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All Ideas: All minus descriptions. From 30 Philosophers: “An idea in everyday conversation is a mental construct that describes something. It is a bit nebulous and overarching, so I use it in that manner. In the Idea of Ideas framework:
“An Idea is a mental construct that stems from impressions, describing concrete objects or abstract entities of the material world or beyond.”
Notice ideas stem from impressions, but do not originate from them. They are not direct live impressions; live impressions of the senses do not directly become ideas. Ideas are a result of recalled impressions involving cognitive processes. When a recalled impression manifests as a memory paired with interpretation or labeling, it qualifies as an idea. For instance, merely revisiting the raw sensation of anger is not an idea. But when you feel that anger and label it as bad, it evolves into an idea. When you are startled, that’s not an idea. The urge to run because you are startled, that’s an idea.”
- Empirical Ideas: Direct observations of the universe.
- Rational: Indirect ideas about empirical ideas.
- Irrational: New ideas, speculation, and the disproven.
- Rediscoveries: Forgotten, then returned to our “current” Grand Rational Framework of common knowledge.
The Ideas Timeline
Big Bang Expansion
13.8 Billion Years Ago
Verified. Empirically supported and rationally deduced.
Free Will
How predetermined are our choices?
Evolution
Our true origin story.
Cultural Transmission
What separates humans from animals.
Great Apes: Medicine Emerges
18 Million Years Ago (+/- 5 million years)
Early Stone Tools
3.3 Million BCE
Hominins
Hand Axe
1.76 Million BCE
Fire-Altered Stone Tools
790,000 BCE
Genus Homo
Oldest Surviving Spear
350,000 BCE
400,000 to 300,000 BCE
The Invention of Bread
Before 14,400 BCE
Middle East
Corn
Before 9000 BCE
Mexico
Plaster Invented
before 9000 BCE
The Domestication of Rice
circa 8000 BCE
China
Beer, Ale, Wine
circa 7000 BCE
9,000 Years Ago
Cheese
Before 5500 BCE
Poland
Man Made Glass
3500 BCE
Knowledge Framework
A network of ideas.
New Look
Philosophy
The what, why, and how of life.
Chocolate
Before 1900 BCE
Mesoamerica
Dragons: Early Dinosaur Fossils
By 1600 BCE
Oldest Known Monotheistic Religion: Atenism
1344 BCE
circa 1340 to 1320 BCE
Major Religion: Hinduism
1100 BCE (+/- 300 years)
125 Generations Ago
Ontology
The Nature of Being.
We are more than self-aware.
Holism
Nature is the master plan.
The Birth of Logic
624 BCE
Circa 624-546 BCE
Spherical Earth
600 BCE
Wu-wei or “non-action”
Go with the flow of nature.
Ziran, Authenticity, or Authentic Self
Let life unfold organically.
Unknowable Dao
We can only describe nature.
Normalcy, Normal, and Abnormal
Normal is our current experiences.
New Look
Schemas
The abstractions of life.
Non-Self or Anatman and Self or Atman
Your idea of "self" does not exist.
Nondualism and Dualism
The separation of mind and body is an illusion.
Impermanence and Flux
Change is the only constant.
Worldview
Your sub-culture and choices.
Identity
Existence before essence.
Crafting yourself from your given traits.
Anaxagoras (circa 500-428 BCE)
500 BCE
circa 450 BCE
Reflective Inquiry
A constant state of self-assessment.
Ignorance is Bliss
Strategic ignorance.
Syllogisms
Logically connect things.
Rationalism
Prioritize your ideas over reality.
Empiricism
Prioritize reality over your ideas.
Logic
Reality is organized and mathematical.
Logical Fallacies
Flaws in reasoning.
Eudaimonia
Flourish now and into the future.
Skepticism
Question your beliefs and avoid dogmatism.
Social Constructs
Shared, not natural agreements.
Epicurean Happiness Toolkit: A 4-Step Structure
New Look
Agnosticism
Don't waste time on the unknowable.
Live in the present.
Dichotomy of Pleasure
Prefer long term pleasures over short.
Allegorical Interpretation
Stories have complex meanings.
Earliest Known Magnification
65 CE
Cognitive Reframing
Emotions are judgements.
