Category Archives: Quotes
Evolution quotes: Theories are not the whole of science
I opened Structure of Scientific Theories asserting that the “most central or important” problem in philosophy of science is “the nature and structure of theories . . . . For theories are the vehicle of scientific knowledge and one way … Continue reading
Filed under Philosophy, Quotes, Science, Theories
Evolution quotes: Socialism
To the biologist the problem of socialism appears largely as a problem of size. The extreme socialists desire to run every nation as a single business concern. I do not suppose that Henry Ford would find much difficulty in running … Continue reading
Evolution quotes: Arguments
Arguments have no chance against petrified training; they wear it as little as the waves wear a cliff. Mark Twain, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court
Evolution Quotes: Twain on inference about the past
Now, if I wanted to be one of those ponderous scientific people, and “let on” to prove what had occurred in the remote past by what had occurred in a given time in the recent past, or what will occur … Continue reading
Filed under Epistemology, History, Philosophy, Quotes, Science
A philosophical apology from 1919 for not being pro-war
Leiter posted the PDF of this on his site. I can’t help but reproduce some of the choicer quotes: “DEAR FRIEND: Your letter gently but un-mistakably intimates that I am a slacker, a slacker in peace as well as in … Continue reading
Filed under History, Logic and philosophy, Philosophy, Politics, Quotes, Sermon, Social evolution, Truisms
Evolution quotes: Quetelet on populations
Populations arise imperceptibly; it is only when they have reached a certain degree of development that we begin to think of their existence. This increase is more or less rapid, and it proceeds either from an excess of births over … Continue reading
Mill on species and Kinds
… every Kind (and a species must be a Kind) is distinguished from other Kinds, not by any one attribute, but by an indefinite number. Man, for instance, is a species of the genus animal: Rational (or rationality, for it … Continue reading
Filed under Quotes, Species and systematics
Hume on induction (sort of)
Reading this from the Enquiry, in the section on Miracles (Chapter X), it hit me Hume is describing induction*… A wise man, therefore, proportions his belief to the evidence. In such conclusions as are founded on an infallible experience, he … Continue reading
Filed under Epistemology, Philosophy, Quotes
