42 ideas
| 1597 | Thales was the first western thinker to believe the arché was intelligible [Roochnik on Thales] |
| 23250 | Desired responsible actions result either from rational or from irrational desire [Aristotle] |
| 5847 | It is the role of dialectic to survey syllogisms [Aristotle] |
| 3013 | Nothing is stronger than necessity, which rules everything [Thales, by Diog. Laertius] |
| 13047 | It is knowing 'why' that gives scientific understanding, not knowing 'that' [Salmon] |
| 13065 | Understanding is an extremely vague concept [Salmon] |
| 13054 | Correlations can provide predictions, but only causes can give explanations [Salmon] |
| 5862 | A single counterexample is enough to prove that a truth is not necessary [Aristotle] |
| 13067 | For the instrumentalists there are no scientific explanations [Salmon] |
| 5854 | Nobody fears a disease which nobody has yet caught [Aristotle] |
| 13055 | Good induction needs 'total evidence' - the absence at the time of any undermining evidence [Salmon] |
| 13046 | Scientific explanation is not reducing the unfamiliar to the familiar [Salmon] |
| 13058 | Why-questions can seek evidence as well as explanation [Salmon] |
| 13050 | The 'inferential' conception is that all scientific explanations are arguments [Salmon] |
| 13059 | Ontic explanations can be facts, or reports of facts [Salmon] |
| 13064 | The three basic conceptions of scientific explanation are modal, epistemic, and ontic [Salmon] |
| 13049 | We must distinguish true laws because they (unlike accidental generalizations) explain things [Salmon] |
| 13051 | Deductive-nomological explanations will predict, and their predictions will explain [Salmon] |
| 13053 | A law is not enough for explanation - we need information about what makes a difference [Salmon] |
| 13061 | Flagpoles explain shadows, and not vice versa, because of temporal ordering [Salmon] |
| 13045 | Explanation at the quantum level will probably be by entirely new mechanisms [Salmon] |
| 13062 | Does an item have a function the first time it occurs? [Salmon] |
| 13063 | Explanations reveal the mechanisms which produce the facts [Salmon] |
| 13060 | Can events whose probabilities are low be explained? [Salmon] |
| 13056 | Statistical explanation needs relevance, not high probability [Salmon] |
| 13057 | Think of probabilities in terms of propensities rather than frequencies [Salmon] |
| 5849 | Rhetoric is a political offshoot of dialectic and ethics [Aristotle] |
| 5851 | Pentathletes look the most beautiful, because they combine speed and strength [Aristotle] |
| 5858 | Men are physically prime at thirty-five, and mentally prime at forty-nine [Aristotle] |
| 5855 | We all feel universal right and wrong, independent of any community or contracts [Aristotle] |
| 5850 | Happiness is composed of a catalogue of internal and external benefits [Aristotle] |
| 5856 | Self-interest is a relative good, but nobility an absolute good [Aristotle] |
| 5848 | All good things can be misused, except virtue [Aristotle] |
| 5853 | The best virtues are the most useful to others [Aristotle] |
| 5857 | The young feel pity from philanthropy, but the old from self-concern [Aristotle] |
| 5859 | Rich people are mindlessly happy [Aristotle] |
| 5852 | The four constitutions are democracy (freedom), oligarchy (wealth), aristocracy (custom), tyranny (security) [Aristotle] |
| 1660 | It is noble to avenge oneself on one's enemies, and not come to terms with them [Aristotle] |
| 1494 | Thales said water is the first principle, perhaps from observing that food is moist [Thales, by Aristotle] |
| 5861 | People assume events cause what follows them [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] |