QuoteProject
Philosophers are never quite sure what they are talking about - about what the issues really are - and so often it takes them rather a long time to recognize that someone with a somewhat different approach (or destination, or starting point) is making a contribution.
Daniel Dennett
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

Philosophers often grapple with the complexity of issues and may take time to acknowledge differing perspectives as valuable.

This quote by Daniel Dennett highlights the uncertainty inherent in philosophical discourse. It suggests that philosophers engage with complex issues but may not always have clear answers. They often take time to recognize and appreciate contributions from others who approach problems differently, emphasizing the importance of diverse viewpoints in philosophical discussions.

Themes

PhilosophyUnderstandingContributionPerspectivesDialogue

In practice

Example use cases

This quote could be used in a discussion about the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration in academic settings.

More from Daniel Dennett

We need to let our children grow up to face the world armed with knowledge, with much more knowledge than we ourselves had at their age. It is scary, but the alternative is worse.
Daniel DennettRead
Words have a genealogy and it's easier to trace the evolution of a single word than the evolution of a language.
Daniel DennettRead
The secret of happiness is: Find something more important than you are and dedicate your life to it.
Daniel DennettRead
Some philosophers can't bear to say simple things, like "Suppose a dog bites a man." They feel obliged instead to say, "Suppose a dog d bites a man m at time t," thereby demonstrating their unshakable commitment to logical rigor, even though they don't go on to manipulate any formulae involving d, m, and t.
Daniel DennettRead
As every scuba diver knows, panic is your worst enemy: when it hits, your mind starts to thrash and you are likely to do something really stupid and self-destructive.
Daniel DennettRead
If the concept of consciousness were to fall to science, what would happen to our sense of moral agency and free will? If conscious experience were reduced somehow to mere matter in motion, what would happen to our appreciation of love and pain and dreams and joy? If conscious human beings were just animated material objects, how could anything we do to them be right or wrong?
Daniel DennettRead

Similar quotes

For a long time, rich countries have promised to reduce poverty but have failed to match their words with adequate action. Of course, some important progress has been made and millions of lives have been saved, but millions more could be saved.
Peter SingerRead
Nearly all our originality comes from the stamp that time impresses upon our sensibility.
Charles BaudelaireRead
Birds know themselves not to be at the center of anything, but at the margins of everything. The end of the map. We only live where someone's horizon sweeps someone else's. We are only noticed on the edge of things; but on the edge of things, we notice much.
Gregory MaguireRead
The most dangerous thing is illusion.
Ralph Waldo EmersonRead
What is right is not always the same as what is legal
Edward SnowdenRead
The evils of the body are murder, theft, and adultery; of the tongue, lying, slander, abuse and idle talk; of the mind, covetousness, hatred and error.
Gautama BuddhaRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.