / Set Theory St / Axioms For Sets / Axiom Of Existence /
Influential Ideas
✓ Equal sets have same elements-Clegg
✓ Existence: universe non void-Kunen
✓ Extensionality is simple, unique, expressive-Maddy
✓ Extensionality: members determine sets-Kunen
To go fast, go alone. To go far, go together. (african proverb)person_outline
Reason / Set Theory St / Axioms For Sets / Axiom Of Foundation /
Influential Ideas
✓ Foundation: all sets are founded on something-Kunen
✓ Zermelo gave up Foundation-Zermelo
Reason / Set Theory St / Axioms For Sets / Axiom Of Infinity /
Influential Ideas
✓ Real numbers require infinite sets-Maddy
✓ The axiom of infinity is not a truth of logic-Kneale,W and M
✓ The Axiom of Infinity is Cantor's breakthrough-Maddy
✓ There is a set of all successors-Clegg
Reason / Set Theory St / Axioms For Sets / Axiom Of Pairing /
Influential Ideas
✓ Axiom of Pairing: a set contains any two sets-George&Velleman
✓ Pairing {} seems fairly obvious-Zermelo
✓ Pairing: any two entities are a set-Kunen
✓ Two sets always make up a third set-Clegg
Reason / Set Theory St / Axioms For Sets / Axiom Of Powers /
Influential Ideas
✓ All subsets form a new powerset-Clegg
✓ Power: all the subsets make a set-Kunen
✓ The continuum needs Power Set-Maddy
Reason / Set Theory St / Axioms For Sets / Axiom Of Replacement /
Influential Ideas
✓ Replacement proved necessary later on-Maddy
✓ Replacement: bijections make sets-Kunen
Reason / Set Theory St / Axioms For Sets / Axiom Of Separation /
Influential Ideas
✓ Separation makes sets approach contradiction-Zermelo
Reason / Set Theory St / Axioms For Sets / Axiom Of Specification /
Influential Ideas
✓ Conditions always produce sets-Clegg
Reason / Set Theory St / Axioms For Sets / Axiom Of Unions /
Influential Ideas
✓ All occurring elements for their own set-Clegg
✓ Union {} seems fairly obvious-Cantor
✓ Union: members of members are a set-Kunen
Reason / Set Theory St / Axioms For Sets / Axioms For Sets /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Set' and 'member' are undefined axioms-Zermelo
✓ Continuum size needs new axioms-Maddy
✓ Known objects must make a set-Zalabardo
✓ Limitation of Size is a vague intuition-Maddy
Reason / Set Theory St / Continuum Hypothesis /
Influential Ideas
✓ Continuum plus set theory is consistent-Clegg
✓ Gap between aleph null and the continuum-Chihara
✓ Gap between naturals and reals?-Horsten
✓ No sets between naturals and reals?-Shapiro
Reason / Set Theory St / Existence Of Sets /
Influential Ideas
✓ Are there sets as well as Cheerios-Boolos
✓ Can two entities be several different sets?-Inwagen
✓ Classes are just logical fictions-Russell
✓ Classes are simply logical constructions-Russell
Necessity is the mother of invention. -platoperson_outline
Reason / Set Theory St / Iterative Conception /
Influential Ideas
✓ Derive sets from their dependence-Potter
✓ Set creation never terminates-Fine,K
✓ Iterate sets upwards from the empty set-Brown,JR
✓ Iterative sets appear at a 'stage'-Maddy
Reason / Set Theory St / Mechanics Of Set Theory /
Influential Ideas
✓ can be reduced to {{x},{x,y}}-Dummett
✓ The empty set 'phi' is a subset of every set-Priest,G
Reason / Set Theory St / Mechanics Of Set Theory / Symbols Of St /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'dom R' is the objects having a relation-Enderton
✓ 'fld R' is all the objects related-Enderton
✓ 'F{x}' is the unique value of F at x-Enderton
✓ 'ran R' is the objects related to-Enderton
Reason / Set Theory St / Mechanics Of Set Theory / Terminology Of St /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Partial ordering' is antisymmetric-Zalabardo
✓ 'Symmetric' relations go in both directions-Enderton
✓ 'Trichotomy' requires relations or identity-Enderton
✓ 'Induction' retains properties in construction-Priest,G
Reason / Set Theory St / Natural Sets /
Influential Ideas
✓ Everybody can spot natural classes-Quinton
✓ Flocks of birds are not sets-Brown,JR
✓ Numbers are not based on physical facts-Frege
✓ Only meaningful predicates have sets-Russell
Reason / Set Theory St / Naïve Conception /
Influential Ideas
✓ A class is the extension of a concept-Frege
✓ A set is the extension of a predicate-Frege
✓ Naïve sets hit Russell's Paradox-Boolos
✓ Only existing sets now have conditions-Brown,JR
Reason / Set Theory St / Set Theory /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Impure' sets have a concrete member-Jubien
✓ is defined as the set {{x},{x,y}}-Gupta
✓ A 'set' is a mathematically well behaved class-Hodges,W
✓ A non ordered aggregate I call a 'set'-Bolzano
Reason / Set Theory St / Types Of Set / Empty {Null} Set /
Influential Ideas
✓ A set can be null, but not a class-Lewis
✓ Empty concepts make the empty class-Frege
✓ Empty set is the extension of an empty concept-Frege
✓ No null set if numbering needs 'units'-Tait
Reason / Set Theory St / Types Of Set / Equivalence Classes /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Equivalence': reflexive,symmetric,transitive-Enderton
✓ Equivalence aims to capture similarity-Lipschutz
✓ Equivalence classes produce new objects-Frege
✓ Equivalence is a common method of grouping-George&Velleman
Reason / Set Theory St / Types Of Set / Infinite Sets /
Influential Ideas
✓ Any set is enlargeable by its powerset-Clegg
✓ Cantor removed contradictions with clarity-Cantor
✓ Continuum is powerset of the integers-Clegg
✓ We understand some statements about all sets-Putnam
Reason / Set Theory St / Types Of Set / Unit {Singleton} Set /
Influential Ideas
✓ Are all singletons exact intrinsic duplicates?-Lewis
✓ Are singletons the same as elements?-Lewis
✓ How can a singleton be a collection?-Szabó
✓ How do unit sets differ from one another?-Chihara
Every man dies. Not every man really lives. -william wallaceperson_outline
Reason / Styles Of Reason / Definition / Contextual Definition /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Implicit definitions' just describe relations-Shapiro
✓ Can contextual definition define numbers?-Wright,C
✓ Conceptual priority then definition-Frege
✓ Contextual definition can replace expressions-Dummett
Reason / Styles Of Reason / Definition / Definitions /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Creative definitions' don't presume objects-Fine,K
✓ 'Water' is a name, with no definition-Schwartz
✓ A thing is its purpose-Aristotle
✓ Correct definition are perfect substitutes-Ducasse
Reason / Styles Of Reason / Definition / Genus And Differentia /
Influential Ideas
✓ Animal the genus, rational the difference-Oderberg
✓ Definition differs from individuation-Oderberg
✓ Definition is an account of differentiae-Aristotle
✓ Definitions are what sort things-Aquinas
Reason / Styles Of Reason / Definition / Genus And Differentia / Definition By Division: Genus/
Influential Ideas
✓ differentiae-Aristotle
Reason / Styles Of Reason / Definition / Impredicative Definition /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Impredicative' definitions seem circular-Shapiro
✓ 'Impredicative' refers to the definiens itself-George&Velleman
✓ Ordinary maths uses impredicative definitions-Gödel
✓ Predicative definitions refer to externals-Horsten
Reason / Styles Of Reason / Definition / Necessary/Sufficient /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'If' is sufficient, 'only if' is necessary-Engel
✓ Definitions often necessary, not sufficient-Fodor
✓ Seeing causes is not a passive mental act-Lockwood
✓ If p then q, then p suff for q, q nec for p-Scruton
Reason / Styles Of Reason / Definition / Ostensive Definition /
Influential Ideas
✓ Define the complex, point to the simple-Frege
✓ Ostensive definition looks simple but isn't-Gupta
✓ Ostensive definitions point to an object-Mautner
Reason / Styles Of Reason / Definition / Real Definition /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Real' definitions give essences-Mautner
✓ A definition must be of something primary-Aristotle
✓ Aristotelian definitions are causal-Aristotle
✓ Aristotelian definitions are hierarchical-Fine,K
Reason / Styles Of Reason / Definition / Recursive Definition /
Influential Ideas
✓ Recursive definition links instances-Mautner
Reason / Styles Of Reason / Definition / Stipulative Definition /
Influential Ideas
✓ Do definitions refer to or create objects?-Friend
✓ Only stipulative definitions in maths?-Frege
✓ Stipulative definition decides a meaning-Mautner
✓ Stipulative definition of new meanings-Gupta
Reason / Styles Of Reason / Dialectic /
Influential Ideas
✓ Being and nothing are resolved in becoming-Hegel
✓ Dialectic for unity, analysis for parts-Baggini&Fosl
✓ Dialectic is part of the sceptical method-Kant
✓ Dialectic is short questions and answers-Diog Laertius
The unexamined life is not worth living. -socratesperson_outline
Reason / Styles Of Reason / Elenchus /
Influential Ideas
✓ Always say what you believe-Plato
✓ Each stage of an argument needs agreement-Socrates
✓ For Socrates the elenchus decides moral truth-Vlastos
✓ Socratic debate needs asserted premises-Vlastos
Reason / Styles Of Reason / Eristic /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Eris' was the divinity of conflict-Deleuze&Guattari
✓ Competitive argument has five targets-Aristotle
✓ Dialectic requires analysis-Plato
✓ Eristic is combative, dialectic co operative-Plato
Reason / Theory Of Logic / Basic Concepts Of Logic / Contradiction /
Influential Ideas
✓ Contradicters do not discuss the same thing-Prodicus
✓ Contradiction does not reveal true or false-Pascal
✓ Contradictions are false, their opposites true-Leibniz
✓ Contradictions are formal and informal-Rumfitt
Reason / Theory Of Logic / Basic Concepts Of Logic / Deductive Consequence |- /
Influential Ideas
✓ | is deduction; |= is both true in a model-Rossberg
Reason / Theory Of Logic / Basic Concepts Of Logic / Identity In Logic /
Influential Ideas
✓ Non contradiction & excluded mid need identity-McGinn
✓ Property attributions assume identity-McGinn
✓ Quantification still complete with identity-Quine
✓ Identity is a single undefined basic relation-McGinn
Reason / Theory Of Logic / Basic Concepts Of Logic / Logical Consequence /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Material consequence' involves content-Beall&Restall
✓ Arbitrary proof is thus universal-Aristotle
✓ Consequence by proof or good models-Beall&Restall
✓ Consequence is semantic or deductive-Shapiro
Reason / Theory Of Logic / Basic Concepts Of Logic / Semantic Consequence |= /
Influential Ideas
✓ A logical consequence is always valid-Tarski
✓ Consequence: follows in all models-Tarski
✓ Gamma |= phi if it always follows-Zalabardo
✓ Logical consequence is necessary or relative-Beall&Restall
Reason / Theory Of Logic / Basic Concepts Of Logic / Theories In Logic /
Influential Ideas
✓ A 'theorem' is a sentence derived from axioms-Smith,P
✓ Theories have infinite premisses-Read
Reason / Theory Of Logic / Components Of Logic / Functions In Logic /
Influential Ideas
✓ A 'partial function' maps only some elements-Smith,P
✓ A functions 'fixed point' is self mapping-Smith,P
✓ Functions are arbitrary correspondences-Shapiro
✓ The 'range' is the values a function creates-Smith,P
Reason / Theory Of Logic / Components Of Logic / Functions In Logic / 'Injective/
Influential Ideas
✓ to ' functions output uniquely-Smith,P
Reason / Theory Of Logic / Components Of Logic / Functions In Logic / 'Surjective/
Influential Ideas
✓ onto' functions create the lot-Smith,P
Eighty percent of success is showing up. -woody allenperson_outline
Reason / Theory Of Logic / Components Of Logic / Logical Connectives /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'And' and 'not' are non referring terms-Wittgenstein
✓ A truth table is what defines 'and'-Fodor
✓ Classical connectives aren't ordinary language-Shapiro
✓ Fix 'and' by truth tables, or by rules?-Forbes,G
Reason / Theory Of Logic / Components Of Logic / Logical Constants /
Influential Ideas
✓ Constants work like proper names-Bach
Reason / Theory Of Logic / Components Of Logic / Plural Quantification /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Some critics admire only one another' how?-Linnebo
✓ A plural comprehension principle is acceptable-Hossack
✓ Are plural quantifiers just of classes?-Shapiro
✓ Complex facts without complex things-Hossack
Reason / Theory Of Logic / Components Of Logic / Predicates In Logic /
Influential Ideas
✓ Comprehension: conditional properties-Smith,P
✓ Predicates are functions, not properties-Frege
✓ Predicates name functions which map objects-Frege
✓ Subject predicate, hence substance properties-Aristotle
Reason / Theory Of Logic / Components Of Logic / Quantification /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'All' and 'Exist' make 'and' and 'or' infinite-Tharp
✓ A quantifier is a second level predicate-Frege
✓ Don't quantify into opaque contexts-Quine
✓ Finite quantification can be eliminated-Quine
Reason / Theory Of Logic / Components Of Logic / Relations In Logic /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Principia' added a new theory of relations-Russell&Whitehead
✓ Maths covers relations with ordered pairs-Chihara
✓ Relations are functions with two arguments-Frege
✓ Relations are second order from tropes-Campbell,K
Reason / Theory Of Logic / Components Of Logic / Substitutional Quantification /
Influential Ideas
✓ Could a true universal sentence be refuted?
