142 ideas
13310 | Wisdom does not lie in books, and unread people can also become wise [Seneca] |
13560 | A wise man is not subservient to anything [Seneca] |
13295 | Wise people escape necessity by willing it [Seneca] |
19441 | All philosophies presuppose their historical moment, and arise from it [Feuerbach] |
13773 | For the truth you need Prodicus's fifty-drachma course, not his one-drachma course [Socrates] |
343 | The unexamined life is not worth living for men [Socrates] |
7421 | A philosopher is one who cares about what other people care about [Socrates, by Foucault] |
19456 | Philosophy is distinguished from other sciences by its complete lack of presuppositions [Feuerbach] |
13317 | Philosophy aims at happiness [Seneca] |
13293 | What philosophy offers humanity is guidance [Seneca] |
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] |
1649 | Socrates opened philosophy to all, but Plato confined moral enquiry to a tiny elite [Vlastos on Socrates] |
5842 | Philosophical discussion involves dividing subject-matter into categories [Socrates, by Xenophon] |
648 | Socrates began the quest for something universal with his definitions, but he didn't make them separate [Socrates, by Aristotle] |
13309 | That something is a necessary condition of something else doesn't mean it caused it [Seneca] |
13313 | Even philosophers have got bogged down in analysing tiny bits of language [Seneca] |
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] |
164 | It is legitimate to play the devil's advocate [Socrates] |
19444 | Each proposition has an antithesis, and truth exists as its refutation [Feuerbach] |
19445 | A dialectician has to be his own opponent [Feuerbach] |
1647 | In Socratic dialogue you must say what you believe, so unasserted premises are not debated [Vlastos on Socrates] |
115 | Socrates was pleased if his mistakes were proved wrong [Socrates] |
22099 | The method of Socrates shows the student is discovering the truth within himself [Socrates, by Carlisle] |
5844 | Socrates always proceeded in argument by general agreement at each stage [Socrates, by Xenophon] |
11389 | Socrates sought essences, which are the basis of formal logic [Socrates, by Aristotle] |
19443 | Truth forges an impersonal unity between people [Feuerbach] |
639 | Socrates developed definitions as the basis of syllogisms, and also inductive arguments [Socrates, by Aristotle] |
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] |
19446 | To our consciousness it is language which looks unreal [Feuerbach] |
1652 | Socrates did not consider universals or definitions as having separate existence, but Plato made Forms of them [Socrates, by Aristotle] |
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] |
13297 | To the four causes Plato adds a fifth, the idea which guided the event [Seneca] |
1650 | For Socrates our soul, though hard to define, is our self [Vlastos on Socrates] |
13307 | If everything can be measured, try measuring the size of a man's soul [Seneca] |
19451 | When absorbed in deep reflection, is your reason in control, or is it you? [Feuerbach] |
23252 | Socrates first proposed that we are run by mind or reason [Socrates, by Frede,M] |
6925 | The new philosophy thinks of the concrete in a concrete (not a abstract) manner [Feuerbach] |
21399 | Referring to a person, and speaking about him, are very different [Seneca] |
195 | No one willingly commits an evil or base act [Socrates] |
1653 | Socrates did not accept the tripartite soul (which permits akrasia) [Vlastos on Socrates] |
5843 | People do what they think they should do, and only ever do what they think they should do [Socrates, by Xenophon] |
5253 | Socrates was shocked by the idea of akrasia, but observation shows that it happens [Aristotle on Socrates] |
199 | The common belief is that people can know the best without acting on it [Socrates] |
5839 | For Socrates, wisdom and prudence were the same thing [Socrates, by Xenophon] |
5867 | For Socrates, virtues are forms of knowledge, so knowing justice produces justice [Socrates, by Aristotle] |
5069 | Socrates was the first to base ethics upon reason, and use reason to explain it [Taylor,R on Socrates] |
5836 | All human virtues are increased by study and practice [Socrates, by Xenophon] |
5840 | The wise perform good actions, and people fail to be good without wisdom [Socrates, by Xenophon] |
185 | Socrates despised good looks [Socrates, by Plato] |
13558 | The supreme good is harmony of spirit [Seneca] |
6924 | Plotinus was ashamed to have a body [Feuerbach] |
5070 | Socrates conservatively assumed that Athenian conventions were natural and true [Taylor,R on Socrates] |
13325 | Trouble in life comes from copying other people, which is following convention instead of reason [Seneca] |
5838 | A well-made dung basket is fine, and a badly-made gold shield is base, because of function [Socrates, by Xenophon] |
22239 | Humans acquired the concept of virtue from an analogy with bodily health and strength [Seneca, by Allen] |
13294 | We know death, which is like before birth; ceasing to be and never beginning are the same [Seneca] |
13299 | Living is nothing wonderful; what matters is to die well [Seneca] |
13300 | It is as silly to lament ceasing to be as to lament not having lived in the remote past [Seneca] |
344 | If death is like a night of dreamless sleep, such nights are very pleasant [Socrates] |
339 | Men fear death as a great evil when it may be a great blessing [Socrates] |
6927 | If you love nothing, it doesn't matter whether something exists or not [Feuerbach] |
13321 | Is anything sweeter than valuing yourself more when you find you are loved? [Seneca] |
