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Philosophical Quotes

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Philosophical Quotes

“THERE is no method of reasoning more common, and yet none more blameable, than, in philosophical disputes, to endeavour the refutation of any hypothesis, by a pretence of its dangerous consequences to religion and morality. When any opinion leads to absurdities, it is certainly false; but it is not certain that an opinion is false, because it is of dangerous consequence. Such topics, therefore, ought entirely to be forborne; as serving nothing to the discovery of truth, but only to make the person of an antagonist odious.”

Source: Essays Moral, Political, and Literary

“Language is inherently not concerned with logic. As an expression of the psychological activities of humankind, it simply follows a linear process as it seeks actualisation. Moreover, it does not obey the objective concepts of time and space that belong to the physical world. When the discussion of time and space is imported into linguistic art from scientific aims and research methods, that linguistic art is entirely reduced to trifling pseudo-philosophical issues.”

“The entrance into Zen is the grasping of one's essential nature. It is absolutely impossible, however, to come to a clear understanding of our essential nature by any intellectual or philosophical method. It is accomplished only by the experience of self-realization through zazen.”

Self Understanding Nature Clear Impossible Essentials Intellectual Experience Philosophical Method Self Realization Realization Accomplished Entrances Grasping

Book:The Gateless Gate: The Classic Book of Zen Koans

Source: The Gateless Gate: The Classic Book of Zen Koans

“Phenomenology is not a philosophy; it is a philosophical method, a tool. It is like an adjustable spanner that can be used for dismantling a refrigerator or a car, or used for hammering in nails, or even for knocking somebody out.”

Philosophy Used Car Tools Philosophical Method Nails Knocking Refrigerators Phenomenology

Author:Colin Wilson

“Secular humanism does not have the essential attributes of a religion: belief in a deity, the wish for some sort of afterlife, sacred dogma or texts, or an absolutist moral creed. Instead, it expresses a philosophical and ethical point of view, and it draws upon the scientific method in formulationg its naturalistic view of the nature.”

Doe Belief Wish Views Moral Essentials Draws Philosophical Method Sacred Humanism Point Of View Ethical Attributes Afterlife Creeds Dogma Secular Deities Scientific Method Secular Humanism

Author:Paul Kurtz

“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

“The first method for estimating the intelligence of a ruler is to look at the men he has around him.”

Men Firsts Looks Political Work Philosophical Method Stupidity Rulers Discernment Estimating

Author:Niccolo Machiavelli

“Science is a human activity, and the best way to understand it is to understand the individual human beings who practise it. Science is an art form and not a philosophical method. The great advances in science usually result from new tools rather than from new doctrines. ... Every time we introduce a new tool, it always leads to new and unexpected discoveries, because Nature's imagination is richer than ours.”

“The traditional disputes of philosophers are, for the most part, as unwarranted as they are unfruitful. The surest way to end them is to establish beyond question what should be the purpose and method of a philosophical enquiry. And this is by no means so difficult a task as the history of philosophy would lead one to suppose. For if there are any questions which science leaves it to philosophy to answer, a straightforward process of elimination must lead to their discovery.”

“I would welcome the passing of the idea of philosophy as defined by a method of conceptual analysis. But that is not the passing of philosophy, and it leaves the philosopher with the task of grasping natures or essences (among other things).”

Ideas Philosophy Tasks Essence Philosophical Method Philosopher Passing Passings Welcome Defined Analysis Grasping

Author:Robert Adams

“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.”

Thinking Giving Mind Believe Ends Reason Challenges Results Practice Example Argument Universal Philosophical Originals Method

Book:Other Minds: Critical Essays 1969-1994

Source: Other Minds: Critical Essays 1969-1994

“Imagination is an almost divine faculty which, without recourse to any philosophical method, immediately perceives everything: the secret and intimate connections between things, correspondences and analogies.”

Art Imagination Secret Divine Connections Philosophical Method Perceive Intimate Faculty Analogies Correspondence Recourse

Author:Charles Baudelaire

“Eventually, Aristotle appeared among the Greeks. He improved the methods of logic and systematized its problems and details. He assigned to logic its proper place as the first philosophical discipline and the introduction to philosophy. Therefore he is called the First Teacher.”

Firsts Philosophy Problem Teacher Discipline Logic Philosophical Method Details Greek Introduction

Author:Ibn Khaldun

“In the fabulous ages of ancient times the appellations of Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn were given to the planets as being the names of their principal heroes and divinities. In the present more philosophical era, it would hardly be allowable to have recourse to the same method, and call on Juno, Pallas, Apollo, or Minerva for a name to out new heavenly body. . . . I cannot but wish to take this opportunity of expressing my sense of gratitude, by giving the name Georgium Sidus, to a star [Uranus], by which (with to respect to us) first began to shine under His auspicious reign.”

“There is not a philosophical method, though there are indeed methods, like different therapies.”

Different Philosophical Method Philosopher Therapy

Author:Ludwig Wittgenstein

“Every great man exhibits the talent of organization or construction, whether it be in a poem, a philosophical system, a policy, or a strategy. And without method there is no organization nor construction.”

Men Poetry Talent Policy Organization Philosophical Method Strategy Great Men Construction Exhibits

Author:Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton