17 ideas
1597 | Thales was the first western thinker to believe the arché was intelligible [Roochnik on Thales] |
10245 | One geometry cannot be more true than another [Poincaré] |
15923 | Poincaré rejected the actual infinite, claiming definitions gave apparent infinity to finite objects [Poincaré, by Lavine] |
10180 | Mathematicians do not study objects, but relations between objects [Poincaré] |
9916 | Convention, yes! Arbitrary, no! [Poincaré, by Putnam] |
18203 | Avoid non-predicative classifications and definitions [Poincaré] |
12066 | Aristotelian and Kripkean essentialism are very different theories [Witt] |
12067 | An Aristotelian essence is a nonlinguistic correlate of the definition [Witt] |
12082 | If unity is a matter of degree, then essence may also be a matter of degree [Witt] |
12089 | Essences mainly explain the existence of unified substance [Witt] |
12102 | Essential properties of origin are too radically individual for an Aristotelian essence [Witt] |
3013 | Nothing is stronger than necessity, which rules everything [Thales, by Diog. Laertius] |
1494 | Thales said water is the first principle, perhaps from observing that food is moist [Thales, by Aristotle] |
12085 | Reality is directional [Witt] |
15877 | The aim of science is just to create a comprehensive, elegant language to describe brute facts [Poincaré, by Harré] |
1713 | Thales must have thought soul causes movement, since he thought magnets have soul [Thales, by Aristotle] |
1742 | Thales said the gods know our wrong thoughts as well as our evil actions [Thales, by Diog. Laertius] |