Skip to main content

Main navigation

☰ ˟
  • Home
  • Articulation
  • Contact
  • Shop
Arthur Schopenhauer
Arthur Schopenhauer
2 months 2 days ago
Correct and accurate conclusions may be...

Correct and accurate conclusions may be arrived at if we carefully observe the relation of the spheres of concepts, and only conclude that one sphere is contained in a third sphere, when we have clearly seen that this first sphere is contained in a second, which in its turn is contained in the third. On the other hand, the art of sophistry lies in casting only a superficial glance at the relations of the spheres of the concepts, and then manipulating these relations to suit our purposes, generally in the following way: - When the sphere of an observed concept lies partly within that of another concept, and partly within a third altogether different sphere, we treat it as if it lay entirely within the one or the other, as may suit our purpose.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Vol. I, Ch. 10, as translated by R. B. Haldane
Philosophical Maxims
John Searle
John Searle
3 days ago
Where conscious subjectivity is concerned, there...

Where conscious subjectivity is concerned, there is no distinction between the observation and the thing observed.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
The Rediscovery of the Mind, p. 97, MIT Press (1992) ISBN 0-262-69154-X.
Philosophical Maxims
Martin Luther
Martin Luther
2 months 1 week ago
Christ ought to be preached with...

Christ ought to be preached with this goal in mind - that we might be moved to faith in him so that he is not just a distant historical figure but actually Christ for you and me.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
p. 69
Philosophical Maxims
Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Russell
2 months 1 day ago
The great majority of men and...

The great majority of men and women, in ordinary times, pass through life without ever contemplating or criticising, as a whole, either their own conditions or those of the world at large. They find themselves born into a certain place in society, and they accept what each day brings forth, without any effort of thought beyond what the immediate present requires. Almost as instinctively as the beasts of the field, they seek the satisfaction of the needs of the moment, without much forethought, and without considering that by sufficient effort the whole conditions of their lives could be changed.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Introduction, p. 4
Philosophical Maxims
Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Russell
2 months 1 day ago
Instinctively we divide mankind into friends...

Instinctively we divide mankind into friends and foes - friends, towards whom we have the morality of co-operation; foes, towards whom we have that of competition. But this division is constantly changing; at one moment a man hates his business competitor, at another, when both are threatened by Socialism or by an external enemy, he suddenly begins to view him as a brother. Always when we pass beyond the limits of the family it is the external enemy which supplies the cohesive force. In times of safety we can afford to hate our neighbour, but in times of danger we must love him.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Authority and the Individual, 1949
Philosophical Maxims
Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Fyodor Dostoyevsky
1 month 1 day ago
Money is coined liberty, and so...

Money is coined liberty, and so it is ten times dearer to the man who is deprived of freedom. If money is jingling in his pocket, he is half consoled, even though he cannot spend it. But money can always and everywhere be spent, and, moreover, forbidden fruit is sweetest of all.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
The House of the Dead (1862) ch. 1; as translated by Constance Garnett (1915), p. 16
Philosophical Maxims
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson
2 months ago
The true test of civilization is,...

The true test of civilization is, not the census, nor the size of the cities, nor the crops - no, but the kind of man the country turns out.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Civilization
Philosophical Maxims
Albert Camus
Albert Camus
2 months 3 weeks ago
Let's not beat around the bush;...

Let's not beat around the bush; I love life, that's my real weakness. I love it so much that I am incapable of imagining what is not life.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Thomas Nagel
Thomas Nagel
1 month 3 weeks ago
If we tried to rely entirely...

If we tried to rely entirely on reason, and pressed it hard, our lives and beliefs would collapse - a form of madness that may actually occur if the inertial force of taking the world and life for granted is somehow lost. If we lose our grip on that, reason will not give it back to us.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
"The Absurd" (1971), p. 20.
Philosophical Maxims
Michel de Montaigne
Michel de Montaigne
2 months 1 week ago
He who does not give himself...

He who does not give himself leisure to be thirsty cannot take pleasure in drinking.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Ch. 42
Philosophical Maxims
C. S. Lewis
C. S. Lewis
1 month 4 weeks ago
We have two bits of evidence...

We have two bits of evidence about the Somebody. One is the universe He has made. If we used that as our only clue, I think we should have to conclude that He was a great artist (for the universe is a very beautiful place), but also that He is quite merciless and no friend to man (for the universe is a very dangerous and terrifying place.) ...The other bit of evidence is that Moral Law which He has put in our minds. And this is a better bit of evidence than the other, because it is inside information. You find out more about God from the Moral Law than from the universe in general just as you find out more about a man by listening to his conversation than by looking at a house he has built.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Book I, Chapter 5, "We Have Cause to Be Uneasy"
Philosophical Maxims
Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Russell
2 months 1 day ago
The prospect for the human race...

