25 ideas
5311 | If observation goes up a level, we expect the laws of the lower level to remain in force [Wilson,EO] |
5312 | A child first sees objects as distinct, and later as members of groups [Wilson,EO] |
594 | Speusippus suggested underlying principles for every substance, and ended with a huge list [Speussipus, by Aristotle] |
5309 | Beliefs are really enabling mechanisms for survival [Wilson,EO] |
5310 | Philosophers study the consequences of ethics instead of its origins [Wilson,EO] |
22187 | Genetic behaviours that have enhanced human success include aggression, rape and xenophobia [Wilson,EO, by Okasha] |
5313 | The rules of human decision-making converge and overlap in a 'human nature' [Wilson,EO] |
5316 | We undermine altruism by rewarding it, but we reward it to encourage it [Wilson,EO] |
5318 | Pure hard-core altruism based on kin selection is the enemy of civilisation [Wilson,EO] |
5317 | The actor is most convincing who believes that his performance is real [Wilson,EO] |
20662 | The biology of societies: kin selection, parenting, mating; status, territory, contracts [Wilson,EO] |
23429 | The environment needs localised politics, with its care for the land [Dobson] |
23424 | An ideology judges things now, and offers an ideal, with a strategy for reaching it [Dobson] |
23426 | Ecologism is often non-liberal, by claiming to know other people's best interests [Dobson] |
23427 | Socialism can be productive and centralised, or less productive and decentralised [Dobson] |
23428 | Difference feminists say women differ fundamentally from men [Dobson] |
23422 | For the environment, affluence and technology matter as much as population size [Dobson] |
23425 | Ecologism says growth must be reduced, and efficiency is not enough [Dobson] |
23430 | A million years is a proper unit of political time [Dobson] |
23423 | We currently value the present fourteen times more highly than the future [Dobson] |
5308 | The only human purpose is that created by our genetic history [Wilson,EO] |
5314 | Cultural evolution is Lamarckian and fast, biological evolution is Darwinian and slow [Wilson,EO] |
5315 | Over 99 percent of human evolution has been in the hunter-gatherer phase [Wilson,EO] |
2632 | Speusippus said things were governed by some animal force rather than the gods [Speussipus, by Cicero] |
5320 | It is estimated that mankind has produced 100,000 religions [Wilson,EO] |