Best Philosopher Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings Page 21

“Philosophers do need to have intuitions of various specific sorts: ethical, metaphysical, etc., depending on their targeted subject matter. And they must make intuition reports, as they record the contents of their intuitions. But they need not go into whether an intuition has been enjoyed.”

Needs Has Beens Matter Records Subjects Philosopher Various Intuition Enjoyed Reports Etc Ethical Metaphysical Subject Matter

Author:Ernest Sosa

“It would be fun too to put some of the great philosophers and political scientists of the past couple centuries into a time machine, have them look at the world today, and see what they think. Imagine Schumpeter, Malthus, Hobbes, Nietzsche, Marx, and more! That would be good fun.”

Thinking World Looks Would Be Today Past Political Fun Imagine Century Couple Machines Scientist Philosopher Be Good World Today Time Machine Hobbes Good Fun Great Philosophers Malthus

Author:Scott D. Anthony

“It is often difficult to know about one's own era which philosophers in it will be remembered as the most important ones, but I think it is already clear that John Rawls is the greatest moral philosopher of the twentieth century.”

Thinking Knows Important Difficult Moral Clear Century Philosopher Eras Remembered Twentieth Century

Author:Allen W. Wood

“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.”

Ifs Thinking Doe Philosophy Problem Happens Position Messages Solutions Philosopher Free Will Imaginary Messengers Unwelcome

Author:Allen W. Wood

“Sometimes when a philosopher's views are widely rejected by the world, the fault is not with the philosopher but with the world.”

World Sometimes Views Faults Philosopher Rejected

Author:Allen W. Wood

“I think that both Mill and Sidgwick are great and admirable philosophers, from whom we still have a lot to learn. I would not favor a form of Kantianism (if there is such a form) that treats Mill's or Sidgwick's moral philosophy with disrespect.”

Ifs Thinking Stills Philosophy Form Moral Treats Philosopher Favors Admirable Disrespect Mills Moral Philosophy

Author:Allen W. Wood

“It is rational to choose the right means to your ends to develop very elegant abstract formal theories of rational choice, and then turn these into what look like moral theories. Philosophers tend to be ravished by the formal beauty of such theories, and they don't pay much attention to the fact that our human limitations make them pretty useless in practice, while the simple point about instrumental reasoning is too shallow to be of much real moral interest.”

Humans Looks Mean Real Ends Facts Turns Choices Interest Simple Pay Attention Moral Practice Theory Philosopher Rational Limitation Useless Abstract Reasoning Formal Shallow Elegant

Author:Allen W. Wood

“Kant can provide, and has provided, a good model for philosophers to think about the relation of metaphysics to science and scientific methodology.”

Thinking Models Relation Philosopher Metaphysics Methodology

Author:Allen W. Wood

“What Smith and Marx have in common is that they were both philosophers of great vision and perceptiveness, deep humanity, and a sense of social reality that has been lost in the abstractly formalistic economic theories that have dominated the field since the last third of the nineteenth century.”

Has Beens Reality Lasts Humanity Lost Social Common Vision Economic Century Fields Theory Thirds Philosopher Nineteenth Century Great Vision Economic Theory

Author:Allen W. Wood

“In my acquaintance with John Rawls, I found him to be a simple and honest man, who just by chance also happened to be the greatest moral philosopher of the twentieth century. I would like to think that I could emulate at least his modesty - his refusal to exaggerate his perception of himself and his place in the larger scheme of things - even if my work never compares with his in its importance.”

Ifs Thinking Men Found Chance Simple Moral Happened Century Honest Perception Importance Philosopher Compare Modesty Schemes Acquaintance Twentieth Century Refusal Honest Man Emulate

Author:Allen W. Wood

“As Kant says, the contribution of any common laborer would be greater than that of the greatest philosopher unless the philosopher makes some contribution to establishing the rights of humanity.”

Would Be Humanity Common Greater Rights Philosopher Contribution Laborers

Author:Allen W. Wood

“When Marx, in the Theses on Feuerbach, says that only idealism up to now has understood the active side of material Praxis, what he says is more true of Fichte than of any other philosopher in the classical German tradition.”

Sides Materials Understood Tradition Philosopher Active Idealism Thesis Praxis

Author:Allen W. Wood

“I could identify for virtually every important figure in the history of modern continental philosophy an idea (or more than one) absolutely central to that philosopher's thought, whose original author was Fichte.”

Important Ideas Philosophy Modern Figures Originals Philosopher Continental

Author:Allen W. Wood

“I can easily teach people to be gardeners, and from them, once they know how to garden, you'll get a philosopher.”

People Knows I Can Teach Know How Garden Philosopher Gardener

Author:Bill Mollison

“I could never teach people to be philosophers - and if I did, you could never make a gardener out of them.”

People Ifs Teach Philosopher Gardener

Author:Bill Mollison

“When you get deep ecologists who are philosophers, and they drive cars and take newspapers and don't grow their own vegetables, in fact they're not deep ecologists - they're my enemies.”

Facts Grows Enemy Car Philosopher Newspapers Vegetables

Author:Bill Mollison

“I had the idea that there were secret laws of the universe that could explain the baffling human reality around me, and that philosophers maybe had the key to them.”

