Quotessence
Home / Authors / Rebecca Goldstein
Rebecca Goldstein

Rebecca Goldstein Quotes

Novelist

Filter quotes by topic

AllPhilosophyPeopleThinkingIfsPhilosopherAnswersWayArgumentChildrenMatterPhilosophicalProgressMoralPlatoShouldFeelsGreekHumansKindReality

Famous Rebecca Goldstein Quotes

“So Socrates was a kind of gadfly. He was a sort of philosophical urban gorilla hanging around in the middle of Athens, asking these peculiar questions of everybody - important people, young men, slaves - questions that had to do with ultimately what's the life that's worth living. And Plato was one of the young men who hung around him, a very aristocratic young man, came from a very old, important family.”

PeopleMenKindImportantYoungMiddlePhilosophicalAskingSlaveYoung ManPeculiarHungUrbanPlatoWorth LivingAthensGorillasHanging AroundAristocraticGadflies
Author:Rebecca Goldstein
Create image

“I think one reason is that philosophers are more insecure to speak accessibly because non-philosophers are skeptical that philosophers have any special expertise. After all, all people - not just philosophers - have attitudes and points of view on various philosophical questions, and they rather resent being told that there are professionals who can think about these things better.”

PeopleThinkingReasonSpeakViewsAttitudeSpecialPhilosophicalPhilosopherVariousPoint Of ViewInsecureSkepticalExpertiseResentPhilosophical Questions
Author:Rebecca Goldstein
Create image

“If there is such a thing as philosophical progress, then why - unlike scientific progress - is it so invisible? Philosophical progress is invisible because it is incorporated into our points of view. What was torturously secured by complex argument comes widely shared intuition, so obvious that we forget its provenance.”

IfsForgetViewsProgressArgumentPhilosophicalComplexesObviousIntuitionPoint Of ViewInvisibleForget ItSecuredScientific Progress
Author:Rebecca Goldstein
Create image

“One of the peculiar features of philosophical questions is how eager people are to offer solutions that miss the point of the questions. Sometimes these failed solutions are scientific, and sometimes they are religious, and sometimes they are based on what is called plain common sense.”

PeopleSometimesReligiousCommonMissingOffersSolutionsPhilosophicalCommon SenseFeaturesPeculiarPhilosophical Questions
Book:Plato at the Googleplex: Why Philosophy Won't Go Away
Create image