406 ideas
21979 | Wisdom emerges at the end of a process [Hegel] |
19635 | Hegel produced modern optimism; he failed to grasp that consciousness never progresses [Hegel, by Cioran] |
8215 | Hegel was the last philosopher of the Book [Hegel, by Derrida] |
20109 | Hegel inserted society and history between the God-world, man-nature, man-being binary pairs [Hegel, by Safranski] |
8927 | Philosophy moves essentially in the element of universality [Hegel] |
22766 | Philosophy is exploration of the rational [Hegel] |
21757 | Philosophy is the conceptual essence of the shape of history [Hegel] |
21776 | Philosophy aims to reveal the necessity and rationality of the categories of nature and spirit [Hegel, by Houlgate] |
19073 | True philosophy aims at absolute unity, while our understanding sees only separation [Hegel] |
21753 | If we look at the world rationally, the world assumes a rational aspect [Hegel] |
15624 | Free thinking has no presuppositions [Hegel] |
15631 | The ideal of reason is the unification of abstract identity (or 'concept') and being [Hegel] |
9414 | Metaphysics is the mapping of possibilities [Lowe, by Mumford] |
16011 | Hegel doesn't storm the heavens like the giants, but works his way up by syllogisms [Kierkegaard on Hegel] |
16414 | Science needs metaphysics to weed out its presuppositions [Lowe, by Hofweber] |
15612 | Older metaphysics naively assumed that thought grasped things in themselves [Hegel] |
5433 | For Hegel, things are incomplete, and contain external references in their own nature [Hegel, by Russell] |
13917 | Metaphysics aims to identify categories of being, and show their interdependency [Lowe] |
4194 | Metaphysics is concerned with the fundamental structure of reality as a whole [Lowe] |
8282 | Only metaphysics can decide whether identity survives through change [Lowe] |
16127 | Metaphysics tells us what there could be, rather than what there is [Lowe] |
21761 | If we start with indeterminate being, we arrive at being and nothing as a united pair [Hegel, by Houlgate] |
21764 | Thought about being leads to a string of other concepts, like becoming, quantity, specificity, causality... [Hegel, by Houlgate] |
21769 | We must start with absolute abstraction, with no presuppositions, so we start with pure being [Hegel] |
21768 | Logic is metaphysics, the science of things grasped in thoughts [Hegel] |
22077 | Metaphysics is the lattice which makes incoming material intelligible [Hegel] |
4214 | Maybe such concepts as causation, identity and existence are primitive and irreducible [Lowe] |
13919 | Philosophy aims not at the 'analysis of concepts', but at understanding the essences of things [Lowe] |
3301 | On the continent it is generally believed that metaphysics died with Hegel [Benardete,JA on Hegel] |
4222 | If all that exists is what is being measured, what about the people and instruments doing the measuring? [Lowe] |
8935 | Without philosophy, science is barren and futile [Hegel] |
21984 | We must break up the rigidity that our understanding has imposed [Hegel] |
22082 | Truth does not appear by asserting reasons and then counter-reasons [Hegel] |
7083 | Highest reason is aesthetic, and truth and good are subordinate to beauty [Hegel] |
21974 | The world seems rational to those who look at it rationally [Hegel] |
22081 | Let thought follow its own course, and don't interfere [Hegel] |
22037 | Objectivity is not by correspondence, but by the historical determined necessity of Geist [Hegel, by Pinkard] |
15626 | Categories create objective experience, but are too conditioned by things to actually grasp them [Hegel] |
22768 | Subjective and objective are not firmly opposed, but merge into one another [Hegel] |
22035 | The structure of reason is a social and historical achievement [Hegel, by Pinkard] |
8932 | Truth does not come from giving reasons for and against propositions [Hegel] |
19661 | Making sufficient reason an absolute devalues the principle of non-contradiction [Hegel, by Meillassoux] |
21983 | Being and nothing are the same and not the same, which is the identity of identity and non-identity [Hegel] |
21985 | The so-called world is filled with contradiction [Hegel] |
15616 | If truth is just non-contradiction, we must take care that our basic concepts aren't contradictory [Hegel] |
4217 | It is more extravagant, in general, to revise one's logic than to augment one's ontology [Lowe] |
21767 | Dialectic is seen in popular proverbs like 'pride comes before a fall' [Hegel] |
15638 | Dialectic is the moving soul of scientific progression, the principle which binds science together [Hegel] |
15639 | Socratic dialectic is subjective, but Plato made it freely scientific and objective [Hegel] |
21978 | Hegel's dialectic is not thesis-antithesis-synthesis, but usually negation of negation of the negation [Hegel, by Moore,AW] |
15615 | Older metaphysics became dogmatic, by assuming opposed assertions must be true and false [Hegel] |
