47 ideas
| 13786 | Wisdom is called 'beautiful', because it performs fine works [Plato] |
| 22659 | It is wisdom to believe what you desire, because belief is needed to achieve it [James] |
| 13780 | Good people are no different from wise ones [Plato] |
| 22657 | All good philosophers start from a dumb conviction about which truths can be revealed [James] |
| 22647 | A complete system is just a classification of the whole world's ingredients [James] |
| 22648 | A single explanation must have a single point of view [James] |
| 22644 | Our greatest pleasure is the economy of reducing chaotic facts to one single fact [James] |
| 13778 | A dialectician is someone who knows how to ask and to answer questions [Plato] |
| 13776 | Truths say of what is that it is, falsehoods say of what is that it is not [Plato] |
| 12797 | If plural variables have 'some values', then non-count variables have 'some value' [Laycock] |
| 13777 | A name is a sort of tool [Plato] |
| 13790 | A name-giver might misname something, then force other names to conform to it [Plato] |
| 13791 | Things must be known before they are named, so it can't be the names that give us knowledge [Plato] |
| 13789 | Anyone who knows a thing's name also knows the thing [Plato] |
| 12794 | Plurals are semantical but not ontological [Laycock] |
| 17694 | Some non-count nouns can be used for counting, as in 'several wines' or 'fewer cheeses' [Laycock] |
| 17695 | Some apparent non-count words can take plural forms, such as 'snows' or 'waters' [Laycock] |
| 2063 | How can beauty have identity if it changes? [Plato] |
| 12792 | The category of stuff does not suit reference [Laycock] |
| 12799 | Descriptions of stuff are neither singular aggregates nor plural collections [Laycock] |
| 12818 | We shouldn't think some water retains its identity when it is mixed with air [Laycock] |
| 13775 | We only succeed in cutting if we use appropriate tools, not if we approach it randomly [Plato] |
| 22649 | Classification can only ever be for a particular purpose [James] |
| 13787 | Doesn't each thing have an essence, just as it has other qualities? [Plato] |
| 12795 | Parts must be of the same very general type as the wholes [Laycock] |
| 13774 | Things don't have every attribute, and essence isn't private, so each thing has an essence [Plato] |
| 13772 | Is the being or essence of each thing private to each person? [Plato] |
| 13788 | If we made a perfect duplicate of Cratylus, there would be two Cratyluses [Plato] |
| 13792 | There can't be any knowledge if things are constantly changing [Plato] |
| 22655 | Scientific genius extracts more than other people from the same evidence [James] |
| 22658 | Experimenters assume the theory is true, and stick to it as long as result don't disappoint [James] |
| 22654 | We can't know if the laws of nature are stable, but we must postulate it or assume it [James] |
| 22656 | Trying to assess probabilities by mere calculation is absurd and impossible [James] |
| 22646 | We have a passion for knowing the parts of something, rather than the whole [James] |
| 22652 | The mind has evolved entirely for practical interests, seen in our reflex actions [James] |
| 13781 | Soul causes the body to live, and gives it power to breathe and to be revitalized [Plato] |
| 22651 | Dogs' curiosity only concerns what will happen next [James] |
| 17696 | 'Humility is a virtue' has an abstract noun, but 'water is a liquid' has a generic concrete noun [Laycock] |
| 22650 | How can the ground of rationality be itself rational? [James] |
| 22643 | It seems that we feel rational when we detect no irrationality [James] |
| 12791 | It is said that proper reference is our intellectual link with the world [Laycock] |
| 22660 | Evolution suggests prevailing or survival as a new criterion of right and wrong [James] |
| 13785 | 'Arete' signifies lack of complexity and a free-flowing soul [Plato] |
| 22645 | Understanding by means of causes is useless if they are not reduced to a minimum number [James] |
| 13779 | The natural offspring of a lion is called a 'lion' (but what about the offspring of a king?) [Plato] |
| 13783 | Even the gods love play [Plato] |
| 22653 | Early Christianity says God recognises the neglected weak and tender impulses [James] |