✓ No objects, just substitution places
✓ Quine has softened on substitutional quant-Quine
✓ Reference matters, or why replace it?-Quine
Reason / Theory Of Logic / Components Of Logic / Variables /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Corner quotes' mean the content of-Quine
✓ 'Object' is a pseudo concept use x-Wittgenstein
✓ Non count variables have 'some value'-Laycock
✓ Ontology should focus on claims of existence-Quine
Reason / Theory Of Logic / Features Of Logics / Compactness /
Influential Ideas
✓ Compact theories can have infinite premisses-Read
✓ Compactness blocks infinite proofs-Read
✓ Compactness controls but limits-Read
✓ Compactness is restricting and unorthodox-Tharp
Reason / Theory Of Logic / Features Of Logics / Completeness /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Complete' applies to both logics and theories-Smith,P
✓ 'Complete' means all sentences are provable-Smith,P
✓ 'Negation complete' decides every sentence-Smith,P
✓ A 'complete' theory contains either P or ¬P-George&Velleman
Reason / Theory Of Logic / Features Of Logics / Consistency /
Influential Ideas
✓ A nice theory can't prove its own consistency-Gödel
✓ Consistency by truth, or by non contradiction-Chihara
✓ Consistency doesn't come from its parts-Fodor
✓ Consistency is a purely syntactic property-George&Velleman
I think therefore i am. - descartesperson_outline
Reason / Theory Of Logic / Features Of Logics / Decidability /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Decidable' means all sentences are provable-Smith,P
✓ 'Decidable' means inclusion is provable-Enderton
✓ 'Recursion theory' concerns solvability-Feferman&Feferman
✓ Most complete theories are decidable-Smith,P
Reason / Theory Of Logic / Features Of Logics / Effectiveness /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Effective' has six criteria-Smith,P
Reason / Theory Of Logic / Features Of Logics / Enumerability /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Enumerable' means outputable from numbers-Smith,P
✓ Completeness implies effective enumeration-Tharp
✓ Effective enumeration won't ensure knowledge-Tharp
✓ Finite sets are largely effectively enumerable-Smith,P
Reason / Theory Of Logic / Features Of Logics / Expressibility /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Expressible' is language;'captured' is axioms-Smith,P
✓ Arithmetic theorems expressible but not truths-Smith,P
Reason / Theory Of Logic / Features Of Logics / Incompleteness /
Influential Ideas
✓ Gentzen proved the consistency of arithmetic-Gentzen
✓ Gödel kills logicism, kills Hilbert-Smith,P
✓ Semantics are needed for incompleteness-Rossberg
✓ There are two routes to Incompleteness-Smith,P
Reason / Theory Of Logic / Features Of Logics / Soundness /
Influential Ideas
✓ A theory is 'sound' iff every theorem is true-Smith,P
✓ Proof is 'sound' when proof entails truth-Enderton
✓ Soundness is a semantic notion-George&Velleman
✓ Soundness seems essential to proof procedures-Tharp
Reason / Theory Of Logic / Logical Models / Isomorphisms /
Influential Ideas
✓ Ontology can only be 'up to isomorphism'-Shapiro
✓ The set hierarchy has maximum models-Shapiro
✓ Treat isomorphic structures as identical?-George&Velleman
✓ Unique to isomorphism is 'categorical'-Horsten
Reason / Theory Of Logic / Logical Models / Löwenheim-Skolem /
Influential Ideas
✓ Cantor's conceptions are illusory?-Tharp
✓ Consistent theory, then countable model-Hodges,W
✓ First order theories of sets are inadequate-Read
✓ Löweheim Skolem Theorems fail in nd order-Shapiro
Reason / Theory Of Logic / Logical Models / Models /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Satisfaction' is central to model theory-Shapiro
✓ 'Structures' show objects and domains-Hodges,W
✓ A 'model' is when the axioms are all true-George&Velleman
✓ A 'model' is when the axioms are true-Feferman&Feferman
Reason / Theory Of Logic / Ontology Of Logic / If-Thenism /
Influential Ideas
✓ At bottom eternal truths are all conditional-Leibniz
✓ Axioms can have implications without truth-Russell
✓ Existence of objects is irrelevant to proofs-Locke
✓ Maths has truths without existence-Descartes
Reason / Theory Of Logic / Ontology Of Logic / Ontology Of Logic /
Influential Ideas
✓ Existence and its denial are hard in logic-Bach
✓ Logic can only assert hypothetical existence-Russell
✓ Logic is about the real world-Russell
✓ Logic maps relations-Badiou
Go to heaven for the climate and hell for the company. -mark twainperson_outline
Reason / Theory Of Logic / Ontology Of Logic / Platonism In Logic /
Influential Ideas
✓ Logic is formalization, not ontology-Fisher
✓ Logic is just tautologies, not Forms-Wittgenstein
✓ Logic must involve objects, properties, truth-Jacquette
Reason / Theory Of Logic / Overview Of Logic / Classical Logic /
Influential Ideas
✓ Classical and high order logical truth differ-Dummett
✓ Classical logic has a non empty domain-Read
✓ Classical logic is how we assess things-Kitcher
✓ Classical logical is simply defined-Jacquette
Reason / Theory Of Logic / Overview Of Logic / First-Order Logic /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Predicative' if no bound nd order variables-Linnebo
✓ A 'sentence' has no free variables-Zalabardo
✓ First order logic has some key features-Shapiro
✓ FOL is complete, but can't catch maths-Tharp
Reason / Theory Of Logic / Overview Of Logic / History Of Logic /
Influential Ideas
✓ Boole made logic more mathematical-Boole
✓ Golden age of logic,-Devlin
✓ Logic concerns extensions, not intensions-Scruton
✓ Mathematicians must create new logic-Veblen
Reason / Theory Of Logic / Overview Of Logic / Overview Of Logic /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Implicature' from the fact of saying it-Enderton
✓ A 'natural deduction system' has no axioms-Smith,P
✓ A priori logic because we are logical-Wittgenstein
✓ All states of affairs are logically connected-Harman
Reason / Theory Of Logic / Overview Of Logic / Second-Order Logic /
Influential Ideas
✓ Capturing arithmetic disbars nd order logic-Read
✓ Existential first order, substitutional higher
✓ First order is complete, second order isn't-Gödel
✓ Henkin semantics fits plural, not nd order-Maddy
Reason / Theory Of Logic / Overview Of Logic / Value Of Logic /
Influential Ideas
✓ Can logic lead us to death?-Camus
✓ Deduction is about entailment not belief-Williams,M
✓ Languages filter logic from reality-Quine
✓ Logic desires a simple single viewpoint-Nietzsche
Reason / Theory Of Logic / Semantics Of Logic / Extensionalism /
Influential Ideas
✓ Extensional semantics is circular-Jacquette
✓ Extensionalists assume objects exist g Intensionalism-Jacquette
✓ Extensionalists can't discuss nonexistence-Jacquette
✓ Frege is intensionalist about reference-Frege
Reason / Theory Of Logic / Semantics Of Logic / Formal Truth /
Influential Ideas
✓ Conventionalism doesn't deny truth in logic-Boghossian
✓ Nice theories can't define their own truth-Smith,P
✓ Relations of set members shows truth-Kusch
✓ Set theory truth is formal, or interpreted-Hodes
Reason / Theory Of Logic / Semantics Of Logic / Logical Truth /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Logically true' is always true-Zalabardo
✓ Grammatical structure decides logical truth-Quine
✓ Logic of syntax, and logic of truth-Dummett
✓ Logical truth is caused by the concepts-Fine,K
Reason / Theory Of Logic / Semantics Of Logic / Satisfaction /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Satisfaction' is evaluation arriving at True-Enderton
✓ 'Satisfaction' is one good truth assignment-Zalabardo
✓ A sentence is 'satisfiable' if it has a model-Shapiro
✓ Satisfies needs a structure and interpretation-Zalabardo
Life is what happens while you are busy making plans. -allan saundersperson_outline
Reason / Theory Of Logic / Semantics Of Logic / Semantics Of Logic /
Influential Ideas
✓ Examine semantics, or build it-Zalabardo
✓ Logical interpretation won't give 'sense'-Hodes
✓ Semantics depends on instantiations-Zalabardo
✓ Syntactical and semantic view of deduction-Lowe
Reason / Theory Of Logic / Semantics Of Logic / Tautological Truth /
Influential Ideas
✓ Tautologies are implied by the null set-Enderton
Religion / Immortality / Animal Souls /
Influential Ideas
✓ Animals have souls but no consciousness-Leibniz
✓ Animals have thought and souls-Leibniz
Religion / Immortality / Heaven /
Influential Ideas
✓ Bliss is increased by watching damnation-Aquinas
✓ Heaven is a vast library-Johnson,P
✓ Heaven is ceasing to be disturbed-Ashvaghosha
✓ Heaven is eating fruit served by virgins-Mohammed
Religion / Immortality / Hell /
Influential Ideas
✓ Three gates of hell are lust, anger and greed
✓ Unbelievers shall drink boiling water-Mohammed
✓ Unbelievers will be endlessly burned-Mohammed
Religion / Immortality / Immortality /
Influential Ideas
✓ Aristotle's psyche is mostly mortal-Martin&Barresi
✓ Athenian dead souls go to the 'upper air'-Watson
✓ Denigrate this life, to praise the afterlife-Grayling
✓ Dual aspect monism denies immortality-Spinoza
Religion / Immortality / Soul /
Influential Ideas
✓ Essential natural kinds make the soul possible-Flanagan
✓ How do you distinguish two Souls?-Teichmann
✓ Mind is tiny particles that evaporate at death-Lucretius
✓ Our immortal part is awake during our dreams
Religion / Language Of Religion / Religious Falsification /
Influential Ideas
✓ Could anything prove God does not love us?-Flew
✓ Only evidence can prove a divine 'gardener'-Flew
✓ Open ended claims cannot be falsified-Hick
Religion / Language Of Religion / Religious Meaning /
Influential Ideas
✓ Commitment gives religious language meaning-Braithwaite
✓ God is neither verifiable nor falsifiable-Flew
✓ Theology is ontology through grammar-Wittgenstein
Religion / Language Of Religion / Religious Verification /
Influential Ideas
✓ Religion is not literally significant-Ayer
✓ Verification of religion can come after life-Hick
✓ Immortality is a vague but intelligible idea-Hick
Religion / Monotheistic Religion / Bible /
Influential Ideas
✓ Birth of Paul of Tarsus-PG
✓ Book of Genesis-PG
✓ Paul converted-PG
✓ Paul executed in Rome-PG
Eyes are placed in front because it's more important to look ahead than back. Warren buffetperson_outline
Religion / Monotheistic Religion / Zoroastrianism /
Influential Ideas
✓ Most elements of religion come from Zoroaster-Watson
✓ There is one beneficent spiritual Creator-Johnson,P
✓ Zarathustra offered the first abstract god-Watson
✓ Zoroastrianism dates from about BCE-Watson
Religion / Problem Of Evil / Human Error /
Influential Ideas
✓ A finite judgement is bound to make errors-Descartes
✓ Human wisdom is based on divine law-Epicharmus
✓ My judgement makes no errors, if well used-Descartes
✓ Why is our mind inadequate for good living?-Gassendi
Religion / Problem Of Evil / Natural Evil /
Influential Ideas
✓ An omnipotent God must want human suffering-Mill
✓ By human standards nature is immoral-Mill
✓ Disasters are too chaotic to be divine justice-Mill
✓ Evil shows God lacks foreknowledge-Sext Empiricus
Religion / Problem Of Evil / Problem Of Evil /
Influential Ideas
✓ Evil is good when linked to all of existence-Berkeley
✓ Evil is only a problem if you expect good-Williams,B
✓ Evil won't fit with God's benevolent power-Mackie
✓ God and evil cannot be logically reconciled-Mackie
Scientific Reasoning / Basis Of Science / Anomalies /
Influential Ideas
✓ All theories are falsified by anomalies!-Newton Smith
✓ An anomaly like Uranus can lead to Neptune-Newton Smith
✓ Anomalies are judged by balancing alternatives-Newton Smith
✓ The truth might be bad in a law court-Plato
Scientific Reasoning / Basis Of Science / Demonstration /
Influential Ideas
✓ Definitions precede demonstration-Aristotle
✓ Demonstration deduces from necessities-Aristotle
✓ Demonstration is explanatory proof-Aristotle
✓ Demonstration rests on definitions-Aristotle
Scientific Reasoning / Basis Of Science / Experiment /
Influential Ideas
✓ Experiments are a version of normal thought-Fodor
✓ Experiments distinguish between explanations-Descartes
✓ Experiments need agreement on significance-Fodor
✓ Experts & experiments enable us to believe-Fodor
Scientific Reasoning / Basis Of Science / Falsification /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Some x are y' is verifiable, not falsifiable-Baggini&Fosl
✓ A counterexample refutes necessary truth-Aristotle
✓ Falsification is the hallmark of science-Popper
✓ Nothing can falsify a statistical hypothesis-Bird
Scientific Reasoning / Basis Of Science / Observation /
Influential Ideas
✓ Even colour words are theory laden-Newton Smith
✓ Theory and observation are circular-Comte
✓ Investigation needs preconceptions-Sext Empiricus
✓ It needs theory to see electrons-Williams,M
Scientific Reasoning / Explanation / Best Explanation /
Influential Ideas
✓ Abduction is best explanation using wide data-Rey
✓ Abduction is factual, so must be realist-Bird
✓ Belief in reality makes sense of experience-Russell
✓ Best explanation has hidden values-Fraassen
Scientific Reasoning / Explanation / Causal Explanation /
Influential Ideas
✓ Aim at causes, principles and elements-Aristotle
✓ All explanation implies causal explanation-Sanford
✓ Causes can explain without laws-Psillos
✓ Dispositional or causal functions in biology-Leuridan
To go fast, go alone. To go far, go together. (african proverb)person_outline
Scientific Reasoning / Explanation / Evidence /
Influential Ideas
✓ Evidence is not a special type of belief-Harman
✓ Only deduction is true evidence-Hacking
✓ Things provide evidence, instead of people-Hacking
✓ Imaginary cases reveal our beliefs-Parfit
Scientific Reasoning / Explanation / Explaining People /
Influential Ideas
✓ Explain nature, but only clarify society-Weber
✓ Explain people rationally, not causally-Lowe
✓ Sciences explain, humanities understand-Dilthey
Scientific Reasoning / Explanation / Explanation /
Influential Ideas
✓ Are all scientific explanations arguments?-Salmon
✓ Causal explanation must have one direction-Lowe
✓ Components of explanations are objective-Bird
✓ Demonstration is deduction with understanding-Damon of Ath
Scientific Reasoning / Explanation / Explanation By Mechanism /
Influential Ideas
✓ Does the first occurrence have a function?-Salmon
✓ Explanations reveal mechanisms-Salmon
✓ Mechanisms need regularity models-Leuridan
✓ Quantum explanations will be by mechanism-Salmon
Scientific Reasoning / Explanation / Lawlike Explanation /
Influential Ideas
✓ A good explanation competes with others-Bird
✓ Chance is inexplicable, lacking regularities-Aristotle
✓ Explanation and generality are linked-Aristotle
✓ Explanation needs laws as well as causes-Psillos
Scientific Reasoning / Explanation / Pragmatic Explanation /
Influential Ideas
✓ Both people and facts explain things-Bird
✓ Explanation depends totally on the questioner-Psillos
✓ Explanation is information as answer-Fraassen
✓ Explanations remove surprise-Psillos
Scientific Reasoning / Explanation / Prediction /
Influential Ideas
✓ Barometers predict but don't explain-Psillos
✓ Explanation and prediction are related-Bird
✓ Explanation does not entail prediction-Flanagan
✓ Past events are explained without prediction-Psillos
Scientific Reasoning / Explanation / Probabilistic Explanation /
Influential Ideas
✓ Can unlikely events be explained?-Salmon
✓ Probability is propensity, not frequency-Salmon
✓ Some explanation increases the likelihood-Bird
✓ We need relevance, not high probability-Salmon
Scientific Reasoning / Explanation / Reductive Explanation /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Bridge laws' are a weaker reductionism-Kirk,R
✓ A key exists at many levels of abstraction-Lycan
✓ Explain by causes, or by constitution-Stanford
✓ Explanation can be by decomposition-Heil
Scientific Reasoning / Explanation / Types Of Explanation /
Influential Ideas
✓ All theories place things in general groups-Aristotle
✓ Aristotelian explanations are facts-Aristotle
✓ Contrastive explanations pick one out-Bird
✓ Explain by facts, or reports of facts-Salmon
Scientific Reasoning / Explanation / Ultimate Explanations /
Influential Ideas
✓ Efficient and final causes both fully explain-Leibniz
✓ There are no final explanations-Popper
✓ Why must explanation come to an end?-Rey
You talking to me? -taxi driverperson_outline
Scientific Reasoning / Induction / Induction /
Influential Ideas
✓ Brains are essentially anticipation machines-Dennett
✓ Can we justify belief in uniformity of nature?-Baggini&Fosl
✓ Can we prove general future truths?-Ayer
✓ Enumeration universal; statistical proportions-Pollock&Cruz
Scientific Reasoning / Induction / Limits Of Induction /
Influential Ideas
✓ Chickens are surprised when farmers kill them-Russell
✓ Custom, not reason, learns from experience-Hume
✓ Don't infer generalisations from particulars-Philodemus
✓ Even animals learn from experience-Hume
Scientific Reasoning / Induction / Paradoxes Of Induction /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Grue' is not a colour Bayes' Theorem-Milsted
✓ Any conclusion can be drawn if we allow 'grue'-Bird
✓ Can Bayesianism solve the induction problems?-Bird
✓ Emeralds are instrinsically green-Ellis
Scientific Reasoning / Induction / Reason In Induction /
Influential Ideas
✓ All reasoning is inductive-Harman
✓ Good induction needs no available defeaters-Salmon
✓ Hume just shows induction isn't deduction-Williams,M
✓ Premises can support without entailing-Pollock&Cruz
Scientific Reasoning / Scientific Theories / Commensurability /
Influential Ideas
✓ Believe all the incommensurable theories!-Newton Smith
✓ Describable notions aren't incommensurable-Putnam
✓ Descriptive reference gives incommensurability-Rowlands
✓ Maybe goods are comparable by incommensurable-Ross
Scientific Reasoning / Scientific Theories / Paradigm /
Influential Ideas
✓ Science is a feature of certain languages-Whorf
✓ Superior concepts expand our awareness-Deleuze&Guattari
Scientific Reasoning / Scientific Theories / Scientific Theory /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Heat is molecular motion' is necessarily true-Kripke
✓ Complex relativity ousted simpler Newton-Bird
✓ Does it matter whether a theory is scientific?-Newton Smith
✓ Don't just describe things; explain them-Ellis
Scientific Reasoning / Scientific Theories / Theory Holism /
Influential Ideas
✓ Meanings of terms depend on whole theories C Explanation-Rorty
✓ Verify all language together, not sentences-Quine
Society / Elements / Culture /
Influential Ideas
✓ Culture and civilization do not coincide-Nietzsche
✓ Human cultures don't differ very much-Williamson
✓ Man without society is just another animal-Rorty
Society / Elements / Education /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Getting it right' implies a teacher-Davidson
✓ Awareness of ignorance precedes learning-Frege
✓ Books are endless, and study is wearisome
✓ Child rearing must think about old age-Joubert
Society / Elements / Law / Legal Positivism /
Influential Ideas
✓ Just self preservation not complex natural law-Grotius
✓ Law is merely a form or procedure-Hobbes
✓ No crime or punishment without a law-Roman law
Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened. person_outline
Society / Principles / Social Principles /
Influential Ideas
✓ Consciousness enslaves men or unites them-Marx&Engels
✓ Foucault denies power is ever benign-Foucault
✓ Rational people live in harmony-Spinoza
✓ Society depends on fair exchange-Aristotle
Society / Structure / Alienation /
Influential Ideas
✓ Non voluntary activity alienates and enslaves-Marx&Engels
✓ Is 'alienation' still applicable?-Svendsen
Society / Structure / Guardians /
Influential Ideas
✓ Philosophers should run a society-Plato
✓ Pleasure can be bad, so it isn't the Good-Plato
✓ The most able people avoid politics-Confucius
Society / Structure / Marxism /
Influential Ideas
✓ Communism abolishes market power-Marx&Engels
✓ Communism aims to abolish bourgeois property-Marx&Engels
✓ Control material production and control ideas-Marx&Engels
✓ Modern government is for the bourgeoisie-Marx&Engels
Society / Structure / Social Structure /
Influential Ideas
✓ Any constitution will last for a short time-Aristotle
✓ Constitutions need democracy and authority-Zeno of Citium
✓ States are natural, not human inventions-Aristotle
✓ There are four types of constitution-Aristotle
Thinkers Since 1850 / Existentialists / Camus /
Influential Ideas
✓ birth of Camus-PG
✓ Camus's 'Myth of Sisyphus'-PG
✓ death of Camus-PG
Thinkers Since 1850 / Existentialists / Existentialists /
Influential Ideas
✓ De Beauvoir's 'Second Sex'-PG
✓ Merleau Ponty's 'Phenomenology'-PG
Thinkers Since 1850 / Existentialists / Heidegger /
Influential Ideas
✓ birth of Heidegger-PG
✓ death of Heidegger-PG
✓ Heidegger's 'Being and Time'-PG
✓ Heidegger a professor at Marburg-PG
Thinkers Since 1850 / Existentialists / Kierkegaard /
Influential Ideas
✓ birth of Kierkegaard-PG
✓ death of Kierkegaard-PG
✓ he studies Hegel-PG
✓ lives quietly in Copenhagen-PG
Thinkers Since 1850 / Existentialists / Nietzsche /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'If you're aristocratic,' said Nietzsche-Summers
✓ birth of Nietzsche-PG
✓ death of Nietzsche-PG
✓ Nietzsche's 'Thus Spake Zarathustra'-PG
Thinkers Since 1850 / Existentialists / Sartre /
Influential Ideas
✓ birth of Sartre-PG
✓ death of Sartre-PG
✓ Sartre's 'Being and Nothingness'-PG
✓ Sartre's 'Existentialism is a Humanism'-PG
Believe you can and you’re halfway there. -theodore rooseveltperson_outline
Thinkers Since 1850 / Later Empiricists / Ayer /
Influential Ideas
✓ Ayer's 'Language Truth and Logic'-PG
Thinkers Since 1850 / Later Empiricists / Carnap /
Influential Ideas
✓ Carnap goes to Chicago-PG
Thinkers Since 1850 / Later Empiricists / Empiricists /
Influential Ideas
✓ Comte's publishes on positivism-PG
✓ Freud develops his theories-PG
✓ Sidgwick's 'Methods of Ethics'-PG
✓ T H Huxley first proposed epiphenomenalism-Huxley
Thinkers Since 1850 / Later Empiricists / G E Moore /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Nature of Judgement' Moore's best paper-Monk
✓ Moore is a utilitarian-MacIntyre
✓ Moore looks simple, but is very subtle-Cartwright,R
✓ Moore rejected idealism in-Moore,GE
Thinkers Since 1850 / Later Empiricists / Mill /
Influential Ideas
✓ birth of Mill-PG
✓ death of Mill-PG
✓ Mill's 'System of Logic'-PG
✓ Mill's 'Utilitarianism'-PG
Thinkers Since 1850 / Later Empiricists / Russell /
Influential Ideas
✓ birth of Russell-PG
✓ death of Russell-PG
✓ Russell's 'History of Western Phil'-PG
✓ Russell's 'Principia Mathematica'-PG
Thinkers Since 1850 / Later Empiricists / Ryle /
Influential Ideas
✓ Ryle's 'Concept of Mind'-PG
Thinkers Since 1850 / Modern Analytical / Armstrong /
Influential Ideas
✓ Causality is the key to mind, not dispositions-Armstrong
✓ Mental states are physical states-Armstrong
Thinkers Since 1850 / Modern Analytical / Davidson /
Influential Ideas
✓ Davidson's 'Mental Events'-PG
✓ Davidson defends token physicalism-Davidson
Thinkers Since 1850 / Modern Analytical / Dennett /
Influential Ideas
✓ Dennett's 'Consciousness Explained'-PG
✓ Dennett aims at elimination by reduction-Dennett
✓ Dennett is an instrumental eliminativist-Dennett
✓ Dennett now denies 'instrumentalism'-Dennett
Thinkers Since 1850 / Modern Analytical / Fodor /
Influential Ideas
✓ Fodor particularly inspired by Chomsky-Putnam
Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. -mark twainperson_outline
Thinkers Since 1850 / Modern Analytical / Frege /
Influential Ideas
✓ Frege's career has three periods-PG
✓ Frege's middle period:-Dummett
✓ Frege answered problems linguistically-Dummett
✓ Frege followed Bolzano's anti intuition-Dummett
Thinkers Since 1850 / Modern Analytical / Kripke /
Influential Ideas
✓ Kripke's 'Naming and Necessity-PG
✓ Kripke has made essentialism respectable-Ellis
✓ Kripkenstein is an instrumental eliminativist-Kripke
Thinkers Since 1850 / Modern Analytical / Kuhn /
Influential Ideas
✓ Kuhn's 'Structure of Sci Revolutions'-PG
Thinkers Since 1850 / Modern Analytical / Lewis /
Influential Ideas
✓ Lewis's 'Plurality of Worlds'-PG
✓ Lewis maintained type type identity theory-Lewis
Thinkers Since 1850 / Modern Analytical / Macintyre /
Influential Ideas
✓ MacIntyre's 'After Virtue'-PG
Thinkers Since 1850 / Modern Analytical / Mcdowell /
Influential Ideas
✓ McDowell is a direct realist-Kusch
✓ McDowell is a moral intuitionist-McDowell
Thinkers Since 1850 / Modern Analytical / Modern Analytical /
Influential Ideas
✓ Chalmers 'Conscious Mind'-PG
✓ death of Ramsey at-PG
✓ Moore's 'Principia Ethica'-PG
✓ A Social Turn has followed the Linguistic Turn-O'Grady
Thinkers Since 1850 / Modern Analytical / Nagel /
Influential Ideas
✓ Nagel's 'What's it like to be a bat?'-PG
✓ Nagel is a moral intuitionist-Nagel
✓ Nagel is open to panpsychism-Nagel
✓ I am drawn to a form of rationalism-Nagel
Thinkers Since 1850 / Modern Analytical / Nozick /
Influential Ideas
✓ Nozick's 'Anarchy State and Utopia'-PG
Thinkers Since 1850 / Modern Analytical / Parfit /
Influential Ideas
✓ Parfit's 'Reasons and Persons'-PG
Thinkers Since 1850 / Modern Analytical / Popper /
Influential Ideas
✓ Popper's 'Logic of Scientific Discovery'-PG
We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are. - anais ninperson_outline
Thinkers Since 1850 / Modern Analytical / Putnam /
Influential Ideas
✓ Putnam's 'Meaning of Meaning'-PG
✓ Putnam realist, then anti realist, then middle-Putnam
✓ Students add a subscript date to 'Putnam'-Burgess&Rosen
Thinkers Since 1850 / Modern Analytical / Quine /
Influential Ideas
✓ Quine's 'Two Dogmas of Empiricism'-PG
✓ Quine's 'Word and Object'-PG
✓ Deviant beliefs, or mistranslation-O'Grady
✓ First order logic and set theory are enough-Quine
Thinkers Since 1850 / Modern Analytical / Rawls /
Influential Ideas
✓ Rawls's 'Theory of Justice'-PG
Thinkers Since 1850 / Modern Analytical / Searle /
Influential Ideas
✓ Searle's 'Rediscovery of the Mind'-PG
✓ Searle believes in the Identity Theory-Searle
✓ Searle looks like a property dualist-Searle
Thinkers Since 1850 / Modern Analytical / Wittgenstein / Wittgenstein The Man /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Tractatus' has corresondence truth-O'Grady
✓ 'Tractatus' is great anti philosophy-Badiou
✓ birth of Wittgenstein-PG
✓ death of Wittgenstein-PG
Thinkers Since 1850 / Modern Continental / Derrida /
Influential Ideas
✓ My texts are not philosophical-Derrida
✓ Truth talk is just metaphor-Derrida
Thinkers Since 1850 / Modern Continental / Husserl /
Influential Ideas
✓ Husserl's 'Logical Investigations'-PG
Thinkers Since 1850 / Modern Continental / Modern Continental /
Influential Ideas
✓ French return to Hegel, Nietzsche or Marx-Critchley
Thinkers Since 1850 / Modern Mathematicians / Bolzano /
Influential Ideas
✓ Bolzano reduces geometry to arithmetic-Brown,JR
Thinkers Since 1850 / Modern Mathematicians / Cantor /
Influential Ideas
✓ We'll never leave Cantor's paradise-Hilbert
Thinkers Since 1850 / Modern Mathematicians / Gödel /
Influential Ideas
✓ Gödel's 'Incompleteness' F Modern Continental-PG
It is always darkest just before the dawn. -thomas fullerperson_outline
Thinkers Since 1850 / Modern Mathematicians / Hilbert /
Influential Ideas
✓ Hilbert was the great formalist in maths-Brown,JR
Thinkers Since 1850 / Modern Mathematicians / Tarski /
Influential Ideas
✓ I am a deeply convinced nominalist-Tarski
Thinkers Since 1850 / Modern Scientists / Darwin /
Influential Ideas
✓ Darwin 'Origin of the Species'-PG
Thinkers Since 1850 / Modern Scientists / Einstein /
Influential Ideas
✓ Special relativity was operationalist-Putnam
✓ I do not believe in a personal God-Einstein
Thinkers Since 1850 / Pragmatists / Dewey /
Influential Ideas
✓ birth of Dewey-PG
