Philosophy Quotes

"Similarity judgments are culturally variable and not grounded in objective properties."

"Synonymy is a philosophical fiction; no two expressions are truly equivalent."

"Our linguistic categories shape what we can perceive and understand about reality."

"Quantification is the key to understanding what a theory commits us to believing."

"The indeterminacy of translation reveals the indeterminacy of all interpretation."

"Natural language is too vague and ambiguous for precise philosophical reasoning."

"Nominalism—rejection of abstract objects—leads to greater conceptual simplicity."

"The meanings of words are not in the head but in the whole speech community."

"Mathematical entities do not exist independently; they are useful fictions."

"The distinction between analytic and synthetic statements breaks down under scrutiny."

"Questions about the nature of existence are ultimately questions about our conceptual scheme."

"Identity criteria for objects are conventional, not discovered in nature itself."

"No fact of the matter can settle questions of ontological interpretation."

"Phenomenal consciousness and physical description occupy different frameworks of discourse."

"Radical translation is impossible because meanings are embedded in entire systems of belief."

"What unites our thoughts is not some common abstract essence but family resemblances."

"Extension of a predicate depends on context and the decisions we make about borderline cases."

"The notion of a unique true description of reality is a philosophical myth."

"Attributes and relations are imposed by our conceptual scheme, not found in nature."

"Belief in abstract objects commits us to an opulent ontology that simpler theories can avoid."

"Vagueness is not a defect of language but a feature of our conceptual practices."

"What counts as an object depends on the language and conceptual framework we adopt."

"Thought and language are so intertwined that we cannot understand one without the other."

"Properties are relative to a theory; there are no intrinsic, theory-independent properties."

"Causation is something we project onto the world, not a fundamental feature discovered in nature."

"Qualia and subjective experience are best understood from the perspective of functional roles."

"The task of philosophy is to clarify the meaning of concepts and statements."

"Metaphysics is a disease of language."

"Philosophy should be concerned with the analysis of language, not speculation about reality."

"The purpose of philosophy is to dissolve pseudo-problems through logical analysis."