Best Philosopher Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings Page 22

“During the '80s, those you would call the young philosophers of France, such as Bernard-Henri Lévy and [André ] Gluxman, pointed out that Camus had said things no one wanted to hear in the political arena. They said it was [Albert] Camus who was right, not those who had slid under the influence of Sartre, that is to say an unconditional devotion to Communism as seen in the Soviet Union. And ever since then the evaluation of Camus has continued to modify up until today”

Said Today Wanted Young Political Influence Unions Philosopher Devotion Communism France Soviet They Said Soviet Union 80s Arena Unconditional Evaluation

Author:Catherine Camus

“Plotinus is usually called the Founder of Neo Platonism and what that means is that in this philosophical circle, he was founding a kind of renewed attempt to understand the thought of Plato which however they were combining with the thought of other philosophers, including Aristotle, the Stoics and Pythagoreans and so on.”

Kind Mean Philosophical Including Philosopher Circles Founders Plato Founding Combining

Author:Peter Adamson

“I was born in France. My father was a renowned French philosopher and journalist, and my mother was a painter. So I grew up in Parisian intellectual circles.”

Mother Father Born Grew Grew Up Intellectual Philosopher Circles Painter France Journalist Renowned French Philosopher

Author:Matthieu Ricard

“The philosophers talk to you about the dignity of man, and they tempt you to pride, or they talk to you about the misery of man, and they tempt you to despair.”

Men Pride Despair Dignity Misery Philosopher

Author:Blaise Pascal

“One philosopher has rightly said that property is theft. But I'd like to use my future ownership of property to give something back.”

Giving Said Use Property Philosopher Ownership Theft My Future

Author:George Carlin

“If we mean to have heroes, statesmen and philosophers, we should have learned women.”

Ifs Should Mean Women Hero Should Have Philosopher Womens Rights Statesmen Firefighter

Book:The Book of Abigail and John: Selected Letters of the Adams Family, 1762-1784

Source: The Book of Abigail and John: Selected Letters of the Adams Family, 1762-1784

“[Benjamin] Franklin may be a great philosopher, [John Adams] told his diary in 1779, but "as a Legislator in America he has done very little."”

May Littles Done America Philosopher Diaries Franklin Legislators Great Philosophers

Author:Gordon S. Wood

“[John Adams] experience with the French philosophers only convinced him further of the need for a bicameral legislature representing the two principal social orders and, equally important, an independent executive.”

Needs Two Important Order Social Independent Philosopher Convinced Executives Principal Legislature Representing Social Order French Philosopher

Author:Gordon S. Wood

“[John] Adams said his objective in writing his Defence of the Constitutions of the United States and his Davila essays was to counter what he thought was the unfair criticism of the American state constitutions made by the French philosophers, especially [Anne Robert Jacques] Turgot.”

Writing Made Said States United United States Criticism Constitution Philosopher Objectives Unfair Essays Defence Constitution Of The United States French Philosopher

Author:Gordon S. Wood

“Definitely, I think it's much more acceptable, the idea of meditation or yoga. The idea of God trying to contact the soul within ourselves. Back in the 60s it was a bit like, you know , the hippies or the philosophers were the only people.”

People Thinking Knows Trying Ideas Soul Bits Meditation Like You Yoga Philosopher Contact Acceptable Hippie

Author:George Harrison

“It is fear and terror that make all men brave, except the philosophers. Yet it is illogical to be brave through fear and cowardice.”

Men Brave Philosopher Terror Cowardice Be Brave Illogical

Author:Plato

“I was trained as a philosopher never to put philosophers and their ideas into historical contexts, since historical context has nothing to do with the validity of the philosopher's positions. I agree that assessing validity and contextualizing historically are two entirely distinct matters and not to be confused with one another. And yet that firm distinction doesn't lead me to endorse the usual way in which history of philosophy is presented.”

Way Two Ideas Matter Philosophy Position Agree Historical Philosopher Firm Confused Distinction Usual Validity Leading Me Assessing Historical Context

Book:Plato at the Googleplex: Why Philosophy Won't Go Away

Source: Plato at the Googleplex: Why Philosophy Won't Go Away

“The philosophers talk across the centuries exclusively to one another, hermetically sealed from any influences derived from non-philosophical discourse.”

Influence Century Philosophical Philosopher Discourse

Book:Plato at the Googleplex: Why Philosophy Won't Go Away

Source: Plato at the Googleplex: Why Philosophy Won't Go Away

“When you ask why did some particular question occur to a scientist or philosopher for the first time, or why did this particular approach seem natural, then your questions concern the context of discovery. When you ask whether the argument the philosopher puts forth to answer that question is sound, or whether the evidence justifies the scientific theory proposed, then you've entered the context of justification. Considerations of history, sociology, anthropology, and psychology are relevant to the context of discovery, but not to justification.”