✓ death of Dewey-PG
✓ Dewey at Columbia-PG
✓ Dewey professor in Chicago-PG
Thinkers Since 1850 / Pragmatists / James /
Influential Ideas
✓ birth of James-PG
✓ death of James-PG
✓ James's 'Principles of Psychology'-PG
✓ James gets medical degree-PG
Thinkers Since 1850 / Pragmatists / Peirce /
Influential Ideas
✓ birth of Peirce-PG
✓ collected Peirce published-PG
✓ Peirce joined coastal survey-PG
✓ Peirce taught at Johns Hopkins-PG
Thinkers To 200 Ce / Atomists / Democritus /
Influential Ideas
✓ Democritus thought all human affairs absurd-Democritus
✓ Plato wished to burn the works of Democritus-Plato
Thinkers To 200 Ce / Cynics / Cynics /
Influential Ideas
✓ Aim to eliminate desire, like the gods-Diog Laertius
✓ Cynics are disappointed moralits-Fogelin
Thinkers To 200 Ce / Cynics / Diogenes Of Sinope /
Influential Ideas
✓ Diogenes lives in a barrel in Athens-PG
✓ A plucked cock fits Plato's definition of man-Diogenes of Sin
✓ Diogenes claimed to be a citizen of the world-Diogenes of Sin
✓ Diogenes masturbated in public-Chrysippus
Thinkers To 200 Ce / Cyrenaics / Cyrenaics /
Influential Ideas
✓ Cyrenaic school closed-PG
✓ Cyrenaic school founded-PG
✓ Aim at high pleasure, but it isn't happiness-Annas
✓ Pleasure is either a motion, or a condition-Diog Laertius
That which does not kill us makes us stronger. -friedrich nietzscheperson_outline
Thinkers To 200 Ce / Early Christians / Augustine /
Influential Ideas
✓ Augustine a Manichean-PG
✓ Augustine converts to Christianity-PG
✓ Augustine returns to Carthage-PG
✓ Augustine studies in Rome-PG
Thinkers To 200 Ce / Early Christians / Early Christians /
Influential Ideas
✓ birth of Jesus-PG
✓ Jesus executed-PG
Thinkers To 200 Ce / Early Christians / Origen /
Influential Ideas
✓ Origen castrated himself-Grayling
Thinkers To 200 Ce / Early Naturalists / Anaximander /
Influential Ideas
✓ Anaximander in Miletus-PG
✓ Anaximander wrote the first philosophy book-Bodnár
Thinkers To 200 Ce / Early Naturalists / Diogenes Of Apollonia /
Influential Ideas
✓ Diogenes of Apollonia was last early scientist-Diogenes of Apoll
Thinkers To 200 Ce / Early Naturalists / Thales /
Influential Ideas
✓ Thales predicts an eclipse-PG
✓ Thales was first to think reality intelligible-Roochnik
Thinkers To 200 Ce / Early Scientists / Copernicus /
Influential Ideas
✓ Copernicus's 'Revolution of Spheres'-PG
Thinkers To 200 Ce / Early Scientists / Galileo /
Influential Ideas
✓ condemnation of Galileo-PG
Thinkers To 200 Ce / Early Scientists / Kepler /
Influential Ideas
✓ Kepler's Starry Messenger'-PG
✓ Kepler assists Brahe-PG
Thinkers To 200 Ce / Early Scientists / Newton /
Influential Ideas
✓ Newton's 'Principia'-PG
Thinkers To 200 Ce / Eleatics / Melissus /
Influential Ideas
✓ Melissus wins naval victory-PG
Imagination is more important than knowledge. -albert einsteinperson_outline
Thinkers To 200 Ce / Eleatics / Parmenides /
Influential Ideas
✓ Parmenides and Zeno in Athens-PG
✓ Parmenides was a profound and noble man-Plato
Thinkers To 200 Ce / Eleatics / Zeno Of Elea /
Influential Ideas
✓ They say Zeno of Elea was tortured to death-Cicero
✓ Zeno's achievement was to state the problems-Russell
Thinkers To 200 Ce / Enlightenment / Berkeley /
Influential Ideas
✓ became a bishop in Ireland-PG
✓ became a fellow at Dublin-PG
✓ Berkeley's 'Three Dialogues'-PG
✓ Berkeley died in Oxford-PG
Thinkers To 200 Ce / Enlightenment / Descartes / Descartes The Man /
Influential Ideas
✓ birth of Descartes-PG
✓ Descartes's 'Discourse on Method'-PG
✓ Descartes's 'Meditations'-PG
✓ Descartes's revelations at Ulm-PG
Thinkers To 200 Ce / Enlightenment / Enlightenment /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Novum Organum' by Bacon-PG
✓ 'Port Royal Logic'-PG
✓ Bayle's 'Dictionary'-PG
✓ Chancellor Bacon impeached-PG
Thinkers To 200 Ce / Enlightenment / Gassendi /
Influential Ideas
✓ Gassendi founded empiricism-Hacking
Thinkers To 200 Ce / Enlightenment / Hume /
Influential Ideas
✓ aide to a general-PG
✓ began publishing 'History'-PG
✓ birth of David Hume-PG
✓ brought Rousseau to England-PG
Thinkers To 200 Ce / Enlightenment / Kant /
Influential Ideas
✓ birth of Kant-PG
✓ death of Kant-PG
✓ Kant's 'Critique of Pure Reason'-PG
✓ Kant a professor-PG
Thinkers To 200 Ce / Enlightenment / Leibniz / Leibniz Development /
Influential Ideas
✓ resistance shifted to matter-Garber
✓ Leibniz has no 'considered view'-Garber
✓ Young Leibniz was a Hobbesian-Garber
Thinkers To 200 Ce / Enlightenment / Leibniz / Leibniz Texts /
Influential Ideas
✓ Philosophy texts to published-Garber
Thinkers To 200 Ce / Enlightenment / Leibniz / Leibniz The Man /
Influential Ideas
✓ death of Leibniz-PG
✓ Leibniz born-PG
✓ Leibniz in Mainz-PG
✓ Leibniz invents calculus-PG
You’ve gotta dance like there’s nobody watching, love like you’ll never be hurt, sing like there’s nobody listening, and live like it’s heaven on earth. -william w. Purkeyperson_outline
Thinkers To 200 Ce / Enlightenment / Locke /
Influential Ideas
✓ brings works to England-PG
✓ Locke 'Essay'-PG
✓ Locke 'Second Treatise'-PG
✓ Locke born-PG
Thinkers To 200 Ce / Enlightenment / Reid /
Influential Ideas
✓ Reid's 'Essays'-PG
Thinkers To 200 Ce / Enlightenment / Romanticism /
Influential Ideas
✓ Romanticism is the West's greatest shift-Berlin
Thinkers To 200 Ce / Enlightenment / Rousseau /
Influential Ideas
✓ Rousseau's 'Social Contract'-PG
✓ Rousseau visits England-PG
Thinkers To 200 Ce / Enlightenment / Spinoza / Spinoza The Man /
Influential Ideas
✓ he settles in The Hague-PG
✓ meets Leibniz-PG
✓ Spinoza's 'Tractatus'-PG
✓ Spinoza born-PG
Thinkers To 200 Ce / Epicureans / Epicureans /
Influential Ideas
✓ All the best Romans were Epicureans-Nietzsche
Thinkers To 200 Ce / Epicureans / Epicurus /
Influential Ideas
✓ Epicurus died-PG
✓ Epicurus founded the Garden-PG
✓ Epicurus denied knowledge to save morality-Nietzsche
✓ Epicurus followed the ideas of Democritus-Epicurus
Thinkers To 200 Ce / Epicureans / Lucretius /
Influential Ideas
✓ Lucretius's 'On the Nature of the Cosmos'-PG
✓ Lucretius was rediscovered in-Grayling
Thinkers To 200 Ce / Historical Periods / Eastern Thinkers /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'The Upanishads'-PG
✓ birth of Confucius-PG
✓ birth of the Buddha-PG
✓ Chuang Tzu's 'Book'-PG
Thinkers To 200 Ce / Historical Periods / Greeks / Greeks /
Influential Ideas
✓ Greeks have no notion of obligation or duty-Berlin
✓ Greeks try to merge human and divine-Johnson,P
Thinkers To 200 Ce / Historical Periods / Greeks / Greek To English Glossary /
Influential Ideas
✓ Agathon: good-PG
✓ Aisthesis: perception-PG
✓ Aitia: cause, explanation-PG
✓ Akrasia: lack of control, weakness of will-PG
The unexamined life is not worth living. -socratesperson_outline
Thinkers To 200 Ce / Historical Periods / Hellenism /
Influential Ideas
✓ Euclid's 'Elements'-PG
✓ Isocrates opens first Athens school-PG
✓ City for early Greeks, self for later Greeks-Foucault
Thinkers To 200 Ce / Historical Periods / Late Greeks /
Influential Ideas
✓ Hypatia murdered by mob-PG
✓ Marcus establishes Athens schools-PG
Thinkers To 200 Ce / Idealists / Hegel /
Influential Ideas
✓ became a professor at Heidelberg-PG
✓ birth of Hegel-PG
✓ head of a school in Nuremberg-PG
✓ Hegel's 'Phenomenology of Spirit'-PG
Thinkers To 200 Ce / Idealists / Schopenhauer /
Influential Ideas
✓ birth of Schopenhauer-PG
✓ death of Schopenhauer-PG
✓ Schopenhauer's 'World as Will and Idea'-PG
✓ Schopenhauer in France and Britain-PG
Thinkers To 200 Ce / Literature / Aeschylus /
Influential Ideas
✓ Aeschylus was a Pythagorean-Cicero
Thinkers To 200 Ce / Literature / Euripides /
Influential Ideas
✓ Medea is reason v passion-Annas
Thinkers To 200 Ce / Literature / Homer /
Influential Ideas
✓ Homer's poems are a guide to goodness-Xenophon
✓ Homer doesn't distinguish mind from body-Williams,B
Thinkers To 200 Ce / Medievals / Abelard /
Influential Ideas
✓ Abelard's work condemned-PG
✓ Abelard abbot of St Gildas-PG
✓ Abelard avoids assassination-PG
✓ Abelard castrated as punishment-PG
Thinkers To 200 Ce / Medievals / Aquinas /
Influential Ideas
✓ Aquinas always on the move-PG
✓ Aquinas became a monk-PG
✓ Aquinas becomes Dominican's theology-PG
✓ Aquinas begins 'Summa Theologica'-PG
Thinkers To 200 Ce / Medievals / Averroes {Ibn Rushd} /
Influential Ideas
✓ Averroes's Aristotelian commentaries-PG
Thinkers To 200 Ce / Medievals / Avicenna {Abu Ibn Sina} /
Influential Ideas
✓ Avicenna's 'The Healing'-PG
✓ Avicenna studies Aristotle-PG
That which does not kill us makes us stronger. -friedrich nietzscheperson_outline
Thinkers To 200 Ce / Medievals / Boethius /
Influential Ideas
✓ birth of Boethius-PG
✓ Boethius's 'Consolations of Philosophy'-PG
✓ Boethius a principle minister in Rome-PG
✓ Boethius executed-PG
Thinkers To 200 Ce / Medievals / Medievals /
Influential Ideas
✓ Al Farabi writing-PG
✓ Algazali writing-PG
✓ Cambridge University founded-PG
✓ heresy investigation in Paris-PG
Thinkers To 200 Ce / Medievals / William Of Ockham /
Influential Ideas
✓ birth of William at Ockham-PG
✓ William dies in Munich-PG
✓ William examined for heresy-PG
✓ William graduates from Oxford-PG
Thinkers To 200 Ce / Neo-Platonists / Plotinus /
Influential Ideas
✓ Amelius devoted to Plotinus-PG
✓ Amelius left Plotinus-PG
✓ Plotinus died-PG
