The history of philosophy is to a great extent that of a certain clash of human temperaments.
Interpretation
Philosophy often reflects the diverse personalities and emotional perspectives of its thinkers.
This quote by William James suggests that the development of philosophical ideas is not just an abstract pursuit of knowledge but is deeply intertwined with the unique temperaments and emotional dispositions of the philosophers themselves. The varying personalities of thinkers lead to different interpretations and conflicts in philosophical thought, showcasing how human emotions and character shape intellectual discourse.
In practice
During a lecture on philosophy, one might say, 'As William James noted, the history of philosophy reveals the interplay of diverse human temperaments.'
Many persons nowadays seem to think that any conclusion must be very scientific if the arguments in favor of it are derived from twitching of frogs' legs (especially if the frogs are decapitated) and that, on the other hand, any doctrine chiefly vouched for by the feelings of human beings (with heads on their shoulders) must be benighted and superstitious.
The man who knows governments most completely is he who troubles himself least about a definition which shall give their essence. Enjoying an intimate acquaintance with all their particularities in turn, he would naturally regard an abstract conception in which these were unified as a thing more misleading than enlightening.
All the higher, more penetrating ideals are revolutionary. They present themselves far less in the guise of effects of past experience than in that of probable causes of future experience, factors to which the environment and the lessons it has so far taught us must learn to bend.
The lunatic's visions of horror are all drawn from the material of daily fact. Our civilization is founded on the shambles, and every individual existence goes out in a lonely spasm of helpless agony.
It is astonishing how many mental operations we can explain when we have once grasped the principles of association
As there is no worse lie than a truth misunderstood by those who hear it, so reasonable arguments, challenges to magnanimity, and appeals to sympathy or justice, are folly when we are dealing with human crocodiles and boa-constrictors.
Loss and possession, death and life are one, There falls no shadow where there shines no sun.
Evil is license, and that is why it is monotonous: everything has to be drawn from ourselves. One is condemned to false infinity. That is hell itself.
Yes, I know it. In the darkness of my dark beating heart, I know. He'd have loved it alright. You see? Even Death Has A Heart.
What is the mirror of Being? Non-being. Bring non-being as your gift, if you are not a fool.
The thing I love about Marvel in general is that they deal with people. They deal with the human being first: Who is inside the suit? Who is the person that obtained this power or this ability?
To deal with the true causes of war one must begin by recognizing as of prime relevancy to the solution of the problem the familiar fact that civilization is a partial, incomplete, and, to a great extent, superficial modification of barbarism.
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