54 ideas
7490 | Because of Darwin, wisdom as a definite attainable state has faded [Watson] |
7461 | The three key ideas are the soul, Europe, and the experiment [Watson] |
7464 | The big idea: imitation, the soul, experiments, God, heliocentric universe, evolution? [Watson] |
7465 | Babylonian thinking used analogy, rather than deduction or induction [Watson] |
18074 | Intuitionists rely on assertability instead of truth, but assertability relies on truth [Kitcher] |
6298 | Kitcher says maths is an idealisation of the world, and our operations in dealing with it [Kitcher, by Resnik] |
12392 | Mathematical a priorism is conceptualist, constructivist or realist [Kitcher] |
18078 | The interest or beauty of mathematics is when it uses current knowledge to advance undestanding [Kitcher] |
12426 | The 'beauty' or 'interest' of mathematics is just explanatory power [Kitcher] |
12395 | Real numbers stand to measurement as natural numbers stand to counting [Kitcher] |
12425 | Complex numbers were only accepted when a geometrical model for them was found [Kitcher] |
18071 | A one-operation is the segregation of a single object [Kitcher] |
7466 | Mesopotamian numbers applied to specific things, and then became abstract [Watson] |
18066 | The old view is that mathematics is useful in the world because it describes the world [Kitcher] |
18083 | With infinitesimals, you divide by the time, then set the time to zero [Kitcher] |
18061 | Mathematical intuition is not the type platonism needs [Kitcher] |
12420 | If mathematics comes through intuition, that is either inexplicable, or too subjective [Kitcher] |
12393 | Intuition is no basis for securing a priori knowledge, because it is fallible [Kitcher] |
12387 | Mathematical knowledge arises from basic perception [Kitcher] |
12412 | My constructivism is mathematics as an idealization of collecting and ordering objects [Kitcher] |
18065 | We derive limited mathematics from ordinary things, and erect powerful theories on their basis [Kitcher] |
18077 | The defenders of complex numbers had to show that they could be expressed in physical terms [Kitcher] |
12423 | Analyticity avoids abstract entities, but can there be truth without reference? [Kitcher] |
18069 | Arithmetic is an idealizing theory [Kitcher] |
18068 | Arithmetic is made true by the world, but is also made true by our constructions [Kitcher] |
18070 | We develop a language for correlations, and use it to perform higher level operations [Kitcher] |
18072 | Constructivism is ontological (that it is the work of an agent) and epistemological (knowable a priori) [Kitcher] |
18063 | Conceptualists say we know mathematics a priori by possessing mathematical concepts [Kitcher] |
18064 | If meaning makes mathematics true, you still need to say what the meanings refer to [Kitcher] |
18067 | Abstract objects were a bad way of explaining the structure in mathematics [Kitcher] |
12390 | A priori knowledge comes from available a priori warrants that produce truth [Kitcher] |
12418 | In long mathematical proofs we can't remember the original a priori basis [Kitcher] |
12389 | Knowledge is a priori if the experience giving you the concepts thus gives you the knowledge [Kitcher] |
12416 | We have some self-knowledge a priori, such as knowledge of our own existence [Kitcher] |
12413 | A 'warrant' is a process which ensures that a true belief is knowledge [Kitcher] |
20473 | If experiential can defeat a belief, then its justification depends on the defeater's absence [Kitcher, by Casullo] |
18075 | Idealisation trades off accuracy for simplicity, in varying degrees [Kitcher] |
3031 | The greatest good is not the achievement of desire, but to desire what is proper [Menedemus, by Diog. Laertius] |
7477 | Modern democracy is actually elective oligarchy [Watson] |
7478 | Greek philosophers invented the concept of 'nature' as their special subject [Watson] |
7462 | DNA mutation suggests humans and chimpanzees diverged 6.6 million years ago [Watson] |
7470 | During the rise of civilizations, the main gods changed from female to male [Watson] |
7474 | Hinduism has no founder, or prophet, or creed, or ecclesiastical structure [Watson] |
7480 | Monotheism was a uniquely Israelite creation within the Middle East [Watson] |
7479 | Modern Judaism became stabilised in 200 CE [Watson] |
7481 | The Israelites may have asserted the uniqueness of Yahweh to justify land claims [Watson] |
7471 | The Gathas (hymns) of Zoroastrianism date from about 1000 BCE [Watson] |
7473 | Zoroaster conceived the afterlife, judgement, heaven and hell, and the devil [Watson] |
7484 | Jesus never intended to start a new religion [Watson] |
7483 | Paul's early writings mention few striking episodes from Jesus' life [Watson] |
7475 | Confucius revered the spiritual world, but not the supernatural, or a personal god, or the afterlife [Watson] |
7476 | Taoism aims at freedom from the world, the body, the mind, and nature [Watson] |
7463 | The three basic ingredients of religion are: the soul, seers or priests, and ritual [Watson] |
7468 | In ancient Athens the souls of the dead are received by the 'upper air' [Watson] |