Humans Ideas Reality Law Universe Secret Keys Philosopher

Author:Catherine Wilson

“Oddly, since by now I've written quite a lot on early modern philosophers, I didn't care for the history of philosophy, which I thought dull and obscure, until I got a minor job writing articles for a children's encyclopedia in the history of science and began to make connections between science and philosophy.”

Writing Children Philosophy Care Jobs Written Modern Connections Philosopher Dull Articles Minors Obscure Encyclopedia History Of Science Science And Philosophy

Author:Catherine Wilson

“Aristotle saw nature as intelligent and purposive, whereas for the Epicureans, and the 17th century 'mechanical' philosophers, there is no intentionality in nature except where there are animal minds and bodies.”

Mind Body Animal Saws Century Intelligent Philosopher Mind And Body Intentionality 17th Century Epicurean

Author:Catherine Wilson

“I have to say that some philosophers such as the late Bernard Williams, and I would include myself in this group, would say that tranquillity is overrated as the goal of life.”

Goal Groups Late Philosopher Life Goal Overrated Tranquillity

Author:Catherine Wilson

“We use and need to use both systems in complex political societies, and we oscillate in our commitments, because both oligarchy and rule by the will of masses have their bad points, as the ancient philosophers all knew.”

Needs Use Political Mass Commitment Complexes Ancient Philosopher Oligarchy

Author:Catherine Wilson

“People formerly seemed unable to evaluate a woman's c.v. or to accept a range of personal and communicative styles from the exuberant and confident to the sober and pedantic. It's much better than it was, and a number of male philosophers have been extraordinarily helpful in detecting and criticising everyday sexism in the profession.”

People Has Beens Numbers Accepting Style Males Everyday Philosopher Profession Range Helpful Sexism Sober Evaluate Pedantic

Author:Catherine Wilson

“I'm not a philosopher. I am the next thing to a jock, which is a novelist.”

Next Philosopher Novelists Jocks

Author:Frederick Busch

“Even philosophers will praise war as ennobling mankind, forgetting the Greek who said: 'War is bad in that it begets more evil than it kills.'”

Said War Evil Peace Forget Mankind Praise Philosopher Greek Anti War Antiwar Begets

Book:Inevitable peace

Source: Inevitable peace

“All the interests of my reason, speculative as well as practical, combine in the three following questions: 1. What can I know? 2. What ought I to do? 3. What may I hope?”

Knows Wells May Reason Philosophy Three Interest Ought Philosopher Following Practicals Individualism Categorical Imperative

Book:Immanuel Kant's Critique Of Pure Reason

Source: Immanuel Kant's Critique Of Pure Reason

“I call myself an experimental philosopher which is as ambiguous a term as comprehensive anticipatory design scientist.”

Term Design Scientist Philosopher Comprehensive Ambiguous

Author:Jonathon Keats

“I don't really know what that job [experimental philosopher] entails.”

Knows Jobs Philosopher

Author:Jonathon Keats

“Methodological naturalism gives advice to scientists about what they should include in their theories. There is a second type of methodological naturalism that gives advice to philosophers, which I call "methodological naturalismp." It says that the methods that philosophers should use in assessing philosophical theories are limited to the methods that scientists ought to use in assessing scientific theories.”

Giving Should Use Advice Theory Type Ought Scientist Philosophical Method Philosopher Call Me Naturalism Scientific Theory Assessing

Author:Elliott Sober

“Unfortunately, philosophers of science usually regard scientific realism and scientific anti-realism as monistic doctrines. The assumption is that there is one goal of all scientific inference - finding propositions that are true, or finding propositions that are predictively accurate. In fact, there are multiple goals. Sometimes realism is the right interpretation of a scientific problem, while at other times instrumentalism is.”

Sometimes Facts Problem Goal Findings Regard Philosopher Doctrine Assumption Interpretation Accurate Realism Multiple Propositions Inference

Author:Elliott Sober

“Philosophers of biology generally recognize that evolutionary fitness (roughly, an organism's ability to survive and reproduce in its environment) is multiply realizable.”

Ability Environment Philosopher Biology Organisms

Author:Elliott Sober

“The upshot is that most philosophers of biology now hold that biological properties supervene on physical properties (where supervenience is taken to include some kind of "in virtue of" relation), and that fitness and other biological properties are not identical with physical properties.”

Kind Virtue Taken Relation Property Philosopher Biology Identical

Author:Elliott Sober

“Most "process" philosophy is historicist (e.g., Hegel) and not concerned with "deep time." Maybe Whitehead is an exception. He may be a really important philosopher for all I know. I've never been able to read him.”

Knows May Important Philosophy Able Process Concerned Philosopher Exception Hegel

Author:Dale Jamieson

“Even those who specialize in the history of philosophy often ignore the political and cultural context, and the natural world in which their philosophers were philosophizing. This has consequences both trivial and important. If you systematically read the last fifty years of the major journals in our discipline you would be amazed at the amount of redundancy. Most of this is unacknowledged because most of us know so little about the history of our discipline and even the subfields in which we work.”

