Philosophy Quotes

"Phenomenology teaches us that consciousness is always consciousness of something."

"Qualia are real, but they are not mysterious in the way some philosophers think."

"The naturalistic fallacy reminds us that we cannot derive 'ought' from 'is' alone."

"The purpose of philosophy is not to escape the human condition, but to illuminate it."

"Conceptual relativity means that which properties an object has depends on how we describe it."

"The brain in a vat scenario shows us that content depends on causal history, not just internal states."

"Ordinary language philosophy has deep lessons for metaphysics."

"Values are objective without being independent of human interests and concerns."

"The intentionality of thought shows that consciousness is inherently relational."

"The mind-body problem has been with us for centuries because we frame it incorrectly."

"Jewish thought and philosophy have resources that Western philosophy needs to engage with."

"Logical positivism was too restrictive in its criterion of meaningfulness."

"Modal properties are real, though they present special philosophical challenges."

"Kant was right that we contribute forms to experience, but he was too restrictive about what they are."

"Metaphysical realism claims that there is a world independent of us, and this is defensible."

"Normativity is real, but it is not metaphysically extravagant."

"The self is not a substance, but neither is it an illusion."

"Buddhism and analytic philosophy have unexpected convergences on the nature of the self."

"The hard problem of consciousness is real, but not necessarily insoluble."

"The doctrine of internal relations suggests that every object is defined by its relations."

"The categorical imperative is a powerful idea, but it needs supplementation from virtue ethics."

"Nominalism about abstract objects leaves much philosophy undone."

"Properties are real, though the question of what they are is genuinely difficult."

"The unity of apperception, which Kant emphasized, remains central to understanding consciousness."

"The notion of natural kinds is philosophically important, even if not metaphysically fundamental."

"The explanatory gap between the physical and the experiential is genuine, though perhaps bridgeable."

"Pragmatism offers a way out of the realism-antirealism debate."

"Discourse ethics, associated with Habermas, illuminates how reason and communication intersect."

"The future is open, and this openness is compatible with physical law."

"The philosophical zombie is conceivable, but conceivability does not entail possibility."