Order can arise from chaos without anyone or anything directing the process when unstable combinations of atoms perish and others persist. In the 17th century, Descartes applied this insight to cosmology, and long before Darwin presented his more rigorous ideas… — Catherine Wilson Copy Share Image
Aristotle saw nature as intelligent and purposive, whereas for the Epicureans, and the 17th century 'mechanical' philosophers, there is no intentionality in nature except where there are animal minds and bodies. — Catherine Wilson Copy Share Image
A moral rule is essentially 'advantage-reducing.' It prohibits you doing something you could do that would serve your interests at someone else's expense. — Catherine Wilson Copy Share Image
Atomism had no absolute 'above' and 'below' and no such rulers, so favoured the undersranding of justice as an agreement amongst equals. — Catherine Wilson Copy Share Image
We have to gamble, and sometimes lose as George Ainslie argues; this keeps the appetite for life sharp. — Catherine Wilson Copy Share Image
There is no single test or formula for producing moral progress anymore than there is for generating scientific truths. It is a process involving… — Catherine Wilson Copy Share Image
Epicurus thought that friendship and conviviality, which require present attention rather than being in an alcoholic stupor, as well as trying to understand and… — Catherine Wilson Copy Share Image
For seventeenth-century astronomers, the Epicurean doctrine of multiple worlds separated by void space was seen to fit with the new Copernican system in which… — Catherine Wilson Copy Share Image
Leibniz accepted the argument that there must be indestructible simple entities if there is to be a complex world, but Epicurean morals and politics… — Catherine Wilson Copy Share Image
I had the idea that there were secret laws of the universe that could explain the baffling human reality around me, and that philosophers… — Catherine Wilson Copy Share Image
The higher the coefficient of inequality (Gini coefficient) in a society, the worse things tend to be for those at the bottom. — Catherine Wilson Copy Share Image
We call 'Slavery is wrong' a moral truth because there is a specific history of theoretical investigation of a particular kind of slavery. We… — Catherine Wilson Copy Share Image
Moral theory develops from the divine command theory of medieval Christian philosophy, mixed up with a bit of ancient pagan virtue theory, to the… — Catherine Wilson Copy Share Image
Human courtship has some wild extremes. At one end of the spectrum, there is harassment, pestering, blackmail, and an abuse of institutional power, which… — Catherine Wilson Copy Share Image
In the old systems, hierarchies emanate power from above to below through forms of line management and are ideologically supported by cosmologies and theologies… — Catherine Wilson Copy Share Image
Even if you just want to make a simple clothing item for yourself or go for a long hike in the forest - something… — Catherine Wilson Copy Share Image
People should be able to develop their abilities and interests and have access to such goods as friendship, artistry, and nature and a political… — Catherine Wilson Copy Share Image
