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Who Needs Philosophy On page 4 of ''Philosophy: Who Needs It'' Rand asked (paraphrased): (A) Do you think you're not influenced by philosophy? (B) Do you think you don't need abstract thought (and the principles derived therefrom) to deal with concrete, real-life problems? (C) Have you ever thought or said the following? [And this last question was then followed by a series of popular quotes (re-quoted below), all stemming from someone's erroneous philosophy] ... =============================== (1) "That was a rotten thing to do, but it's only human, nobody is perfect in this world."--that notion is from Augstine Validating quotation: God is not the parent of evils. ... Evils exist by the voluntary sin of the soul to which God gave free choice.--Contra Fortunatum Manichaeum, Acta seu Disutatio, Ch. 20 I have no hope but in your great mercy. Grant what you command and command what you will.--Confessions, Bk 10, Sec. 29 =============================== (2) "Act first, think afterward."--that notion is from John Dewey Validating quotation: Only when the past event which is judged is a going concern having effects still directly observable are judgment and knowledge possible.--The Middle Works, 1899-1924, 13, ed. Jo Ann Boydston, p. 42 =============================== (3) "Consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds."--that notion is from Emerson Validating quotation: A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do. He may as well concern himself with his shadow on the wall... .--The Selected Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson Speak what you think today in hard words and tomorrow speak what tomorrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict every thing you said today.--Self-Reliance, 1841 =============================== (4) "I couldn't help it! Nobody can help anything he does."--that notion is from Hegel Validating quotation: ... [the bondsman, who] ... could not get away in the struggle, and for that reason proved himself to be dependent, to have his independence in the shape of thinghood. ...In all this, the unessential consciousness is, for the lord, the object which constitutes the truth of his certainty of himself. But it is clear that this object does not correspond to its notion, but rather that the object in which the lord has effectively achieved his lordship has in reality turned out to be something quite different from an independent consciousness. ... The truth of the independent consciousness is accordingly the servile consciousness of the bondsman. ... it does in fact contain within itself this truth of pure negativity and being-for-self, for it has experienced this as its own essential nature. ... its whole being has been seized with dread. ... Furthermore, [the bondsman's] consciousness is not this dissolution of everything stable merely in principle; in his service he actually brings this about. By serving he rids himself of his attachment to natural existence in every detail; and gets rid of it by working on it.--Phenomenology of Spirit, trans. A. V. Miller, p. 115 =============================== (5) "It may have been true yesterday, but it's not true today."--that notion is from Hegel Validating quotation: Pure Being makes the beginning: because it is on one hand pure thought, and on the other immediacy itself, simple and indeterminate. ... It is possible to define being as 'I = I', as 'Absolute Indifference' or Identity, and so on. ... But this mere Being, as it is mere abstraction, is therefore the absolutely negative: which, taken similarly immediately, is just Nothing. ... Nothing, as thus immediate and equal to itself, is also conversely the same as Being is. The truth of Being and of Nothing is accordingly the unity of the two: and this unity is Becoming.--Encyclopaedia, trans. W. Wallace, $86, amended =============================== (6) "Don't be so sure--nobody can be certain of anything."--that notion is from David Hume Validating quotation: Our reason must be consider'd as a kind of cause, of which truth is the natural effect; but such-a-one as by the irruption of other causes, and by the inconstancy of our mental powers, may frequently be prevented. By this means all knowledge degenerates into probability ...--A Treatise of Human Nature, p. 180 =============================== (7) "It may be true for you, but it's not true for me."--that notion is from William James Validating quotation: ... it is absurd for science to say that the egotistic elements of experience should be suppressed. The axis of reality runs solely through the egotistic places, ...--The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature, p. 499 ... the rigorously impersonal view of science might one day appear as having been a temporarily useful eccentricity ...--The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature, p. 501 ... concepts ... being thin extracts from perception, are always insufficient representatives thereof; and although they yield wide information, must never be treated after the rationalistic fashion, as if they gave a deeper quality of truth. The deeper features of reality are found only in perceptual experience.--Some Problems of Philosophy, Works, VII, p.54 ... that which produces effects within another reality must be termed a reality itself, ...--The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature, p. 515 ... there is a continuum of cosmic consciousness, against which our individuality builds but accidental fences, ...--Essays in Religion and Morality, p. 204 =============================== (8) "But can't one compromise and borrow different ideas from different philosophies according to the expediency of the moment?"--that notion is from William James Validating quotation: Between us and the universe there are no 'rules of the game'. The important thing is that our judgments should be right, not that they should observe a logical etiquette.--Collected Essays and Reviews, p. 10 'The true', to put it briefly, is only the expedient in our way of thinking, just as 'the right' is only the expedient in the way of our behaving. Expedient in almost any fashion; ... for what meets expediently all the experience in sight won't necessarily meet all farther experiences equally satisfactorily.--Pragmatism: A New Way for Some Old Ways of Thinking, p. 222 =============================== (9) "I can't prove it, but I feel that it's true."--that notion is from Kant Validating quotation: The principle of reason is thus properly only a rule, prescribing a regress in the series of the conditions of given appearances.--Critique of Pure Reason, trans. N. Kemp Smith, A 508/B 536 I have no knowledge of myself as I am, but merely as I appear to myself.--Critique of Pure Reason, trans. N. Kemp Smith, B 158 =============================== (10) "It's logical, but logic has nothing to do with reality."--that notion is from Kant Validating quotation: Thus the order and regularity in the appearances, which we entitle nature, we ourselves introduce.--Critique of Pure Reason, trans. N. Kemp Smith, A 125 The principle of reason is thus properly only a rule, prescribing a regress in the series of the conditions of given appearances.--Critique of Pure Reason, trans. N. Kemp Smith, A 508/B 536 What objects may be in themselves, and apart from all this receptivity of our sensibility, remains completely unknown to us.--Critique of Pure Reason, trans. N. Kemp Smith, A 42/B 59 =============================== (11) "It's evil, because it's selfish."--that notion is from Kant Validating quotation: When we can bring any flattering thought of merit into our action, then the motive is already somewhat alloyed with self-love, ... . But to postpone everything to the holiness of duty alone, and to be conscious that we can because our own reason recognizes this as its command and says that we ought to do it, this is, as it were, to raise ourselves altogether above the world of sense.--Critique of Practical Reason, trans. T. K. Abbott, p. 257 Although many things are done in conformity with what duty prescribes, it is nevertheless always doubtful whether they are done strictly from duty, so as to have moral worth.--Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysics of Morals, trans. T. K. Abbott, p. 23 The majesty of duty has nothing to do with the enjoyment of life.--Critique of Practical Reason, trans. T. K. Abbott, p. 182 =============================== (12) "This may be good in theory, but it doesn't work in practice."--that notion is from Plato Validating quotation: Since, then, these things never, any of them, appear as the same things, which form of them can one maintain to be this, as being whatever it is, and not something else, without being ashamed of oneself? ... For they escape and do not wait to be referred to as 'this' or 'that' ... or by any expression that displays them as existent things.--Timaeus, 49B =============================== Ed Thompson
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