30 ideas
291 | Don't assume that wisdom is the automatic consequence of old age [Plato] |
4642 | No fact can be real and no proposition true unless there is a Sufficient Reason (even if we can't know it) [Leibniz] |
2115 | Everything in the universe is interconnected, so potentially a mind could know everything [Leibniz] |
2111 | Falsehood involves a contradiction, and truth is contradictory of falsehood [Leibniz] |
7644 | The monad idea incomprehensibly spiritualises matter, instead of materialising soul [La Mettrie on Leibniz] |
11857 | He replaced Aristotelian continuants with monads [Leibniz, by Wiggins] |
7843 | Is a drop of urine really an infinity of thinking monads? [Voltaire on Leibniz] |
12751 | It is unclear in 'Monadology' how extended bodies relate to mind-like monads. [Garber on Leibniz] |
19363 | Changes in a monad come from an internal principle, and the diversity within its substance [Leibniz] |
19352 | A 'monad' has basic perception and appetite; a 'soul' has distinct perception and memory [Leibniz] |
7931 | If a substance is just a thing that has properties, it seems to be a characterless non-entity [Leibniz, by Macdonald,C] |
17554 | There must be some internal difference between any two beings in nature [Leibniz] |
2112 | Truths of reason are known by analysis, and are necessary; facts are contingent, and their opposites possible [Leibniz] |
9344 | Mathematical analysis ends in primitive principles, which cannot be and need not be demonstrated [Leibniz] |
2110 | We all expect the sun to rise tomorrow by experience, but astronomers expect it by reason [Leibniz] |
2109 | Increase a conscious machine to the size of a mill - you still won't see perceptions in it [Leibniz] |
4020 | The modern self has disengaged reason, self-exploration, and personal commitment [Taylor,C] |
4002 | My aim is to map the connections between our sense of self and our moral understanding [Taylor,C] |
19362 | We know the 'I' and its contents by abstraction from awareness of necessary truths [Leibniz] |
4006 | I can only be aware of myself as a person who changes by means of my personal history [Taylor,C] |
4003 | Selfhood and moral values are inextricably intertwined [Taylor,C] |
293 | Being unafraid (perhaps through ignorance) and being brave are two different things [Plato] |
4021 | Willingness to risk life was the constitutive quality of the man of honour [Taylor,C] |
4005 | To have respect for people, you must feel their claims, or their injustices, or hold them in awe [Taylor,C] |
4004 | Consistency presupposes intrinsic description [Taylor,C] |
4010 | In later utilitarianism the modern stress on freedom leads to the rejection of paternalism [Taylor,C] |
12707 | The true elements are atomic monads [Leibniz] |
2114 | This is the most perfect possible universe, in its combination of variety with order [Leibniz] |
4009 | Nominalists defended the sovereignty of God against the idea of natural existing good and evil [Taylor,C] |
2113 | God alone (the Necessary Being) has the privilege that He must exist if He is possible [Leibniz] |