20952 | Rather than in three stages, Hegel presented his dialectic as 'negation of the negation' [Hegel, by Bowie] |
21766 | Dialectic is the instability of thoughts generating their opposite, and then new more complex thoughts [Hegel, by Houlgate] |
16539 | A definition of a circle will show what it is, and show its generating principle [Lowe] |
16540 | Defining an ellipse by conic sections reveals necessities, but not the essence of an ellipse [Lowe] |
16548 | An essence is what an entity is, revealed by a real definition; this is not an entity in its own right [Lowe] |
16549 | Simple things like 'red' can be given real ostensive definitions [Lowe] |
8262 | How can a theory of meaning show the ontological commitments of two paraphrases of one idea? [Lowe] |
19070 | Superficial truth is knowing how something is, which is consciousness of bare correctness [Hegel] |
21793 | Genuine truth is the resolution of the highest contradiction [Hegel] |
21795 | What I hold true must also be part of my feelings and character [Hegel] |
5644 | In Hegel's logic it is concepts (rather than judgements or propositions) which are true or false [Hegel, by Scruton] |
19072 | In the deeper sense of truth, to be untrue resembles being bad; badness is untrue to a thing's nature [Hegel] |
18351 | Propositions are made true, in virtue of something which explains its truth [Lowe] |
19071 | The deeper sense of truth is a thing matching the idea of what it ought to be [Hegel] |
8315 | Maybe facts are just true propositions [Lowe] |
8319 | One-to-one correspondence would need countable, individuable items [Lowe] |
7077 | The true is the whole [Hegel] |
8309 | A set is a 'number of things', not a 'collection', because nothing actually collects the members [Lowe] |
8322 | I don't believe in the empty set, because (lacking members) it lacks identity-conditions [Lowe] |
21595 | Excluded middle is the maxim of definite understanding, but just produces contradictions [Hegel] |
21777 | Negation of negation doubles back into a self-relationship [Hegel, by Houlgate] |
8312 | It is better if the existential quantifier refers to 'something', rather than a 'thing' which needs individuation [Lowe] |
6653 | Syntactical methods of proof need only structure, where semantic methods (truth-tables) need truth [Lowe] |
15628 | The idea that contradiction is essential to rational understanding is a key modern idea [Hegel] |
15629 | Tenderness for the world solves the antinomies; contradiction is in our reason, not in the essence of the world [Hegel] |
15630 | Antinomies are not just in four objects, but in all objects, all representations, all objects and all ideas [Hegel] |
4229 | An infinite series of tasks can't be completed because it has no last member [Lowe] |
4240 | It might be argued that mathematics does not, or should not, aim at truth [Lowe] |
8297 | Numbers are universals, being sets whose instances are sets of appropriate cardinality [Lowe] |
8266 | Simple counting is more basic than spotting that one-to-one correlation makes sets equinumerous [Lowe] |
8302 | Fs and Gs are identical in number if they one-to-one correlate with one another [Lowe] |
8298 | Sets are instances of numbers (rather than 'collections'); numbers explain sets, not vice versa [Lowe] |
8311 | If 2 is a particular, then adding particulars to themselves does nothing, and 2+2=2 [Lowe] |
4241 | If there are infinite numbers and finite concrete objects, this implies that numbers are abstract objects [Lowe] |
8310 | Does the existence of numbers matter, in the way space, time and persons do? [Lowe] |
8321 | All possible worlds contain abstracta (e.g. numbers), which means they contain concrete objects [Lowe] |
5645 | The dialectical opposition of being and nothing is resolved in passing to the concept of becoming [Hegel, by Scruton] |
21762 | To grasp an existence, we must consider its non-existence [Hegel, by Houlgate] |
21977 | Nothing exists, as thinkable and expressible [Hegel] |
21760 | Thinking of nothing is not the same as simply not thinking [Hegel, by Houlgate] |
22772 | Personality overcomes subjective limitations and posits Dasein as its own [Hegel] |
4239 | Nominalists deny abstract objects, because we can have no reason to believe in their existence [Lowe] |
5646 | Hegel gives an ontological proof of the existence of everything [Hegel, by Scruton] |
8300 | Perhaps possession of causal power is the hallmark of existence (and a reason to deny the void) [Lowe] |
4202 | Change can be of composition (the component parts), or quality (properties), or substance [Lowe] |
15541 | Maybe particles are unchanging, and intrinsic change in things is their rearrangement [Lowe, by Lewis] |
8281 | Heraclitus says change is new creation, and Spinoza that it is just phases of the one substance [Lowe] |
4201 | Four theories of qualitative change are 'a is F now', or 'a is F-at-t', or 'a-at-t is F', or 'a is-at-t F' [Lowe, by PG] |
8270 | Events are changes or non-changes in properties and relations of persisting objects [Lowe] |