Negative Visualization
Contemplate the future.
Cognitive Distancing
Step outside your reality.
Cause and Effect
Karma
Cognitive Biases
Maya, Illusion.
Chronoception
Spacetime
Eternity
Block Theory of the Universe
New Look
Intellect
Blank slate filled with impressions
Essence and Existence
You exist, then you mold your essence.
The Five Senses of Humans
Circa 1020
New Look
Touchstone: Perception
Interpretation
Intent
Good Intent vs Good Results
Pattern Recognition
Patterns in Nature
Hourglass
1400
Printing Press Invented
1440
Germany
The Five Thieves
5 ethical guideposts
Microscope Invented = Microworld Discovered!
1590 to 1640 CE
Separation of Church and State
No government church.
Liberalism
Everyone is equal.
Modern Cosmology
1608
The Scientific Method
Empirical observations of the material world.
Relativity Principle
Jul 1632
Law
Law protects.
Modern law emerges after the Middle Ages.
Natural Rights
Life, Liberty, & Property Rights
Due Process
Protection against authority.
Emerged in the 1600s.
Infinitesimal
1638
Mind-Body Dualism
1641 - Two Substances: Body & Soul
Cartesian Dualism
Descartes Thought Experiment
New Look
Monism
God is nature, nature is everything.
Western monism emerged with Spinoza in the 1600s.
Material-Spiritual Framework
Spirituality is exploration.
New Look
Protozoa Discovered: Microbiology Founded
1674
The Invention of Calculus
5 Jul 1687
The Social Contract
Citizens consent to be governed.
Emerged about 1689.
Fourth Estate
The force of public opinion.
The fourth emerged in the 18th & 19th centuries.
Journalism
Storytelling for the people.
Modern journalism started in the early 1700s.
Transcendental Idealism
Our Ideas are Not Reality
The Eastern unknowable Dao emerged in the West in the late 1700s.
Categorical Imperative
Live by universal values.
Emerged in late 1700s.
Skeptical Empiricism
Knowledge is experience.
The Problem of Induction
Patterns might mislead.
Hume’s Fork
Life is definitions & observations.
New Look
Checks and Balances
Separation of Powers
Matured about 1748.
Black Holes Proposed
Nov 1783
Fossils: From Myth to Science
1824
The Birth of Paleontology
Doppler Effect for Sound and Light
1842
Anxiety “Angst”
Use angst to guide your life.
1843: “Fear and Trembling” by Kierkegaard.
Doppler Effect Observed for Stars
1848
Discovery: The Sumerian Flood Story
1853
Harm Principle
Cause no harm.
In "On Liberty," pub. 1859.
Nihilism
1862: Ivan Turgenev novel "Fathers and Sons"
New Look
Electromagnetic Radiation Theory
1864
Übermensch
Live Your Authentic Self
1883, 1885: From "Thus Spoke Zarathustra"
Eternal Recurrence
Live in the now.
1882/3/5: Refined in "Thus Spoke Zarathustra"
Authentic Recipe: Nietzsche’s Five-step Approach
New Look
Radiometric Dating
1905 CE
Special Relativity
Jun 1905
Consciousness
The experience of living.
New Look
First Analog Radio Transmission
24 Dec 1906
General Relativity
Nov 1915
Heidegger’s Existentialism
Confront life head on.
1927: "Being and Time"
Galaxies Discovered! Doppler Effect used to measure distance!!
1929
Electron Microscope = Nanoworld Discovered!
1931
Oort Cloud
1932
Bad Faith
Don't live in bad-faith, be authentic.
1943: "Being and Nothingness" by Sartre.
Sartre’s Existentialism
Existence precedes essence.
1943: "Being and Nothingness"
Radiocarbon Dating
1946 CE
Rediscovery: City of Catalhoyuk, circa 7100 BCE
1958
Hand Axes 1.7 Million Years Ago
1960
Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB)
20 May 1965
Rediscovery of the Library of Ebla: circa 2350 BCE
1975
Ancient Spears 350,000 Years Ago
1994
Discovery: Neanderthal Symbolic Thought
2018
Bread Making Pushed Back
2018
Black Holes Confirmed
Apr 2019
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Philosophy TL: ALL > Big Picture > Ideas > Philosophers > Publications
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