Quotessence
Home / Authors / Allen W. Wood
Allen W. Wood

Allen W. Wood Quotes

Professor

Filter quotes by topic

AllThinkingMoralIfsHumansWayReasonFormTheoryPhilosophyRationalCapitalismPeopleActionDoeFactsHumanityPhilosopherProblemEndsSelf

Famous Allen W. Wood Quotes

“There is a very common, though also very silly, picture of Kant according to which as empirical beings we are not free at all, and we are free only as noumenal jellyfish floating about in an intelligible sea above the heavens, outside any context in which our supposedly "free" choices could have any conceivable human meaning or significance. Part of the problem here is that Kant faces up honestly to the fact that how freedom is possible is a deep philosophical problem to which there is no solution we can rationally comprehend.”

HumansFactsProblemFacesChoicesHeavenCommonSeaSolutionsPhilosophicalHonestlySillySignificanceFloatingFree ChoiceJellyfishDeep Philosophical
Author:Allen W. Wood
Create image

“I think if there were to be a solution to the problem of free will, it would have to be a compatibilist one. Unfortunately, from that it does not follow that there is such a solution. Many philosophers find this an unwelcome message, and as often happens in philosophy, they punish the messenger by ascribing to him an entirely imaginary but untenable position.”

IfsThinkingDoePhilosophyProblemHappensPositionMessagesSolutionsPhilosopherFree WillImaginaryMessengersUnwelcome
Author:Allen W. Wood
Create image

“When people think that moral problems can be solved by some simple strategy of calculation, that sets them up for ghastly overreaching. They think they can turn everything into a "science" the way mechanics was turned into a science in the seventeeth century. They want to turn everything over to technocrats and social engineers. They become shortsighted or simplistic about their ends, and they disastrously overestimate their ability to acquire the information they need to make the needed calculations.”

PeopleThinkingWayWantNeedsEndsProblemTurnsSocialSimpleAbilityMoralCenturyInformationNeededStrategyAcquireEngineersMechanicCalculationsGhastlyOverestimateOverreaching
Author:Allen W. Wood
Create image

“As with many metaphysical and religious questions, Kant thinks they lie beyond our power to answer them. If you can't stand the frustration involved in accepting this, and insist on finding some more stable position which affords you peace of mind and intellectual self-complacency, then you will find Kant's position "problematic" in the sense that you can't bring yourself to accept it. You may try to kid yourself into accepting either some naturalistic deflationary answer to the problem or some dishonest supernaturalist answer.”

IfsThinkingTryingMindMaySelfProblemKidsLyingReligiousAnswersAcceptingPositionInvolvedFindingsIntellectualFrustrationPeace Of MindStableMetaphysicalComplacency
Author:Allen W. Wood
Create image

“Marx's own illusion was to think that the working class movement, which he devoted his life to creating and strengthening, would both be socially and politically successful in the industrial nations of Western Europe, and that it would develop an entirely new way of human social life that would retain and even enhance the productive benefits of capitalism while overcoming the inhumanity and exploitation of capitalist social relations. Marx himself had no solutions to these problems. His object of study was capitalism itself.”

ThinkingWayHumansProblemNationsSocialClassStudySuccessfulMovementObjectsBenefitsCreatingSolutionsIllusionCapitalismEuropeOvercomingRelationWesternProductiveCapitalistDevotedNew WaysExploitationWorking ClassSocial LifeStrengtheningInhumanityWestern EuropeSocial Relations
Author:Allen W. Wood
Create image