30 ideas
1597 | Thales was the first western thinker to believe the arché was intelligible [Roochnik on Thales] |
22338 | An unexamined life can be virtuous [Murdoch] |
22337 | Philosophy must keep returning to the beginning [Murdoch] |
23563 | Philosophy moves continually between elaborate theories and the obvious facts [Murdoch] |
3013 | Nothing is stronger than necessity, which rules everything [Thales, by Diog. Laertius] |
22341 | Literature is the most important aspect of culture, because it teaches understanding of living [Murdoch] |
22347 | Appreciating beauty in art or nature opens up the good life, by restricting selfishness [Murdoch] |
22348 | Ordinary human love is good evidence of transcendent goodness [Murdoch] |
22339 | Love is a central concept in morals [Murdoch] |
23865 | Morality would improve if people could pursue private interests [Weil] |
22343 | If I attend properly I will have no choices [Murdoch] |
22349 | Art trains us in the love of virtue [Murdoch] |
22340 | It is hard to learn goodness from others, because their virtues are part of their personal history [Murdoch] |
22346 | Moral reflection and experience gradually reveals unity in the moral world [Murdoch] |
22350 | Only trivial virtues can be possessed on their own [Murdoch] |
22351 | Only a philosopher might think choices create values [Murdoch] |
22342 | Kantian existentialists care greatly for reasons for action, whereas Surrealists care nothing [Murdoch] |
23866 | In oppressive societies the scope of actual control is extended by a religion of power [Weil] |
23871 | No central authority can initiate decentralisation [Weil] |
23867 | After a bloody revolution the group which already had the power comes to the fore [Weil] |
23870 | Decentralisation is only possible by co-operation between strong and weak - which is absurd [Weil] |
23863 | Only individual people of good will can achieve social progress [Weil] |
23869 | In the least evil societies people can think, control community life, and be autonomous [Weil] |
23861 | Marx showed that capitalist oppression, because of competition, is unstoppable [Weil] |
23868 | The pleasure of completing tasks motivates just as well as the whip of slavery [Weil] |
23864 | Inequality could easily be mitigated, if it were not for the struggle for power [Weil] |
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] |
22345 | Moral philosophy needs a central concept with all the traditional attributes of God [Murdoch] |
1742 | Thales said the gods know our wrong thoughts as well as our evil actions [Thales, by Diog. Laertius] |