Combining Philosophers

All the ideas for Thales, Avicenna (Abu Ibn Sina) and John Gray

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21 ideas

1. Philosophy / B. History of Ideas / 2. Ancient Thought
1597 Thales was the first western thinker to believe the arché was intelligible [Roochnik on Thales]
1. Philosophy / D. Nature of Philosophy / 7. Despair over Philosophy
9271 Human knowledge may not produce well-being; the examined life may not be worth living [Gray]
1. Philosophy / E. Nature of Metaphysics / 1. Nature of Metaphysics
11193 Understanding begins with the notion of being and essence [Avicenna]
9. Objects / A. Existence of Objects / 5. Simples
11209 The simple's whatness is its very self [Avicenna]
9. Objects / C. Structure of Objects / 3. Matter of an Object
11204 The ultimate material of things has the unity of total formlessness [Avicenna]
9. Objects / D. Essence of Objects / 2. Types of Essence
15036 An essence can either be universal (in the mind) or singular (in concrete particulars) [Avicenna, by Panaccio]
10. Modality / C. Sources of Modality / 5. Modality from Actuality
3013 Nothing is stronger than necessity, which rules everything [Thales, by Diog. Laertius]
13. Knowledge Criteria / C. External Justification / 9. Naturalised Epistemology
9275 Knowledge does not need minds or nervous systems; it is found in all living things [Gray]
16. Persons / F. Free Will / 5. Against Free Will
9276 The will hardly ever does anything; most of our life just happens to us [Gray]
25. Social Practice / A. Freedoms / 5. Freedom of lifestyle
9278 Nowadays we identify the free life with the good life [Gray]
26. Natural Theory / A. Speculations on Nature / 6. Early Matter Theories / c. Ultimate substances
1494 Thales said water is the first principle, perhaps from observing that food is moist [Thales, by Aristotle]
27. Natural Reality / A. Classical Physics / 1. Mechanics / a. Explaining movement
1713 Thales must have thought soul causes movement, since he thought magnets have soul [Thales, by Aristotle]
27. Natural Reality / G. Biology / 4. Ecology
9280 Over forty percent of the Earth's living tissue is human [Gray]
28. God / C. Attitudes to God / 5. Atheism
23061 Free atheism should start by questioning its faith in humanity [Gray]
29. Religion / A. Polytheistic Religion / 2. Greek Polytheism
1742 Thales said the gods know our wrong thoughts as well as our evil actions [Thales, by Diog. Laertius]
29. Religion / A. Polytheistic Religion / 4. Dualist Religion
23057 Gnosticism has a supreme creator God, giving way to a possibly hostile Demiurge [Gray]
29. Religion / B. Monotheistic Religion / 2. Judaism
23056 Judaism only became monotheistic around 550 BCE [Gray]
29. Religion / B. Monotheistic Religion / 4. Christianity / a. Christianity
9272 Without Christianity we lose the idea that human history has a meaning [Gray]
9279 What was our original sin, and how could Christ's suffering redeem it? [Gray]
23055 Christians introduced the idea that a religion needs a creed [Gray]
29. Religion / C. Spiritual Disciplines / 3. Buddhism
23058 Buddhism has no divinity or souls, and the aim is to lose the illusion of a self [Gray]