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It would be a mistake to believe that one could come to any substantive understanding of politics by discussing abstractly the good, the right, the true, or the rational in complete abstraction from the way in which these items figure in the motivationally active parts of the human psyche, and particularly in abstraction from the way in which they impinge, even if indirectly, on human action.

— Raymond Geuss Philosophy and Real Politics (2008)

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More quotes by Raymond Geuss

Asking what the question is, and why the question is asked, is always asking a pertinent question.

Philosophy and Real Politics (2008)

The idea that all problems either have a solution or can be shown to be pseudo-problems is not one I share.

Outside Ethics (2005)

One way … in which a political philosophy can be ideological is by presenting a relatively marginal issue as if it were central and essential.

Philosophy and Real Politics (2008)

A major danger in using highly abstractive methods in political philosophy is that one will succeed merely in generalizing one’s own local prejudices and repackaging them as demands of reason. The study of history can help to counteract this natural human bias.

Outside Ethics (2005)

Neither the good nor the true is self-realizing, so it is not generally a sufficient explanation of why people believe that X that X is true, or of why people do Y that Y is good.

Philosophy and Real Politics (2008)

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Raymond Geuss (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.