Source: Plato at the Googleplex: Why Philosophy Won't Go Away

“One doesn't diminish a philosopher's achievement, and doesn't undermine its soundness, by showing how the particular set of questions on which he focused, the orientation he brought to bear on his focus, has some causal connection to the circumstances of his life.”

Focus Particular Bears Circumstances Achievement Connections Philosopher Focused Diminish Orientation Soundness

Author:Rebecca Goldstein

“Plato dramatically puts the detachment of the philosopher from his time this way: to philosophize is to prepare to die.”

Way Dies Philosopher Plato Detachment

Book:Plato at the Googleplex: Why Philosophy Won't Go Away

Source: Plato at the Googleplex: Why Philosophy Won't Go Away

“When we call a philosopher distinguished, we are not saying that she is worthy and not saying that she is recognized, but we are saying that she occupies the intersection of both - that she is recognized and worthy; even that she is recognized because she's worthy.”

Philosopher Worthy Distinguished Intersections

Book:Plato at the Googleplex: Why Philosophy Won't Go Away

Source: Plato at the Googleplex: Why Philosophy Won't Go Away

“I never think in terms of alienation; it's the others who do. Alienation means one thing to Hegel, another to Marx and yet another to Freud; so it is not possible to give a single definition, one that will exhaust the subject. It is a question bordering on philosophy, and I'm not a philosopher nor a sociologist. My business is to tell stories, to narrate with images - nothing else. If I do make films about alienation - to use that word that is so ambiguous - they are about characters, not about me.”

Ifs Thinking Giving Mean Philosophy Character Stories Use Film Term One Thing Subjects Definitions Philosopher Alienation Ambiguous Hegel Sociologists

Author:Michelangelo Antonioni

“For many years, questions about the meaning of life were dismissed as senseless. We were told that life, not being a word or sentence or anything language-like, can't intelligibly be said to have meaning. An encouraging development in the last couple of decades is a return by philosophers to addressing - as nearly all people do at some time or another - the question of life's meaning.”

People Years Said Lasts Language Development Return Couple Philosopher Sentences Decades Meaning Of Life

Author:David E. Cooper

“I started my professional life as a philosopher of language and for several years took the orthodox line that meaning is an essentially linguistic phenomenon. Whether as a result of simply listening to everyday talk about meaning, or reading books of anthropology, sociology and art history, it dawned on me that there is nothing at all privileged or central about linguistic meaning.”

Years Art Book Reading Language Lines Results Listening Everyday Philosopher Orthodox Phenomenon Reading Books Privileged Sociology Anthropology Art History Professional Life

Author:David E. Cooper

“I will admit, like Socrates and Aristotle and Plato and some other philosophers, that there are instances where the death penalty would seem appropriate.”

Seems Philosopher Instance Appropriate Penalties Plato Death Penalty

Author:Jack Kevorkian

“Bill Russell, a famous philosopher from Boston Celtics once "When things go bad, things go bad." The [Iraq] war was terribly mismanaged-it was terribly mismanaged.”

War Bills Iraq Philosopher Bad Things Boston Iraq War Boston Celtics

Author:Jon Stewart

“It is interesting that liberals don't mind a strong faith at all. When it's their guy with a strong faith - whether it's Jimmy Carter or Woodrow Wilson or Harry Truman - that's just great. FDR inscribing Bibles and sending them to the troops. God bless him! But when a Republican president cites Jesus Christ as his favorite philosopher, as George W. Bush did on a famous occasion, then, well, the liberals cry out that [Tomás de] Torquemada is on the loose and warn gravely of the coming Inquisition.”

“I already knew about this friendship between St. John Paul II and this philosopher [Ana Teresa Tymieniecka] when I was in Buenos Aires. It was known. Also her books are known.”

Book Known Philosopher Teresa John Paul John Paul Ii Buenos Aires

Author:Pope Francis

“In building up a democratic model I think that Cuba's contribution, little by little, has contributed to getting closer to the ideals of those philosophers, of those Greeks who thought about how a society could be fairer, how a society could really represent the interests of the people. We have tried to get closer to that from a Latin-American perspective and from the Cuban perspective.”

People Thinking Littles Interest Building Perspective Models Ideals Democratic Philosopher Greek Contribution Latin Cuba Cuban Building Up Latin American

Author:Alejandro Castro Espin

“When I was 16 I started keeping a diary in which I recorded my disagreements with the famous philosophers. I didn't insist that they were wrong, that I was right and I had to prevail. I just agreed and disagreed with them. I thought there was a high degree of probability that I was right and some other thinkers were wrong. But I wasn't positive about it.”

