“When scientists need to explain difficult points of theory, illustration by hypothetical example - rather than by total abstraction - works well (perhaps indispensably) as a rhetorical device. Such cases do not function as speculations in the pejorative sense - as silly stories that provide insight into complex mechanisms - but rather as idealized illustrations to exemplify a difficult point of theory. (Other fields, like philosophy and the law, use such conjectural cases as a standard device.” NeedsWellsPhilosophyStoriesUseLawDifficultCasesExampleFieldsTheoryStandardsScientistFunctionComplexesInsightSillyDevicesMechanismAbstractionSpeculationIllustrationRhetoricalHypothetical Book:Leonardo's Mountain of Clams and the Diet of Worms Source: Leonardo's Mountain of Clams and the Diet of Worms
“To me personally the only function of philosophy is to teach us to take life more lightly and gayly than the average businessman does, for no businessman who does not retire at fifty, if he can, is in my eyes a philosopher.” IfsDoePhilosophyEyeTeachFunctionAveragePhilosopherFiftyRetiringBusinessman Book:The Importance of Living Source: The Importance of Living
“Nevertheless, the ultimate business of philosophy is to preserve the force of the most elemental words in which Dasein expresses itself, and to keep the common understanding from levelling them off to that unintelligibility which functions in turn as a source of pseudo-problems.” PhilosophyProblemTurnsForceUnderstandingCommonSourceUltimateFunctionPreservesNeverthelessElementalsPseudo Author:Martin Heidegger
“Under the old social philosophy which had governed the Middle Ages, temporal, and therefore all economic, activities were referred to an eternal standard. The production of wealth, it distribution and exchange were regulated with a view to securing the Christian life of Christian men. In two points especially was this felt: First in securing the independence of the family, which can only be done by the wide distribution of property, in others words the prevention of the growth of a proletariat; secondly, in the close connection between wealth and public function.” MenFirstsTwoDonePhilosophyAgeChristianPoliticsSocialFeltGrowthWealthViewsEconomyEconomicMiddleActivityEternalStandardsConnectionsFunctionIndependencePropertyProductionsWideChristian LifeLiberalismDistributionMiddle AgesPreventionProletariat Author:Hilaire Belloc
“It's not just philosophy, not just words; it's knowing how the mind functions; only then can you develop loving-kindness; only then can you become a spiritual person.” MindPersonsPhilosophySpiritualKindnessKnowingFunctionLoving Kindness Author:Thubten Yeshe
“. . . the membership relation for sets can often be replaced by the composition operation for functions. This leads to an alternative foundation for Mathematics upon categories -- specifically, on the category of all functions. Now much of Mathematics is dynamic, in that it deals with morphisms of an object into another object of the same kind. Such morphisms (like functions) form categories, and so the approach via categories fits well with the objective of organizing and understanding Mathematics. That, in truth, should be the goal of a proper philosophy of Mathematics.” ShouldWellsKindPhilosophyFormUnderstandingGoalDealsObjectsFitApproachFunctionRelationMathematicsFoundationObjectivesAlternativesOperationsCategoriesCompositionReplacedOften IsMembership Author:Saunders Mac Lane
“Recognizing that we have the kind of blood we have because we have the kind of kidneys we have, we must acknowledge that our kidneys constitute the major foundation of our philosophical freedom. Only because they work the way they do has it become possible for us to have bones, muscles, glands and brains. Superficially, it might be said that the function of the kidney is to make urine; but in a more considered view one can say that the kidneys make the stuff of philosophy itself.” WayKindSaidPhilosophyMightStuffViewsBrainBloodMajorsFunctionPhilosophicalFoundationBonesAcknowledgeMusclesRecognizingKidneysGlands Author:Homer Smith
“A worldview is not the same things a formal philosophy, otherwise it would only be for philosophers. Even ordinary people have a set of convictions about how reality functions and how they should live. Some convictions are conscious while others are unconscious but together they form a consistent picture of reality.” PeopleShouldPhilosophyRealityTogetherFormOrdinaryConsciousFunctionPhilosopherConvictionUnconsciousConsistentFormalOrdinary PeopleWorldview Author:Nancy Pearcey
“...the test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function. One should, for example, be able to see that things are hopeless and yet be determined to make them otherwise. This philosophy fitted on to my early adult life, when I saw the improbable, the implausible, often the "impossible," come true.” ShouldMindFirstsStillsTwoIdeasPhilosophyAbleAbilitySawsImpossibleExamplePositive ThinkingAdultsTestsFunctionRateDeterminedPositive AttitudeHopelessHopelessnessImprobableKeep A Positive AttitudePositive Mind Author:F. Scott Fitzgerald