An extravagance is something that your spirit thinks is a necessity.
Bernard WilliamsRead
Philosophy is altogether less pure now. It's been impurified by science and social science and history.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Philosophy has become influenced and complicated by the findings of science and social sciences.
In this quote, Bernard Williams suggests that philosophy today cannot be seen in isolation as it once might have been; instead, it is intertwined with various disciplines such as science, social science, and history, which challenge the traditional, pure forms of philosophical thought. This statement reflects the view that modern philosophical inquiry is increasingly shaped by empirical evidence and contexts that enrich or complicate its discussions.
Themes
PhilosophyScienceSocial ScienceHistoryInfluenceThought
In practice
Example use cases
During a university lecture on the philosophy of science.
More from Bernard Williams
All quotes βThere was never a night or a problem that could defeat sunrise or hope.
Bernard WilliamsRead
Contemporary moral philosophy has found an original way of being boring, which is by not discussing moral issues at all.
Bernard WilliamsRead
The majority of philosophers are totally humorless. That's part of their trouble.
Bernard WilliamsRead
People have been predicting the death of philosophy since the 17th century. When I was a student, people were saying, 'We're in the last days of philosophy.' Then we were told in the '60s it would be replaced by sociology, then by literary criticism.
Bernard WilliamsRead
Virtually the only subject in which one could ever get a scholarship to Oxford or Cambridge was classics. So I went to Oxford to study classics and, unlike Cambridge, it had a philosophy component, and I became completely transported by it.
Bernard WilliamsRead
Similar quotes
When I talk about democratic socialist, I am talking about Medicare, a single payer health care system for the elderly. And in my view, we should expand that concept to all people. I believe that everybody in this country should be entitled to health care as a right.
Bernie SandersRead
The first glance at History convinces us that the actions of men proceed from their needs, their passions, their characters and talents; and impresses us with the belief that such needs, passions and interests are the sole spring of actions.
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich HegelRead
Society today is being fragmented by a way of thinking that is inherently short-sighted because it disregards the full horizon of truth - the truth about God and about us. By its nature, relativism fails to see the whole picture. It ignores the very principles that enable us to live and flourish in unity, order and harmony.
Pope Benedict XviRead
War is murder. And the military preparations now being made for a potential major confrontation are aimed at collective murder. In a nuclear age the victims would be numbered by the millions. This naked truth must be faced.
Alva MyrdalRead
To give up your individuality is to annihilate yourself.
Robert Green IngersollRead
The highest point of philosophy is to be both wise and simple; this is the angelic life.
John ChrysostomRead