Strawson, Peter Frederick

"The concept of a person is not to be analysed in terms of the concept of an animated body or of a animated organism."

"To identify particulars is, in part, to use identifying descriptive phrases."

"We must give an account of the concept of a person as a primitive concept."

"Language and linguistic communication depend on the concepts and thoughts users of language have and communicate."

"The structure of our thought is not independent of the structure of our language."

"Persons are not to be confused with human organisms or bodies."

"The ordinary concept of a material object is connected with the idea of continuity of existence."

"Reference and prediction are not independent of the descriptive apparatus we employ."

"Understanding meaning requires understanding the conditions under which statements are true."

"The world as we conceive it is not independent of our conceptual schemes."

"Objects do not have intrinsic boundaries; boundaries are imposed by our conceptual interests."

"To understand a concept is to understand the criteria for its application."

"Communication requires the sharing of concepts between speaker and hearer."

"The notion of an individual substance is fundamental to our ontology."

"Our experience is structured by the categories we bring to it."

"The self is constituted through its relations with others."

"Metaphysics must be responsive to the structure of our actual language."

"We cannot step outside our conceptual schemes to view reality as it is in itself."

"The identification of particulars is a fundamental linguistic function."

"Persons possess both material and non-material properties."

"The concept of truth must be connected to human linguistic practices."

"Experience and thought are shaped by our ordinary conceptual apparatus."

"To analyze a concept is to describe its ordinary use and its conceptual role."

"Our concepts reflect the structure of the world as we interact with it."

"Language is not a mirror of reality but a tool for engaging with it."

"The criteria for applying a concept are often not sharply defined."

"Persons are the fundamental units of moral and social thought."

"Understanding requires grasping both the meaning and the reference of our terms."

"The world we know is the world as conceptualized by beings like us."

"Descriptive metaphysics aims to describe the structure of our actual thought."