63 ideas
20262 | Don't use wisdom in order to become clever! [Nietzsche] |
20255 | Early 19th century German philosophers enjoyed concepts, rather than scientific explanations [Nietzsche] |
20260 | Carlyle spent his life vainly trying to make reason appear romantic [Nietzsche] |
20256 | What we think is totally dictated by the language available to express it [Nietzsche] |
20265 | The desire for a complete system requires making the weak parts look equal to the rest [Nietzsche] |
17070 | Coherence is consilience, simplicity, analogy, and fitting into a web of belief [Smart] |
17072 | We need comprehensiveness, as well as self-coherence [Smart] |
20768 | Like spiderswebs, dialectical arguments are clever but useless [Ariston, by Diog. Laertius] |
20380 | Why should truth be omnipotent? It is enough that it is very powerful [Nietzsche] |
20235 | Like animals, we seek truth because we want safety [Nietzsche] |
20258 | Most people treat knowledge as a private possession [Nietzsche] |
20250 | We may be unable to remember, but we may never actually forget [Nietzsche] |
17073 | I simply reject evidence, if it is totally contrary to my web of belief [Smart] |
20270 | There is no one scientific method; we must try many approaches, and many emotions [Nietzsche] |
17077 | The height of a flagpole could be fixed by its angle of shadow, but that would be very unusual [Smart] |
17078 | Universe expansion explains the red shift, but not vice versa [Smart] |
17074 | Explanations are bad by fitting badly with a web of beliefs, or fitting well into a bad web [Smart] |
17076 | Deducing from laws is one possible way to achieve a coherent explanation [Smart] |
17061 | Explanation of a fact is fitting it into a system of beliefs [Smart] |
17071 | An explanation is better if it also explains phenomena from a different field [Smart] |
17062 | If scientific explanation is causal, that rules out mathematical explanation [Smart] |
17075 | Scientific explanation tends to reduce things to the unfamiliar (not the familiar) [Smart] |
20131 | We can cultivate our drives, of anger, pity, curiosity, vanity, like a gardener, with good or bad taste [Nietzsche] |
20242 | Things are the boundaries of humanity, so all things must be known, for self-knowledge [Nietzsche] |
20249 | Our knowledge of the many drives that constitute us is hopelessly incomplete [Nietzsche] |
20231 | People used to think that outcomes were from God, rather than consequences of acts [Nietzsche] |
20266 | It is essential that wise people learn to express their wisdom, possibly even as foolishness [Nietzsche] |
20251 | Actions done for a purpose are least understood, because we complacently think it's obvious [Nietzsche] |
20271 | Beauty in art is the imitation of happiness [Nietzsche] |
20230 | The very idea of a critique of morality is regarded as immoral! [Nietzsche] |
20234 | Morality prevents us from developing better customs [Nietzsche] |
20237 | Moral feelings are entirely different from the moral concepts used to judge actions [Nietzsche] |
20238 | Treating morality as feelings is just obeying your ancestors [Nietzsche] |
20243 | Human beings are not majestic, either through divine origins, or through grand aims [Nietzsche] |
20268 | Most dying people have probably lost more important things than what they are about to lose [Nietzsche] |
20236 | Marriage upholds the idea that love, though a passion, can endure [Nietzsche] |
20263 | Fear reveals the natures of other people much more clearly than love does [Nietzsche] |
20252 | Marriage is too serious to be permitted for people in love! [Nietzsche] |
20233 | Punishment has distorted the pure innocence of the contingency of outcomes [Nietzsche] |
20248 | People do nothing for their real ego, but only for a phantom ego created by other people [Nietzsche] |
20246 | If you feel to others as they feel to themselves, you must hate a self-hater [Nietzsche] |
3049 | The chief good is indifference to what lies midway between virtue and vice [Ariston, by Diog. Laertius] |
20272 | Honesty is a new young virtue, and we can promote it, or not [Nietzsche] |
20240 | The Jews treated great anger as holy, and were in awe of those who expressed it [Nietzsche] |
20244 | Christianity replaces rational philosophical virtues with great passions focused on God [Nietzsche] |
20274 | The cardinal virtues want us to be honest, brave, magnanimous and polite [Nietzsche] |
20257 | Cool courage and feverish bravery have one name, but are two very different virtues [Nietzsche] |
20259 | Teach youth to respect people who differ with them, not people who agree with them [Nietzsche] |
3549 | Ariston says rules are useless for the virtuous and the non-virtuous [Ariston, by Annas] |
20267 | Seeing duty as a burden makes it a bit cruel, and it can thus never become a habit [Nietzsche] |
20275 | Most people think they are already complete, but we can cultivate ourselves [Nietzsche] |
20229 | No authority ever willingly accepts criticism [Nietzsche] |
20254 | People govern for the pleasure of it, or just to avoid being governed [Nietzsche] |
20273 | The French Revolution gave trusting Europe the false delusion of instant recovery [Nietzsche] |
20232 | Get rid of the idea of punishment! It is a noxious weed! [Nietzsche] |
20253 | Modern wars arise from the study of history [Nietzsche] |
20261 | History does not concern what really happened, but supposed events, which have all the influence [Nietzsche] |
17063 | Unlike Newton, Einstein's general theory explains the perihelion of Mercury [Smart] |
20241 | Enquirers think finding our origin is salvation, but it turns out to be dull [Nietzsche] |
20245 | Christianity hoped for a short cut to perfection, that skipped the hard labour of morality [Nietzsche] |
20247 | Christianity was successful because of its heathen rituals [Nietzsche] |
20269 | 'I believe because it is absurd' - but how about 'I believe because I am absurd' [Nietzsche] |
20264 | The easy and graceful aspects of a person are called 'soul', and inner awkwardness is called 'soulless' [Nietzsche] |