173 ideas
| 23890 | For Plato true wisdom is supernatural [Plato, by Weil] |
| 18495 | The best philosophers I know are the best people I know [Heil] |
| 3060 | Plato never mentions Democritus, and wished to burn his books [Plato, by Diog. Laertius] |
| 2937 | What we cannot speak about we must pass over in silence [Wittgenstein] |
| 6870 | I say (contrary to Wittgenstein) that philosophy expresses what we thought we must be silent about [Ansell Pearson on Wittgenstein] |
| 2944 | If a question can be framed at all, it is also possible to answer it [Wittgenstein] |
| 9810 | The 'Tractatus' is a masterpiece of anti-philosophy [Badiou on Wittgenstein] |
| 23459 | This work solves all the main problems, but that has little value [Wittgenstein] |
| 23512 | Once you understand my book you will see that it is nonsensical [Wittgenstein] |
| 18494 | Using a technical vocabulary actually prevents discussion of the presuppositions [Heil] |
| 18506 | Questions of explanation should not be confused with metaphyics [Heil] |
| 18535 | Without abstraction we couldn't think systematically [Heil] |
| 2938 | The limits of my language means the limits of my world [Wittgenstein] |
| 6429 | All complex statements can be resolved into constituents and descriptions [Wittgenstein] |
| 23492 | Our language is an aspect of biology, and so its inner logic is opaque [Wittgenstein] |
| 23510 | Most philosophical questions arise from failing to understand the logic of language [Wittgenstein] |
| 23499 | This book says we should either say it clearly, or shut up [Wittgenstein] |
| 23508 | Science is all the true propositions [Wittgenstein] |
| 2939 | If a sign is useless it is meaningless; that is the point of Ockham's maxim [Wittgenstein] |
| 23891 | Two contradictories force us to find a relation which will correlate them [Plato, by Weil] |
| 18534 | Truth relates truthbearers to truthmakers [Heil] |
| 18531 | Philosophers of the past took the truthmaking idea for granted [Heil] |
| 10910 | The best account of truth-making is isomorphism [Wittgenstein, by Mulligan/Simons/Smith] |
| 18509 | Not all truths need truthmakers - mathematics and logic seem to be just true [Heil] |
| 23462 | He says the world is the facts because it is the facts which fix all the truths [Wittgenstein, by Morris,M] |
| 18349 | All truths have truth-makers, but only atomic truths correspond to them [Wittgenstein, by Rami] |
| 10967 | Wittgenstein's picture theory is the best version of the correspondence theory of truth [Read on Wittgenstein] |
| 7087 | Language is [propositions-elementary propositions-names]; reality is [facts-states of affairs-objects] [Wittgenstein, by Grayling] |
| 4702 | The account of truth in the 'Tractatus' seems a perfect example of the correspondence theory [Wittgenstein, by O'Grady] |
| 7056 | Pictures reach out to or feel reality, touching at the edges, correlating in its parts [Wittgenstein] |
| 23483 | Proposition elements correlate with objects, but the whole picture does not correspond to a fact [Wittgenstein, by Morris,M] |
| 23502 | Logic fills the world, to its limits [Wittgenstein] |
| 23504 | Logic concerns everything that is subject to law; the rest is accident [Wittgenstein] |
| 6428 | Wittgenstein is right that logic is just tautologies [Wittgenstein, by Russell] |
| 11062 | Logic is a priori because it is impossible to think illogically [Wittgenstein] |
| 18277 | If q implies p, that is justified by q and p, not by some 'laws' of inference [Wittgenstein] |
| 18162 | The propositions of logic are analytic tautologies [Wittgenstein] |
| 7537 | Wittgenstein convinced Russell that logic is tautologies, not Platonic forms [Wittgenstein, by Monk] |
| 23496 | Two colours in the same place is ruled out by the logical structure of colour [Wittgenstein] |
| 18154 | The sign of identity is not allowed in 'Tractatus' [Wittgenstein, by Bostock] |
| 13429 | The identity sign is not essential in logical notation, if every sign has a different meaning [Wittgenstein, by Ramsey] |
| 18268 | Apparent logical form may not be real logical form [Wittgenstein] |
| 10905 | My fundamental idea is that the 'logical constants' do not represent [Wittgenstein] |
