quotations about philosophy
Philosophy is no longer a field conducted entirely from the comfort of an armchair. Over the past decade, this notoriously abstract discipline has developed a branch of "experimental philosophy" that conducts its own scientific studies. Though such work continues to face resistance from conventional armchair philosophers, there's an increasing focus on using empirical studies in conjunction with philosophical thinking: One survey found that 62% of highly cited papers from 1960-1999 used a priori (purely reason-based) methods. From 2009 to 2013, just 12% of comparably cited papers used a priori thinking alone.
OLIVIA GOLDHILL
"Philosophers are using science and data points to test theories of morality", Quartz, March 28, 2016
To understand a philosopher requires a philosopher.
HORACE BUSHNELL
Sermons for the New Life
Children are the only brave philosophers. And brave philosophers are, inevitably, children.
YEVGENY ZAMYATIN
We
A philosopher who is not taking part in discussions is like a boxer who never goes into the ring.
LUDWIG WITTGENSTEIN
Personal Recollections
Pretty much from Socrates on, philosophers have practically specialized in deviating from common sense.
ROBERT BARRON
"Bill Nye Is Not 'The Philosophy Guy'", Aleteia, April 7, 2016
Man is a philosopher in spite of himself.
JOHN GRIER HIBBEN
The Problems of Philosophy
The business of philosophy is to circumnavigate human nature.
JULIUS CHARLES HARE
Guesses at Truth
I think that the task of philosophy is not to provide answers, but to show how the way we perceive a problem can be itself part of a problem.
SLAVOJ ZIZEK
lecture, "Year of Distraction"
Across the Night of Paganism, Philosophy flitted on, like the Lantern-fly of the Tropics, a Light to itself, and an Ornament, but alas! no more than an ornament, of the surrounding Darkness.
STEPHEN TAYLOR COLERIDGE
Aids to Reflection
Philosophy stands in the same relation to the study of the actual world as masturbation to sexual love.
KARL MARX
The German Ideology
Now, if wisdom is God, who made all things, as is attested by the divine authority and truth, then the philosopher is a lover of God.
ST. AUGUSTINE
The City of God
Until philosophers are kings, or the kings and princes of this world have the spirit and power of philosophy, and political greatness and wisdom meet in one, and those commoner natures who pursue either to the exclusion of the other are compelled to stand aside, cities will never have rest from their evils -- no, nor the human race, as I believe -- and then only will this our State have a possibility of life and behold the light of day.
PLATO
The Republic
Since the prolonged study of human philosophy -- which God has made empty and foolish, as the Apostle says, when that study lacks the flavouring of divine wisdom and the light of revealed truth -- sometimes leads to error rather than to the discovery of the truth, we ordain and rule by this salutary constitution, in order to suppress all occasions of falling into error with respect to the matters referred to above, that from this time onwards none of those in sacred orders, whether religious or seculars or others so committed, when they follow courses in universities or other public institutions, may devote themselves to the study of philosophy or poetry for longer than five years after the study of grammar and dialectic, without their giving some time to the study of theology or pontifical law. Once these five years are past, if someone wishes to sweat over such studies, he may do so only if at the same time, or in some other way, he actively devotes himself to theology or the sacred canons; so that the Lord's priests may find the means, in these holy and useful occupations, for cleansing and healing the infected sources of philosophy and poetry.
POPE LEO X
Papal bull condemning every proposition contrary to the truth of the enlightened Christian faith, Apostolici Regiminis, December 19, 1513
Sublime Philosophy!
Thou art the patriarch's ladder, reaching heaven;
And bright with beckoning angels--but alas!
We see thee, like the patriarch, but in dreams,
By the first step, dull slumbering on the earth.
EDWARD BULWER-LYTTON
Richelieu
Philosophers are both effects and causes: effects of their social circumstances and of the politics and institutions of their time; causes (if they are fortunate) of beliefs which mould the politics and institutions of later ages.
BERTRAND RUSSELL
History of Western Philosophy
A philosopher ... is not fairly judged by his eccentricities, nor by the frailties to which he is liable; still less should his philosophy as a whole fall into ill-repute because of those among its devotees who have stumbled into wells, or who aimlessly pass their lives in whetting their faculties and then neglecting to use them.
JOHN GRIER HIBBEN
The Problems of Philosophy
Adults complicate things. When faced with a complex or controversial problem, grownups have a tendency to gravitate toward the details and sometimes lose sight of the big picture. Conversely, ask most children about how to solve the same problem and you'll often receive a simple, straightforward solution. Sometimes oversimplified, it's true, but often far wiser than one would expect, considering the source. Out of the mouths of babes... I think some of the world's best philosophers are able to hold onto this child's way of perceiving the things around them. Peeling away the layers surrounding an issue, finding the central kernel of truth and picking it out for the world to see and understand.
SHEA WINTERBERGER
"Living & Growing: We can all learn from children's books", Juneau Empire, April 10, 2016
There are moments in life where the question of knowing whether one might think otherwise than one thinks and perceive otherwise than one sees is indispensable if one is to continue to observe or reflect ... What is philosophy today ... if it does not consist in, instead of legitimizing what we already know, undertaking to know how and how far it might be possible to think otherwise?
MICHEL FOUCAULT
History of Sexuality
Philosophy is a good horse in a stable, but an arrant jade on a journey.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH
The Good-Natured Man
Philosophy unravels the knots in our thinking; hence its results must be simple, but its activity is as complicated as the knots that it unravels.
LUDWIG WITTGENSTEIN
Philosophical Occasions