112 ideas
7170 | 'Wisdom' attempts to get beyond perspectives, making it hostile to life [Nietzsche] |
7167 | Words such as 'I' and 'do' and 'done to' are placed at the point where our ignorance begins [Nietzsche] |
7196 | Pessimism is laughable, because the world cannot be evaluated [Nietzsche] |
7137 | Is a 'philosopher' now impossible, because knowledge is too vast for an overview? [Nietzsche] |
7132 | Philosophers should create and fight for their concepts, not just clean and clarify them [Nietzsche] |
7188 | Logic tries to understand the world according to a man-made scheme [Nietzsche] |
7145 | Logic is not driven by truth, but desire for a simple single viewpoint [Nietzsche] |
7144 | Logic must falsely assume that identical cases exist [Nietzsche] |
7153 | We can't be realists, because we don't know what being is [Nietzsche] |
7174 | Categories are not metaphysical truths, but inventions in the service of needs [Nietzsche] |
7175 | Philosophers find it particularly hard to shake off belief in necessary categories [Nietzsche] |
7189 | Maybe there are only subjects, and 'objects' result from relations between subjects [Nietzsche] |
7207 | Counting needs unities, but that doesn't mean they exist; we borrowed it from the concept of 'I' [Nietzsche] |
7161 | The essence of a thing is only an opinion about the 'thing' [Nietzsche] |
7134 | Something can be irrefutable; that doesn't make it true [Nietzsche] |
7186 | There are no necessary truths, but something must be held to be true [Nietzsche] |
4266 | Having beliefs involves recognition, expectation and surprise [Scruton] |
4265 | If an animal has beliefs, that implies not only that it can make mistakes, but that it can learn from them [Scruton] |
7154 | We can't use our own self to criticise our own capacity for knowledge! [Nietzsche] |
7146 | Belief in the body is better established than belief in the mind [Nietzsche] |
4264 | Perception (which involves an assessment) is a higher state than sensation [Scruton] |
7156 | Sense perceptions contain values (useful, so pleasant) [Nietzsche] |
7181 | Pain shows the value of the damage, not what has been damaged [Nietzsche] |
7129 | Perception is unconscious, and we are only conscious of processed perceptions [Nietzsche] |
7149 | Comprehending everything is impossible, because it abolishes perspectives [Nietzsche] |
7169 | Is the perspectival part of the essence, or just a relation between beings? [Nietzsche] |
7182 | 'Perspectivism': the world has no meaning, but various interpretations give it countless meanings [Nietzsche] |
7183 | 'Subjectivity' is an interpretation, since subjects (and interpreters) are fictions [Nietzsche] |
7133 | There are different eyes, so different 'truths', so there is no truth [Nietzsche] |
7139 | Explanation is just showing the succession of things ever more clearly [Nietzsche] |
7131 | The intellect and senses are a simplifying apparatus [Nietzsche] |
7152 | With protoplasm ½+½=2, so the soul is not an indivisible monad [Nietzsche] |
7130 | Unity is not in the conscious 'I', but in the organism, which uses the self as a tool [Nietzsche] |
4271 | There is consciousness whenever behaviour must be explained in terms of mental activity [Scruton] |
7155 | Consciousness exists to the extent that consciousness is useful [Nietzsche] |
7143 | Consciousness is a 'tool' - just as the stomach is a tool [Nietzsche] |
4272 | Our concept of a person is derived from Roman law [Scruton] |
7157 | We think each thought causes the next, unaware of the hidden struggle beneath [Nietzsche] |
7148 | The 'I' is a conceptual synthesis, not the governor of our being [Nietzsche] |
7138 | The 'I' is a fiction used to make the world of becoming 'knowable' [Nietzsche] |
7135 | 'Freedom of will' is the feeling of having a dominating force [Nietzsche] |
4267 | Conditioning may change behaviour without changing the mind [Scruton] |
4269 | An emotion is a motive which is also a feeling [Scruton] |
7171 | Rationality is a scheme we cannot cast away [Nietzsche] |
4270 | Do we use reason to distinguish people from animals, or use that difference to define reason? [Scruton] |
7209 | There is no will; weakness of will is splitting of impulses, strong will is coordination under one impulse [Nietzsche] |
7194 | Experiencing a thing as beautiful is to experience it wrongly [Nietzsche] |
4284 | All moral life depends ultimately on piety, which is our recognition of our own dependence [Scruton] |
7136 | Morality is a system of values which accompanies a being's life [Nietzsche] |
7163 | Morality is merely interpretations, which are extra-moral in origin [Nietzsche] |
7147 | Values are innate and inherited [Nietzsche] |
7190 | Our values express an earlier era's conditions for survival and growth [Nietzsche] |
7201 | Knowledge, wisdom and goodness only have value relative to a goal [Nietzsche] |
7205 | Altruism is praised by the egoism of the weak, who want everyone to be looked after [Nietzsche] |
7141 | A living being is totally 'egoistic' [Nietzsche] |
7168 | Modest people express happiness as 'Not bad' [Nietzsche] |
7159 | The only happiness is happiness with illusion [Nietzsche] |
7197 | Pleasure needs dissatisfaction, boundaries and resistances [Nietzsche] |
4273 | Kant's Moral Law is the rules rational beings would accept when trying to live by agreement [Scruton] |
