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Philosophical Quotes

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Philosophical Quotes

“Can an ass be tragic?--To perish under a burden that one can neither bear nor cast off? The case of the philosopher.”

Cases Bears Philosophical Casts Philosopher Burden Ass Tragic Donkey

Author:Friedrich Nietzsche

“In the case of all other sciences, arts, skills, and crafts, everyone is convinced that a complex and laborious programme of learning and practice is necessary for competence. Yet when it comes to philosophy, there seems to be a currently prevailing prejudice to the effect that, although not everyone who has eyes and fingers, and is given leather and last, is at once in a position to make shoes, everyone nevertheless immediately understands how to philosophize.”

Source: Phenomenology of Spirit

“Why does philosophy use concepts and why does faith use symbols if both try to express the same ultimate? The answer, of course, is that the relation to the ultimate is not the same in each case. The philosophical relation is in principle a detached description of the basic structure in which the ultimate manifests itself. The relation of faith is in principle an involved expression of concern about the meaning of the ultimate for the faithful.”

Source: Dynamics of Faith

“Earlier in this century, the Heisenberg Principle established that the very act of observing a natural phenomenon can change what is being observed. Although the initial theory was limited in practice to special cases in subatomic physics, the philosophical implications were and are staggering.”

Natural Principles Practice Cases Special Century Theory Philosophical Physics Phenomenon Initials Observing Implications Staggering Natural Phenomena

Author:Al Gore

“Our faith is faith in someone else's faith, and in the greatest matters this is most the case.”

Matter Cases Philosophical

Book:James and Dewey on Belief and Experience

Source: James and Dewey on Belief and Experience

“Scholars of the East and West have heroically consecrated their whole working lives to making available, by means of their own disciplines, Sufi literary and philosophical material to the world at large. In many cases they have faithfully recorded the Sufis' own reiteration that the Way of the Sufis cannot be understood by means of the intellect or by ordinary book learning.”

World Way Mean Book Whole Cases Materials Discipline Ordinary Understood Philosophical West Available Intellect East Have Faith Scholar Sufi East And West Working Life Book Learning

Book:The Sufis

Source: The Sufis

“The experimentalists think that we can only get at our concepts by way of empirical investigation, while the armchair philosophers think that we can skip the experiments and figure things out from our armchairs. What they have in common, however, is regarding our concepts as the targets of philosophical theorising, and I just don't think that, in the vast majority of cases, the subject matter of philosophy has our concepts as its target.”

Thinking Way Matter Philosophy Common Cases Subjects Figures Concepts Philosophical Majority Philosopher Experiments Target Investigation Subject Matter Skip Armchairs

Author:Hilary Kornblith

“Although I felt I was quite good at criticising a philosophical position, I was not very good at defending and making a case for a philosophical position.”

Felt Cases Position Philosophical Very Good

Author:Gonzalo Rodriguez-Pereyra

“From a philosophical perspective, I want to fight off isolationism and protectionism, be it part of another voice out there that says, wait a minute, what matters to women in Afghanistan matters to America. An isolationist point of view says it doesn't matter. The articulation of "all life matters" helps frame the case that it does matter what happens to a woman in Afghanistan.”

“If I had to choose between the two ways of approaching the deity, I should prefer the existential relational way, to the abstract philosophical way. I think it is truer, or in any case, less misleading, to say that God is an old Jew with a white beard whom I love, than to say that God is the ground of being and meaning, or to say that God is a name denoting the ultimate mystery. I prefer the bold primitive colors of the Biblical way of describing God.”

Ifs Thinking Way Should Two Names White Cases Mystery Color Ultimate Philosophical Jew Abstract Primitive Biblical Existential Deities Beard Two Ways Describing Mislead

Author:Frank Moore Cross

“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?”

Ifs Stills Ends Matter Hands Cases Reader Philosophical Scared Scare Reservations Adornment Hume

Book:Notes and Fragments

Source: Notes and Fragments

“If you are religious, you believe that your religion is the 'right' one—and, in many cases, all others will be sent to hell. Similarly, a nationalist believes his or her nation is better or more advanced—and a racist believes that an inherent difference between each race make his or her ethnicity superior. All of these ideologies spawn the hate, philosophical disagreements, and prejudices that have been the catalysts for various atrocious acts throughout history.”

Ifs Believe Has Beens Hate Nations Differences Religious Race Cases Hell Prejudice Philosophical Various Superiors Ideology Racist Inherent Disagreement Catalyst Ethnicity Spawn

Author:David G. McAfee

“...What is at stake is civilization and humanity, nothing less. The idea that everything is permitted, as Nietzsche put it, rests on the premise of nihilism and has nihilistic implications. I will not pretend that the case against nihilism and for civilization is an easy one to make. We are here confronting the most fundamental of philosophical questions, on the deepest levels. In short, the matter of pornography and obscenity is not a trivial one, and only superficial minds can take a bland and untroubled view of it.”