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Abraham Kaplan Quotes

Philosopher

Abraham Kaplan, an American philosopher, was born on June 11, 1918, and passed away on June 19, 1993. He is known for his contributions to critical theory, phenomenology, and philosophy of language.

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All Ifs Needs Boys Community Encounters Giving Hammers Problem Scientist Social

Famous Abraham Kaplan Quotes

“In addition to the social pressures from the scientific community there is also at work a very human trait of individual scientist. I call it the law of the instrument , and it may be formulated as follows: Give a small boy a hammer, and he will find that everything he encounters needs pounding. It comes as no particular surprise to discover that a scientist formulates problems in a way which requires for their solution just those techniques in which he himself is especially skilled.”

Source: The Conduct of Inquiry: Methodology for Behavioural Science

“A philosophy which speaks, even indirectly, only to philosophers is no philosophy at all; and I think the same is true if it speaks only to scientists, or only to jurists, or priests, or any other special class.”

Ifs Thinking Philosophy Speak Class Special Scientist Philosopher Priests Jurists

Author:Abraham Kaplan

“We are forever asking Nature whether it has stopped beating its wife.”

Forever Wife Asking

Author:Abraham Kaplan

“There is nothing more inspiring than having a mind unfold before you. Let people teach who have a calling. It is never just a job.”

People Mind Jobs Teach Calling

Author:Abraham Kaplan

“Give a small boy a hammer and he will find that everything he encounters needs pounding.”

Needs Giving Children Boys Humorous Parenting Encounters Hammers

Book:The conduct of inquiry

Source: The conduct of inquiry

“Every discipline develops standards of professional competence to which its workers are subject... Every scientific community is a society in the small, so to speak, with its own agencies of social control.”

Speak Social Community Subjects Discipline Standards Workers Agency Competence Social Control Professional Competence

Book:The conduct of inquiry

Source: The conduct of inquiry

“The price of training is always a certain trained incapacity: the more we know how to do something, the harder it is to learn to do it differently.”

Knows Certain Know How Training Harder Incapacity

Book:The conduct of inquiry

Source: The conduct of inquiry

“Experience is of particulars only.”

Book:The conduct of inquiry

Source: The conduct of inquiry

“To get at the meaning of a statement the logical positivist asks, "What would the world be like if it were true?" The operationist asks, "What would we have to do to come to believe it?" For the pragmatist the question is, "What would we do if did believe it?"”

Ifs World Believe Asks Statements Logical Pragmatists

Author:Abraham Kaplan

“We are caught up in a paradox, one which might be called the paradox of conceptualization. The proper concepts are needed to formulate a good theory, but we need a good theory to arrive at the proper concepts.”

Needs Might Theory Needed Concepts Caught Paradox Caught Up Conceptualization

Book:The conduct of inquiry

Source: The conduct of inquiry

“Mathematics is not yet capable of coping with the naïveté of the mathematician himself.”

Capable Mathematics Mathematical Mathematician Coping Vets

Author:Abraham Kaplan

“A problem is something you can do something about. If you can't do something about it, then it's not a problem, it's a predicament. That means it's something that must be coped with, endured.”

Ifs Mean Problem Can Do Can Do Something Predicaments

Author:Abraham Kaplan

About the Author

Born: June 11, 1918
Died: June 19, 1993
Known for: Philosopher
Quotes: 12

Books & Sources

The conduct of inquiryRelated source material

The Conduct of Inquiry: Methodology for Behavioural ScienceRelated source material

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