7165 | Virtue is wasteful, as it reduces us all to being one another's nurse [Nietzsche] |
7193 | Virtue for everyone removes its charm of being exceptional and aristocratic [Nietzsche] |
7191 | What does not kill us makes us stronger [Nietzsche] |
7151 | Courage, compassion, insight, solitude are the virtues, with courtesy a necessary vice [Nietzsche] |
4274 | The modern virtues are courage, prudence, wisdom, temperance, justice, charity and loyalty [Scruton] |
20239 | Unlike us, the early Greeks thought envy was a good thing, and hope a bad thing [Hesiod, by Nietzsche] |
4286 | Only just people will drop their own self-interests when faced with an impartial verdict [Scruton] |
4283 | Sympathy can undermine the moral order just as much as crime does [Scruton] |
7185 | Replace the categorical imperative by the natural imperative [Nietzsche] |
4290 | That which can only be done by a callous person, ought not to be done [Scruton] |
4285 | As soon as we drop self-interest and judge impartially, we find ourselves agreeing about conflicts [Scruton] |
4287 | Utilitarianism merely guides us (by means of sympathy) when the moral law is silent [Scruton] |
4282 | Morality is not a sort of calculation, it is what sets the limits to when calculation is appropriate [Scruton] |
4281 | Utilitarianism says we can't blame Stalin yet, but such a theory is a sick joke [Scruton] |
4280 | Utilitarianism is wrong precisely because it can't distinguish animals from people [Scruton] |
7164 | Not feeling harnessed to a system of 'ends' is a wonderful feeling of freedom [Nietzsche] |
7198 | Nihilism results from measuring the world by our categories which are purely invented [Nietzsche] |
7150 | By developing herd virtues man fixes what has up to now been the 'unfixed animal' [Nietzsche] |
7177 | Virtues from outside are dangerous, and they should come from within [Nietzsche] |
7172 | Existence without meaning or goal or end, eternally recurring, is a terrible thought [Nietzsche] |
7166 | Man is above all a judging animal [Nietzsche] |
7204 | The upholding of the military state is needed to maintain the strong human type [Nietzsche] |
7173 | Rights arise out of contracts, which need a balance of power [Nietzsche] |
4295 | We favour our own animals over foreign ones because we see them as fellow citizens [Scruton] |
4296 | Brutal animal sports are banned because they harm the personality of the watcher [Scruton] |
4291 | Letting your dog kill wild rats, and keeping rats for your dog to kill, are very different [Scruton] |
4293 | Introducing a natural means of controlling animal population may not be very compassionate [Scruton] |
4268 | Animals command our sympathy and moral concern initially because of their intentionality [Scruton] |
4263 | Many of the stranger forms of life (e.g. worms) interest us only as a species, not as individuals [Scruton] |
4276 | An animal has individuality if it is nameable, and advanced animals can respond to their name [Scruton] |
4277 | I may avoid stepping on a spider or flower, but fellow-feeling makes me protect a rabbit [Scruton] |
4278 | Lucky animals are eaten by large predators, the less lucky starve, and worst is death by small predators [Scruton] |
4279 | We can easily remove the risk of suffering from an animal's life, but we shouldn't do it [Scruton] |
4289 | Sheep and cattle live comfortable lives, and die an enviably easy death [Scruton] |
4292 | Concern for one animal may harm the species, if the individual is part of a bigger problem [Scruton] |
4294 | Animals are outside the community of rights, but we still have duties towards them [Scruton] |
4288 | Many breeds of animals have needs which our own ancestors planted in them [Scruton] |
7176 | 'Purpose' is like the sun, where most heat is wasted, and a tiny part has 'purpose' [Nietzsche] |
7195 | If the world aimed at an end, it would have reached it by now [Nietzsche] |
7206 | Things are strong or weak, and do not behave regularly or according to rules or compulsions [Nietzsche] |
7140 | Chemical 'laws' are merely the establishment of power relations between weaker and stronger [Nietzsche] |
7142 | All motions and 'laws' are symptoms of inner events, traceable to the will to power [Nietzsche] |
7178 | The utility of an organ does not explain its origin, on the contrary! [Nietzsche] |
7179 | Survival might undermine an individual's value, or prevent its evolution [Nietzsche] |
7180 | Darwin overestimates the influence of 'external circumstances' [Nietzsche] |
7192 | Remove goodness and wisdom from our concept of God. Being the highest power is enough! [Nietzsche] |
7158 | Morality kills religion, because a Christian-moral God is unbelievable [Nietzsche] |
7199 | It is dishonest to invent a being containing our greatest values, thus ignoring why they exist and are valuable [Nietzsche] |
7162 | Morality can only be upheld by belief in God and a 'hereafter' [Nietzsche] |
7208 | Paganism is a form of thanking and affirming life? [Nietzsche] |
7160 | Christian belief is kept alive because it is soothing - the proof based on pleasure [Nietzsche] |
7203 | In heaven all the interesting men are missing [Nietzsche] |
7200 | A combination of great power and goodness would mean the disastrous abolition of evil [Nietzsche] |