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Quote by Philippa Foot

“You ask a philosopher a question and after he or she has talked for a bit, you don't understand your question any more.”

Quote by Philippa Foot

Author

Philippa Foot was a British philosopher renowned for her contributions to ethics, particularly in the area of deontological ethics. She is most famous for her work on the concept of 'moral luck' and her defense of the principle of 'categorical imperatives'. Foot's philosophical career spanned several decades, during which she taught at some of the most esteemed universities in the United Kingdom. more

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“While there is such a thing as correctness in ethics, in interpretation, in mathematics, the way to understand that is not by trying to model it on the ways in which we get things right in physics.”

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Author:Hilary Putnam

“One can defend common sense against the attacks of philosophers only by solving their puzzles, i.e., by curing them of the temptation to attack common sense.”

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Author:Ludwig Wittgenstein

“...if there is a widely shared concept of intentional action... a philosophical analysis of intentional action that is wholly unconstrained by that concept runs the risk of having nothing more than a philosophical fiction as its subject matter.”

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Author:Alfred Mele

“Some philosophers are drawn to the subject [of philosophy] via their interest in the nature and structure of the world external to us. Others are drawn to it by an interest in the capacities that make humans distinctive in the world. I am a philosopher of the latter sort. My work thus far has been clustered around the nexus of knowledge, communication, and human action.”

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Author:Jason Stanley

“Now I do not myself share that superstitious reverence for the beliefs of common sense which many contemporary philosophers profess. But I think that we must start from them, and that we ought to depart from them only when we find good reason to do so.”

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Author:C. D. Broad

“As so often happens in philosophy, clever people accept a false general principle on a priori grounds and then devote endless labour and ingenuity to explaining away plain facts which obviously conflict with it.”

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Author:C. D. Broad

“Reason is universal because no attempted challenge to its results can avoid appealing to reason in the end-by claiming, for example, that what was presented as an argument is really a rationalization. This can undermine our confidence in the original method or practice only by giving us reasons to believe something else, so that finally we have to think about the arguments to make up our minds.”

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Book:Other Minds: Critical Essays 1969-1994

Source: Other Minds: Critical Essays 1969-1994

“When a man is proud because he can understand and explain the writings of Chrysippus, say to yourself, 'if Chrysippus had not written obscurely, this man would have had nothing to be proud of.'”

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Book:The Enchiridion, or Handbook: With A Selection from the Discourses of Epictetus

Source: The Enchiridion, or Handbook: With A Selection from the Discourses of Epictetus

“If, like Hume, I had all manner of adornment in my power, I would still have reservations about using them. It is true that some readers will be scared off by dryness. But isn't it necessary to scare off some if in their case the matter would end up in bad hands?”

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Book:Notes and Fragments

Source: Notes and Fragments

“...one can hardly deny that mankind has a common store of thoughts which is transmitted from one generation to another.”

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Book:Translations from the Philosophical Writings of Gottlob Frege

Source: Translations from the Philosophical Writings of Gottlob Frege