5837 | Things are both good and fine by the same standard [Socrates, by Xenophon] |
13292 | Selfishness does not produce happiness; to live for yourself, live for others [Seneca] |
19450 | Reason, love and will are the highest perfections and essence of man - the purpose of his life [Feuerbach] |
3017 | The only good is knowledge, and the only evil is ignorance [Socrates, by Diog. Laertius] |
13550 | To be always happy is to lack knowledge of one half of nature [Seneca] |
13303 | A man is as unhappy as he has convinced himself he is [Seneca] |
1646 | Socrates was the first to put 'eudaimonia' at the centre of ethics [Socrates, by Vlastos] |
13302 | Life is like a play - it is the quality that matters, not the length [Seneca] |
13301 | We are scared of death - except when we are immersed in pleasure! [Seneca] |
13323 | The whole point of pleasure-seeking is novelty, and abandoning established ways [Seneca] |
2 | We should not even harm someone who harms us [Socrates] |
1663 | By 'areté' Socrates means just what we mean by moral virtue [Vlastos on Socrates] |
13318 | Nature doesn't give us virtue; we must unremittingly pursue it, as a training and an art [Seneca] |
13324 | Living contrary to nature is like rowing against the stream [Seneca] |
13559 | I seek virtue, because it is its own reward [Seneca] |
345 | A good man cannot be harmed, either in life or in death [Socrates] |
4323 | Socrates is torn between intellectual virtue, which is united and teachable, and natural virtue, which isn't [PG on Socrates] |
8003 | Socrates agrees that virtue is teachable, but then denies that there are teachers [Socrates, by MacIntyre] |
126 | We should ask what sort of people we want to be [Socrates] |
13554 | True greatness is never allowing events to disturb you [Seneca] |
13305 | Character is ruined by not looking back over our pasts, since the future rests on the past [Seneca] |
19458 | Egoism is the only evil, love the only good; genuine love produces all the other virtues [Feuerbach] |
4111 | Socrates believed that basically there is only one virtue, the power of right judgement [Socrates, by Williams,B] |
13561 | Virtue is always moderate, so excess need not be feared [Seneca] |
13562 | It is shameful to not even recognise your own slaves [Seneca] |
13556 | Every night I critically review how I have behaved during the day [Seneca] |
7808 | Socrates made the civic values of justice and friendship paramount [Socrates, by Grayling] |
13308 | It's no good winning lots of fights, if you are then conquered by your own temper [Seneca] |
13553 | Anger is a vice which afflicts good men as well as bad [Seneca] |
13312 | Excessive curiosity is a form of intemperance [Seneca] |
13552 | Anger is an extreme vice, threatening sanity, and gripping whole states [Seneca] |
346 | One ought not to return a wrong or injury to any person, whatever the provocation [Socrates] |
23907 | Courage is scientific knowledge [Socrates, by Aristotle] |
13549 | Nothing bad can happen to a good man [Seneca] |
341 | Wealth is good if it is accompanied by virtue [Socrates] |
13564 | There is far more scope for virtue if you are wealthy; poverty only allows endurance [Seneca] |
13563 | Why does your wife wear in her ears the income of a wealthy house? [Seneca] |
13565 | If wealth was a good, it would make men good [Seneca] |
7585 | Socrates emphasises that the knower is an existing individual, with existence his main task [Socrates, by Kierkegaard] |
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] |
13315 | To govern used to mean to serve, not to rule; rulers did not test their powers over those who bestowed it [Seneca] |
13557 | Unfortunately the majority do not tend to favour what is best [Seneca] |
5841 | Obedience to the law gives the best life, and success in war [Socrates, by Xenophon] |
347 | Will I stand up against the law, simply because I have been unjustly judged? [Socrates] |
1661 | Socrates was the first to grasp that a cruelty is not justified by another cruelty [Vlastos on Socrates] |
13290 | One joy of learning is making teaching possible [Seneca] |
13322 | Both teachers and pupils should aim at one thing - the improvement of the pupil [Seneca] |
13298 | Suicide may be appropriate even when it is not urgent, if there are few reasons against it [Seneca] |
13319 | If we control our own death, no one has power over us [Seneca] |
13320 | Sometimes we have a duty not to commit suicide, for those we love [Seneca] |
5846 | A lover using force is a villain, but a seducer is much worse, because he corrupts character [Socrates, by Xenophon] |
13548 | The ocean changes in volume in proportion to the attraction of the moon [Seneca] |
13311 | Does time exist on its own? Did anything precede it? Did it pre-exist the cosmos? [Seneca] |
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] |
1657 | Socrates holds that right reason entails virtue, and this must also apply to the gods [Vlastos on Socrates] |
1662 | A new concept of God as unswerving goodness emerges from Socrates' commitment to virtue [Vlastos on Socrates] |
6913 | God's existence cannot be separated from essence and concept, which can only be thought as existing [Feuerbach] |
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] |
338 | Socrates is accused of denying the gods, saying sun is stone and moon is earth [Socrates, by Plato] |
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] |
19449 | Religion is the consciousness of the infinite [Feuerbach] |
6905 | Absolute idealism is the realized divine mind of Leibnizian theism [Feuerbach] |
19455 | Today's atheism will tomorrow become a religion [Feuerbach] |