But are there philosophical problems? The present position of English philosophy - my point of departure - originates, I believe, in the late Professor Ludwig Wittgenstein's doctrine that there are none; that all genuine problems are scientific problems; that the alleged propositions or theories of philosophy are pseudo-propositions or pseudo-theories; that they are not false (if they were false, their negations would be true propositions or theories) but strictly meaningless combinations of words, no more meaningful than the incoherent babbling of a child who has not yet learned to speak properly.
Karl PopperAustrian-British philosopher of science and social and política e falsificationism and for criticism of Plato, Hegel and Marx as totalitarian opponents of open society1902 - 1994
on man’s probable ancestors : Knowles, E. (1999). The Oxford dictionary of quotations. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
I find that most of the insights I achieve when high are into social issues, an area of creative scholarship very different from the one I am generally known for.
Carl SaganAmerican astrophysicist, cosmologist and author1934 - 1996
It is an uncanny fact that the human mind can be divided with a knife.
Sam HarrisAmerican author, philosopher and neuroscientistborn 1967
Referencing the characteristics of ‘split brain’ patients who have had their brain’s hemispheres separated, usually to prevent epileptic seizures. : Harris, S. (2014). Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion (p. 68). Bantam Press.
Referencing the characteristics of ‘split brain’ patients who have had their brain’s hemispheres separated, usually to prevent epileptic seizures. : Harris, S. (2014). Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion (p. 68). Bantam Press.
Life's most important questions are, for the most part, nothing but probability problems.
You have no responsibility to live up to what other people think you ought to accomplish. I have no responsibility to be like they expect me to be. It's their mistake, not my failing.
Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!: Adventures of a Curious Character
Galileo was no idiot. Only an idiot could believe that science requires martyrdom — that may be necessary in religion, but in time a scientific result will establish itself.
In defence of Galileo's recantation of his discoveries before a tribunal of the Inquisition.
A sense of what the world is really like can be maddening; cannabis has brought me some feelings for what it is like to be crazy, and how we use that word "crazy" to avoid thinking about things that are too painful for us.
Carl SaganAmerican astrophysicist, cosmologist and author1934 - 1996