It's something that's very often said that philosophy, as opposed to science, never makes any progress. — Rebecca Goldstein Copy Share Image
Philosophy addresses, in a systematic and progress-making way, questions of deep concern to everyone. — Rebecca Goldstein Copy Share Image
The philosophers talk across the centuries exclusively to one another, hermetically sealed from any influences derived from non-philosophical discourse. — Rebecca Goldstein Copy Share Image
Because of the failure of religion to offer satisfying answers to an increasing number of people, it's time for philosophy to address… — Rebecca Goldstein Copy Share Image
Almost everybody thinks about philosophy, even if they don't realize it's philosophy and even if they have no sense of the difficulty… — Rebecca Goldstein Copy Share Image
Plato conceived of philosophy as necessarily gregarious rather than solitary. The exposure of presumptions is best done in company, the more argumentative… — Rebecca Goldstein Copy Share Image
“From the beginning philosophy sought for The order behind the disorder Thales sipped cheap wine And in this did divine: “Why it’s… — Rebecca Goldstein Copy Share Image
Plato worried that philosophical writing would take the place of living conversations for which, in philosophy, there is no substitute. — Rebecca Goldstein Copy Share Image
I think one reason is that philosophers are more insecure to speak accessibly because non-philosophers are skeptical that philosophers have any special… — Rebecca Goldstein Copy Share Image
Philosophers feel a little more cautious about letting down their technical guard lest the general public doesn't recognize their special credentials. It's… — Rebecca Goldstein Copy Share Image
Are there experts, ethical experts, that's very offensive to all of us? Because it's part of our humanity to have a stake… — Rebecca Goldstein Copy Share Image
Philosophy is this amazing technique we've devised for getting reality to answer us back when we're getting it wrong. Science itself can't… — Rebecca Goldstein Copy Share Image
When we call a philosopher distinguished, we are not saying that she is worthy and not saying that she is recognized, but… — Rebecca Goldstein Copy Share Image
One of the peculiar features of philosophical questions is how eager people are to offer solutions that miss the point of the… — Rebecca Goldstein Copy Share Image
Like mathematics and music and cosmology and philosophy, poetry, too, can "infinitize" us, granting us what immortality there is to be had… — Rebecca Goldstein Copy Share Image
Philosophical progress changes what we take to be "intuitively" obvious, and this change covers up the tracks of the laborious arguments that… — Rebecca Goldstein Copy Share Image
I was trained as a philosopher never to put philosophers and their ideas into historical contexts, since historical context has nothing to… — Rebecca Goldstein Copy Share Image
When you ask why did some particular question occur to a scientist or philosopher for the first time, or why did this… — Rebecca Goldstein Copy Share Image
So Socrates was a kind of gadfly. He was a sort of philosophical urban gorilla hanging around in the middle of Athens,… — Rebecca Goldstein Copy Share Image
What is remarkable about the Greeks - even pre-philosophically - is that despite the salience of religious rituals in their lives, when… — Rebecca Goldstein Copy Share Image
Everybody have equal rights to a life of full flourishing. Philosophy slowly, slowly has given us arguments saying, look, you already committed… — Rebecca Goldstein Copy Share Image
I would say to anybody who thinks that all the problems in philosophy can be translated into empirically verifiable answers - whether… — Rebecca Goldstein Copy Share Image
“...Plato conceived of philosophy as necessarily gregarious rather than solitary. The exposure of presumptions is best done in company, the more argumentative… — Rebecca Goldstein Copy Share Image
“I was trained as a philosopher never to put philosophers and their ideas into historical contexts, since historical context has nothing to… — Rebecca Goldstein Copy Share Image
Philosophical thinking that doesn't do violence to one's settled mind is no philosophical thinking at all. — Rebecca Goldstein Copy Share Image
And what is it, according to Plato, that philosophy is supposed to do? Nothing less than to render violence to our sense… — Rebecca Goldstein Copy Share Image
Plato dramatically puts the detachment of the philosopher from his time this way: to philosophize is to prepare to die. — Rebecca Goldstein Copy Share Image
It's very important to remember that the philosophers were social dissidents. They were social critics. The man in the street or woman… — Rebecca Goldstein Copy Share Image
God doesn't help. I think that's a knockdown argument. I think that it really shows that whatever moral knowledge we have and… — Rebecca Goldstein Copy Share Image
One doesn't diminish a philosopher's achievement, and doesn't undermine its soundness, by showing how the particular set of questions on which he… — Rebecca Goldstein Copy Share Image
If there is such a thing as philosophical progress, then why - unlike scientific progress - is it so invisible? Philosophical progress… — Rebecca Goldstein Copy Share Image
It was while I was studying philosophy that I came to understand. . . that it is no sign of moral or… — Rebecca Goldstein Copy Share Image
Everybody is struggling to refine their views in opposition to the other people. And that's one of the most important things that… — Rebecca Goldstein Copy Share Image
Youth is not an essential, but rather an accidental property. Nobody is in essence young. One either ceases to be or ceases to be… — Rebecca Goldstein Copy Share
Plato dramatically puts the detachment of the philosopher from his time this way: to philosophize is to prepare to die. — Rebecca Goldstein Copy Share
When you ask why did some particular question occur to a scientist or philosopher for the first time, or why did this particular approach… — Rebecca Goldstein Copy Share
“one evangelical scientist who had felt his doubts falling away from him when he was hiking in the mountains and came upon a frozen… — Rebecca Goldstein Copy Share
Because of the failure of religion to offer satisfying answers to an increasing number of people, it's time for philosophy to address forcefully these… — Rebecca Goldstein Copy Share
If we look at our attitudes consistently and work out the logical implications we're on the road to moral progress, moral understanding. — Rebecca Goldstein Copy Share
We may not need God to tell us where the world came from, but we need God to be able to live moral lives… — Rebecca Goldstein Copy Share
In order to refute a conclusion, you have to put forth the best possible argument for it. — Rebecca Goldstein Copy Share
Philosophical progress changes what we take to be "intuitively" obvious, and this change covers up the tracks of the laborious arguments that preceded the… — Rebecca Goldstein Copy Share
What one tries to force into a child against its own nature will never come to good. — Rebecca Goldstein Copy Share
What is remarkable about the Greeks - even pre-philosophically - is that despite the salience of religious rituals in their lives, when it came… — Rebecca Goldstein Copy Share
In fact, it’s the very impersonality of impersonal knowledge that renders such knowledge the most ethically potent of all. — Rebecca Goldstein Copy Share
