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 →There was never a night or a problem that could defeat sunrise or hope.
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Contemporary moral philosophy has found an original way of being boring, which is by not discussing moral issues at all.
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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
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