4219 | Numerically distinct events of the same kind (like two battles) can coincide in space and time [Lowe] |
4221 | Maybe modern physics requires an event-ontology, rather than a thing-ontology [Lowe] |
8308 | Events are ontologically indispensable for singular causal explanations [Lowe] |
4220 | Maybe an event is the exemplification of a property at a time [Lowe] |
4225 | Events are changes in the properties of or relations between things [Lowe] |
21765 | The ground of a thing is not another thing, but the first thing's substance or rational concept [Hegel, by Houlgate] |
22059 | Kant's thing-in-itself is just an abstraction from our knowledge; things only exist for us [Hegel, by Bowie] |
22083 | Hegel believe that the genuine categories reveal things in themselves [Hegel, by Houlgate] |
8314 | Are facts wholly abstract, or can they contain some concrete constituents? [Lowe] |
8316 | Facts cannot be wholly abstract if they enter into causal relations [Lowe] |
8318 | The problem with the structured complex view of facts is what binds the constituents [Lowe] |
8323 | It is whimsical to try to count facts - how many facts did I learn before breakfast? [Lowe] |
8313 | Facts are needed for truth-making and causation, but they seem to lack identity criteria [Lowe] |
8258 | Two of the main rivals for the foundations of ontology are substances, and facts or states-of-affairs [Lowe] |
8301 | Some abstractions exist despite lacking causal powers, because explanation needs them [Lowe] |
22078 | Even simple propositions about sensations are filled with categories [Hegel] |
8283 | Ontological categories are not natural kinds: the latter can only be distinguished using the former [Lowe] |
15634 | Thought about particulars is done entirely through categories [Hegel] |
4196 | The main categories of existence are either universal and particular, or abstract and concrete [Lowe] |
8284 | The top division of categories is either abstract/concrete, or universal/particular, or necessary/contingent [Lowe] |
13122 | Lowe divides things into universals and particulars, then kinds and properties, and abstract/concrete [Lowe, by Westerhoff] |
21754 | Our concepts and categories disclose the world, because we are part of the world [Hegel, by Houlgate] |
21755 | For Hegel, categories shift their form in the course of history [Hegel, by Houlgate] |
22079 | Hegel said Kant's fixed categories actually vary with culture and era [Hegel, by Houlgate] |
22080 | The nature of each category relates itself to another [Hegel] |
18353 | Modes are beings that are related both to substances and to universals [Lowe] |
8273 | Is 'the Thames is broad in London' relational, or adverbial, or segmental? [Lowe] |
8285 | I prefer 'modes' to 'tropes', because it emphasises their dependence [Lowe] |
4234 | Trope theory says blueness is a real feature of objects, but not the same as an identical blue found elsewhere [Lowe] |
4235 | Maybe a cushion is just a bundle of tropes, such as roundness, blueness and softness [Lowe] |
4236 | Tropes seem to be abstract entities, because they can't exist alone, but must come in bundles [Lowe] |
8295 | Why cannot a trope float off and join another bundle? [Lowe] |
8286 | Tropes cannot have clear identity-conditions, so they are not objects [Lowe] |
8294 | How can tropes depend on objects for their identity, if objects are just bundles of tropes? [Lowe] |
8296 | Does a ball snug in plaster have one trope, or two which coincide? [Lowe] |
18352 | Tropes have existence independently of any entities [Lowe] |
4197 | The category of universals can be sub-divided into properties and relations [Lowe] |
8288 | Sortal terms for universals involve a substance, whereas adjectival terms do not [Lowe] |
8293 | Real universals are needed to explain laws of nature [Lowe] |
8307 | Particulars are instantiations, and universals are instantiables [Lowe] |
4232 | Nominalists believe that only particulars exist [Lowe] |
7720 | Two things can only resemble one another in some respect, and that may reintroduce a universal [Lowe] |
4205 | 'Is non-self-exemplifying' is a predicate which cannot denote a property (as it would be a contradiction) [Lowe] |
8967 | Not all predicates can be properties - 'is non-self-exemplifying', for example [Lowe] |
4233 | If 'blueness' is a set of particulars, there is danger of circularity, or using universals, in identifying the set [Lowe] |
8267 | Perhaps concrete objects are entities which are in space-time and subject to causality [Lowe] |
16130 | To be an object at all requires identity-conditions [Lowe] |
8265 | Our commitment to the existence of objects should depend on their explanatory value [Lowe] |
8275 | Objects are entities with full identity-conditions, but there are entities other than objects [Lowe] |
7783 | Bodies, properties, relations, events, numbers, sets and propositions are 'things' if they exist [Lowe] |
8263 | An object is an entity which has identity-conditions [Lowe] |
