Sidney Morgenbesser Quotes
1921–2004 United States
Sidney Morgenbesser (September 22, 1921 – August 1, 2004) was an American philosopher, noted for his wit.
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Random Sidney Morgenbesser quote
12 quotes
A proposed response to Heidegger's ontological query "Why is there something rather than nothing?" – "And if there were nothing? You'd still be complaining!"
Morgenbesser described Gentile ethics as entailing “ought implies can” while in Jewish ethics “can implies don’t.”
When asked his opinion of pragmatism, Morgenbesser replied "It's all very well in theory but it doesn't work in practice."
Asked to prove a questioner's existence, Morgenbesser shot back, "Who's asking?"
A student once interrupted him and said, "I just don't understand." He responded, "Why should you have the advantage over me?"
Of Hilary Putnam – "He’s a quantum philosopher. I can’t understand him and his position at the same time."
Morgenbesser in response to B.F. Skinner: "Are you telling me it's wrong to anthropomorphize people?" (quoted by Daniel Dennett)
Morgenbesser said the following of George Santayana: “There’s a guy who asserted both p and not-p, and then drew out all the consequences…”
When challenged why he had written so little, he fired back: "Moses wrote one book. Then what did he do?"
During a lecture, the Oxford linguistic philosopher J. L. Austin made the claim that although a double negative in English implies a positive meaning, there is no language in which a double positive implies a negative. Morgenbesser responded in a dismissive tone, "Yeah, yeah."
Interrogated by a student whether he agreed with Chairman Mao’s view that a statement can be both true and false at the same time, Morgenbesser replied “Well, I do and I don’t.”
On the independence of irrelevant alternatives: Morgenbesser, ordering dessert, is told by the waitress that he can choose between apple pie and blueberry pie. He orders the apple pie. Shortly thereafter, the waitress comes back and says that cherry pie is also an option; Morgenbesser says "In that case I'll have the blueberry pie."