152 ideas
| 19441 | All philosophies presuppose their historical moment, and arise from it [Feuerbach] |
| 23889 | Among the Greeks Aristotle is the only philosopher in the modern style [Weil] |
| 19456 | Philosophy is distinguished from other sciences by its complete lack of presuppositions [Feuerbach] |
| 23881 | All thought about values is philosophical, and thought about anything else is not philosophy [Weil] |
| 19442 | I don't study Plato for his own sake; the primary aim is always understanding [Feuerbach] |
| 6928 | Only that which can be an object of religion is an object of philosophy [Feuerbach] |
| 23885 | Philosophy aims to change the soul, not to accumulate knowledge [Weil] |
| 23886 | Systems are not unique to each philosopher. The platonist tradition is old and continuous [Weil] |
| 6918 | Philosophy should not focus on names, but on the determined nature of things [Feuerbach] |
| 6904 | Modern philosophy begins with Descartes' abstraction from sensation and matter [Feuerbach] |
| 6931 | Empiricism is right about ideas, but forgets man himself as one of our objects [Feuerbach] |
| 6933 | The laws of reality are also the laws of thought [Feuerbach] |
| 19445 | A dialectician has to be his own opponent [Feuerbach] |
| 19444 | Each proposition has an antithesis, and truth exists as its refutation [Feuerbach] |
| 23884 | Truth is a value of thought [Weil] |
| 23755 | Genius and love of truth are always accompanied by great humility [Weil] |
| 23825 | We seek truth only because it is good [Weil] |
| 19443 | Truth forges an impersonal unity between people [Feuerbach] |
| 23853 | Truth is not a object we love - it is the radiant manifestation of reality [Weil] |
| 23877 | Most people won't question an idea's truth if they depend on it [Weil] |
| 6919 | Absolute thought remains in another world from being [Feuerbach] |
| 19457 | Being is what is undetermined, and hence indistinguishable [Feuerbach] |
| 6920 | Being posits essence, and my essence is my being [Feuerbach] |
| 6921 | Particularity belongs to being, whereas generality belongs to thought [Feuerbach] |
| 6926 | The only true being is of the senses, perception, feeling and love [Feuerbach] |
| 23855 | Creation produced a network or web of determinations [Weil] |
| 19446 | To our consciousness it is language which looks unreal [Feuerbach] |
| 23900 | Chance is compatible with necessity, and the two occur together [Weil] |
| 23888 | Knowledge is beyond question, as an unavoidable component of thinking [Weil] |
| 6908 | Consciousness is absolute reality, and everything exists through consciousness [Feuerbach] |
| 19447 | The Absolute is the 'and' which unites 'spirit and nature' [Feuerbach] |
| 6932 | Ideas arise through communication, and reason is reached through community [Feuerbach] |
| 6935 | In man the lowest senses of smell and taste elevate themselves to intellectual acts [Feuerbach] |
| 23747 | What is sacred is not a person, but the whole physical human being [Weil] |
| 23756 | The mind is imprisoned and limited by language, restricting our awareness of wider thoughts [Weil] |
| 19451 | When absorbed in deep reflection, is your reason in control, or is it you? [Feuerbach] |
| 6925 | The new philosophy thinks of the concrete in a concrete (not a abstract) manner [Feuerbach] |
| 23878 | Weakness of will is the inadequacy of the original impetus to carry through the action [Weil] |
| 23832 | We both desire what is beautiful, and want it to remain as it is [Weil] |
| 23848 | The aesthete's treatment of beauty as amusement is sacreligious; beauty should nourish [Weil] |
| 23899 | The secret of art is that beauty is a just blend of unity and its opposite [Weil] |
| 23758 | Beauty is an attractive mystery, leaving nothing to be desired [Weil] |
| 23887 | Art (like philosophy) establishes a relation between world and self, and between oneself and others [Weil] |
| 23903 | When we admire a work, we see ourselves as its creator [Weil] |
| 23898 | Those who say immorality is not an aesthetic criterion must show that all criteria are aesthetic [Weil] |
| 23854 | Beauty is the proof of what is good [Weil] |
| 23814 | Every human yearns for an unattainable transcendent good [Weil] |
| 23826 | Beauty, goodness and truth are only achieved by applying full attention [Weil] |
| 6924 | Plotinus was ashamed to have a body [Feuerbach] |
| 23824 | Where human needs are satisfied we find happiness, friendship and beauty [Weil] |
| 23879 | In a violent moral disagreement, it can't be that both sides are just following social morality [Weil] |
| 23882 | Ends, unlike means, cannot be defined, which is why people tend to pursue means [Weil] |
| 23760 | All we need are the unity of justice, truth and beauty [Weil] |
| 23883 | Minds essentially and always strive towards value [Weil] |
| 23748 | The sacred in every human is their expectation of good rather than evil [Weil] |
| 23759 | Everything which originates in love is beautiful [Weil] |
| 6927 | If you love nothing, it doesn't matter whether something exists or not [Feuerbach] |
| 23762 | Evil is transmitted by comforts and pleasures, but mostly by doing harm to people [Weil] |
| 23833 | The good is a nothingness, and yet real [Weil] |
| 23808 | There are two goods - the absolute good we want, and the reachable opposite of evil [Weil] |
| 19450 | Reason, love and will are the highest perfections and essence of man - the purpose of his life [Feuerbach] |
| 23865 | Morality would improve if people could pursue private interests [Weil] |
| 23894 | The concept of character is at the centre of morality [Weil] |
| 23896 | We see our character as a restricting limit, but also as an unshakable support [Weil] |
| 23893 | We don't see character in a single moment, but only over a period of time [Weil] |
| 23895 | We modify our character by placing ourselves in situations, or by attending to what seems trivial [Weil] |
| 19458 | Egoism is the only evil, love the only good; genuine love produces all the other virtues [Feuerbach] |
| 23837 | Respect is our only obligation, which can only be expressed through deeds, not words [Weil] |
| 23815 | We cannot equally respect what is unequal, so equal respect needs a shared ground [Weil] |
| 23834 | Friendship is partly universal - the love of a person is like the ideal of loving everyone [Weil] |
| 23823 | Life needs risks to avoid sickly boredom [Weil] |
| 6934 | Man is not a particular being, like animals, but a universal being [Feuerbach] |
| 6936 | The essence of man is in community, but with distinct individuals [Feuerbach] |
| 23844 | The most important human need is to have multiple roots [Weil] |
| 23838 | The need for order stands above all others, and is understood via the other needs [Weil] |
| 23836 | Obligations only bind individuals, not collectives [Weil] |
| 23840 | A citizen should be able to understand the whole of society [Weil] |
| 23822 | We all need to partipate in public tasks, and take some initiative [Weil] |
| 23843 | Even the poorest should feel collective ownership, and participation in grand display [Weil] |
| 23846 | Culture is an instrument for creating an ongoing succession of teachers [Weil] |
| 23857 | People in power always try to increase their power [Weil] |
| 23866 | In oppressive societies the scope of actual control is extended by a religion of power [Weil] |
| 23812 | Force is what turns man into a thing, and ultimately into a corpse [Weil] |
| 23831 | The essence of power is illusory prestige [Weil] |
| 23839 | A lifelong head of society should only be a symbol, not a ruler [Weil] |
| 23871 | No central authority can initiate decentralisation [Weil] |
| 23856 | Spontaneous movements are powerless against organised repression [Weil] |
| 23867 | After a bloody revolution the group which already had the power comes to the fore [Weil] |
| 23830 | A group is only dangerous if it endorses an abstract entity [Weil] |
| 23870 | Decentralisation is only possible by co-operation between strong and weak - which is absurd [Weil] |
| 23809 | Our only social duty is to try to limit evil [Weil] |
| 23829 | National leaders want to preserve necessary order - but always the existing order [Weil] |
| 23817 | We need both equality (to attend to human needs) and hierarchy (as a scale of responsibilities) [Weil] |
| 23842 | Party politics in a democracy can't avoid an anti-democratic party [Weil] |
| 23859 | True democracy is the subordination of society to the individual [Weil] |
| 23863 | Only individual people of good will can achieve social progress [Weil] |
| 23869 | In the least evil societies people can think, control community life, and be autonomous [Weil] |
| 23847 | Socialism tends to make a proletariat of the whole population [Weil] |
| 23750 | It is not more money which the wretched members of society need [Weil] |
| 23749 | The problem of the collective is not suppression of persons, but persons erasing themselves [Weil] |
| 23807 | The collective is the one and only object of false idolatry [Weil] |
| 23861 | Marx showed that capitalist oppression, because of competition, is unstoppable [Weil] |
