52 ideas
7490 | Because of Darwin, wisdom as a definite attainable state has faded [Watson] |
7461 | The three key ideas are the soul, Europe, and the experiment [Watson] |
7464 | The big idea: imitation, the soul, experiments, God, heliocentric universe, evolution? [Watson] |
1597 | Thales was the first western thinker to believe the arché was intelligible [Roochnik on Thales] |
6675 | The heart has its reasons of which reason knows nothing [Pascal] |
7465 | Babylonian thinking used analogy, rather than deduction or induction [Watson] |
10121 | Contradiction is not a sign of falsity, nor lack of contradiction a sign of truth [Pascal] |
7466 | Mesopotamian numbers applied to specific things, and then became abstract [Watson] |
3013 | Nothing is stronger than necessity, which rules everything [Thales, by Diog. Laertius] |
22011 | The first principles of truth are not rational, but are known by the heart [Pascal] |
20657 | There are 23 core brain functions, with known circuit, transmitters, genes and behaviour [Watson] |
20656 | Traditional ideas of the mind were weakened in the 1950s by mind-influencing drugs [Watson] |
6681 | We only want to know things so that we can talk about them [Pascal] |
6676 | Painting makes us admire things of which we do not admire the originals [Pascal] |
20655 | Humans have been hunter-gatherers for 99.5% of their existence [Watson] |
6680 | It is a funny sort of justice whose limits are marked by a river [Pascal] |
6677 | Imagination creates beauty, justice and happiness, which is the supreme good [Pascal] |
6678 | We live for the past or future, and so are never happy in the present [Pascal] |
20732 | If man considers himself as lost and imprisoned in the universe, he will be terrified [Pascal] |
6682 | Majority opinion is visible and authoritative, although not very clever [Pascal] |
7477 | Modern democracy is actually elective oligarchy [Watson] |
6679 | It is not good to be too free [Pascal] |
7478 | Greek philosophers invented the concept of 'nature' as their special subject [Watson] |
1494 | Thales said water is the first principle, perhaps from observing that food is moist [Thales, by Aristotle] |
20650 | The Uncertainty Principle implies that cause and effect can't be measured [Watson] |
1713 | Thales must have thought soul causes movement, since he thought magnets have soul [Thales, by Aristotle] |
20649 | The interference of light through two slits confirmed that it is waves [Watson] |
20661 | Electrons rotate in hyrogen atoms 10^13 times per second [Watson] |
20647 | Quantum theory explains why nature is made up of units, such as elements [Watson] |
20654 | Only four particles are needed for matter: up and down quark, electron, electron-neutrino [Watson] |
20651 | The shape of molecules is important, as well as the atoms and their bonds [Watson] |
20652 | In 1828 the animal substance urea was manufactured from inorganic ingredients [Watson] |
20658 | Information is physical, and living can be seen as replicating and preserving information [Watson] |
7462 | DNA mutation suggests humans and chimpanzees diverged 6.6 million years ago [Watson] |
7455 | Pascal knows you can't force belief, but you can make it much more probable [Pascal, by Hacking] |
7457 | Pascal is right, but relies on the unsupported claim of a half as the chance of God's existence [Hacking on Pascal] |
7456 | The libertine would lose a life of enjoyable sin if he chose the cloisters [Hacking on Pascal] |
6684 | If you win the wager on God's existence you win everything, if you lose you lose nothing [Pascal] |
7470 | During the rise of civilizations, the main gods changed from female to male [Watson] |
1742 | Thales said the gods know our wrong thoughts as well as our evil actions [Thales, by Diog. Laertius] |
7474 | Hinduism has no founder, or prophet, or creed, or ecclesiastical structure [Watson] |
7480 | Monotheism was a uniquely Israelite creation within the Middle East [Watson] |
7479 | Modern Judaism became stabilised in 200 CE [Watson] |
7481 | The Israelites may have asserted the uniqueness of Yahweh to justify land claims [Watson] |
7471 | The Gathas (hymns) of Zoroastrianism date from about 1000 BCE [Watson] |
7473 | Zoroaster conceived the afterlife, judgement, heaven and hell, and the devil [Watson] |
7483 | Paul's early writings mention few striking episodes from Jesus' life [Watson] |
7484 | Jesus never intended to start a new religion [Watson] |
7475 | Confucius revered the spiritual world, but not the supernatural, or a personal god, or the afterlife [Watson] |
7476 | Taoism aims at freedom from the world, the body, the mind, and nature [Watson] |
7463 | The three basic ingredients of religion are: the soul, seers or priests, and ritual [Watson] |
7468 | In ancient Athens the souls of the dead are received by the 'upper air' [Watson] |