72 ideas
| 5988 | Anaximander produced the first philosophy book (and maybe the first book) [Anaximander, by Bodnár] |
| 23728 | Analysis aims to express the full set of platitudes surrounding a given concept [Smith,M] |
| 1496 | The earth is stationary, because it is in the centre, and has no more reason to move one way than another [Anaximander, by Aristotle] |
| 23917 | Contrary statements can both be reasonable, if they are meant in two different ways [Aristotle] |
| 23744 | Defining a set of things by paradigms doesn't pin them down enough [Smith,M] |
| 14874 | Anaximander saw the contradiction in the world - that its own qualities destroy it [Anaximander, by Nietzsche] |
| 5869 | The thesis of the Form of the Good (or of anything else) is verbal and vacuous [Aristotle] |
| 22505 | The two right angles of a triangle necessitate that a quadrilateral has four [Aristotle] |
| 22513 | Knowing is having knowledge; understanding is using knowledge [Aristotle] |
| 23906 | Courage from spirit is natural and unconquerable, as seen in the young [Aristotle] |
| 20204 | Whether the mind has parts is irrelevant, since it obviously has distinct capacities [Aristotle] |
| 22506 | A man is the cause of what is within his power, and what he causes is in his power [Aristotle] |
| 22504 | Only a human being can be a starting point for an action [Aristotle] |
| 22510 | Some emotional states are too strong for human nature [Aristotle] |
| 23913 | Nearly all the good and bad states of character are concerned with feelings [Aristotle] |
| 23743 | Capturing all the common sense facts about rationality is almost impossible [Smith,M] |
| 23918 | Akrasia is the clash of two feelings - goodness and pleasure [Aristotle] |
| 23724 | A pure desire could be criticised if it were based on a false belief [Smith,M] |
| 23736 | A person can have a desire without feeling it [Smith,M] |
| 23723 | In the Humean account, desires are not true/false, or subject to any rational criticism [Smith,M] |
| 23735 | Subjects may be fallible about the desires which explain their actions [Smith,M] |
| 23738 | Humeans (unlike their opponents) say that desires and judgements can separate [Smith,M] |
| 23742 | If first- and second-order desires conflict, harmony does not require the second-order to win [Smith,M] |
| 23746 | Objective reasons to act might be the systematic desires of a fully rational person [Smith,M] |
| 23739 | Goals need desires, and so only desires can motivate us [Smith,M] |
| 22515 | Choice results when deliberation brings together an opinion with an inclination [Aristotle] |
| 22508 | Unlike in inanimate things, in animate things actions have more than one starting point [Aristotle] |
| 22514 | The deliberative part of the soul discerns explanatory causes [Aristotle] |
| 23733 | Motivating reasons are psychological, while normative reasons are external [Smith,M] |
| 23740 | Humeans take maximising desire satisfaction as the normative reasons for actions [Smith,M] |
| 23745 | We cannot expect even fully rational people to converge on having the same desires for action [Smith,M] |
| 23319 | We are responsible if our actions reflect our motivation [Aristotle, by Frede,M] |
| 22507 | An action is voluntary when it is accompanied by thought of some kind [Aristotle] |
| 22512 | Acts are voluntary if done knowingly, by the agent, and in his power to avoid it [Aristotle] |
| 23731 | 'Externalists' say moral judgements are not reasons, and maybe not even motives [Smith,M] |
| 23732 | A person could make a moral judgement without being in any way motivated by it [Smith,M] |
| 23729 | Moral internalism says a judgement of rightness is thereby motivating [Smith,M] |
| 23730 | 'Rationalism' says the rightness of an action is a reason to perform it [Smith,M] |
| 22509 | What is natural for us is either there at birth, or appears by normal processes [Aristotle] |
| 23727 | Expressivists count attitudes as 'moral' if they concern features of things, rather than their mere existence [Smith,M] |
| 23741 | Is valuing something a matter of believing or a matter of desiring? [Smith,M] |
| 18230 | No one would choose life just for activities not done for their own sake [Aristotle] |
| 23909 | Wearing a shoe is its intrinsic use, and selling it (as a shoe) is its coincidental use [Aristotle] |
| 5870 | Everything seeks, not a single good, but its own separate good [Aristotle] |
| 5877 | We judge people from their deeds because we cannot see their choices (which matter more) [Aristotle] |
| 5868 | Horses, birds and fish are not happy, lacking a divine aspect to their natures [Aristotle] |
| 5865 | Happiness involves three things, of which the greatest is either wisdom, virtue, or pleasure [Aristotle] |
| 5876 | Virtue is different from continence [Aristotle] |
| 5872 | Excellence is the best state of anything (like a cloak) which has an employment or function [Aristotle] |
| 5874 | Character virtues (such as courage) are of the non-rational part, which follows the rational part [Aristotle] |
| 22516 | Character is shown by what is or is not enjoyed, and virtue chooses the mean among them [Aristotle] |
| 22517 | We judge character not by their actions, but by their reasons for actions [Aristotle] |
| 5875 | Character (éthos) is developed from habit (ethos) [Aristotle] |
| 23914 | People sometimes exhibit both extremes together, but the mean is contrary to both of them [Aristotle] |
| 23911 | Possessors of a virtue tend to despise what reason shows to be its opposite [Aristotle] |
| 23910 | Greatness of soul produces all the virtues - and vice versa [Aristotle] |
| 23908 | If someone just looks at or listens to beautiful things, they would not be thought intemperate [Aristotle] |
| 23905 | Courage follows reason, which tells us to choose what is noble [Aristotle] |
| 23912 | Honour depends on what it is for, and whether it is bestowed by worthy people [Aristotle] |
| 5871 | Goods in the soul are more worthy than those outside it, as everybody wants them [Aristotle] |
| 23920 | Decent people can be friends with base people [Aristotle] |
| 23919 | Friendship cannot be immediate; it takes time, and needs testing [Aristotle] |
| 23915 | The main function of politics is to produce friendship [Aristotle] |
| 23916 | The best cure for mutual injustice is friendship [Aristotle] |
| 5866 | It is folly not to order one's life around some end [Aristotle] |
| 5878 | Eyes could be used for a natural purpose, or for unnatural seeing, or for a non-seeing activity [Aristotle] |
| 5873 | Each thing's function is its end [Aristotle] |
| 13222 | The Boundless cannot exist on its own, and must have something contrary to it [Aristotle on Anaximander] |
| 404 | Things begin and end in the Unlimited, and are balanced over time according to justice [Anaximander] |
| 405 | The essential nature, whatever it is, of the non-limited is everlasting and ageless [Anaximander] |
| 1495 | Anaximander introduced the idea that the first principle and element of things was the Boundless [Anaximander, by Simplicius] |
| 1746 | The parts of all things are susceptible to change, but the whole is unchangeable [Anaximander, by Diog. Laertius] |