| 23493 | 'Not' isn't an object, because not-not-p would then differ from p [Wittgenstein] |
| 7784 | 'Object' is a pseudo-concept, properly indicated in logic by the variable x [Wittgenstein] |
| 23506 | Names are primitive, and cannot be analysed [Wittgenstein] |
| 7089 | A name is primitive, and its meaning is the object [Wittgenstein] |
| 9467 | Wittgenstein tried unsuccessfully to reduce quantifiers to conjunctions and disjunctions [Wittgenstein, by Jacquette] |
| 15089 | Logical proof just explicates complicated tautologies [Wittgenstein] |
| 13830 | Logical truths are just 'by-products' of the introduction rules for logical constants [Wittgenstein, by Hacking] |
| 19292 | Logic doesn't split into primitive and derived propositions; they all have the same status [Wittgenstein] |
| 18518 | Infinite numbers are qualitatively different - they are not just very large numbers [Heil] |
| 18153 | A number is a repeated operation [Wittgenstein] |
| 18160 | The concept of number is just what all numbers have in common [Wittgenstein] |
| 18161 | The theory of classes is superfluous in mathematics [Wittgenstein] |
| 18500 | How could structures be mathematical truthmakers? Maths is just true, without truthmakers [Heil] |
| 6849 | Wittgenstein hated logicism, and described it as a cancerous growth [Wittgenstein, by Monk] |
| 23509 | The logic of the world is shown by tautologies in logic, and by equations in mathematics [Wittgenstein] |
| 13133 | The world is facts, not things. Facts determine the world, and the world divides into facts [Wittgenstein] |
| 18539 | Our categories lack the neat arrangement needed for reduction [Heil] |
| 7090 | The 'Tractatus' is an extreme example of 'Logical Atomism' [Wittgenstein, by Grayling] |
| 23464 | In atomic facts the objects hang together like chain links [Wittgenstein] |
| 23471 | The structure of an atomic fact is how its objects combine; this possibility is its form [Wittgenstein] |
| 21682 | If a proposition is elementary, no other elementary proposition contradicts it [Wittgenstein] |
| 22319 | Analysis must end in elementary propositions, which are combinations of names [Wittgenstein] |
| 21683 | Nothing can be inferred from an elementary proposition [Wittgenstein] |
| 23473 | Do his existent facts constitute the world, or determine the world? [Morris,M on Wittgenstein] |
| 22311 | The world is determined by the facts, and there are no further facts [Wittgenstein] |
| 22313 | The existence of atomic facts is a positive fact, their non-existence a negative fact [Wittgenstein] |
| 22314 | On white paper a black spot is a positive fact and a white spot a negative fact [Wittgenstein] |
| 18505 | Fundamental ontology aims at the preconditions for any true theory [Heil] |
| 18499 | Our quantifications only reveal the truths we accept; the ontology and truthmakers are another matter [Heil] |
| 18512 | Ontology aims to give the fundamental categories of being [Heil] |
| 18508 | Most philosophers now (absurdly) believe that relations fully exist [Heil] |
| 7969 | The order of numbers is an internal relation, not an external one [Wittgenstein] |
| 7968 | A relation is internal if it is unthinkable that its object should not possess it [Wittgenstein] |
| 18532 | If causal relations are power manifestations, that makes them internal relations [Heil] |
| 14502 | Plato's idea of 'structure' tends to be mathematically expressed [Plato, by Koslicki] |
| 18510 | We need properties to explain how the world works [Heil] |
| 18522 | Categorical properties were introduced by philosophers as actual properties, not if-then properties [Heil] |
| 18513 | Emergent properties will need emergent substances to bear them [Heil] |
| 18540 | Predicates only match properties at the level of fundamentals [Heil] |
| 18533 | In Fa, F may not be a property of a, but a determinable, satisfied by some determinate [Heil] |
| 18511 | Properties have causal roles which sets can't possibly have [Heil] |
| 18523 | Are all properties powers, or are there also qualities, or do qualities have the powers? [Heil] |
| 18524 | Properties are both qualitative and dispositional - they are powerful qualities [Heil] |