The prospect for the human race is sombre beyond all precedent. Mankind are faced with a clear-cut alternative: either we shall all perish, or we shall have to acquire some slight degree of common sense. A great deal of new political thinking will be necessary if utter disaster is to be averted.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
C. S. Lewis
C. S. Lewis
1 month 4 weeks ago
I want to have her back...

I want to have her back as an ingredient in the restoration of my past. Could I have wished her anything worse? Having got once through death, to come back and then, at some later date, have all her dying to do all over again? They call Stephen the first martyr. Hadn't Lazarus the rawer deal?

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Karl Jaspers
Karl Jaspers
3 weeks ago
The teacher of love…

The teacher of love teaches struggle. The teacher of lifeless isolation from the world teaches peace.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Kurt Vonnegut
Kurt Vonnegut
2 days ago
Generally speaking, espionage offers each spy...

Generally speaking, espionage offers each spy an opportunity to go crazy in a way he finds irresistible.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Russell
2 months 1 day ago
What modern apologists call 'true' Christianity...

What modern apologists call 'true' Christianity is something depending upon a very selective process. It ignores much that is to be found in the Gospels: for example, the parable of the sheep and the goats, and the doctrine that the wicked will suffer eternal torment in Hell fire. It picks out certain parts of the Sermon on the Mount, though even these it often rejects in practice. It leaves the doctrine of non-resistance, for example, to be practised only by non-Christians such as Gandhi. The precepts that it particularly favours are held to embody such a lofty morality that they must have had a divine origin. And yet ... these precepts were uttered by Jews before the time of Christ.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
"Can Religion Cure Our Troubles?", in Stockholm newspaper Dagens Nyheter, part II., 11/11/1954
Philosophical Maxims
comfortdragon
comfortdragon
1 week 3 days ago
Men are eager...
0
⚖0
Main Content / General
Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Russell
2 months 1 day ago
Choose your parents wisely. On the...

Choose your parents wisely.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
On the recipe for longevity; Collected Papers of Bertrand Russell, Vol. 29, 2012
Philosophical Maxims
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson
2 months ago
Plato was synthesis of Europe and...

Plato was synthesis of Europe and Asia, and a decidedly Oriental element pervades his philosophy, giving it a sunrise color.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Quoted in Swami Abhedananda, India and Her People, 6th ed., Calcutta: Ramakrishna Vedanta Math, 1945
Philosophical Maxims
Herbert Marcuse
Herbert Marcuse
3 weeks 2 days ago
The historical world, in so far...

The historical world, in so far as it is built, organized, and shaped by the conscious activity of thinking subjects, is a realm of mind. But the mind is fully realized and exists in its true form only when it indulges in its proper activity, namely, in art, religion, and philosophy.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
P. 87
Philosophical Maxims
Herbert Spencer
Herbert Spencer
1 month ago
Equity knows no difference of sex....

Equity knows no difference of sex. In its vocabulary the word man must be understood in a generic, and not in a specific sense.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Pt. II, Ch. 16 : The Rights of Women
Philosophical Maxims
Henry David Thoreau
Henry David Thoreau
2 months 1 day ago
The unconsciousness of man is the...

The unconsciousness of man is the consciousness of God.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Willard van Orman Quine
Willard van Orman Quine
2 weeks 2 days ago
Tactically, conceptualism is no doubt the...

Tactically, conceptualism is no doubt the strongest position of the three; for the tired nominalist can lapse into conceptualism and still allay his puritanic conscience with the reflection that he has not quite taken to eating lotus with the Platonists.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
"Logic and the Reification of Universals"
Philosophical Maxims
Karl Jaspers
Karl Jaspers
3 weeks ago
If the result of a war...

If the result of a war is to change nothing, but only to destroy, with the mere result that a group of human beings who do not differ notably from the conquered acquires preponderant advantages for the future, there is lacking the affective strength of an existence that has inspired faith, of an existence whose destiny would have been decided by the war.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Arthur Schopenhauer
Arthur Schopenhauer
2 months 2 days ago
My body and my will are...

My body and my will are one.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Book 1
Philosophical Maxims
Emma Goldman
Emma Goldman
1 week 6 days ago
Do not all theists insist that...