✓ Plotinus studies with Ammonius Saccas-PG
Thinkers To 200 Ce / Neo-Platonists / Porphyry /
Influential Ideas
✓ Porphyry goes to Sicily-PG
✓ Porphyry studies with Plotinus-PG
Thinkers To 200 Ce / Peripatetics / Aristotle / Aristotle's 'Ethics' /
Influential Ideas
✓ The 'Ethics' doesn't show us our duties-Prichard
Thinkers To 200 Ce / Peripatetics / Aristotle / Aristotle's 'Metaphysics' /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Metaphysics' Z explains 'Categories'-Wedin
✓ He has three views of metaphysics-Aristotle
✓ Key books: ,,, ,,-Politis
✓ Numbers and letters of the books-Aristotle
Thinkers To 200 Ce / Peripatetics / Aristotle / Aristotle The Man /
Influential Ideas
✓ Aristotle arrives at the Academy-PG
✓ Aristotle charged with impiety-PG
✓ Aristotle dies in Chalcis-PG
✓ Aristotle founds the Lyceum-PG
Thinkers To 200 Ce / Peripatetics / Lyceum /
Influential Ideas
✓ Aristotle founds the Lyceum-PG
✓ birth of Theophrastus-PG
✓ death of Theophrastus-PG
✓ he is in Stagira with Aristotle-PG
Thinkers To 200 Ce / Platonists / Academy /
Influential Ideas
✓ Academy gives up scepticism-PG
✓ Aenesidemus left the Academy-PG
✓ Aenesidemus produces ten sceptical modes-PG
✓ Aeschines head of the Academy-PG
Thinkers To 200 Ce / Platonists / Plato / Plato The Man /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Parmenides' is the masterpiece of dialectic-Hegel
✓ back in Athens-PG
✓ founded the Academy-PG
✓ last visit to Sicily-PG
To go fast, go alone. To go far, go together. (african proverb)person_outline
Thinkers To 200 Ce / Platonists / Platonists /
Influential Ideas
✓ Archytas a successful general-PG
✓ Archytas met Plato-PG
Thinkers To 200 Ce / Platonists / Xenocrates /
Influential Ideas
✓ Death of Xenocrates, aged-Dancy,R
✓ Xenocrates and Aristotle travel-Dancy,R
✓ Xenocrates born in Chalcedon-Dancy,R
✓ Xenocrates Head of Academy-Dancy,R
Thinkers To 200 Ce / Pre-Socratics / Anaxagoras /
Influential Ideas
✓ Anaxagoras a friend of Pericles-PG
✓ Anaxagoras arrived in Athens-PG
✓ Anaxagoras charged with impiety-PG
✓ Anaxagoras died-PG
Thinkers To 200 Ce / Pre-Socratics / Empedocles /
Influential Ideas
✓ Empedocles aids democracy in Acragas-PG
Thinkers To 200 Ce / Pre-Socratics / Empedocles / Good/
Influential Ideas
✓ evil struggle, four elements-PG
Thinkers To 200 Ce / Pre-Socratics / Heraclitus /
Influential Ideas
✓ Heraclitus at Ephesus-PG
✓ Sage Heraclitus gave splendid advice-Summers
✓ I revere Heraclitus-Nietzsche
Thinkers To 200 Ce / Pre-Socratics / Pre-Socratics /
Influential Ideas
✓ BCE: Zoroastrianism founded-PG
✓ CE: Manicheanism founded-PG
Thinkers To 200 Ce / Pre-Socratics / Xenophanes /
Influential Ideas
✓ Xenophanes founded epistemology-Annas
Thinkers To 200 Ce / Pythagoreans / Philolaus /
Influential Ideas
✓ Philolaus wrote a book-PG
Thinkers To 200 Ce / Pythagoreans / Pythagoras /
Influential Ideas
✓ Protagoras writes laws for Thurii-PG
✓ Pythagoras born on Samos-PG
✓ Pythagoras dies-PG
✓ Pythagoras forced out of Croton-PG
Thinkers To 200 Ce / Pythagoreans / Pythagoreans /
Influential Ideas
✓ Pythagoreans expelled from Croton-PG
✓ Pythagoreans are impressively silent-Isocrates
✓ Pythagoreans started definitions-Politis
✓ The tektraktys embodies natural harmony-Sext Empiricus
Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened. person_outline
Thinkers To 200 Ce / Renaissance / Giordano Bruno /
Influential Ideas
✓ Bruno executed for heresy-PG
✓ Bruno thought of himself as a Messiah-Yates
✓ Bruno was not an atheist-Yates
✓ Egyptian magic is the true religion-Yates
Thinkers To 200 Ce / Renaissance / Hobbes /
Influential Ideas
✓ birth of Hobbes-PG
✓ death of Hobbes-PG
✓ Hobbes's 'Leviathan'-PG
✓ Hobbes flees to France-PG
Thinkers To 200 Ce / Renaissance / Machiavelli /
Influential Ideas
✓ Machiavelli's 'The Prince'-PG
✓ Machiavelli freed politics from religion-Watson
Thinkers To 200 Ce / Renaissance / Marcilio Ficino /
Influential Ideas
✓ Ficino founds a Florentine Academy-PG
Thinkers To 200 Ce / Renaissance / Montaigne /
Influential Ideas
✓ birth of Montaigne-PG
✓ death of Montaigne-PG
✓ Montaigne's 'Essays' vol-PG
✓ Montaigne mayor of Bordeaux-PG
Thinkers To 200 Ce / Renaissance / Pico Della Mirandola /
Influential Ideas
✓ Mirandola active at Florentine Academy-PG
Thinkers To 200 Ce / Renaissance / Renaissance /
Influential Ideas
✓ Erasmus met More in England-PG
Thinkers To 200 Ce / Sceptics / Carneades /
Influential Ideas
✓ Birth of Carneades-PG
✓ Carneades head of the Academy-PG
✓ Carneades studied at the Academy-PG
✓ Carneades went to Rome-PG
Thinkers To 200 Ce / Sceptics / Cicero /
Influential Ideas
✓ Cicero finds no stoics in Athens-PG
✓ Cicero belongs to no one school of thought-Cicero
✓ In early th cent Cicero was an ideal-Cicero
Thinkers To 200 Ce / Sceptics / Pyrrho /
Influential Ideas
✓ Pyrrho in India-PG
Thinkers To 200 Ce / Sceptics / Sextus Empiricus /
Influential Ideas
✓ Sextus's 'Outlines of Pyrrhonism'-PG
Smile, breathe and go slowly. - thich nhat hanhperson_outline
Thinkers To 200 Ce / Socratics / Socrates /
Influential Ideas
✓ birth of Socrates-PG
✓ Socrates an object of satire-PG
✓ Socrates at the battle of Potidaea-PG
✓ Socrates executed-PG
Thinkers To 200 Ce / Socratics / Socratics /
Influential Ideas
✓ Simon was the inventor of Socratic dialogues-Simon
✓ Socrates inspired every ancient school-Annas
Thinkers To 200 Ce / Sophists / Gorgias /
Influential Ideas
✓ Gorgias in Athens-PG
Thinkers To 200 Ce / Sophists / Protagoras /
Influential Ideas
✓ Protagoras combines Heraclitus and Democritus-Nietzsche
✓ Protagoras was materialist about humans-Roochnik
Thinkers To 200 Ce / Sophists / Sophists /
Influential Ideas
✓ Antiphon executed-PG
Thinkers To 200 Ce / Stoics / Chrysippus /
Influential Ideas
✓ Chrysippus head of the Stoa-PG
✓ death of Chrysippus-PG
✓ People only need corn and water-Chrysippus
Thinkers To 200 Ce / Stoics / Cleanthes /
Influential Ideas
✓ Cleanthes head of the Stoa-PG
Thinkers To 200 Ce / Stoics / Epictetus /
Influential Ideas
✓ Epictetus's 'Discourses'-PG
Thinkers To 200 Ce / Stoics / Marcus Aurelius /
Influential Ideas
✓ Marcus Aurelius's 'Meditations'-PG
Thinkers To 200 Ce / Stoics / Panaetius /
Influential Ideas
✓ death of Panaetius-PG
✓ Panaetius head of the Stoa-PG
Thinkers To 200 Ce / Stoics / Posidonius /
Influential Ideas
✓ Cicero studies with Posidonius-PG
✓ Posidonius founds Rhodes school-PG
✓ Posidonius studies with Panaetius-PG
✓ Posidonius visits Rome-PG
Action speaks louder than words but not nearly as often. - mark twainperson_outline
Thinkers To 200 Ce / Stoics / Seneca /
Influential Ideas
✓ suicide of Seneca-PG
✓ Seneca was opposed to all human cruelty-Grayling
Thinkers To 200 Ce / Stoics / Stoics /
Influential Ideas
✓ Neo stoicism began in about-Lipsius
✓ Stoicism aimed at a beautiful life-Foucault
✓ Stoicism is determinist, physical,teleological-Zeno of Citium
Thinkers To 200 Ce / Stoics / Zeno Of Citium /
Influential Ideas
✓ birth of Zeno {the stoic}-PG
✓ Zeno founded the Stoa-PG
✓ Zeno studies in Athens-PG
✓ Zeno studies with Crates-PG
Thought / Artificial Intelligence / Artificial Intelligence /
Influential Ideas
✓ A speaking machine is a possibility-La Mettrie
✓ AI can't avoid massive unpredictability-MacIntyre
✓ Brain chemistry has a key functional role-Dennett
✓ Content is both syntactic and semantic-Fodor
Thought / Artificial Intelligence / Turing Machines /
Influential Ideas
✓ Computation is relative not natural-Searle
✓ Pure functionalism makes mind a Turing machine-Block
✓ Turing Machine is a brilliant idea about mind-Fodor
✓ Turing machines have just three requirements-Block
Thought / Concepts / Abstract Concepts / Abstract Concepts /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Abstract' now means non spatio temporal-Brown,JR
✓ 'Abstract' used to mean 'from particulars'-Brown,JR
✓ 'Abstracta' are epistemological, not ontic-Plantinga
✓ Abstract objects are God's thoughts-Plantinga
Thought / Concepts / Abstract Concepts / Abstraction By Equivalence /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Suicide' is the set of self killing cases-Dummett
✓ A real direction requires a line-Lowe
✓ Abstract from concepts by relations-Fine,K
✓ Abstract from the set, not its elements?-Tait
Thought / Concepts / Abstract Concepts / Abstraction By Ignoring /
Influential Ideas
✓ A pure circle can't identify an actual circle-Szabó
✓ Abstract distinctness and order for number-Dedekind
✓ Abstracta are generalised appearances-Locke
✓ Abstraction concerns general universal truths-Leibniz
Thought / Concepts / Abstract Concepts / Abstractionism Critique /
Influential Ideas
✓ Abstraction cannot distinguish ambiguities-Barnes,J
✓ Abstraction collects too many attributes-Barnes,J
✓ Abstraction fails if there's no common feature-Barnes,J
✓ Abstraction is logical, not mental-Dummett
Thought / Concepts / Abstract Concepts / Abstractionism Critique / Judgement Separates Strking/
Influential Ideas
✓ being struck-Geach
Thought / Concepts / Abstract Concepts / Generalisation /
Influential Ideas
✓ General words abstract from the circumstances-Locke
✓ Generalization precedes similarity spotting-Lehrer
✓ Generalizations use variables not abstractions-Sorensen
✓ Mere recognition won't generalise-Geach
Nothing is certain except for death and taxes. -christopher bullockperson_outline