8268 | Some things (such as electrons) can be countable, while lacking proper identity [Lowe] |
8965 | Neither mere matter nor pure form can individuate a sphere, so it must be a combination [Lowe] |
8303 | Criteria of identity cannot individuate objects, because they are shared among different types [Lowe] |
8292 | Diversity of two tigers is their difference in space-time; difference of matter is a consequence [Lowe] |
8291 | Individuation principles identify what kind it is; identity criteria distinguish items of the same kind [Lowe] |
4206 | Conventionalists see the world as an amorphous lump without identities, but are we part of the lump? [Lowe] |
21981 | The one substance is formless without the mediation of dialectical concepts [Hegel] |
16128 | A 'substance' is an object which doesn't depend for existence on other objects [Lowe] |
7712 | On substances, Leibniz emphasises unity, Spinoza independence, Locke relations to qualities [Lowe] |
4204 | Statues can't survive much change to their shape, unlike lumps of bronze, which must retain material [Lowe] |
16545 | The essence of lumps and statues shows that two objects coincide but are numerically distinct [Lowe] |
16546 | The essence of a bronze statue shows that it could be made of different bronze [Lowe] |
13918 | Holes, shadows and spots of light can coincide without being identical [Lowe] |
8279 | The identity of composite objects isn't fixed by original composition, because how do you identify the origin? [Lowe] |
16551 | Grasping an essence is just grasping a real definition [Lowe] |
15637 | Essence is the essential self-positing unity of immediacy and mediation [Hegel] |
13921 | All things must have an essence (a 'what it is'), or we would be unable to think about them [Lowe] |
16542 | Explanation can't give an account of essence, because it is too multi-faceted [Lowe] |
15613 | Real cognition grasps a thing from within itself, and is not satisfied with mere predicates [Hegel] |
13922 | Knowing an essence is just knowing what the thing is, not knowing some further thing [Lowe] |
16552 | If we must know some entity to know an essence, we lack a faculty to do that [Lowe] |
6618 | A 'substance' is a thing that remains the same when its properties change [Lowe] |
8271 | An object 'endures' if it is always wholly present, and 'perdures' if different parts exist at different times [Lowe] |
8272 | How can you identify temporal parts of tomatoes without referring to tomatoes? [Lowe] |
4198 | If 5% replacement preserves a ship, we can replace 4% and 4% again, and still retain the ship [Lowe] |
4199 | A renovation or a reconstruction of an original ship would be accepted, as long as the other one didn't exist [Lowe] |
4200 | If old parts are stored and then appropriated, they are no longer part of the original (which is the renovated ship). [Lowe] |
8305 | A clear idea of the kind of an object must precede a criterion of identity for it [Lowe] |
8290 | One view is that two objects of the same type are only distinguished by differing in matter [Lowe] |
13920 | Each thing has to be of a general kind, because it belongs to some category [Lowe] |
4203 | Identity of Indiscernibles (same properties, same thing) ) is not Leibniz's Law (same thing, same properties) [Lowe] |
15079 | 'Conceptual' necessity is narrow logical necessity, true because of concepts and logical laws [Lowe] |
16533 | Logical necessities, based on laws of logic, are a proper sub-class of metaphysical necessities [Lowe] |
16063 | Metaphysical necessity is logical necessity 'broadly construed' [Lowe, by Lynch/Glasgow] |
16531 | 'Metaphysical' necessity is absolute and objective - the strongest kind of necessity [Lowe] |
8260 | Logical necessity can be 'strict' (laws), or 'narrow' (laws and definitions), or 'broad' (all logical worlds) [Lowe] |
4195 | It is impossible to reach a valid false conclusion from true premises, so reason itself depends on possibility [Lowe] |
16131 | The metaphysically possible is what acceptable principles and categories will permit [Lowe] |
16532 | 'Epistemic' necessity is better called 'certainty' [Lowe] |
16543 | If an essence implies p, then p is an essential truth, and hence metaphysically necessary [Lowe] |
16544 | Metaphysical necessity is either an essential truth, or rests on essential truths [Lowe] |
4207 | We might eliminate 'possible' and 'necessary' in favour of quantification over possible worlds [Lowe] |
8320 | Does every abstract possible world exist in every possible world? [Lowe] |
16538 | We could give up possible worlds if we based necessity on essences [Lowe] |
6635 | Causal theories of belief make all beliefs true, and can't explain belief about the future [Lowe] |
21772 | In absolute knowing, the gap between object and oneself closes, producing certainty [Hegel] |
15611 | I develop philosophical science from the simplest appearance of immediate consciousness [Hegel, by Hegel] |
15636 | The Cogito is at the very centre of the entire concern of modern philosophy [Hegel] |