Do not all theists insist that there can be no morality, no justice, honesty or fidelity without the belief in a Divine Power? Based upon fear and hope, such morality has always been a vile product, imbued partly with self-righteousness, partly with hypocrisy. As to truth, justice, and fidelity, who have been their brave exponents and daring proclaimers? Nearly always the godless ones: the Atheists; they lived, fought, and died for them. They knew that justice, truth, and fidelity are not conditioned in heaven, but that they are related to and interwoven with the tremendous changes going on in the social and material life of the human race; not fixed and eternal, but fluctuating, even as life itself.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Russell
2 months 1 day ago
In the name of national security,...

In the name of national security, the Commission's hearings were held in secret, thereby continuing the policy which has marked the entire course of the case. This prompts my second question: If, as we are told, Oswald was the lone assassin, where is the issue of national security? Indeed, precisely the same question must be put here as was posed in France during the Dreyfus case: If the Government is so certain of its case, why has it conducted all its inquiries in the strictest secrecy? "

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
16 Questions on the Assassination" in The Minority of One, ed. M.S. Arnoni (1964-09-06), pp. 6-8
Philosophical Maxims
Mikhail Bakunin
Mikhail Bakunin
4 weeks ago
The modern state, in its essence...

The modern state, in its essence and objectives, is necessarily a military state, and a military state necessarily becomes an aggressive state. If it does not conquer others it will itself be conquered, for the simple reason that wherever force exists, it absolutely must be displayed or put into action. From this again it follows that the modern state must without fail be huge and powerful; that is the indispensable condition for its preservation.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Adam Smith
Adam Smith
2 months 4 days ago
The tolls for the maintenance of...

The tolls for the maintenance of a high road, cannot with any safety be made the property of private persons.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Chapter I, Part III, Article I, p. 786 (See also.. Public-private partnerships).
Philosophical Maxims
Ludwig Wittgenstein
Ludwig Wittgenstein
1 month 3 weeks ago
The meaning of a question is...

The meaning of a question is the method of answering it: then what is the meaning of 'Do two men really mean the same by the word "white"?' Tell me how you are searching, and I will tell you what you are searching for.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Philosophical Remarks (1991), Part III (27), pp.66-67
Philosophical Maxims
David Hume
David Hume
2 months 4 days ago
At present they [philosophers] seem to...

At present they [philosophers] seem to be in a very lamentable condition, and such as the poets have given us but a faint notion of in their descriptions of the punishment of Sisyphus and Tantalus. For what can be imagin'd more tormenting, than to seek with eagerness, what for ever flies us; and seek for it in a place, where 'tis impossible it can ever exist?

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Part 4, Section 3
Philosophical Maxims
Jacques Derrida
Jacques Derrida
1 month 3 weeks ago
There is nothing outside…

There is nothing outside the text," which Derrida opponents have characterized to mean that nothing exists but language.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Il n'y a pas de hors-texte. Of Grammatology (1967). G. Spivak translated this as "
Philosophical Maxims
Emil Cioran
Emil Cioran
3 weeks 5 days ago
Society: an inferno of saviors!

Society: an inferno of saviors!

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Jean Paul Sartre
Jean Paul Sartre
1 month 4 weeks ago
And we feel that the hero...

And we feel that the hero has lived all the details of this night like annunciations, promises, or even that he lived only those that were promises, blind and deaf to all that did not herald adventure. We forget that the future was not yet there; the man was walking in the night without forethought, a night which offered him a choice of dull rich prizes, and he did not make his choice.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Diary entry of Saturday noon (10 February?)
Philosophical Maxims
Arthur Schopenhauer
Arthur Schopenhauer
2 months 2 days ago
One can forget everything…

One can forget everything, everything, only not oneself, one's own being.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Jean Jacques Rousseau
Jean Jacques Rousseau
2 months 3 days ago
As for the Soothsayer, although I...

As for the Soothsayer, although I am certain no one feels the true beauties of that work better than I, I am far from finding these beauties in the same places as the infatuated public does. They are not the products of study and knowledge, but rather are inspired by taste and sensitivity.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
First Dialogue; translated by Judith R. Bush, Christopher Kelly, Roger D. Masters
Philosophical Maxims
Karl Jaspers
Karl Jaspers
3 weeks ago
In old days the plastic arts,...

In old days the plastic arts, music, and poesy were so germane to man in his totality that his Transcendence plainly manifest in them. ... What is to-day obvious to all is a decay in the essence of art. ... the opposition to man's true nature as man.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson
2 months ago
I think no virtue goes with...

