The purpose of a good education is to show you that there are three sides to a two-sided story.
Stanley FishRead
It is of no help to us that there is an absolute truth of the matter of things because unfortunately, none of us are in a position to say definitively what that is - although we all think that we are.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote highlights the challenge of defining absolute truth as everyone believes they possess it, despite the reality that no one truly does.
In this quote, Stanley Fish emphasizes the complexity of understanding truth. He suggests that while an absolute truth may exist, human perception and interpretation create a barrier to our ability to recognize it definitively. This underscores the notion that individuals often operate under the assumption that their perspective is the correct one, even when it is inherently subjective, inviting reflection on the nature of truth and the limitations of human understanding.
Themes
TruthPerceptionSubjectivityUnderstandingPhilosophy
In practice
Example use cases
In a philosophical discussion on the nature of truth.
More from Stanley Fish
All quotes →This is what language does: organize the world into manageable, and in some sense artificial, units that can then be inhabited and manipulated.
Stanley FishRead
Language is not a handmaiden to perception; it is perception; it gives shape to what would otherwise be inert and dead.
Stanley FishRead
In general, higher education does not know how to speak for its interests. It offers a stance that is defensive, cowardly and likely to be ineffective.
Stanley FishRead
Opinion-sharing sessions are like junk food: they fill you up with starch and leave you feeling both sated and hungry. A sustained inquiry into the truth of a matter is an almost athletic experience; it may exhaust you, but it also improves you.
Stanley FishRead
Similar quotes
As a rule, said Holmes, the more bizarre a thing is the less mysterious it proves to be. It is your commonplace, featureless crimes which are really puzzling, just as a commonplace face is the most difficult to identify.
Arthur Conan DoyleRead
In America, the traditional routes to black identity have hardly been normal. Suicide (disappearance by imitation, or willed extinction), violence (hysterical religiosity, crime, armed revolt), and exemplary moral courage; none of these is normal.
June JordanRead
Our great modern Republic. May those who seek the blessings of its institutions and the protection of its flag remember the obligations they impose.
Ulysses S. GrantRead
What is madness but nobility of soul at odds with circumstance?
Theodore RoethkeRead
Many of us who have experienced psychedelics feel very much that they are sacred tools. They open spiritual awareness.
Stanislav GrofRead
We have all been hearing from childhood of such things as love, peace, charity, equality, and universal brotherhood; but they have become to us mere words without meaning, words which we repeat like parrots, and it has become quite natural for us to do so. We cannot help it.
Swami VivekanandaRead