6619 | Perhaps 'I' no more refers than the 'it' in 'it is raining' [Lowe] |
6643 | 'Ecological' approaches say we don't infer information, but pick it up directly from reality [Lowe] |
8280 | While space may just be appearance, time and change can't be, because the appearances change [Lowe] |
20954 | The 'absolute idea' is when all the contradictions are exhausted [Hegel, by Bowie] |
8928 | The Absolute is not supposed to be comprehended, but felt and intuited [Hegel] |
8929 | In the Absolute everything is the same [Hegel] |
21774 | Genuine idealism is seeing the ideal structure of the world [Hegel, by Houlgate] |
21972 | Hegel, unlike Kant, said how things appear is the same as how things are [Hegel, by Moore,AW] |
22038 | Hegel's non-subjective idealism is the unity of subjective and objective viewpoints [Hegel, by Pinkard] |
22044 | Hegel claimed his system was about the world, but it only mapped conceptual interdependence [Pinkard on Hegel] |
21464 | The Absolute is the primitive system of concepts which are actualised [Hegel, by Gardner] |
22084 | Authentic thinking and reality have the same content [Hegel] |
21975 | The absolute idea is being, imperishable life, self-knowing truth, and all truth [Hegel] |
21976 | The absolute idea is the great unity of the infinite system of concepts [Hegel, by Moore,AW] |
8934 | Being is Thought [Hegel] |
22300 | Existence is just a set of relationships [Hegel] |
9225 | Hegel reputedly claimed to know a priori that there are five planets [Hegel, by Field,H] |
15609 | The sensible is distinguished from thought by being about singular things [Hegel] |
21773 | Experience is immediacy, unity, forces, self-awareness, reason, culture, absolute being [Hegel, by Houlgate] |
8276 | Properties or qualities are essentially adjectival, not objectual [Lowe] |
6638 | One must be able to visually recognise a table, as well as knowing its form [Lowe] |
6644 | Computationalists object that the 'ecological' approach can't tell us how we get the information [Lowe] |
6647 | Comparing shapes is proportional in time to the angle of rotation [Lowe] |
6639 | The 'disjunctive' theory of perception says true perceptions and hallucinations need have nothing in common [Lowe] |
22033 | Hegel tried to avoid Kant's dualism of neutral intuitions and imposed concepts [Hegel, by Pinkard] |
7710 | Perception is a mode of belief-acquisition, and does not involve sensation [Lowe] |
7711 | Science requires a causal theory - perception of an object must be an experience caused by the object [Lowe] |
6640 | A causal theorist can be a direct realist, if all objects of perception are external [Lowe] |
6645 | If blindsight shows we don't need perceptual experiences, the causal theory is wrong [Lowe] |
6637 | How could one paraphrase very complex sense-data reports adverbially? [Lowe] |
15625 | Sense perception is secondary and dependent, while thought is independent and primitive [Hegel] |
15620 | Empiricism contains the important idea that we should see knowledge for ourselves, and be part of it [Hegel] |
15619 | Empiricism made particular knowledge possible, and blocked wild claims [Hegel] |
15622 | Empiricism unknowingly contains and uses a metaphysic, which underlies its categories [Hegel] |
15621 | Empiricism of the finite denies the supersensible, and can only think with formal abstraction [Hegel] |
15632 | The Humean view stops us thinking about perception, and finding universals and necessities in it [Hegel] |
16534 | 'Intuitions' are just unreliable 'hunches'; over centuries intuitions change enormously [Lowe] |
6667 | There are memories of facts, memories of practical skills, and autobiographical memory [Lowe] |
21771 | Consciousness derives its criterion of knowledge from direct knowledge of its own being [Hegel] |
22058 | Hegel's 'absolute idea' is the interdependence of all truths to justify any of them [Hegel, by Bowie] |
15623 | Humean scepticism, unlike ancient Greek scepticism, accepts the truth of experience as basic [Hegel] |
6642 | Psychologists say illusions only occur in unnatural and passive situations [Lowe] |
22780 | It is a rejection of intellectual dignity to say that we cannot know the truth [Hegel] |
4223 | Unfalsifiability may be a failure in an empirical theory, but it is a virtue in metaphysics [Lowe] |
8968 | If the flagpole causally explains the shadow, the shadow cannot explain the flagpole [Lowe] |
4193 | The behaviour of persons and social groups seems to need rational rather than causal explanation [Lowe] |
6641 | Externalists say minds depend on environment for their very existence and identity [Lowe] |
6617 | The main questions are: is mind distinct from body, and does it have unique properties? [Lowe] |
20741 | Consciousness is shaped dialectically, by opposing forces and concepts [Hegel, by Aho] |
21770 | Consciousness is both of objects, and of itself [Hegel] |
6626 | 'Phenomenal' consciousness is of qualities; 'apperceptive' consciousness includes beliefs and desires [Lowe] |