Thought / Concepts / Abstract Concepts / Psychological Abstraction /
Influential Ideas
✓ Abstract gets maths from most matter-Aquinas
✓ Abstract recognition might precede concepts-Price,HH
✓ Abstract representations, or entities?-Burgess&Rosen
✓ Abstract simple types from tokens?-Shapiro
Thought / Concepts / Abstract Concepts / Way Of Conflation /
Influential Ideas
✓ How do we abstract extrinsic features?-Lewis
✓ Sets and universals can be causal-Lewis
✓ Some abstracta have locations-Lewis
Thought / Concepts / Abstract Concepts / Way Of Conflation / Abstraction Might Pick Out Tropes/
Influential Ideas
✓ universals-Lewis
Thought / Concepts / Abstract Concepts / Way Of Conflation / Abstractions As Sets/
Influential Ideas
✓ universals is too much-Rosen
Thought / Concepts / Abstract Concepts / Way Of Example /
Influential Ideas
✓ A centre of mass is abstract but located-Lowe
✓ A non spatial set of books is on a shelf-Rosen
✓ Abstract chess is in space and time-Rosen
✓ Abstracta are non spatial and non causal-Rosen
Thought / Concepts / Concepts /
Influential Ideas
✓ Concepts are forces, not functions-Deleuze&Guattari
✓ Concepts are universals of which we are aware-Russell
✓ Concepts represent, enable, or are senses-Margolis&Laurence
✓ Concepts unite propositions-Leibniz
Thought / Concepts / Concepts And Language / Concepts And Language /
Influential Ideas
✓ Concepts have content, not meaning-Harman
✓ Concepts need a language community-Davidson
Thought / Concepts / Concepts And Language / Concepts Are Linguistic /
Influential Ideas
✓ A concept is a predicate's meaning-Frege
✓ Concepts are language-Quine
✓ Concepts are possible predicates-Frege
✓ Language reifies concepts-Dennett
Thought / Concepts / Concepts And Language / Concepts Without Language /
Influential Ideas
✓ Chess playing aphasiacs have concepts-Geach
✓ Concepts can be formed, and then named-Margolis&Laurence
✓ Concepts do not require consciousness-Dennett
Thought / Concepts / Ontology Of Concepts / Concepts As Abilities /
Influential Ideas
✓ Concept individuation or possession prior?-Fodor
✓ Concept possession is ability to go on-Wittgenstein
✓ Concepts are abilities, not occurrences-Putnam
✓ Concepts are epistemic capacities-Fodor
Thought / Concepts / Ontology Of Concepts / Concepts As Representations /
Influential Ideas
✓ Attitude without representation seems possible-Margolis&Laurence
✓ Cats must satisfy a concept CAT-Fodor
✓ Concepts face both thought and world-Fodor
✓ Having a concept is thinking about it-Fodor
Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, ‘i will try again tomorrow. - mary anne radmacherperson_outline
Thought / Concepts / Ontology Of Concepts / Fregean Concepts /
Influential Ideas
✓ Concepts are tied to rationality-Peacocke
✓ Concepts fixed by reference conditions-Peacocke
✓ Concepts senses block causal powers-Fodor
✓ Do concepts have a 'sense'?-Fodor
Thought / Concepts / Ontology Of Concepts / Fregean Concepts / Concept/Conception For Reference/
Influential Ideas
✓ sense-Wiggins
Thought / Concepts / Origin Of Concepts / Nativist Concepts /
Influential Ideas
✓ A hypothesis needs innate concepts-Fodor
✓ Getting concepts from stereotypes is innate-Fodor
Thought / Concepts / Origin Of Concepts / Origin Of Concepts /
Influential Ideas
✓ Concepts arise from self mapping by the brain-Edelman&Tononi
✓ Concepts result from brain mapping-Edelman&Tononi
✓ Minds create concepts, then apply them-Geach
✓ Nobody knows how concepts are acquired-Fodor
Thought / Concepts / Structure Of Concepts / Analysis Of Concepts /
Influential Ideas
✓ Concept analysis needs non concepts-Peacocke
✓ Concept complexity has implications-Fodor
✓ Concept explanation needs reference and truth-Peacocke
✓ Unanalysability is always possible-Moreland
Thought / Concepts / Structure Of Concepts / Classical Concepts /
Influential Ideas
✓ Classical theory explains a lot-Margolis&Laurence
✓ Concepts give extension conditions-Margolis&Laurence
✓ Maybe concepts lack structure-Margolis&Laurence
✓ Study possible cases to analyse conditions-Jackson
Thought / Concepts / Structure Of Concepts / Concepts As Prototypes /
Influential Ideas
✓ Basic prototypes won't explain complexes-Margolis&Laurence
✓ Categorising involves more than appearance-Margolis&Laurence
✓ Complex concepts may lack prototypes-Margolis&Laurence
✓ Concepts rely on typical examples-Swoyer
Thought / Concepts / Structure Of Concepts / Conceptual Atomism /
Influential Ideas
✓ Compositionality needs atomic concepts-Fodor
✓ Concept content is just the reference-Fodor
✓ Derive all concepts from basics-Carnap
✓ Relations to the world determine concepts-Margolis&Laurence
Thought / Concepts / Structure Of Concepts / Conceptual Priority /
Influential Ideas
✓ Are parts prior to their wholes or not?-Aristotle
✓ Conceptual priority is barely intelligible-Oliver
✓ Greater simplicity shows conceptual priority-Dummett
✓ Maybe order of definition decides priority-Dummett
Thought / Concepts / Structure Of Concepts / Conceptual Structure /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Brown dog' needs 'brown' and 'dog'-Fodor
✓ 'Green' involves many other concepts-Sellars
✓ Concept structure explains five problems-Margolis&Laurence
✓ Concepts are inherently incomplete-Frege
Thought / Concepts / Structure Of Concepts / Theory Theory Of Concepts /
Influential Ideas
✓ Concepts are defined by a role in a theory-Margolis&Laurence
✓ Concepts are roles in groups of propositions-Peacocke
✓ Concepts will vary if the theory is holistic-Margolis&Laurence
✓ Theory theory offers no explanation-Fodor
To go fast, go alone. To go far, go together. (african proverb)person_outline
Thought / Content / Broad Content /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Gold' means what experts mean-Leibniz
✓ 'Gold' refers to many facts we don't know-Leibniz
✓ Broad content entails existence-Crane
✓ Broad content won't explain behaviour-Davidson
Thought / Content / Content /
Influential Ideas
✓ All ideas are adventitious and sense based-Gassendi
✓ An idea can be fixed, but its content change-Perry
✓ Animals must represent and remember times-Rey
✓ Causal and teleological theories of content-Lowe
Thought / Content / Intension /
Influential Ideas
✓ Intension determines extension-Lewis,CI
✓ Intension is a conjunction of properties-Schwartz
✓ Intensional truth depends on conception-Crane
✓ Intensions are functions mapping expressions-Swoyer
Thought / Content / Narrow Content /
Influential Ideas
✓ Beliefs depend on beliefs as well as the world-Kim
✓ Concepts are causally linked to reality-Fodor
✓ God could think before Creation-Merricks
✓ Solipsism is not an incoherent hypothesis-Merricks
Thought / Content / Twin Earth /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Water' is a substance, not an idea-Putnam
✓ 'Water' is liquid, HO may not be-Forbes,G
✓ 'Water' usage and essence of water differ-Jackson
✓ Concepts cover both Earth and Twin Earth-Segal
Thought / Mechanics Of Thought / Mentalese /
Influential Ideas
✓ Beliefs have to be structured states-Fodor
✓ Folk psychology doesn't imply mentalese-Lewis
✓ Language is ambiguous, thought isn't-Fodor
✓ Learned language is constrained by mind power-Fodor
Thought / Mechanics Of Thought / Mentalese / Lot Is Subject/
Influential Ideas
✓ predicate and logical-Margolis&Laurence
Thought / Mechanics Of Thought / Modularity Of Mind /
Influential Ideas
✓ Babies have fixed syntax patterns-Fodor
✓ Blind children still talk about space-Fodor
✓ Broad thinking and modules are quite different-Fodor
✓ Childhood grammar is largely accurate-Rey
Thought / Modes Of Thought / Folk Psychology /
Influential Ideas
✓ A culture without folk psychology is baffling-Kim
✓ Desires and beliefs don't actually exist-Dennett
✓ Driving cars needs folk psychology-Dennett
✓ Folk psychology & neuroscience don't conflict-Heil
Thought / Modes Of Thought / Propositional Attitudes /
Influential Ideas
✓ Content is either neutral or motivating-Rey
✓ How do you know your attitude to propositions?-Kim
✓ Propositional attitudes involve mentalese-Fodor
✓ Surely intentionality requires representation?-Lyons
Truth / Coherence Truth / Coherence Truth /
Influential Ideas
✓ All knowledge is inferentially connected-Descartes
✓ An omniscient being could predict everything-Leibniz
✓ Coherence is about justification, not truth-Williams,M
✓ Coherence leads to all truths being necessary-Dancy,J
What's the point in being clever, if you can't prove it. -sherlock holmesperson_outline
Truth / Coherence Truth / Coherence Truth Critique /
Influential Ideas
✓ A coherence theory of truth implies idealism-McGinn
✓ Coherence is a test for truth, not its meaning-Russell
✓ Many coherent belief sets seem possible-Russell
✓ There are many coherent sets of propositions-Dancy,J
Truth / Correspondence Truth / Correspondence Truth /
Influential Ideas
✓ All enquiry MUST aim at correspondence-Searle
✓ Belief are true if the facts correspond-Russell
✓ Congruence fails for existential truths-Joslin
✓ Correspondence as many one or one many?-Armstrong
Truth / Correspondence Truth / Correspondence Truth Critique /
Influential Ideas
✓ A country can have many good maps-Austin,JL
✓ Concepts and reality can't correspond-Putnam
✓ Conflicting propositions can fit the facts-Dancy,J
