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Quote by Willard Van Orman Quine

Work

Quiddities: an intermittently philosophical dictionary

This book presents a collection of entries that delve into various philosophical ideas, offering readers an eclectic mix of insights and reflections on the nature of existence, knowledge, and reality. more

Author

Willard Van Orman Quine
Willard Van Orman Quine

Willard Van Orman Quine was an American philosopher known for his work in logic, philosophy of science, and philosophy of language. He is considered one of the leading analytic philosophers of the 20th century. more

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“Maybe philosophical problems are hard not because they are divine or irreducible or meaningless or workaday science, but because the mind of Homo sapiens lacks the cognitive equipment to solve them. We are organisms, not angels, and our minds are organs, not pipelines to the truth. Our minds evolved by natural selection to solve problems that were life-and-death matters to our ancestors, not to commune with correctness ot to answer any question we are capable of asking.”

“The appearance of strength is all about you. It would seem to last forever. However... the rotten tree-trunk, until the very moment when the storm-blast breaks it in two, has all the appearance of might it ever had. The storm-blast whistles through the branches of the Empire even now. Listen... and you will hear the creaking.”

“The theoretical fruits of deliberate oversimplification through idealization are not to be denied... Reality in all its messy particularity is too complicated to theorize about, taken straight. The issue is, rather (since every idealization is a strategic choice), which idealizations might really shed some light... which will just land us... diverting fairy tales.”

“Racial profiling punishes innocent individuals for the past actions of those who look and sound like them. It misdirects crucial resources and undercuts the trust needed between law enforcement and the communities they serve. It has no place in our national discourse, and no place in our nation's police departments.”