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Philosophical Quotes

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Philosophical Quotes

“One good reason for the popularity of "reductionism" among the philosophical outposts of the Western Establishment is that it can be, and is, used as a device for trying to take the wind, so to speak, out of the sails of Marxism. . . . In essence reductionism is a kind of anti-Marxist caricature of Marxist determinism. It is what anti-Marxists pretend that Marxist determinism is.”

Trying Kind Reason Used Speak Wind Essence Philosophical Western Devices Establishment Popularity Sail Marxism Speaks Out Marxist Caricatures Determinism Reductionism

Book:Cockburn Sums Up: An Autobiography

Source: Cockburn Sums Up: An Autobiography

“My propositions serve as elucidations in the following way: anyone who understands me eventually recognizes them as nonsensical, when he has used them--as steps--to climb up beyond them. (He must, so to speak, throw away the ladder after he has climbed up it.) He must transcend these propositions, and then he will see the whole world aright.”

World Way Whole Used Speak Language Steps Philosophical Following Whole World Climbs Propositions Ladders Understand Me Nonsensical

Book:Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus

Source: Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus

“Logical investigations can obviously be a useful tool for philosophy. They must, however, be informed by a sensitivity to the philosophical significance of the formalism and by a generous admixture of common sense, as well as a thorough understanding both of the basic concepts and of the technical details of the formal material used. It should not be supposed that the formalism can grind out philosophical results in a manner beyond the capacity of ordinary philosophical reasoning. There is no mathematical substitute for philosophy.”

“In strife who inquires whether stratagem or courage was used?”

Used Courage Philosophical Strife Stratagem

Author:Virgil

“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

“The fundamental thing about human languages is that they can and should be used to describe something; and this something is, somehow, the world. To be constantly and almost exclusively interested in the medium - in spectacle-cleaning - is a result of a philosophical mistake.”

World Should Humans Used Language Results Mistake Philosophical Fundamentals Mediums Cleaning Human Language

Author:Karl Popper

“My ex-wife was a philosophy major at NYU. Yeah, she and I used to have deep philosophical discussions where she would prove that I didn't exist.”

Philosophy Used Wife Prove Majors Philosophical Yeah Discussion Exes Ex Wife Nyu Deep Philosophical

Author:Woody Allen

“I am certainly open to the idea that this might be used to explain other philosophical categories besides knowledge. I have some real sympathy with the work of those moral realists who have tried to give naturalistic accounts of human flourishing, and who offer accounts of right action in such terms. (I suppose this is more evidence that I really do have deep affinities with Aristotle!)”

Giving Humans Ideas Real Might Action Used Term Moral Offers Evidence Accounts Philosophical Categories Realist Flourishing Affinity Right Action

Author:Hilary Kornblith

“The concept of intuition is more often used in philosophical theorizing than is the concept of observation in scientific theorizing (proportionately). One reason is that there is (proportionately) more ostensible conflict of philosophical intuitions than there is ostensible conflict of scientific observations. So much for the use of a concept of intuition in philosophical theorizing.”

Reason Use Used Conflict Concepts Philosophical Intuition Observation

Author:Ernest Sosa

“Socrates, whose mother was a midwife, used to say that his art was like the art of the midwife. She does not herself give birth to the child, but she is there to help during its delivery. Similarly, Socrates saw his task as helping people to 'give birth' to correct insight, since real understanding must come from within. . . . Everybody can grasp philosophical truths if they just use their innate reason.”

People Ifs Giving Children Doe Art Real Reason Helping Use Used Mother Understanding Saws Birth Tasks Philosophical Insight Innate Helping People Delivery Midwife

Author:Jostein Gaarder

“Because Christian morality leaves animals out of account, they are at once outlawed in philosophical morals; they are mere 'things,' mere means to any ends whatsoever. They can therefore be used for vivisection, hunting, coursing, bullfights, and horse racing, and can be whipped to death as they struggle along with heavy carts of stone. Shame on such a morality that is worthy of pariahs, and that fails to recognize the eternal essence that exists in every living thing, and shines forth with inscrutable significance from all eyes that see the sun!”

“In the first place a philosophical proposition must be general. It must not deal specially with things on the surface of the earth, or within the solar system, or with any other portion of space and time. . . . This brings us to a second characteristic of philosophical propositions, namely that they must be a priori. A philosophical proposition must be such as can neither be proved nor disproved by empirical evidence. . . . Philosophy, if what has been said is correct, becomes indistinguishable from logic as that word has now come to be used.”