✓ Correspondence has to invent 'facts'-Mulligan&Simons&Smith
Truth / Correspondence Truth / Facts /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Facta' are truth makers for facts-Mellor
✓ 'It is a fact that p' just means 'p'-Engel
✓ A fact is what it is rational to accept-Putnam
✓ A mindless world has facts but not truths-Russell
Truth / Deflationary Truth / Deflationary Truth /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'True' is just occasionally useful-Burgess&Rosen
✓ 'Truth' is just a mark of assertion-Ayer
✓ Deflation can't explain that we aim at truth-Horwich
✓ Deflationism denies reasons for beliefs-Engel
Truth / Deflationary Truth / Minimalist Truth /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'True' is a simple world like 'and'-Engel
✓ 'It is day' is true if it is day-Zeno of Citium
✓ Minimal theories of truth have slim ontology-PG
✓ Minimalism says truth is and isn't a property-Boghossian
Truth / Deflationary Truth / Redundant Truth /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'True' isn't redundant where indexicals occur-Putnam
✓ 'It is true that P' means simply P-Wittgenstein
✓ 'It is true that x' means no more than x-Ramsey
✓ Just speak the single sentence; skip truth-Quine
Truth / Deflationary Truth / Semantic Truth /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'True' refers to possible statements-Strawson,P
✓ 'Truth' of sentences reminds us of reality-Quine
✓ Add primitive reference to Tarski's theory-Field,H
✓ Explain semantics nonsemantically-Tarski
Truth / Pragmatic Truth / Pragmatic Truth /
Influential Ideas
✓ Radical pragmatists abandon truth-Stich
✓ The 'truth' of thinking is a practical matter-Marx
✓ Truth is best belief not good representation-Rorty
✓ Truth is defending your view succesfully-Rorty
Truth / Pragmatic Truth / Pragmatic Truth Critique /
Influential Ideas
✓ Judge truth by causes, not effects-Russell
✓ Never ask whether truth is useful-Nietzsche
✓ Pragmatism is about belief, not truth-Engel
Truth / Truth Problems / Future Truths /
Influential Ideas
✓ Options are necessary, not actual events-Aristotle
Imagination is more important than knowledge. -albert einsteinperson_outline
Truth / Truth Problems / Truth / Truth Concerns Combination/
Influential Ideas
✓ separation-Aristotle
Truth / Truth Problems / Truth Bearers /
Influential Ideas
✓ Are concepts true or false?-Hegel
✓ Frege attached truth to propositions-Frege
✓ Mental or verbal propositions are true-Locke
✓ Only assertions are true or false-Sext Empiricus
Truth / Truth Problems / Truth Makers /
Influential Ideas
✓ Dependent objects are the truth makers-Mulligan&Simons&Smith
✓ Fictions have truths without truthmakers-Azzouni
✓ One truth maker for all necessary truths?-Oliver
✓ Sentences don't designate truth makers-Mulligan&Simons&Smith
Truth / Truth Problems / Value Of Truth /
Influential Ideas
✓ Good is a truth, and truth is a good-Aquinas
✓ Nothing more beautiful than truth-Locke
✓ The mark and product of truth is virtue-Montaigne
✓ The value of truth is also a problem-Nietzsche
Truth / Truth Problems / Verisimilitude /
Influential Ideas
✓ Verisimilitude increases predictive power-Newton Smith
✓ Versimilitude is close to the true world-Lewis
✓ If error has degrees then so does truth-Aristotle
✓ Implications of theory won't prove probability-Newton Smith
Wisdom / Analytical Philosophy / Against Analysis /
Influential Ideas
✓ All analyses are either trivial or false-Sorensen
✓ Analysis shows parts and not structure-Ayer
✓ Analytical philosophy is trivial and technical-Mautner
✓ Analytical philosophy lacks synoptic vision-Benardete,JA
Wisdom / Analytical Philosophy / Analysis /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Is': existence,predication,identity,classify-PG
✓ All complex statements can be analysed-Wittgenstein
✓ All philosophy should begin with analysis-Russell
✓ All progress requires analysis-Russell
Wisdom / Analytical Philosophy / Ordinary Language /
Influential Ideas
✓ Analyse language to solve problems-Mautner
✓ Beginning philosophy with language is a trap-Heil
✓ Best philosophy studies actual word usage-Strawson,P
✓ Focus on determined natures, not names-Feuerbach
Wisdom / Continental Philosophy / Continental Philosophy /
Influential Ideas
✓ Analytical is more rigorous than continental-Williamson
✓ Baudrillard is a relativist-Baudrillard
✓ Conservatism and mere criticism are a plague-Deleuze&Guattari
✓ Continental philosophy fights nihilism-Critchley
Wisdom / Continental Philosophy / Deconstruction /
Influential Ideas
✓ Deconstruction gives history and repressions-Derrida
✓ Deconstruction is not neutral; it intervenes-Derrida
✓ Différance creates opposed concepts-Derrida
✓ Justice is undeconstructable-Derrida
Wisdom / Continental Philosophy / Hermeneutics /
Influential Ideas
✓ Hermeneutics is sympathetic or hostile-Ricoeur
✓ Positivism challenges hermeneutic knowledge-Mautner
✓ Interpret the whole or the part first?-Mautner
✓ Interpreters understand more than authors-Schleiermacher
We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are. - anais ninperson_outline
Wisdom / Continental Philosophy / Linguistic Structuralism /
Influential Ideas
✓ Structuralism replaces categories by language-Rowlands
Wisdom / Continental Philosophy / Phenomenology /
Influential Ideas
✓ All consciousness is of something-Sartre
✓ Bracketing subtracts entailments about reality-Husserl
✓ Non synthetic phenomenalism is literature-Benardete,JA
✓ Phenomenology clarifies our social world-Critchley
Wisdom / History Of Philosophy / History Of Ideas /
Influential Ideas
✓ Deconstruction is romanticism's end-Scruton
✓ Logic was originally a branch of rhetoric-Devlin
✓ Modern culture was born in Jena in the s-Svendsen
✓ Six candidates for the one big idea-Watson
Wisdom / History Of Philosophy / History Of Ideas / Th/
Influential Ideas
✓ th century saw the rise of altruism-MacIntyre
Wisdom / History Of Philosophy / History Of Philosophy /
Influential Ideas
✓ Ontology was logic, then language-Badiou
✓ Ignorance brings repetition in philosophy-Santayana
Wisdom / Nature Of Philosophy / Nature Of Metaphysics /
Influential Ideas
✓ Maybe metaphysics seeks real essences-Mumford
✓ Metaphysic is a priori universals of physics-Kant
✓ Metaphysic studies intelligible being-Leibniz
✓ Metaphysics clarifies conceptual schemes-Kim
Wisdom / Nature Of Philosophy / Philosophy / Despair Over Philosophy /
Influential Ideas
✓ Ancient beliefs resists all arguments-Euripides
✓ Don't even start, let's just stay put-Chuang Tzu
✓ Every absurdity has been said by a philosopher-Descartes
✓ Human knowledge may not produce well being-Gray
Wisdom / Nature Of Philosophy / Philosophy / Hopes For Philosophy /
Influential Ideas
✓ A well posed problem is a problem solved-Bergson
✓ All expressible questions can be answered-Wittgenstein
✓ Even bad philosophy has value-Aristotle
✓ Guardians are rulers of virtue and wisdom-Plato
Wisdom / Nature Of Philosophy / Philosophy / Invocation To Philosophy /
Influential Ideas
✓ By sharing our logos we reach truth-Aristotle
✓ Everyone has the potential for wisdom-Heraclitus
✓ Hard thought is profitable even if it fails-Aristotle
✓ Knowledge of unity and plurality is supreme-Plato
Wisdom / Nature Of Philosophy / Philosophy / Philosophy Defined /
Influential Ideas
✓ Critical philosophy questions domination-Foucault
✓ Philosophers articulate what we all know-Schopenhauer
✓ Philosophers care about others' cares-Foucault
✓ Philosophy begins where science ends-Katz
Wisdom / Nature Of Philosophy / Possibility Of Metaphysics /
Influential Ideas
✓ Bad metaphysics is totally unverifiable-Ayer
✓ Did metaphysics end with Hegel?-Benardete,JA
✓ Doves dream of flying in outer space-Kant
✓ God's wisdom is knowable a priori-Leibniz
Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted. -albert einsteinperson_outline
Wisdom / Nature Of Philosophy / Wisdom / Nature Of Wisdom /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'Wisdom' is hostile to life-Nietzsche
✓ Speaking the truth deifies man-Pythagoras
✓ A wise person can doubt everything-Montaigne
✓ An instant of wisdom equals eternity-Chrysippus
Wisdom / Nature Of Philosophy / Wisdom / Wise People /
Influential Ideas
✓ As philosophers study order they acquire order-Plato
✓ Have principles in readiness for understanding-Aurelius
✓ Knowledge is silent; ignorance speaks-Lao Tzu
✓ The old are not necessarily wise-Plato
Wisdom / Scientific Philosophy / Aims Of Science /
Influential Ideas
✓ Can we explain scientific change rationally?-Newton Smith
✓ How do we choose between explanations?-Newton Smith
✓ Realism explains science's success-Putnam
✓ Science aims at necessary truth-Aristotle
Wisdom / Scientific Philosophy / Positivism /
Influential Ideas
✓ Maybe theory and observation aren't separate-Newton Smith
✓ Measurement needs people and instruments-Lowe
✓ Positivism is our culmination-Comte
✓ Positivism seeks laws, not truth-Comte
Wisdom / Scientific Philosophy / Scientism /
Influential Ideas
✓ 'True' is basic to science, but not scientific-Putnam
✓ Knowledge is wider than science-Putnam
✓ My physics rests on my Meditations-Descartes
✓ Ontologists investigate holes and colours-Merricks
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