Philosophy Quotes

"To think is to operate within a conceptual scheme we did not create."

"Every observation occurs within a framework that was not given but constructed."

"The dogma of the Ghost in the Machine has main historical sources and it was sustained by many motives, all of which natural enough."

"The concept of mental life has been distorted by the Cartesian legend."

"The ascription of mental predicates is not always a matter of introspection."

"The notion of private sensations is philosophically troublesome."

"A categorical mistake occurs when ideas from one logical type are applied to another."

"Solipsism is not a coherent philosophical position but a logical confusion."

"The relation between mind and body is not spatial but conceptual."

"Consciousness is not a separate realm but an aspect of certain human activities."

"Descartes' error was assuming that thinking requires a special non-physical substance."

"The presumption that there is a unified 'self' is itself a philosophical construct."

"Dispositions are real even when they are not currently manifested."

"An action is not voluntary merely because it results from a volition; that notion is circular."

"Logical analysis clarifies confusions that arise from the misuse of language."

"The unconscious is not a shadow mind but simply what we do without conscious attention."

"Philosophy deals with confusions that science cannot resolve."

"The notion of a private language is incoherent."

"The mind is not a thing but a certain way that things behave."

"The concept of mind requires a body; disembodied minds are unintelligible."

"The distinction between appearance and reality is not always clear-cut."

"Philosophy must be willing to argue against itself."

"The manifest image and the scientific image are two different ways of understanding the world, and philosophy must reconcile them."

"Persons are not physical objects, nor are they purely immaterial souls; they are integrated systems of capacities and dispositions."

"Intentionality cannot be reduced to mere physical states; it is irreducibly relational."

"The space of reasons is autonomous and cannot be collapsed into the space of causes."

"Abstract entities are not mysterious otherworldly objects but functional roles within language."

"Mental states are characterized by their functional roles within a system of dispositions and capacities."

"Universals are real, but only as structural patterns exhibited by concrete particulars."

"Persons have irreducible normative and evaluative properties that cannot be scientifically eliminated."