40 ideas
162 | Can we understand an individual soul without knowing the soul in general? [Plato] |
160 | The highest ability in man is the ability to discuss unity and plurality in the nature of things [Plato] |
22338 | An unexamined life can be virtuous [Murdoch] |
22337 | Philosophy must keep returning to the beginning [Murdoch] |
23563 | Philosophy moves continually between elaborate theories and the obvious facts [Murdoch] |
166 | A speaker should be able to divide a subject, right down to the limits of divisibility [Plato] |
7953 | Reasoning needs to cut nature accurately at the joints [Plato] |
16121 | I revere anyone who can discern a single thing that encompasses many things [Plato] |
153 | It takes a person to understand, by using universals, and by using reason to create a unity out of sense-impressions [Plato] |
154 | We would have an overpowering love of knowledge if we had a pure idea of it - as with the other Forms [Plato] |
490 | Everything happens by reason and necessity [Leucippus] |
151 | True knowledge is of the reality behind sense experience [Plato] |
165 | If the apparent facts strongly conflict with probability, it is in everyone's interests to suppress the facts [Plato] |
9296 | The soul is self-motion [Plato] |
23997 | Plato saw emotions and appetites as wild horses, in need of taming [Plato, by Goldie] |
158 | An excellent speech seems to imply a knowledge of the truth in the mind of the speaker [Plato] |
5946 | 'Phaedrus' pioneers the notion of philosophical rhetoric [Lawson-Tancred on Plato] |
159 | Only a good philosopher can be a good speaker [Plato] |
155 | Beauty is the clearest and most lovely of the Forms [Plato] |
22341 | Literature is the most important aspect of culture, because it teaches understanding of living [Murdoch] |
22347 | Appreciating beauty in art or nature opens up the good life, by restricting selfishness [Murdoch] |
143 | The two ruling human principles are the natural desire for pleasure, and an acquired love of virtue [Plato] |
22339 | Love is a central concept in morals [Murdoch] |
22348 | Ordinary human love is good evidence of transcendent goodness [Murdoch] |
157 | Most pleasure is release from pain, and is therefore not worthwhile [Plato] |
22343 | If I attend properly I will have no choices [Murdoch] |
144 | Reason impels us towards excellence, which teaches us self-control [Plato] |
22340 | It is hard to learn goodness from others, because their virtues are part of their personal history [Murdoch] |
22349 | Art trains us in the love of virtue [Murdoch] |
22346 | Moral reflection and experience gradually reveals unity in the moral world [Murdoch] |
22350 | Only trivial virtues can be possessed on their own [Murdoch] |
156 | Bad people are never really friends with one another [Plato] |
22351 | Only a philosopher might think choices create values [Murdoch] |
22342 | Kantian existentialists care greatly for reasons for action, whereas Surrealists care nothing [Murdoch] |
148 | If the prime origin is destroyed, it will not come into being again out of anything [Plato] |
152 | The mind of God is fully satisfied and happy with a vision of reality and truth [Plato] |
22345 | Moral philosophy needs a central concept with all the traditional attributes of God [Murdoch] |
150 | We cannot conceive of God, so we have to think of Him as an immortal version of ourselves [Plato] |
149 | There isn't a single reason for positing the existence of immortal beings [Plato] |
146 | Soul is always in motion, so it must be self-moving and immortal [Plato] |