Wisdom Quotes

"The baptism ceremony fixes reference but leaves semantic content open to discovery."

"Rigid designators allow us to quantify over possible objects and their properties."

"Names function to introduce objects into discourse, not to describe them."

"The puzzle of identity over time dissolves when we distinguish essence from accident."

"The direct reference theory vindicates our pre-theoretic understanding of names."

"We grasp necessary truths through intellectual intuition of possible worlds."

"A rigid designator picks out the same object in every possible world where it exists."

"Identity is transitive, symmetric, and reflexive in all possible worlds."

"Names are conventional in origin but conventional in a way that fixes reference."

"The direct reference theory explains why identity statements need not be informative."

"Names introduce singular propositions that concern objects directly."

"Morality is not derived from reason alone but from human sentiment."

"The greatest wisdom is knowing the limits of one's knowledge."

"Self-respect is perhaps the primary good in a just society."

"Reasonableness and rationality are distinct and both necessary for social cooperation."

"We should distinguish between the reasonable and the unreasonable rejection of principles."

"Primary goods are things that rational persons want whatever their conception of the good."

"Democratic citizens must respect the burdens of judgment in their disagreements."

"No one deserves the superior talents they are born with."

"No moral constraint prevents using another person as means to your ends except respect for their rights."

"Moral side constraints on action protect the separateness and dignity of individuals."

"The justice of a holding depends on how it came about, not what it looks like."

"Rights are not the maximization of some value, but constraints on how you may pursue values."

"Justice cannot ignore the process by which holdings came to be."

"Distributive justice requires looking at how people came to have what they have."

"Rights place limits on permissible social goals and aggregative benefits."

"Persons cannot be tools in the hands of others for achieving their own ends."

"Justice requires respect for how people acquire and transfer their holdings."

"The paradox is only a conflict between reality and your feeling of what reality ought to be."

"The web of belief is not a pyramid with a single foundation, but a network with no fixed center."