48 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] |
16730 | If matter is entirely atoms, anything else we notice in it can only be modes [Gassendi] |
16619 | We observe qualities, and use 'induction' to refer to the substances lying under them [Gassendi] |
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] |
23154 | We divide mankind into friend and foe, and cooperate with one and compete with the other [Russell] |
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] |
23153 | Gradually loyalty to a creed increased, which could even outweigh nationality [Russell] |
23152 | Increasingly war expands communities, and unifies them through fear [Russell] |
23155 | In early societies the leaders needed cohesion, but the rest just had to obey [Russell] |
23156 | The economic and political advantages of great size seem to have no upper limit [Russell] |
137 | As with other things, a good state is organised and orderly [Plato] |
23157 | Government has a negative purpose, to prevent trouble, and a positive aim of realising our desires [Russell] |
23151 | A monarch is known to everyone in the group, and can thus unite large groups [Russell] |
23167 | Power should be with smaller bodies, as long as it doesn't restrict central powers [Russell] |
23163 | In an anarchy universities, research, books, and even seaside holidays, would be impossible [Russell] |
23168 | A state is essential, to control greedy or predatory impulses [Russell] |
141 | A good citizen won't be passive, but will redirect the needs of the state [Plato] |
23166 | In democracy we are more aware of being governed than of our tiny share in government [Russell] |
23162 | Managers are just as remote from workers under nationalisation as under capitalism [Russell] |
23165 | Socialists say economic justice needs some state control of industries, and of foreign trade [Russell] |
23160 | Being a slave of society is hardly better than being a slave of a despot [Russell] |
23158 | Slavery began the divorce between the work and the purposes of the worker [Russell] |
123 | Do most people like equality because they are second-rate? [Plato] |
23161 | Slaves can be just as equal as free people [Russell] |
124 | Does nature imply that it is right for better people to have greater benefits? [Plato] |
23159 | Scarce goods may be denied entirely, to avoid their unequal distribution [Russell] |
23164 | Modern justice is seen as equality, apart from modest extra rewards for exceptional desert [Russell] |
16593 | Atoms are not points, but hard indivisible things, which no force in nature can divide [Gassendi] |
16729 | How do mere atoms produce qualities like colour, flavour and odour? [Gassendi] |