Harman, Gilbert

Philosopher American Born 1938 (age 88)

Developed inference to best explanation and moral relativism.

374 quotes

"Understanding a language requires more than knowing truth conditions."
Knowledge
"The analytic-synthetic distinction, while useful, is not perfectly sharp."
Wisdom
"Aesthetic judgment cannot be reduced to mere subjective preference."
Art
"The concept of a person involves both psychological and biological criteria."
Philosophy
"Rationality sometimes demands belief revision rather than accommodation."
Wisdom
"The meaning of moral terms cannot be determined by reference alone."
Philosophy
"Explanation is not the same as justification, though they are related."
Knowledge
"Consciousness may be more closely tied to behavior than internalists realize."
Philosophy
"The problem of induction suggests the limits of empirical reasoning."
Science
"Semantic content cannot be individuated without reference to the context of utterance."
Philosophy
"We should resist the urge to systematize intuitions that may be inconsistent."
Wisdom
"The nature of numbers remains philosophically puzzling despite mathematical progress."
Philosophy
"Knowledge-how may be fundamentally different from knowledge-that."
Knowledge
"Moral agency requires the capacity for self-governance and reflection."
Justice
"The concept of a convention involves mutual expectation and regularity."
Philosophy
"Truth is minimally a matter of correspondence to how things are."
Truth
"Philosophical analysis proceeds by clarification rather than discovery."
Philosophy
"The self is constituted by its relations to others and the world."
Relationships
"Logical form may not be fully captured by natural language syntax."
Philosophy
"Belief attribution requires sensitivity to context and speaker intention."
Knowledge
"The unity of consciousness presents problems that physicalism struggles to address."
Philosophy
"Meaning cannot be purely in the head; it extends into the world."
Philosophy
"Rationality is constrained by both logic and the limits of human cognition."
Wisdom
"The concept of free will may require rethinking rather than defending."
Freedom
"Aesthetic properties are real but dependent on perceiver properties."
Art
"The self-refuting character of certain philosophical claims reveals conceptual limits."
Wisdom
"Moral responsibility presupposes a distinction between action and mere happening."
Justice
"Language use involves more than the application of grammatical rules."
Philosophy
"The problem of other minds dissolves when we recognize language's public nature."
Philosophy
"Introspection, while valuable, is not infallible about mental contents."
Knowledge