30 ideas
1597 | Thales was the first western thinker to believe the arché was intelligible [Roochnik on Thales] |
14052 | Begin philosophy when you are young, and keep going when you are old [Epicurus] |
15118 | A successful Aristotelian 'definition' is what sciences produces after an investigation [Koslicki] |
15116 | Essences cause necessary features, and definitions describe those necessary features [Koslicki] |
15110 | An essence and what merely follow from it are distinct [Koslicki] |
15113 | Individuals are perceived, but demonstration and definition require universals [Koslicki] |
15112 | If an object exists, then its essential properties are necessary [Koslicki] |
3013 | Nothing is stronger than necessity, which rules everything [Thales, by Diog. Laertius] |
15111 | In demonstration, the explanatory order must mirror the causal order of the phenomena [Koslicki] |
15115 | In a demonstration the middle term explains, by being part of the definition [Koslicki] |
15117 | Greek uses the same word for 'cause' and 'explanation' [Koslicki] |
15114 | Discovering the Aristotelian essence of thunder will tell us why thunder occurs [Koslicki] |
14062 | Sooner follow mythology, than accept the 'fate' of natural philosophers [Epicurus] |
1837 | We should not refer things to irresponsible necessity, but either to fortune or to our own will [Epicurus] |
1836 | Prudence is more valuable than philosophy, because it avoids confusions of the soul [Epicurus] |
14061 | Our own choices are autonomous, and the basis for praise and blame [Epicurus] |
14053 | It is absurd to fear the pain of death when you are not even facing it [Epicurus] |
14055 | The wisdom that produces a good life also produces a good death [Epicurus] |
14054 | Fearing death is absurd, because we are not present when it occurs [Epicurus] |
14058 | Pleasure is the goal, but as lack of pain and calm mind, not as depraved or greedy pleasure [Epicurus] |
1833 | Pleasure is the first good in life [Epicurus] |
14057 | All pleasures are good, but it is not always right to choose them [Epicurus] |
14063 | Sooner a good decision going wrong, than a bad one turning out for the good [Epicurus] |
14059 | The best life is not sensuality, but rational choice and healthy opinion [Epicurus] |
1835 | True pleasure is not debauchery, but freedom from physical and mental pain [Epicurus] |
14056 | We only need pleasure when we have the pain of desire [Epicurus] |
14060 | Prudence is the greatest good, and more valuable than philosophy, because it produces virtue [Epicurus] |
1494 | Thales said water is the first principle, perhaps from observing that food is moist [Thales, by Aristotle] |
1713 | Thales must have thought soul causes movement, since he thought magnets have soul [Thales, by Aristotle] |
1742 | Thales said the gods know our wrong thoughts as well as our evil actions [Thales, by Diog. Laertius] |