Degrees Philosopher Thinker Probability Diaries Disagreement

Author:Albert Ellis

“I think Eddie Izzard is one of the brightest minds of our generation. I don't see him as a comedian as much as I see him as a philosopher. I hope I get to work with him on everything until I die, because I think he has a great mind and is a very talented actor.”

Thinking Mind Dies Actors Generations Philosopher Comedian Our Generation Great Minds

Author:Bryan Fuller

“I don't see myself as a deep philosopher. The things I write about tend to be what we all have to face, or consider, or experience, that I talk about with my friends and brothers. It's universal stuff, told in my own voice, my own details and truth, which is all I have to offer.”

Writing Faces Stuff Voice My Own Brother Offers My Friends Universal Philosopher Details

Author:Anne Lamott

“The great philosophers of the past who wrote so beautifully - Rousseau, John Stuart Mill - had to write beautifully because they had to sell their work to journals. They had to sell books to the general public because they could not hold positions in universities. Mill was an atheist, and, therefore, could not hold a position in a university.”

Writing Book Past Position Sells University Atheist Philosopher Journal Mills General Public Great Philosophers

Author:Martha C. Nussbaum

“Notice that all the traditional things philosophers do, looking for validity and soundness, promote civic friendship. That sounds pretty pie in the sky, yes, but I actually believe it.”

Believe Sound Sky Philosopher Traditional Pie Civics Validity Soundness

Author:Martha C. Nussbaum

“With the rise of capitalism, it became more obvious that people pursue individual self-interest. The great nationalist in Italy, Giuseppe Mazzini, a wonderful philosopher, said that we need the nation. We need something that people can lean on, from which they can then reach out to the whole world. The idea of all humanity is too vague. It can't motivate human aspiration in a reliable way.”

“We certainly have to have a view about knowledge in order to decide whether some version of foreknowledge is necessary for inquiry or whether some philosopher or other thinks it is. Roughly, the more demanding our conception of knowledge is, the less plausible foreknowledge is; the weaker our conception of knowledge is, the more plausible foreknowledge is.”

Thinking Order Views Philosopher Versions Conception Inquiry Plausible

Author:Gail Fine

“The greatest philosopher of all time was Dirty Harry. And if you remember, Dirty Harry took the words right out of my mouth: "A good man needs to know his limitations."”

Ifs Knows Men Needs Remember Mouths Philosopher All Time Limitation Dirty Good Man

Author:Ted Nugent

“When I was at Notre Dame studying under Joe Evans, Frank O'Malley, and others, there was a very lively debate about the distinction between natural law and revealed truth. Most of the philosophers of church and state expected that what was going to be advocated as the law of the land would be related to natural law. If you attempted to draw lines about certain general moral truths that were derivative of logic and reason, they would prove to be widely shared, and therefore suitable to be enacted into law on both the civic and religious sides.”

Reason Natural Church Religious Moral Study Prove Logic Philosopher Debate Frank Church And State Lively Natural Law

Author:Bruce Babbitt

“Democracy is the product of human thought and reasoning. It's true that philosophers and thinkers have always imagined a utopia in which everything is as it ought to be and the people live in freedom and comfort. But this was not achieved until recent centuries.”

People Democracy Comfort Philosopher Thinker Utopia Human Thought

Author:Simin Behbahani

“Philosophers should resist the temptation to be publicly virtuous. Given an unjust society, from the vantage of what counts as the public good, they are corrupters, not edifiers. The desire to be seen to be virtuous, to make a positive contribution, is a deleterious symptom of professionalization. Philosophy's social utility is an ersatz for its duty to mount challenges to the entire social order.”

Desire Challenges Duty Philosopher Temptation Virtuous Utility

Author:Ray Brassier

“The thing I think I have learned from Wittgenstein is the importance of not making things up: philosophers should not invent problems, and they should also be conscious of the risk of inventing pointless 'technical' machinery which do not offer real explanations, but often just re-state the known facts in a more complex way.”

Thinking Real Problem Risk Conscious Importance Philosopher Explanation I Have Learned Pointless

Author:Tim Crane

“Problems come and go over time, and to understand why is a difficult historical task. If one wanted to find the origin of a problem, historical research and close attention to texts is what is needed, not unconstrained speculation about the 'pictures' that philosophers must be in the grip of.”

Problem Difficult Attention Historical Philosopher Speculation

Author:Tim Crane

“One odd thing about the current debate between religious people and atheists is that the participants don't seem to care that they entirely fail to communicate with the other side. They therefore have no account of why the religious or the atheists believe what they do, except that they are stupid or deluded. I think philosophers should try and make sense of their disputes with their opponents as far as possible without treating them as idiots. This applies to the religious participants in the debate as much as to the atheists.”