| 23897 | Once money is the main aim, society needs everyone to think wealth is possible [Weil] |
| 23845 | The capitalists neglect the people and the nation, and even their own interests [Weil] |
| 23828 | National prestige consists of behaving as if you could beat the others in a war [Weil] |
| 23810 | Charity is the only love, and you can feel that for a country (a place with traditions), but not a nation [Weil] |
| 23868 | The pleasure of completing tasks motivates just as well as the whip of slavery [Weil] |
| 23811 | If effort is from necessity rather than for a good, it is slavery [Weil] |
| 23819 | Deliberate public lying should be punished [Weil] |
| 23818 | We have liberty in the space between nature and accepted authority [Weil] |
| 23901 | Relationships depend on equality, so unequal treatment kills them [Weil] |
| 23753 | People absurdly claim an equal share of things which are essentially privileged [Weil] |
| 23841 | By making money the sole human measure, inequality has become universal [Weil] |
| 23864 | Inequality could easily be mitigated, if it were not for the struggle for power [Weil] |
| 23751 | Rights are asserted contentiously, and need the backing of force [Weil] |
| 23752 | Giving centrality to rights stifles all impulses of charity [Weil] |
| 23835 | People have duties, and only have rights because of the obligations of others to them [Weil] |
| 23820 | People need personal and collective property, and a social class lacking property is shameful [Weil] |
| 23813 | Only people who understand force, and don't respect it, are capable of justice [Weil] |
| 23757 | The spirit of justice needs the full attention of truth, and that attention is love [Weil] |
| 23761 | Justice (concerning harm) is distinct from rights (concerning inequality) [Weil] |
| 23852 | To punish people we must ourselves be innocent - but that undermines the desire to punish [Weil] |
| 23821 | Crime should be punished, to bring the perpetrator freely back to morality [Weil] |
| 23763 | Punishment aims at the good for men who don't desire it [Weil] |
| 23764 | The only thing in society worse than crime is repressive justice [Weil] |
| 23827 | Modern wars are fought in the name of empty words which are given capital letters [Weil] |
| 23880 | When war was a profession, customary morality justified any act of war [Weil] |
| 23850 | The soldier-civilian distinction should be abolished; every citizen is committed to a war [Weil] |
| 23858 | War is perpetuated by its continual preparations [Weil] |
| 23851 | Education is essentially motivation [Weil] |
| 23873 | Dividing history books into separate chapters is disastrous [Weil] |
| 23860 | Even if a drowning man is doomed, he should keep swimming to the last [Weil] |
| 19448 | Consciousness is said to distinguish man from animals - consciousness of his own species [Feuerbach] |
| 19454 | A God needs justice, kindness and wisdom, but those concepts don't depend on the concept of God [Feuerbach] |
| 23816 | Attention to a transcendent reality motivates a duty to foster the good of humanity [Weil] |
| 23754 | The only choice is between supernatural good, or evil [Weil] |
| 6913 | God's existence cannot be separated from essence and concept, which can only be thought as existing [Feuerbach] |
| 23892 | The only legitimate proof of God by order derives from beauty [Weil] |
| 19452 | The nature of God is an expression of human nature [Feuerbach] |
| 6903 | If God is only an object for man, then only the essence of man is revealed in God [Feuerbach] |
| 6923 | God is what man would like to be [Feuerbach] |
| 6911 | God is for us a mere empty idea, which we fill with our own ego and essence [Feuerbach] |
| 19453 | If love, goodness and personality are human, the God who is their source is anthropomorphic [Feuerbach] |
| 6902 | Catholicism concerns God in himself, Protestantism what God is for man [Feuerbach] |
| 23904 | The cruelty of the Old Testament put me off Christianity [Weil] |
| 19449 | Religion is the consciousness of the infinite [Feuerbach] |
| 19455 | Today's atheism will tomorrow become a religion [Feuerbach] |
| 6905 | Absolute idealism is the realized divine mind of Leibnizian theism [Feuerbach] |
| 23849 | Religion should quietly suffuse all human life with its light [Weil] |
| 23902 | I attach little importance to immortality, which is an undecidable fact, and irrelevant to us [Weil] |
| 1513 | The Egyptians were the first to say the soul is immortal and reincarnated [Herodotus] |
| 23765 | The soul is the intrinsic value of a human [Weil] |