55 ideas
20678 | The Scientific Revolution was the discovery of our own ignorance [Harari] |
20686 | For millenia people didn't know how to convert one type of energy into another [Harari] |
20388 | 'Necessary' conditions are requirements, and 'sufficient' conditions are guarantees [Davies,S] |
20389 | A definition of a thing gives all the requirements which add up to a guarantee of it [Davies,S] |
20391 | Feminists warn that ideologies use timeless objective definitions as a tool of repression [Davies,S] |
20387 | Aesthetic experience involves perception, but also imagination and understanding [Davies,S] |
20385 | The faculty of 'taste' was posited to explain why only some people had aesthetic appreciation [Davies,S] |
20386 | The sublime is negative in awareness of insignificance, and positive in showing understanding [Davies,S] |
20384 | The idea that art forms are linked into a single concept began in the 1740s [Davies,S] |
20390 | Defining art as representation or expression or form were all undermined by the avant-garde [Davies,S] |
20392 | 'Aesthetic functionalism' says art is what is intended to create aesthetic experiences [Davies,S] |
20405 | Music may be expressive by being 'associated' with other emotional words or events [Davies,S] |
20403 | It seems unlikely that sad music expresses a composer's sadness; it takes ages to write [Davies,S] |
20393 | The 'institutional' theory says art is just something appropriately placed in the 'artworld' [Davies,S] |
20402 | Music is too definite to be put into words (not too indefinite!) [Davies,S] |
20395 | The title of a painting can be vital, and the artist decrees who the portrait represents [Davies,S] |
20396 | We must know what the work is meant to be, to evaluate the artist's achievement [Davies,S] |
20399 | Intentionalism says either meaning just is intention, or ('moderate') meaning is successful intention [Davies,S] |
20401 | The meaning is given by the audience's best guess at the author's intentions [Davies,S] |
20397 | If we could perfectly clone the Mona Lisa, the original would still be special [Davies,S] |
20398 | Art that is multiply instanced may require at least one instance [Davies,S] |
20404 | Music isn't just sad because it makes the listener feel sad [Davies,S] |
22704 | Immorality may or may not be an artistic defect [Davies,S] |
22705 | If the depiction of evil is glorified, that is an artistic flaw [Davies,S] |
22707 | It is an artistic defect if excessive moral outrage distorts the story, and narrows our sympathies [Davies,S] |
22706 | A work which seeks approval for immorality, but alienates the audience, is a failure [Davies,S] |
20692 | Money does produce happiness, but only up to a point [Harari] |
20663 | If a group is bound by gossip, the natural size is 150 people [Harari] |
20677 | Since 1500 human population has increased fourteenfold, and consumption far more [Harari] |
20688 | People 300m tons; domesticated animals 700m tons; larger wild animals 100m tons [Harari] |
20674 | The Nazi aim was to encourage progressive evolution, and avoid degeneration [Harari] |
20679 | We stabilise societies with dogmas, either of dubious science, or of non-scientific values [Harari] |
20690 | The state fostered individualism, to break the power of family and community [Harari] |
20689 | In 1750 losing your family and community meant death [Harari] |
20681 | The sacred command of capitalism is that profits must be used to increase production [Harari] |
20682 | The main rule of capitalism is that all other goods depend on economic growth [Harari] |
20683 | The progress of capitalism depends entirely on the new discoveries and gadgets of science [Harari] |
20687 | In capitalism the rich invest, and the rest of us go shopping [Harari] |
20685 | No market is free of political bias, and markets need protection of their freedoms [Harari] |
20693 | Freedom may work against us, as individuals can choose to leave, and make fewer commitments [Harari] |
20691 | Real peace is the implausibility of war (and not just its absence) [Harari] |
20684 | Financing is increasingly through credit rather than taxes; people prefer investing to taxation [Harari] |
13304 | Learned men gain more in one day than others do in a lifetime [Posidonius] |
20675 | The more you know about history, the harder it becomes to explain [Harari] |
20676 | History teaches us that the present was not inevitable, and shows us the possibilities [Harari] |
20820 | Time is an interval of motion, or the measure of speed [Posidonius, by Stobaeus] |
20671 | In order to explain both order and evil, a single evil creator is best, but no one favours that [Harari] |
20664 | Animism is belief that every part of nature is aware and feeling, and can communicate [Harari] |
20666 | Most polytheist recognise one supreme power or law, behind the various gods [Harari] |
20667 | Polytheism is open-minded, and rarely persecutes opponents [Harari] |
20665 | Mythologies are usual contracts with the gods, exchanging devotion for control of nature [Harari] |
20669 | Dualist religions see everything as a battleground of good and evil forces [Harari] |
20670 | Dualist religions say the cosmos is a battleground, so can’t explain its order [Harari] |
20673 | Manichaeans and Gnostics: good made spirit, evil made flesh [Harari] |
20668 | Monotheism appeared in Egypt in 1350 BCE, when the god Aten was declared supreme [Harari] |