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Philosophy Quotes

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Philosophy Quotes

“The spontaneous tendency to invoke a Final Cause in explanation of every difficulty is characteristic of metaphysical philosophy. It arises from a general tendency towards the impersonation of abstractions which is visible throughout History.”

Philosophy Causes Difficulty Finals Arise Tendencies Explanation Characteristics Visible Spontaneous Metaphysical Abstraction Invoke

Book:Aristotle: a chapter from the history of science including analyses of Aristotle's scientific writings

Source: Aristotle: a chapter from the history of science including analyses of Aristotle's scientific writings

“A different conception of society, very different from that which now prevails, is in process of formation. Under the name of Anarchy, a new interpretation of the past and present life of society arises, giving at the same time a forecast as regards its future, both conceived in the same spirit as the above-mentioned interpretation in natural sciences. Anarchy, therefore, appears as a constituent part of the new philosophy, and that is why Anarchists come in contact, on so many points, with the greatest thinkers and poets of the present day.”

“Very little comes easily to our poor, benighted species (the first creature, after all, to experiment with the novel evolutionary inventions of self-conscious philosophy and art). Even the most "obvious," "accurate," and "natural" style of thinking or drawing must be regulated by history and won by struggle. Solutions must therefore arise within a social context and record the complex interactions of mind and environment that define the possibility of human improvement.”

Source: Leonardo's Mountain of Clams and the Diet of Worms

“In Philosophy, the contemplations of man do either penetrate unto God, or are circumferred to Nature, or are reflected and reverted upon himself. Out of which several inquiries there do arise three knowledges, Divine Philosophy, Natural Philosophy, and Human Philosophy or Humanity. For all things are marked and stamped with this triple character of the power of God, the difference of Nature and the use of Man.”

Men Humans Philosophy Character Use Humanity Three Natural Differences Knowledge Divine All Things Arise Contemplation Inquiry Penetrate Power Of God Natural Philosophy

Book:Philosophical works

Source: Philosophical works

“The chief benefit, which results from philosophy, arises in an indirect manner, and proceeds more from its secret, insensible influence, than from its immediate application.”

Philosophy Results Secret Influence Benefits Arise Chiefs Application Indirect Insensible

Book:Essays and treatises on several subjects: essays, moral, political and literary

Source: Essays and treatises on several subjects: essays, moral, political and literary

“Like medieval theologians we had a philosophy that explained everything to us in advance, and everything that did not fit could be readily identified as a fraud or a lie or an illusion... The perniciousness of the anti-Communist ideology of the Truman Doctrine arises not from any patent falsehood but from its distortion and simplification of reality, from its universalization and its elevation to the status of a revealed truth.”

Philosophy Reality Lying Fit Illusion Arise Doctrine Ideology Communist Fraud Falsehood Theologian Medieval Distortion Patents Elevation Simplification Truman Anti Communist

Author:J. William Fulbright