6646 | The brain may have two systems for vision, with only the older one intact in blindsight [Lowe] |
8966 | Properties are facets of objects, only discussable separately by an act of abstraction [Lowe] |
6665 | Persons are selves - subjects of experience, with reflexive self-knowledge [Lowe] |
5647 | Hegel claims knowledge of self presupposes desire, and hence objects [Hegel, by Scruton] |
22770 | A person is a being which is aware of its own self-directed and free subjectivity [Hegel] |
6670 | If my brain could survive on its own, I cannot be identical with my whole body [Lowe] |
6671 | It seems impossible to get generally applicable mental concepts from self-observation [Lowe] |
7714 | Personal identity is a problem across time (diachronic) and at an instant (synchronic) [Lowe] |
6666 | All human languages have an equivalent of the word 'I' [Lowe] |
5648 | For Hegel knowledge of self presupposes objects, and also a public and moral social world [Hegel, by Scruton] |
22788 | A human only become a somebody as a member of a social estate [Hegel] |
22792 | Individuals attain their right by discovering their self-consciousness in institutions [Hegel] |
21780 | A free will primarily wills its own freedoom [Hegel, by Houlgate] |
22040 | Freedom is produced by the activity of the mind, and is not intrinsically given [Hegel] |
15617 | In abstraction, beyond finitude, freedom and necessity must exist together [Hegel] |
22039 | Geist is distinct from nature, not as a substance, but because of its normativity [Hegel, by Pinkard] |
8289 | The idea that Cartesian souls are made of some ghostly 'immaterial' stuff is quite unwarranted [Lowe] |
6625 | If qualia are causally inert, how can we even know about them? [Lowe] |
6621 | You can only identify behaviour by ascribing belief, so the behaviour can't explain the belief [Lowe] |
6654 | A computer program is equivalent to the person AND the manual [Lowe] |
6629 | Functionalism commits us to bizarre possibilities, such as 'zombies' [Lowe] |
6623 | Functionalism can't distinguish our experiences in spectrum inversion [Lowe] |
6628 | Functionalism only discusses relational properties of mental states, not intrinsic properties [Lowe] |
6622 | Non-reductive physicalism accepts token-token identity (not type-type) and asserts 'supervenience' of mind and brain [Lowe] |
6634 | Physicalists must believe in narrow content (because thoughts are merely the brain states) [Lowe] |
6630 | Eliminativism is incoherent if it eliminates reason and truth as well as propositional attitudes [Lowe] |
6648 | Some behaviourists believe thought is just suppressed speech [Lowe] |
15608 | The act of thinking is the bringing forth of universals [Hegel] |
6651 | People are wildly inaccurate in estimating probabilities about an observed event [Lowe] |
6652 | 'Base rate neglect' makes people favour the evidence over its background [Lowe] |
21986 | Hegel's system has a vast number of basic concepts [Hegel, by Moore,AW] |
7715 | Mentalese isn't a language, because it isn't conventional, or a means of public communication [Lowe] |
6655 | The 'Frame Problem' is how to program the appropriate application of general knowledge [Lowe] |
6657 | Computers can't be rational, because they lack motivation and curiosity [Lowe] |
6656 | The Turing test is too behaviourist, and too verbal in its methods [Lowe] |
6636 | The naturalistic views of how content is created are the causal theory and the teleological theory [Lowe] |
6633 | Twin Earth cases imply that even beliefs about kinds of stuff are indexical [Lowe] |
20953 | Every concept depends on the counter-concepts of what it is not [Hegel, by Bowie] |
15607 | We don't think with concepts - we think the concepts [Hegel] |
15610 | Active thought about objects produces the universal, which is what is true and essential of it [Hegel] |
16535 | A concept is a way of thinking of things or kinds, whether or not they exist [Lowe] |
8299 | Abstractions are non-spatial, or dependent, or derived from concepts [Lowe] |
4238 | The centre of mass of the solar system is a non-causal abstract object, despite having a location [Lowe] |
4237 | Concrete and abstract objects are distinct because the former have causal powers and relations [Lowe] |
8306 | You can think of a direction without a line, but a direction existing with no lines is inconceivable [Lowe] |
7722 | If meaning is mental pictures, explain "the cat (or dog!) is NOT on the mat" [Lowe] |
16550 | Direct reference doesn't seem to require that thinkers know what it is they are thinking about [Lowe] |
6632 | The same proposition provides contents for the that-clause of an utterance and a belief [Lowe] |
6631 | If propositions are abstract entities, how can minds depend on their causal powers? [Lowe] |
21763 | When we explicate the category of being, we watch a new category emerge [Hegel, by Houlgate] |
6659 | The three main theories of action involve the will, or belief-plus-desire, or an agent [Lowe] |
22769 | The concept of the will is the free will which wills its freedom [Hegel] |
6661 | Libet gives empirical support for the will, as a kind of 'executive' mental operation [Lowe] |
21787 | Evil enters a good will when we believe we are doing right, but allow no criticism of our choice [Hegel, by Houlgate] |
6662 | We feel belief and desire as reasons for choice, not causes of choice [Lowe] |
6663 | People's actions are explained either by their motives, or their reasons, or the causes [Lowe] |
18549 | Nineteenth century aesthetics focused on art rather than nature (thanks to Hegel) [Hegel, by Scruton] |
22043 | Hegel largely ignores aesthetic pleasure, taste and beauty, and focuses on the meaning of artworks [Hegel, by Pinkard] |
22042 | Natural beauty is unimportant, because it doesn't show human freedom [Hegel, by Pinkard] |
20413 | For Hegel the importance of art concerns the culture, not the individual [Hegel, by Eldridge] |
20394 | The purpose of art is to reveal to Spirit its own nature [Hegel, by Davies,S] |
21794 | The main purpose of art is to express the unity of human life [Hegel] |
20415 | Art forms a bridge between the sensuous world and the world of pure thought [Hegel] |
21786 | Conscience is the right of the self to know what is right and obligatory, and thus make them true [Hegel] |
21796 | Man is God if he raises himself, by denying his nature and finitude [Hegel] |
22784 | Love is ethical life in its natural form [Hegel] |
23274 | World history has no room for happiness [Hegel] |
8029 | You can't have a morality which is supplied by the individual, but is also genuinely universal [Hegel, by MacIntyre] |
22771 | Be a person, and respect other persons [Hegel] |
22051 | The categorical imperative lacks roots in a historical culture [Hegel, by Bowie] |
22781 | The categorical imperative is fine if you already have a set of moral principles [Hegel] |
22779 | The good is realised freedom [Hegel] |
21758 | Humans have no fixed identity, but produce and reveal their shifting identity in history [Hegel, by Houlgate] |
8930 | The in-itself must become for-itself, which requires self-consciousness [Hegel] |
23275 | The state of nature is one of untamed brutality [Hegel] |
20414 | Hegel's Absolute Spirit is the union of human rational activity at a moment, and whatever that sustains [Hegel, by Eldridge] |
22787 | The family is the first basis of the state, but estates are a necessary second [Hegel] |
23276 | The soul of the people is an organisation of its members which produces an essential unity [Hegel] |
22790 | We cannot assert rights which are unnatural [Hegel] |
21785 | We are only free, with rights, if we claim our freedom, and there are no natural rights [Hegel, by Houlgate] |
22767 | I aim to portray the state as a rational entity [Hegel] |
22789 | Society draws people, and requires their work, making them wholly dependent on it [Hegel] |
22791 | The state is the march of God in the world [Hegel] |
3909 | Society isn’t founded on a contract, since contracts presuppose a society [Hegel, by Scruton] |
22778 | Individuals can't leave the state, because they are natural citizens, and humans require a state [Hegel] |
22794 | A fully developed state is conscious and knows what it wills [Hegel] |
22799 | The people do not have the ability to know the general will [Hegel] |
22801 | The great man of the ages is the one who reveals and accomplishes the will of his time [Hegel] |
22796 | A constitution embodies a nation's rights and condition [Hegel] |
22777 | Individuals must dedicate themselves to the ethical whole, and give their lives when asked [Hegel] |
21791 | Social groups must focus on the state, which must in turn respect their inclusion and their will [Hegel] |
22795 | People can achieve respect for their state by insight into its essence [Hegel] |
21756 | All revolutions result from spirit changing its categories, to achieve a deeper understanding [Hegel] |
21988 | In the 1840s Hegel seemed to defend society being right as it is, as a manifestation of Mind [Hegel, by Singer] |
22800 | Majority rule means obligations can be imposed on me [Hegel] |
21792 | The state should reflect all interests, and not just popular will, or a popular party [Hegel, by Houlgate] |
22041 | Representatives by region ignores whether they care about the national interest [Hegel, by Pinkard] |
22797 | In modern states an individual's actions should be their choice [Hegel] |
23272 | The human race matters, and individuals have little importance [Hegel] |
22034 | Modern life needs individuality, but must recognise that human agency is social [Hegel, by Pinkard] |
21790 | Moral individuals become ethical when they see the social aspect of a matter [Hegel, by Houlgate] |
8030 | For Hegel, the moral life can only be led within a certain type of community [Hegel, by MacIntyre] |
8936 | Human nature only really exists in an achieved community of minds [Hegel] |
22785 | Even educated women are unsuited to science, philosophy, art and government [Hegel] |
