Philosophy Quotes

"Names inherit their reference through historical causal chains"

"The speaker's reference can diverge from the semantic reference"

"Descriptions and proper names have fundamentally different semantics"

"Convention creates artificial standards, not natural kinds"

"The problem of universals cannot be solved by linguistic analysis alone"

"The reference of a term can be fixed in multiple ways"

"Metaphysical questions are not merely semantic questions"

"The indexical 'I' is both automatic and universal in reference"

"Proper names refer directly without descriptive mediation"

"Language and reality are intimately connected through causal relations"

"Persons are moral agents responsible for and capable of respecting the principles of justice that would be chosen."

"The conception of the person is fundamental to all theories of justice."

"The social contract tradition provides the best framework for thinking about justice."

"The priority of right over good reflects the priority of justice over comprehensive doctrines."

"The right is prior to the good, meaning justice cannot be sacrificed for other values."

"Justice as fairness is the most reasonable conception of political justice for modern democracies."

"A conception of justice aims at achieving a just basic social structure."

"The two principles of justice are lexically ordered, with liberty taking priority."

"Political justice is distinct from personal morality and comprehensive doctrines."

"The priority of justice means that other goods cannot override fair basic principles."

"Justice requires that society's basic institutions be designed to benefit all citizens fairly."

"To be is to be the value of a variable."

"Ontology is what one says exists; ideology is how one says one determines what exists."

"The analytic-synthetic distinction cannot be maintained in any clear form."

"Indeterminacy of translation shows that there is no fact of the matter as to how to translate between languages."

"Every object, even the most abstract, has a place in a vast conceptual scheme."

"We must be ontologically committed to whatever our theory says exists."

"Logic can be revised just as any other part of our theory can be revised."

"Two theories may be equivalent in all their empirical consequences yet differ in their ontological commitments."

"Our language mirrors the structure we project onto the world."