Quotes About Philosophy

scientific naturalism has proven incapable of accounting for a whole range of human experiences, from simple self-awareness to love.

Kierkegaard wrote of "eternal consciousness"; the French sociologist Émile Durkheim of "collective consciousness"; the British writer H. G. Wells of a "world brain"; the French philosopher Edouard Le Roy of the "noosphere"—which the Jesuit Pierre Teilhard de Chardin called a "new skin" on the earth.

Isn't man but a blossom taken by the wind, and only the mountains and the sea and the stars and this Land of the Gods real and everlasting?

Oare ce-s nourii Daca nu o justificare a cerului? Oare ce-i viata Daca nu o amanare a mortii?

Very few of us can now place ourselves in the mental condition in which even such philosophers as the great Descartes were involved in the days before Newton had announced the true laws of the motion of bodies.

this determinism says that in every case the result is determined by the previous condition of the subject we are looking at. Our free will at the best is like that of Lucretius's atoms — which at quite uncertain times and places deviate in an uncertain manner from their course. the atoms can swerve so there's always the small possibility even for air molecules of not being forced to follow the determined laws. - ESSAY FOR THE ERANUS CLUB ON SCIENCE AND FREE WILL

While we advance exponentially in technological capability, our spiritual or 'biological technology,' our maturity as a species, is still two or three thousand years in the past. This is because many of us live according to ideas that were original and groundbreaking... in 500 B.C. Most people are unwilling or unable to ask the hard questions- as in, why do we do things the way we do, and what will the end results be?" (p.120) Generation Hex

I don't think we're for anything, we're just products of evolution. You can say "Gee, your life must be pretty bleak if you don't think there's a purpose," but I'm anticipating a good lunch.

When asked by a student if he believes in any gods ] Oh, no. Absolutely not... The biggest advantage to believing in God is you don't have to understand anything, no physics, no biology. I wanted to understand.

James Dale Davidson

Sometimes I wonder," Thomas murmured. "Wonder what?" "If being alive matters. If being dead might be a lot easier.

Algunas veces me pregunto... -murmuró Thomas. -¿Te preguntas, qué? -Si importa estar vivo. Si no sería mucho más facil estar muerto.

They say that some things are worse than death. That might be true. Probably is. But life and death are the beginning and end of beauty. You can't have one without the other.

Oh, if Plato could see me now ! Aristotle, traveler of time!

theology moves in the opposite direction of social theory,

I do not like to suffer at all from what I call the German disease, an interest in philosophy.

faith is not fundamentally a developmental phenomenon

The Romans were distinguished for their genius for law-giving and government, the Greeks for philosophy, art, and mental culture generally.

Leonard asks me if there's anything I need to know before he dies, I think about it for a minute, turn to him, say what's the meaning of life, Leonard? He laughs, says that's an easy one, my son, it's whatever you want it to be.

Are we biology or God or something higher? I know my heart beats and I listen to it. The beat is biology, but what is the song?

Thinking about language, while thinking _in_ language, leads to puzzles and paradoxes.

it struck me as an operational way to define free will, in a way that allowed you to reconcile free will with determinism. The system is deterministic, but you can't say what it's going to do next.

Be virtuous and you'll be happy? Nonsense! Be happy and you'll begin to be virtuous.

It's very hard to know what wisdom is.