45 ideas
| 125 | Is a gifted philosopher unmanly if he avoids the strife of the communal world? [Plato] |
| 1654 | In "Gorgias" Socrates is confident that his 'elenchus' will decide moral truth [Vlastos on Plato] |
| 4321 | We should test one another, by asking and answering questions [Plato] |
| 12732 | Some necessary truths are brute, and others derive from final causes [Leibniz] |
| 19438 | Our large perceptions and appetites are made up tiny unconscious fragments [Leibniz] |
| 19415 | Passions reside in confused perceptions [Leibniz] |
| 116 | Rhetoric is irrational about its means and its ends [Plato] |
| 114 | Rhetoric can produce conviction, but not educate people about right and wrong [Plato] |
| 135 | All activity aims at the good [Plato] |
| 122 | Moral rules are made by the weak members of humanity [Plato] |
| 139 | A good person is bound to act well, and this brings happiness [Plato] |
| 128 | Is it natural to simply indulge our selfish desires? [Plato] |
| 4322 | In slaking our thirst the goodness of the action and the pleasure are clearly separate [Plato] |
| 136 | Good should be the aim of pleasant activity, not the other way round [Plato] |
| 134 | Good and bad people seem to experience equal amounts of pleasure and pain [Plato] |
| 132 | If happiness is the satisfaction of desires, then a life of scratching itches should be happiness [Plato] |
| 4319 | In a fool's mind desire is like a leaky jar, insatiable in its desires, and order and contentment are better [Plato] |
| 130 | Is the happiest state one of sensual, self-indulgent freedom? [Plato] |
| 120 | Should we avoid evil because it will bring us bad consequences? [Plato] |
| 118 | I would rather be a victim of crime than a criminal [Plato] |
| 131 | If absence of desire is happiness, then nothing is happier than a stone or a corpse [Plato] |
| 140 | Self-indulgent desire makes friendship impossible, because it makes a person incapable of co-operation [Plato] |
| 119 | A criminal is worse off if he avoids punishment [Plato] |
| 129 | Do most people praise self-discipline and justice because they are too timid to gain their own pleasure? [Plato] |
| 4320 | The popular view is that health is first, good looks second, and honest wealth third [Plato] |
| 22673 | Wherever there is a small community, the association of the people is natural [Tocqueville] |
| 22676 | The people are just individuals, and only present themselves as united to foreigners [Tocqueville] |
| 22679 | Vast empires are bad for well-being and freedom, though they may promote glory [Tocqueville] |
| 22680 | People would be much happier and freer in small nations [Tocqueville] |
| 137 | As with other things, a good state is organised and orderly [Plato] |
| 22675 | In American judges rule according to the Constitution, not the law [Tocqueville] |
| 22677 | A monarchical family is always deeply concerned with the interests of the state [Tocqueville] |
| 22683 | Despots like to see their own regulations ignored, by themselves and their agents [Tocqueville] |
| 22669 | Aristocracy is constituted by inherited landed property [Tocqueville] |
| 22674 | In Europe it is thought that local government is best handled centrally [Tocqueville] |
| 22678 | An election, and its lead up time, are always a national crisis [Tocqueville] |
| 141 | A good citizen won't be passive, but will redirect the needs of the state [Plato] |
| 22682 | Universal suffrage is no guarantee of wise choices [Tocqueville] |
| 22670 | Slavery undermines the morals and energy of a society [Tocqueville] |
| 22681 | The liberty of the press is more valuable for what it prevents than what it promotes [Tocqueville] |
| 123 | Do most people like equality because they are second-rate? [Plato] |
| 22672 | It is admirable to elevate the humble to the level of the great, but the opposite is depraved [Tocqueville] |
| 22671 | Equality can only be established by equal rights for all (or no rights for anyone) [Tocqueville] |
| 124 | Does nature imply that it is right for better people to have greater benefits? [Plato] |
| 19439 | God produces possibilities, and thus ideas [Leibniz] |