Philosophy Quotes

"Ontology recapitulates methodology; the nature of being follows from our methods of inquiry."

"Physical objects are conceptually imported into the situation as convenient intermediaries."

"The verb 'to be' has two main uses: the predicative and the identity use."

"The problem of specifying the subject matter of thought remains one of the fundamental issues of philosophy."

"The categories we use to parse reality are not dictated by reality itself."

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

"Our conceptual schemes are like glasses through which we see the world, yet we are always wearing them."

"Synonymy is a matter of degree, not an absolute matter."

"Metaphysical questions often turn on how we should use words."

"Universals are in the mind or not in the world; they are useful fictions."

"The law of non-contradiction is not a law of nature but a law of thought."

"The problem of other minds is really the problem of other bodies."

"The notion of intrinsic properties is confused; all properties are relational."

"The analytic-synthetic distinction was a dogma that needed overcoming."

"Objects are not presented to us ready-made; we construct them."

"The boundary between the logical and the empirical is blurred."

"Ontological commitment is incurred by our theories, not by our words."

"The problem of universals cannot be solved; it can only be dissolved."

"What counts as evidence depends on our theoretical background."

"The decision to reject one paradigm is always simultaneously the decision to accept another."

"Problems that cannot be solved within the existing paradigm may be very real problems."

"What we see depends on what we're looking for, and what we're looking for depends on our paradigm."

"The Ptolemaic tradition and the Copernican system are incommensurable."

"The impossibility of proving that one paradigm is superior may seem a flaw."

"Paradigm shifts are not corrections of errors but shifts in perspective."

"What seems illogical from one paradigm may be perfectly logical from another."

"No paradigm ever solves all the puzzles it defines for itself."

"The choice between paradigms is ultimately a choice about values."

"What one paradigm sees as nonsense, another may see as obvious truth."

"We are all imprisoned in paradigms we cannot escape."