55 ideas
15477 | Ontology is highly abstract physics, containing placeholders and exclusions [Martin,CB] |
15471 | Truth is a relation between a representation ('bearer') and part of the world ('truthmaker') [Martin,CB] |
18933 | Not-Being obviously doesn't exist, and the five modes of Being are all impossible [Gorgias, by Diog. Laertius] |
15484 | A property is a combination of a disposition and a quality [Martin,CB] |
15478 | Properties are the respects in which objects resemble, which places them in classes [Martin,CB] |
15483 | Properties are ways particular things are, and so they are tied to the identity of their possessor [Martin,CB] |
15480 | Objects are not bundles of tropes (which are ways things are, not parts of things) [Martin,CB] |
15489 | A property that cannot interact is worse than inert - it isn't there at all [Martin,CB] |
15487 | If unmanifested partnerless dispositions are still real, and are not just qualities, they can explain properties [Martin,CB] |
15488 | Qualities and dispositions are aspects of properties - what it exhibits, and what it does [Martin,CB] |
15479 | Properties endow a ball with qualities, and with powers or dispositions [Martin,CB] |
15469 | Dispositions in action can be destroyed, be recovered, or remain unchanged [Martin,CB] |
15467 | Powers depend on circumstances, so can't be given a conditional analysis [Martin,CB] |
15466 | 'The wire is live' can't be analysed as a conditional, because a wire can change its powers [Martin,CB] |
15476 | Structural properties involve dispositionality, so cannot be used to explain it [Martin,CB] |
15465 | Structures don't explain dispositions, because they consist of dispositions [Martin,CB] |
15481 | I favour the idea of a substratum for properties; spacetime seems to be just a bearer of properties [Martin,CB] |
15474 | Properly understood, wholes do no more causal work than their parts [Martin,CB] |
15486 | Only abstract things can have specific and full identity specifications [Martin,CB] |
15475 | The concept of 'identity' must allow for some changes in properties or parts [Martin,CB] |
15472 | It is pointless to say possible worlds are truthmakers, and then deny that possible worlds exist [Martin,CB] |
15492 | Explanations are mind-dependent, theory-laden, and interest-relative [Martin,CB] |
15495 | Analogy works, as when we eat food which others seem to be relishing [Martin,CB] |
15493 | Memory requires abstraction, as reminders of what cannot be fully remembered [Martin,CB] |
9866 | Gorgias says rhetoric is the best of arts, because it enslaves without using force [Gorgias, by Plato] |
5864 | Destroy seriousness with laughter, and laughter with seriousness [Gorgias] |
20547 | We should respect the right of people to live in their own way, even if it is irrational [Swift] |
20564 | Anti-colonial movements usually invoke the right of their 'people' to self-determination [Swift] |
20535 | Isn't it more rational to maximise the average position, but with a safety net? [Swift] |
20537 | Hypothetical contracts have no binding force [Swift] |
20542 | Cosmopolitans reject the right of different states to distribute resources in different ways [Swift] |
20559 | Democracy is bad, but the other systems are worse [Swift] |
20561 | Since all opinions are treated as equal in democracy, it implies there are no right answers [Swift] |
20562 | Design your democracy to treat citizens equally, or to produce better citizens? [Swift] |
20563 | Design your democracy to yield political stability, or good decisions? [Swift] |
20560 | Teledemocracy omits debate and deliberation, which are important parts of good decisions [Swift] |
20554 | Multiculturalism is a barrier to the whole state being a community [Swift] |
20553 | Liberals mistakenly think individuals choose their values, without reference to the community [Swift] |
20556 | The best way to build a cohesive community is to be involved in a war [Swift] |
20557 | Membership and inclusion in a community implies non-membership and exclusion [Swift] |
20555 | Liberals are concerned to protect individuals from too much community [Swift] |
20540 | Redistributing wealth treats some people as means, rather than as ends [Swift] |
20551 | Men have had the power to structure all of our social institutions [Swift] |
20545 | Maybe a freedom is from a restraint, and also in order to do something [Swift] |
20550 | Opportunity should ignore extraneous factors, or foster competence, or ignore all disadvantages [Swift] |
20536 | Inequalities are needed, as incentives to do the most important jobs [Swift] |
20548 | A person can desire redistibution of wealth, without it being for reasons of equality [Swift] |
20541 | You can't necessarily sell your legitimate right to something, even if you produced it [Swift] |
20546 | Libertarians about property ignore the fact that private property is a denial of freedoms [Swift] |
20533 | Justice can be seen as fairness or entitlement or desert [Swift] |
15485 | Instead of a cause followed by an effect, we have dispositions in reciprocal manifestation [Martin,CB] |
15491 | Causation should be explained in terms of dispositions and manifestations [Martin,CB] |
15468 | Causal counterfactuals are just clumsy linguistic attempts to indicate dispositions [Martin,CB] |
15470 | Causal laws are summaries of powers [Martin,CB] |
15482 | We can't think of space-time as empty and propertyless, and it seems to be a substratum [Martin,CB] |