19 quotes
To abjure the notion of the "truly human" is to abjure the attempt to divinize the self as a replacement for a divinized world.
Contingency, Irony, and Solidarity (1989)
The usual picture of Socrates is of an ugly little plebeian who inspired a handsome young nobleman to write long dialogues on large topics.
Contingency, Irony, and Solidarity (1989)
National pride is to countries what self-respect is to individuals: a necessary condition for self-improvement.
Philosophy makes progress not by becoming more rigorous but by becoming more imaginative.
There is nothing deep down inside us except what we have put there ourselves.
Consequences of Pragmatism (1982)
Truthfulness under oath is, by now, a matter of our civic religion, our relation to our fellow citizens rather than our relation to a nonhuman power.
[A]nything can be made to look good or bad by being redescribed.
Contingency, Irony, and Solidarity (1989)
Contemporary intellectuals have given up the Enlightenment assumption that religion, myth, and tradition can be opposed to something ahistorical, something common to all human beings qua human.
Objectivity, Relativism and Truth (1991)
If I had to lay bets, my bet would be that everything is going to go to hell, but, you know, what else have we got except hope?
On James's view, "true" resembles "good" or "rational" in being a normative notion, a compliment paid to sentences that seem to be paying their way and that fit with other sentences which are doing so.
Consequences of Pragmatism (1982)
Almost as soon as I began to study philosophy, I was impressed by the way in which philosophical problems appeared, disappeared, or changed shape, as a result of new assumptions or vocabularies.
Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature (1979)
The world does not speak. Only we do. The world can, once we have programmed ourselves with a language, cause us to hold beliefs. But it cannot propose a language for us to speak. Only other human beings can do that.
Contingency, Irony, and Solidarity (1989)
My principal motive is the belief that we can still make admirable sense of our lives even if we cease to have … "an ambition of transcendence."
Philosophers get attention only when they appear to be doing something sinister—corrupting the youth, undermining the foundations of civilization, sneering at all we hold dear. The rest of the time everybody assumes that they are hard at work somewhere down in the sub-basement, keeping those foundations in good repair. Nobody much cares what brand of intellectual duct tape is being used.
When the individual finds in her conscience beliefs that are relevant to public policy but incapable of the defense on the basis of beliefs common to her fellow citizens, she must sacrifice her conscience on the altar of public expediency.
Objectivity, Relativism and Truth (1991)
Citizens of a Jeffersonian democracy can be as religious or irreligious as they please as long as they are not “fanatical.” That is, they must abandon or modify opinion on matters of ultimate importance, the opinions that may hitherto have given sense and point to their lives, if these opinions entail public actions that cannot be justified to most of their fellow citizens.
Objectivity, Relativism and Truth (1991)
The view that there is no source of obligation save the claims of individual sentient beings entails that we have no responsibility to anything other than such beings. Most of the relevant sentient individuals are our fellow humans. So talk about our responsibility to Truth, or to Reason, must be replaced by talk about our responsibility to our fellow human beings.
Always strive to excel, but only on weekends.
Attributed
Truth is simply a compliment paid to sentences seen to be paying their way.
Attributed