Ifs Knows World Years Littles Important Philosophy Would Be Lasts Political Natural Amount Discipline Majors Consequence Philosopher Fifty Amazed Journal Natural World Redundancy

Author:Dale Jamieson

“Sometimes I say philosophers should be at the table because they're the only people who know that they're not going to walk away with big money to support their research or to fund their crackpot solutions.”

People Knows Should Sometimes Bigs Walks Support Solutions Research Tables Philosopher Fund Crackpots

Author:Dale Jamieson

“Philosophers are smart, analytical, and skeptical. For these reasons they are relatively unbiased.”

Reason Smart Philosopher Skeptical Unbiased

Author:Dale Jamieson

“Some philosophers have begun writing sympathetically about predator elimination as a way of reducing animal suffering. From an environmental perspective this is somewhere between naïve and potentially disastrous.”

Way Writing Suffering Animal Perspective Environmental Philosopher Reducing Predator Elimination Animal Suffering

Author:Dale Jamieson

“Philosophers (and probably most intellectuals) are more interested in pursuing what they see as the logical implications of their theories than they are in paying attention to the shlumpy diversity of defensible values that people actually have, and then trying to figure out how these might be negotiated in the life of an agent or community.”

People Trying Might Values Community Attention Figures Theory Diversity Philosopher Agents Pay Attention Logical Implications

Author:Dale Jamieson

“Philosophers tend to radically underestimate the distance between abstract principles (such as "reduce suffering") and what it might actually mean for people to act on them.”

People Mean Might Suffering Principles Distance Philosopher Abstract Underestimate

Author:Dale Jamieson

“Philosophers are often actively disinterested in what happens between the cup and the lips (after all, that's "non-ideal theory").”

Happens Theory Ideals Lips Philosopher Cups Disinterested

Author:Dale Jamieson

“A common rhetorical strategy of politicians and others is to frame their opponents' views in the worst possible light, tacitly suggesting that all versions of the view must be committed to some particularly deplorable conclusion. Philosophers are not immune to this way of arguing.”

Way Light Views Common Worst Politician Strategy Philosopher Committed Arguing Versions Conclusion Opponents Immune Suggesting Rhetorical Rhetorical Strategies

Author:Dale Jamieson

“Kantians are saddled with absolutist views, Aristotelians are accused of vagueness, and there is almost no horror to which Consequentialists are innocent of, according to some critics. While all these families of views have been victimized in these ways, Consequentialists have gotten the worst of it. I think this may have something to do with the fact that Kant and Aristotle are acknowledged to be great philosophers, and we tend to read the greats sympathetically, while Consequentialism is a family of views not rooted in the work of a single great man to whom this kind of deference is owed.”

Thinking Men Way Kind May Has Beens Facts Views Worst Horror Critics Philosopher Innocent Great Men Rooted Accused Deference Vagueness Great Philosophers Consequentialism

Author:Dale Jamieson

“Some philosophers think that the idea of a consequentialist virtue theory is strange, but the real strength of consequentialism is that it can emulate the requirements of other moral theories when it is the case that acting on those theories would improve the world.”

Thinking World Ideas Real Acting Moral Cases Virtue Strange Theory Philosopher Requirements Emulate Real Strength Consequentialism

Author:Dale Jamieson

“The Bible defines almost nothing because it isn't a book for scholars and philosophers or free thinkers. It's a book for people who want help. It's primarily a book for pastors. They're the ones that can use it in a way so that it actually achieves its purpose.”

People Way Want Book Helping Use Purpose Achieve Philosopher Thinker Scholar Pastor Free Thinkers

Author:Dallas Willard

“A dining club which I was involved in at Oxford University invited Sir Isaiah Berlin to dinner, who I believe was probably the greatest liberal philosopher in the 20th century. I sat beside him and we spoke about liberal philosophy and the events of the 20th century all night over dinner - it was unforgettable!”

“Thinking is a social process. I talk to everyone from children to anthropologists and philosophers. I try my ideas out on people and they talk back to you. That's how ideas get formed.”

People Thinking Trying Children Ideas Social Process Philosopher Anthropologists

Author:Patricia Piccinini

“The idea that God resides in the unknown is what philosophers call the God of the gaps. And we have this thing called science, which marches on and makes discoveries in those gaps, ultimately closing gaps.”

Ideas Discovery Philosopher March Gaps Closing

Author:Neil deGrasse Tyson

“In fact, I think it was the philosopher Hume who argued that it's far more likely that a miracle is a new physical phenomenon that we have yet to discover and have now discovered in that moment than it is a spiritual force coming down from God making something happen in front of you.”

Thinking Moments Facts Happens Spiritual Force Fronts Miracle Philosopher Things Happen That Moment Phenomenon Hume

Author:Neil deGrasse Tyson

“I'm not a philosopher.”

Philosopher

Author:Truman Capote

“Good comedians are great philosophers.”

Philosopher Comedian Great Philosophers

Author:Reggie Watts

“I like both slapstick and contradiction. Like philosophers.”

Philosopher Contradiction Slapstick

Author:Jean-Luc Godard

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