| 3039 | When Diogenes said he could only see objects but not their forms, Plato said it was because he had eyes but no intellect [Plato, by Diog. Laertius] |
| 20906 | Platonists argue for the indivisible triangle-in-itself [Plato, by Aristotle] |
| 17948 | Plato's Forms meant that the sophists only taught the appearance of wisdom and virtue [Plato, by Nehamas] |
| 556 | If there is one Form for both the Form and its participants, they must have something in common [Aristotle on Plato] |
| 563 | If gods are like men, they are just eternal men; similarly, Forms must differ from particulars [Aristotle on Plato] |
| 565 | The Forms cannot be changeless if they are in changing things [Aristotle on Plato] |
| 557 | A Form is a cause of things only in the way that white mixed with white is a cause [Aristotle on Plato] |
| 23466 | Objects are the substance of the world [Wittgenstein] |
| 9607 | The greatest discovery in human thought is Plato's discovery of abstract objects [Brown,JR on Plato] |
| 18498 | Abstract objects wouldn't be very popular without the implicit idea of truthmakers [Heil] |
| 23467 | Objects are simple [Wittgenstein] |
| 13263 | We can grasp whole things in science, because they have a mathematics and a teleology [Plato, by Koslicki] |
| 13261 | Plato sees an object's structure as expressible in mathematics [Plato, by Koslicki] |
| 13265 | Plato was less concerned than Aristotle with the source of unity in a complex object [Plato, by Koslicki] |
| 18507 | Substances bear properties, so must be simple, and not consist of further substances [Heil] |
| 23468 | Apart from the facts, there is only substance [Wittgenstein] |
| 593 | Plato's holds that there are three substances: Forms, mathematical entities, and perceptible bodies [Plato, by Aristotle] |
| 18515 | Spatial parts are just regions, but objects depend on and are made up of substantial parts [Heil] |
| 18516 | A 'gunky' universe would literally have no parts at all [Heil] |
| 13260 | Plato says wholes are either containers, or they're atomic, or they don't exist [Plato, by Koslicki] |
| 18514 | Many wholes can survive replacement of their parts [Heil] |
| 18517 | Dunes depend on sand grains, but line segments depend on the whole line [Heil] |
| 11237 | Only universals have essence [Plato, by Politis] |
| 11238 | Plato and Aristotle take essence to make a thing what it is [Plato, by Politis] |
| 22321 | To know an object we must know the form and content of its internal properties [Wittgenstein, by Potter] |
| 6056 | Identity is not a relation between objects [Wittgenstein] |
| 22322 | You can't define identity by same predicates, because two objects with same predicates is assertable [Wittgenstein] |
| 6057 | Two things can't be identical, and self-identity is an empty concept [Wittgenstein] |
| 9442 | The only necessity is logical necessity [Wittgenstein] |
| 18502 | If basic physics has natures, then why not reality itself? That would then found the deepest necessities [Heil] |
| 23495 | The tautologies of logic show the logic of language and the world [Wittgenstein] |
| 23487 | What is thinkable is possible [Wittgenstein] |
| 23470 | Each thing is in a space of possible facts [Wittgenstein] |
| 18496 | If possible worlds are just fictions, they can't be truthmakers for modal judgements [Heil] |
| 23507 | Unlike the modern view of a set of worlds, Wittgenstein thinks of a structured manifold of them [Wittgenstein, by White,RM] |
| 23469 | An imagined world must have something in common with the real world [Wittgenstein] |
| 11027 | To know an object you must know all its possible occurrences [Wittgenstein] |
| 23465 | The 'form' of an object is its possible roles in facts [Wittgenstein] |
| 12869 | Two objects may only differ in being different [Wittgenstein] |
| 23503 | Strict solipsism is pure realism, with the self as a mere point in surrounding reality [Wittgenstein] |
| 16907 | If the truth doesn't follow from self-evidence, then self-evidence cannot justify a truth [Wittgenstein] |
| 23479 | The Tractatus aims to reveal the necessities, without appealing to synthetic a priori truths [Wittgenstein, by Morris,M] |
