Classic quotes: Hume 30 Sep 2010 You propose then, Philo, said Cleanthes, to erect religious faith on philosophical scepticism; and you think, that if certainty or evidence be expelled from every other subject of enquiry, it will all retire to these theological doctrines, and there acquire a superior force and authority. Whether your scepticism be as absolute and sincere as you pretend, we shall learn by and by, when the company breaks up: we shall then see, whether you go out at the door or the window; and whether you really doubt if your body has gravity, or can be injured by its fall; according to popular opinion, derived from our fallacious senses, and more fallacious experience. [Hume, Dialogues on Natural Religion] Epistemology Philosophy Quotes Religion Science Truisms Philosophy
History Hume’s Dialogues: A coloured edition 18 Mar 201212 Feb 2019 Hume’s Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion is one of the very best philosophical works ever written, as I was reminded this morning while seeking a passage. But it is not easily available in a decent format online. Sure, you can download a facsimile of the second edition (1779) from Archive.Org, and I… Read More
Biology Zimmer's evolving blog post on X-woman 28 Mar 2010 Carl Zimmer has a continually updated blog post on the mtDNA of “X-Woman”, which is being informed by his readers and experts. It’s a useful antidote to hasty and inaccurate reportage in the MSM, done well by a very good journalist. Read More
Greek Words Greek words used in classical philosophy 21 Feb 202225 Apr 2022 I prepared this for an undergraduate class last year. I’m putting it up under the Creative Commons license here for people to use. If you have any suggested terms to add, let me know. I’ll keep it up to date. Read More
I really enjoyed this comment when reading Dialogues, but not being a philosopher I wasn’t really sure whether this argument was decisive or that the counter offered by Philo was satisfactory.