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Quote by Philip Kitcher

“Experiments work when, and only when, they call into action cognitive capacities that might reliably deliver the conclusions drawn.”

Quote by Philip Kitcher

Author

Philip Kitcher, born on February 20, 1947, is a philosopher, writer, and academic. His research interests are primarily in the fields of philosophy of science, epistemology, and moral philosophy. more

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“For a pragmatist like me, the important issues concern the words we might deploy to achieve our purposes, rather than the language we actually use.”

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“If the intuition-mongering were abandoned, would that be the end of philosophy? It would be the end of a certain style of philosophy - a style that has cut philosophy off, not only from the humanities but from every other branch of inquiry and culture.”

Ifs Ends Philosophy Would Be Certain Humanity Culture Cutting Style Intuition Branches Abandoned Inquiry

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“In my view, we ought to replace the notion of analytic philosophy by that of synthetic philosophy.”

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“Philosophers ought to aspire to know lots of different things and to forge useful synthetic perspectives.”

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“Ethical inquiry has always been motivated by the aim of improving human conduct. It doesn't follow from that that the goal is to produce a complete rule book that would be applicable to all cases.”

Humans Book Would Be Goal Cases Produce Aim Ethical Motivated Improving Inquiry

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“I'm very suspicious of the idea of a "final theory" in natural science, and the thought of a complete system of ethical rules seems even more dubious.”

Ideas Seems Natural Theory Finals Ethical Suspicious Natural Science Dubious

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“A different vision of ethics is that of a collection of resources people can use to act better. The resources might be firm rules that could always be relied on. Or they might be ideals that could often be followed without thinking but that sometimes conflicted with one another.”

People Thinking Different Sometimes Use Might Vision Ethics Resources Ideals Firm Collections Often Is

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“One goal of ethical inquiry might be to uncover strategies available for use when values conflict or when rules are incomplete.”

Use Might Values Goal Conflict Strategy Available Ethical Inquiry Incomplete

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“My ethical naturalism sees us as facing the predicament of being social animals without evolved adaptations that make social life easy. The fundamental problem that sparks the ethical project lies in our limited responsiveness to one another. The only way we have to address that problem is through a representative, informed, and engaged conversation.”

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“I take the ethical truths to be the stable elements that emerge out of ethical progress and that are retained under further ethical progress.”

Progress Elements Ethical Stable

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