| 23501 | There is no a priori order of things [Wittgenstein] |
| 7088 | Logic and maths can't say anything about the world, since, as tautologies, they are consistent with all realities [Wittgenstein, by Grayling] |
| 16909 | Logic is a priori because we cannot think illogically [Wittgenstein] |
| 23485 | No pictures are true a priori [Wittgenstein] |
| 6591 | Doubts can't exist if they are inexpressible or unanswerable [Wittgenstein] |
| 17665 | The 'Tractatus' is instrumentalist about laws of nature [Wittgenstein, by Armstrong] |
| 2941 | Induction accepts the simplest law that fits our experiences [Wittgenstein] |
| 17085 | A good explanation totally rules out the opposite explanation (so Forms are required) [Plato, by Ruben] |
| 17673 | The modern worldview is based on the illusion that laws explain nature [Wittgenstein] |
| 18525 | Mental abstraction does not make what is abstracted mind-dependent [Heil] |
| 18504 | Only particulars exist, and generality is our mode of presentation [Heil] |
| 2940 | The subject stands outside our understanding of the world [Wittgenstein] |
| 23498 | The modern idea of the subjective soul is composite, and impossible [Wittgenstein] |
| 18503 | You can think of tomatoes without grasping what they are [Heil] |
| 1651 | Plato wanted to somehow control and purify the passions [Vlastos on Plato] |
| 23475 | The form of a proposition must show why nonsense is unjudgeable [Wittgenstein] |
| 18538 | Non-conscious thought may be unlike conscious thought [Heil] |
| 18537 | Linguistic thought is just as imagistic as non-linguistic thought [Heil] |
| 7084 | What can be said is what can be thought, so language shows the limits of thought [Wittgenstein, by Grayling] |
| 23482 | The 'form' of the picture is its possible combinations [Wittgenstein] |
| 8172 | To understand a proposition means to know what is the case if it is true [Wittgenstein] |
| 7086 | Good philosophy asserts science, and demonstrates the meaninglessness of metaphysics [Wittgenstein] |
| 18536 | The subject-predicate form reflects reality [Heil] |
| 23511 | Propositions use old expressions for a new sense [Wittgenstein] |
| 23488 | Propositions are understood via their constituents [Wittgenstein] |
| 23486 | Pictures are possible situations in logical space [Wittgenstein] |
| 3324 | Plato's whole philosophy may be based on being duped by reification - a figure of speech [Benardete,JA on Plato] |
| 23497 | Solipsism is correct, but can only be shown, not said, by the limits of my personal language [Wittgenstein] |
| 23489 | We translate by means of proposition constituents, not by whole propositions [Wittgenstein] |
| 2943 | Ethics cannot be put into words [Wittgenstein] |
| 7503 | Plato never refers to examining the conscience [Plato, by Foucault] |
| 2173 | As religion and convention collapsed, Plato sought morals not just in knowledge, but in the soul [Williams,B on Plato] |
| 2942 | The sense of the world must lie outside the world [Wittgenstein] |
| 18497 | Many reject 'moral realism' because they can't see any truthmakers for normative judgements [Heil] |
| 9274 | Plato's legacy to European thought was the Good, the Beautiful and the True [Plato, by Gray] |
| 94 | Pleasure is better with the addition of intelligence, so pleasure is not the good [Plato, by Aristotle] |
| 17947 | Plato decided that the virtuous and happy life was the philosophical life [Plato, by Nehamas] |
| 6015 | Plato, unusually, said that theoretical and practical wisdom are inseparable [Plato, by Kraut] |
| 2912 | Plato is boring [Nietzsche on Plato] |
| 18519 | If there were infinite electrons, they could vanish without affecting total mass-energy [Heil] |
| 18526 | We should focus on actual causings, rather than on laws and causal sequences [Heil] |
| 18527 | Probabilistic causation is not a weak type of cause; it is just a probability of there being a cause [Heil] |
| 18520 | Electrons are treated as particles, but they lose their individuality in relations [Heil] |
| 1526 | Almost everyone except Plato thinks that time could not have been generated [Plato, by Aristotle] |
| 18501 | Maybe the universe is fine-tuned because it had to be, despite plans by God or Nature? [Heil] |