23273 | In a good state the goal of the citizens and of the whole state are united [Hegel] |
21789 | Slaves have no duties because they have no rights [Hegel] |
22776 | Slaves are partly responsible for their own condition [Hegel] |
21783 | State slavery is a phase of education, moving towards a full culture [Hegel] |
21784 | Slavery is unjust, because humanity is essentially free [Hegel] |
21778 | True liberal freedom is to pursue something, while being free to cease the pursuit [Hegel, by Houlgate] |
21779 | People assume they are free, but the options available are not under their control [Hegel] |
23271 | The goal of the world is Spirit's consciousness and enactment of freedom [Hegel] |
22085 | Freedom requires us to submit to a family, or a corporation, or a state [Hegel, by Houlgate] |
22798 | Money is the best way to achieve just equality [Hegel] |
21781 | The absolute right is the right to have rights [Hegel] |
22783 | Rights imply duties, and duties imply rights [Hegel] |
21782 | Man has an absolute right to appropriate things [Hegel] |
22773 | Because only human beings can own property, everything else can become our property [Hegel] |
22774 | A community does not have the property-owning rights that a person has [Hegel] |
22775 | The owner of a thing is obviously the first person to freely take possession of it [Hegel] |
22802 | Wars add strength to a nation, and cure internal dissension [Hegel] |
22786 | Children need discipline, to break their self-will and eradicate sensuousness [Hegel] |
21987 | History is the progress of the consciousness of freedom [Hegel] |
23270 | We should all agree that there is reason in history [Hegel] |
6005 | Animals are dangerous and nourishing, and can't form contracts of justice [Hermarchus, by Sedley] |
4347 | When man wills the natural, it is no longer natural [Hegel] |
15614 | Old metaphysics tried to grasp eternal truths through causal events, which is impossible [Hegel] |
4210 | If the concept of a cause says it precedes its effect, that rules out backward causation by definition [Lowe] |
4209 | The theories of fact causation and event causation are both worth serious consideration [Lowe] |
8317 | To cite facts as the elements in causation is to confuse states of affairs with states of objects [Lowe] |
4215 | It seems proper to say that only substances (rather than events) have causal powers [Lowe] |
4211 | Causal overdetermination is either actual overdetermination, or pre-emption, or the fail-safe case [Lowe] |
4213 | Causation may be instances of laws (seen either as constant conjunctions, or as necessities) [Lowe] |
4212 | Hume showed that causation could at most be natural necessity, never metaphysical necessity [Lowe] |
14581 | The normative view says laws show the natural behaviour of natural kind members [Lowe, by Mumford/Anjum] |
8931 | The movement of pure essences constitutes the nature of scientific method [Hegel] |
8933 | Science confronts the inner necessities of objects [Hegel] |
16547 | H2O isn't necessary, because different laws of nature might affect how O and H combine [Lowe] |
4208 | 'If he wasn't born he wouldn't have died' doesn't mean birth causes death, so causation isn't counterfactual [Lowe] |
4224 | If motion is change of distance between objects, it involves no intrinsic change in the objects [Lowe] |
8269 | Points are limits of parts of space, so parts of space cannot be aggregates of them [Lowe] |
4227 | Surfaces, lines and points are not, strictly speaking, parts of space, but 'limits', which are abstract [Lowe] |
4228 | If space is entirely relational, what makes a boundary, or a place unoccupied by physical objects? [Lowe] |
15618 | If God is the abstract of Supremely Real Essence, then God is a mere Beyond, and unknowable [Hegel] |
15635 | The older conception of God was emptied of human features, to make it worthy of the Infinite [Hegel] |
21980 | God is the absolute thing, and also the absolute person [Hegel] |
21775 | The God of revealed religion can only be understood through pure speculative knowledge [Hegel] |
15633 | We establish unification of the Ideal by the ontological proof, deriving being from abstraction of thinking [Hegel] |
4188 | Hegel's entire philosophy is nothing but a monstrous amplification of the ontological proof [Schopenhauer on Hegel] |
6917 | God is the essence of thought, abstracted from the thinker [Hegel, by Feuerbach] |
6915 | Hegel made the last attempt to restore Christianity, which philosophy had destroyed [Hegel, by Feuerbach] |
6686 | Hegel said he was offering an encyclopaedic rationalisation of Christianity [Hegel, by Graham] |
21798 | To universalise 'give everything to the poor' leads to absurdity [Hegel] |
22782 | To have pagan beliefs and be a pagan are quite different [Hegel] |
22793 | Some religions lead to harsh servitude and the debasement of human beings [Hegel] |
21797 | Immortality does not come at a later time, but when pure knowing Spirit fully grasps the universal [Hegel] |