44 ideas
15477 | Ontology is highly abstract physics, containing placeholders and exclusions [Martin,CB] |
15471 | Truth is a relation between a representation ('bearer') and part of the world ('truthmaker') [Martin,CB] |
15484 | A property is a combination of a disposition and a quality [Martin,CB] |
15478 | Properties are the respects in which objects resemble, which places them in classes [Martin,CB] |
15483 | Properties are ways particular things are, and so they are tied to the identity of their possessor [Martin,CB] |
15480 | Objects are not bundles of tropes (which are ways things are, not parts of things) [Martin,CB] |
15489 | A property that cannot interact is worse than inert - it isn't there at all [Martin,CB] |
15487 | If unmanifested partnerless dispositions are still real, and are not just qualities, they can explain properties [Martin,CB] |
15488 | Qualities and dispositions are aspects of properties - what it exhibits, and what it does [Martin,CB] |
15479 | Properties endow a ball with qualities, and with powers or dispositions [Martin,CB] |
15469 | Dispositions in action can be destroyed, be recovered, or remain unchanged [Martin,CB] |
15467 | Powers depend on circumstances, so can't be given a conditional analysis [Martin,CB] |
15466 | 'The wire is live' can't be analysed as a conditional, because a wire can change its powers [Martin,CB] |
15476 | Structural properties involve dispositionality, so cannot be used to explain it [Martin,CB] |
15465 | Structures don't explain dispositions, because they consist of dispositions [Martin,CB] |
15481 | I favour the idea of a substratum for properties; spacetime seems to be just a bearer of properties [Martin,CB] |
15474 | Properly understood, wholes do no more causal work than their parts [Martin,CB] |
15486 | Only abstract things can have specific and full identity specifications [Martin,CB] |
15475 | The concept of 'identity' must allow for some changes in properties or parts [Martin,CB] |
15472 | It is pointless to say possible worlds are truthmakers, and then deny that possible worlds exist [Martin,CB] |
3061 | Anaxarchus said that he was not even sure that he knew nothing [Anaxarchus, by Diog. Laertius] |
15492 | Explanations are mind-dependent, theory-laden, and interest-relative [Martin,CB] |
15495 | Analogy works, as when we eat food which others seem to be relishing [Martin,CB] |
15493 | Memory requires abstraction, as reminders of what cannot be fully remembered [Martin,CB] |
22673 | Wherever there is a small community, the association of the people is natural [Tocqueville] |
22676 | The people are just individuals, and only present themselves as united to foreigners [Tocqueville] |
22679 | Vast empires are bad for well-being and freedom, though they may promote glory [Tocqueville] |
22680 | People would be much happier and freer in small nations [Tocqueville] |
22675 | In American judges rule according to the Constitution, not the law [Tocqueville] |
22677 | A monarchical family is always deeply concerned with the interests of the state [Tocqueville] |
22683 | Despots like to see their own regulations ignored, by themselves and their agents [Tocqueville] |
22669 | Aristocracy is constituted by inherited landed property [Tocqueville] |
22674 | In Europe it is thought that local government is best handled centrally [Tocqueville] |
22678 | An election, and its lead up time, are always a national crisis [Tocqueville] |
22682 | Universal suffrage is no guarantee of wise choices [Tocqueville] |
22670 | Slavery undermines the morals and energy of a society [Tocqueville] |
22681 | The liberty of the press is more valuable for what it prevents than what it promotes [Tocqueville] |
22672 | It is admirable to elevate the humble to the level of the great, but the opposite is depraved [Tocqueville] |
22671 | Equality can only be established by equal rights for all (or no rights for anyone) [Tocqueville] |
15485 | Instead of a cause followed by an effect, we have dispositions in reciprocal manifestation [Martin,CB] |
15491 | Causation should be explained in terms of dispositions and manifestations [Martin,CB] |
15468 | Causal counterfactuals are just clumsy linguistic attempts to indicate dispositions [Martin,CB] |
15470 | Causal laws are summaries of powers [Martin,CB] |
15482 | We can't think of space-time as empty and propertyless, and it seems to be a substratum [Martin,CB] |