People Thinking Trying Believe Care Religious Failing Stupid Atheist Philosopher Communicate Debate Idiot Make Sense Odd

Author:Tim Crane

“Science will always raise philosophical questions like, is any scientific theory or model correct? How do we know? Are unobserved things real? etc. and it seems to me of great importance that these questions are not just left to scientists, but that there are thinkers who make it their business to think as clearly and slowly about these questions as it is possible to. Great scientists do not always make the best philosophers.”

Thinking Real Scientist Importance Philosophical Philosopher Thinker Great Scientist

Author:Tim Crane

“Sometimes I suspect that there are two prototypes of philosophers who write about humans - I call them "celestials" and "terrestrials", without implying that celestials have their heads in the clouds or that terrestrials have theirs buried in the ground. The difference between these two types is not so much in their theories but in whether or not they would find it a very sad thing if it turned out that the only way a human is superior to a wolf is this: the human brain is significantly more capacious and complex.”

Writing Sometimes Brain Philosopher Human Brain Very Sad Prototype

Author:Nomy Arpaly

“Incompatibilists will tell you that a work of art has no meaning unless the artists could have chosen to create a different one, but actual artists often say things like "the book chose me" - that is, the work had to be. Some philosophers would call it "volitional necessity", and a similar case that's discussed is the case of Luther saying "here I stand, I can do no other".”

Art Book Different Artist Philosopher Chosen Luther

Author:Nomy Arpaly

“Henry Corbin creates the world - most of all his examination of the imagination and what the imagination was for him. Some philosophers would think of the imagination as a synthetic ability, how you put different things together. Artists more think of the imagination as creativity. So I really like the way that he presents the imagination as a faculty that allows one to experience worlds that are not exactly physical but are real nonetheless.”

Thinking World Different Real Together Artist Imagination Ability Creativity Philosopher

Author:Ben Chasny

“Philosophers and psychologists have long puzzled over the question of how we know as much as we do despite our limited experiences. One way is to see how children learn. Another example is consciousness. The concept is usually explored by armchair academics. Looking at kids expands our conceptions of consciousness.”

Children Long Kids Consciousness Philosopher Psychologist

Author:Alison Gopnik

“I am not sure just what Marx had in mind when he wrote that "philosophers have hitherto only interpreted the world in various ways; the point is to change it." Did he mean that philosophy could change the world, or that philosophers should turn to the higher priority of changing the world? If the former, then he presumably meant philosophy in a broad sense of the term, including analysis of the social order and ideas about why it should be changed, and how. In that broad sense, philosophy can play a role, indeed an essential role, in changing the world.”

World Mind Mean Philosophy Term Changed Philosopher Various Priorities Not Sure Changing The World

Author:Noam Chomsky

“You can be horrified by the state of the prisons, the misery in certain neighborhoods of its cities, or their level of poverty. Anti-Americanism, by which I mean a hatred for America as such-its transformation into a metaphysical category, which incarnates all the evil in the world-is one of fascism's favorite themes. Look at writer and political theorist Charles Maurras in France. The philosopher Martin Heidegger in Germany. The radical Islamists of today!”

Mean Today Political Evil Poverty Hatred Transformation Prison Misery Philosopher Radical Neighborhood Metaphysical

Author:Bernard-Henri Levy

“I think moral philosophy is speculation on how we ought to live together done by people who have very little clue how people work. So I think most moral philosophy is disconnected from the species that we happen to be. In fact, they like it that way. Many moral philosophers insist that morality grows out of our rationality, that it applies to any rational being anywhere in the universe, and that it is not based on contingent or coincidental facts about our evolution.”

People Thinking Done Philosophy Together Universe Moral Evolution Morality Philosopher Rational Rationality Clue Speculation Moral Philosophy

Author:Jonathan Haidt

“I'm not a philosopher so why should I provide anyone with the answers? I'm just a musician, I don't have any solutions. All I'm doing is questioning the status quo, with every record I've made, to a certain extend.”

Musician Solutions Philosopher Questioning Status Quo

Author:Ayshay

“In Iran, the women are like Italian women, they rule the house inside. But it's full of life. The history is very rich. The mystic of the Middle Ages. We have to learn from them. They influence all the philosophers when they came to Europe all those many many years ago.”

Age House Rich Influence Philosopher Italian Middle Ages Mystic

Author:Juliette Binoche

“Philosophers often think all scientists must be scientific realists. If you ask a simple question like "Are electrons real?" the answer will be "Yes". But if your questions are less superficial, for example whether some well-known scientist was a good scientist. Then, they had insisted that only empirical criteria matter and that they actually did not believe in the reality of sub-atomic entities. Ask "If that turned out to be true, would you still say they were good scientists?" The answer would reveal something about how they themselves understood what it is to be a scientist.”

Thinking Believe Real Reality Simple Scientist Philosopher Being True Superficial Realist

Author:Bas van Fraassen

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