Philosophy is the childhood of the intellect, and a culture that tries to skip it will never grow up.
Thomas NagelRead
If you want the truth rather than merely something to say, you will have a good deal less to say.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Truth-seeking may require restraint in conversation and expression.
In this quote, Thomas Nagel emphasizes that pursuing genuine truth often involves careful consideration and sometimes silence. Instead of speaking for the sake of speaking, one should value the complexity and depth of truth, recognizing that it may lead to fewer, more thoughtful contributions to discussions.
Themes
TruthConversationSilenceThoughtfulnessPhilosophy
In practice
Example use cases
During a debate about ethics, one could use this quote to highlight the importance of truthful discourse.
More from Thomas Nagel
All quotes βTo look for a single general theory of how to decide the right thing to do is like looking for a single theory of how to decide what to believe.
Thomas NagelRead
It is prima facie highly implausible that life as we know it is the result of a sequence of physical accidents together with the mechanism of natural selection. We are supposed to abandon this naΓ―ve response, not in favor of a fully worked out physical/chemical explanation but in favor of an alternative that is really a schema for explanation, supported by some examples. What is lacking, to my knowledge, is a credible argument that the story has a nonnegligible probability of being true.
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There is a tendency to seek an objective account of everything before admitting its reality.
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Altruism itself depends on a recognition of the reality of other persons, and on the equivalent capacity to regard oneself as merely one individual among many.
Thomas NagelRead
Once we see an aspect of what we or someone else does as something that happens, we lose our grip on the idea that it has been done and that we can judge the doer and not just the happening.
Thomas NagelRead
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