I think no virtue goes with size; The reason of all cowardice Is, that men are overgrown, And, to be valiant, must come down To the titmouse dimension.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
The Titmouse, st. 5
Philosophical Maxims
Emma Goldman
Emma Goldman
1 week 6 days ago
I realize the malady of the...

I realize the malady of the oppressed and disinherited masses only too well, but I refuse to prescribe the usual ridiculous palliatives which allow the patient neither to die nor to recover. One cannot be too extreme in dealing with social ills; besides, the extreme thing is generally the true thing. My lack of faith in the majority is dictated by my faith in the potentialities of the individual. Only when the latter becomes free to choose his associates for a common purpose, can we hope for order and harmony out of this world of chaos and inequality.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Immanuel Kant
Immanuel Kant
2 months 3 days ago
The deceiver is really the fool....

The deceiver is really the fool.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Kant, Immanuel (1996), page 101
Philosophical Maxims
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
2 months 1 day ago
The true is the whole…

The true is the whole.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Preface
Philosophical Maxims
Max Scheler
Max Scheler
3 weeks ago
The fake love of ressentiment man...

The fake love of ressentiment man offers no real help, since for his perverted sense of values, evils like "sickness" and "poverty" have become goods.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
L. Coser, trans. (1961), p. 92
Philosophical Maxims
Jeremy Bentham
Jeremy Bentham
2 months 3 days ago
In principle and in practice, in...

In principle and in practice, in a right track and in a wrong one, the rarest of all human qualities is consistency.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Ch. 1: Of the Principle of Utility
Philosophical Maxims
Emil Cioran
Emil Cioran
3 weeks 5 days ago
Utopia is a mixture of childish...

Utopia is a mixture of childish rationalism and secularized angelism.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
John Dewey
John Dewey
3 weeks 1 day ago
As we shall see later, the...

As we shall see later, the most important factor in the training of good mental habits consists in acquiring the attitude of suspended conclusion, and in mastering the various methods of searching for new materials to corroborate or to refute the first suggestions that occur. To maintain the state of doubt and to carry on systematic and protracted inquiry ― these are the essentials of thinking.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Chapter 1: "What Is Thought?"
Philosophical Maxims
Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Russell
2 months 1 day ago
Why? Surely they can find other...

Why? Surely they can find other men. Russell's reply when asked "if it wasn't unkind of him to love and leave so many women";

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
as quoted in My Father - Bertrand Russell (1975) by Katharine Tait, p. 106
Philosophical Maxims
John Rawls
John Rawls
1 month 4 weeks ago
Yet it seems extraordinary that the...

Yet it seems extraordinary that the justice of increasing the expectations of the better placed by a billion dollars, say, should turn on whether the prospects of the least favored increase or decrease by a penny.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Chapter III, Section 26, pg. 157
Philosophical Maxims
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson
2 months ago
A man contains all that is...

A man contains all that is needful to his government within himself. He is made a law unto himself. All real good or evil that can befal [sic] him must be from himself. He only can do himself any good or any harm. Nothing can be given to him or can taken from him but always there is a compensation.. There is a correspondence between the human soul and everything that exists in the world; more properly, everything that is known to man. Instead of studying things without the principles of them, all may be penetrated unto with him. Every act puts the agent in a new position. The purpose of life seems to be to acquaint a man with himself. He is not to live the future as described to him but to live the real future to the real present. The highest revelation is that God is in every man.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
September 8, 1833
Philosophical Maxims
Leo Tolstoy
Leo Tolstoy
Just now
All our problems are caused by...

All our problems are caused by forgetting what lives within us, and we sell our souls for the "bowl of stew" of bodily satisfactions.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
p. 17
Philosophical Maxims
Friedrich Engels
Friedrich Engels
3 weeks 5 days ago
The bourgeoisie has gained a monopoly...

The bourgeoisie has gained a monopoly of all means of existence in the broadest sense of the word. What the proletarian needs, he can obtain only from this bourgeoisie, which is protected in its monopoly by the power of the state. The proletarian is, therefore, in law and in fact, the slave of the bourgeoisie, which can decree his life or death.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
p. 112
Philosophical Maxims
  • Load More

User login

  • Create new account
  • Reset your password

Social

☰ ˟
  • Main Feed
  • Philosophical Maxims

Civic

☰ ˟
  • Propositions
  • Issue / Solution

Who's new

  • Søren Kierkegaard
  • Jesus
  • Friedrich Nietzsche
  • VeXed
  • Slavoj Žižek

Who's online

There are currently 0 users online.

CivilSimian.com created by AxiomaticPanic, CivilSimian, Kalokagathia