28 ideas
7508 | Good reductionism connects fields of knowledge, but doesn't replace one with another [Pinker] |
7510 | Connectionists say the mind is a general purpose learning device [Pinker] |
7513 | Is memory stored in protein sequences, neurons, synapses, or synapse-strengths? [Pinker] |
7509 | Roundworms live successfully with 302 neurons, so human freedom comes from our trillions [Pinker] |
7511 | Neural networks can generalise their training, e.g. truths about tigers apply mostly to lions [Pinker] |
7512 | There are five types of reasoning that seem beyond connectionist systems [Pinker, by PG] |
7505 | Many think that accepting human nature is to accept innumerable evils [Pinker] |
7337 | In Mosaic legal theory, crimes are sins and sins are crimes [Johnson,P] |
7339 | Because human life is what is sacred, Mosaic law has no death penalty for property violations [Johnson,P] |
7353 | The Pharisees undermined slavery, by giving slaves responsibility and status in law courts [Johnson,P] |
7340 | Mosaic law was the first to embody the rule of law, and equality before the law [Johnson,P] |
7338 | Man's life is sacred, because it is made in God's image [Johnson,P] |
7516 | In 1828, the stuff of life was shown to be ordinary chemistry, not a magic gel [Pinker] |
7515 | All the evidence says evolution is cruel and wasteful, not intelligent [Pinker] |
7514 | Intelligent Design says that every unexplained phenomenon must be design, by default [Pinker] |
7348 | The Jews sharply distinguish human and divine, but the Greeks pull them closer together [Johnson,P] |
7336 | A key moment is the idea of a single moral God, who imposes his morality on humanity [Johnson,P] |
7341 | Sampson illustrates the idea that religious heroes often begin as outlaws and semi-criminals [Johnson,P] |
7342 | Isaiah moved Israelite religion away from the local, onto a more universal plane [Johnson,P] |
7355 | The Torah pre-existed creation, and was its blueprint [Johnson,P] |
7344 | Judaism involves circumcision, Sabbath, Passover, Pentecost, Tabernacles, New Year, and Atonement [Johnson,P] |
7345 | In exile the Jews became a nomocracy [Johnson,P] |
7347 | Zoroastrians believed in one eternal beneficent being, Creator through the holy spirit [Johnson,P] |
16713 | Philosophers are the forefathers of heretics [Tertullian] |
6610 | I believe because it is absurd [Tertullian] |
7349 | Immortality based on judgement of merit was developed by the Egyptians (not the Jews) [Johnson,P] |
7354 | The main doctrine of the Pharisees was belief in resurrection and the afterlife [Johnson,P] |
7356 | Pious Jews saw heaven as a vast library [Johnson,P] |