Confusion of sign and object is original sin coeval with the word.
Willard Van Orman QuineRead
It is one of the consolations of philosophy that the benefit of showing how to dispense with a concept does not hinge on dispensing with it.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Philosophy can help us understand and manage concepts without needing to abandon them entirely.
This quote by Willard Van Orman Quine reflects a foundational aspect of philosophical inquiry: the ability to analyze and even set aside certain concepts without losing their value or utility. Philosophy provides tools for understanding complex ideas, allowing us to see their shortcomings and re-evaluate their importance in our lives, thus giving us consolation and clarity in thought.
Themes
PhilosophyConceptsUnderstandingAnalysis
In practice
Example use cases
During a philosophy class discussion on the nature of knowledge and belief.
More from Willard Van Orman Quine
All quotes βScience is not a substitute for common sense, but an extension of it.
Willard Van Orman QuineRead
For me the problem of induction is a problem about the world: a problem of how we, as we are now (by our present scientific lights), in a world we never made, should stand better than random, or coin-tossing chances changes of coming out right when we predict by inductions. . . .
Willard Van Orman QuineRead
Language is conceived in sin and science is its redemption.
Willard Van Orman QuineRead
Meaning is what essence becomes when it is divorced from the object of reference and wedded to the word.
Willard Van Orman QuineRead
Creatures inveterately wrong in their inductions have a pathetic but praise-worthy tendency to die before reproducing their kind.
Willard Van Orman QuineRead
Similar quotes
The life of the law has not been logic; it has been experience.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.Read
I can only note that the past is beautiful because one never realises an emotion at the time. It expands later, and thus we don't have complete emotions about the present, only about the past.
Virginia WoolfRead
If biologists so often forget the most universal of all biologic principles [variation], it is not surprising that men and women in general expect their fellows to think and behave according to the pattern that may fit the law-maker, or the imaginary ideals for which the legislation was fashioned, but which are ill-shaped for all real individuals who try to live under them.
Alfred KinseyRead
Soul of all souls, life of all life - you are That. _x000D_ Seen and unseen, moving and unmoving - you are That. _x000D_ The road that leads to the City is endless; _x000D_ Go without head and feet _x000D_ and you'll already be there. _x000D_ What else could you be? - you are That.
RumiRead
The thinker dies, but his thoughts are beyond the reach of destruction. Men are mortal; but ideas are immortal.
Walter LippmannRead
Let me give you a word of the philosophy of reform. The whole history of the progress of human liberty shows that all concessions yet made to her august claims, have been born of earnest struggle. The conflict has been exciting, agitating, all-absorbing, and for the time being, putting all other tumults to silence. It must do this or it does nothing. If there is no struggle there is no progress.
Frederick DouglassRead