51 Quotes
"The thing that separates human beings from other animals is our extraordinary capacity for complex, abstract thought."
— Julian Baggini
Think yourself better: 10 rules of philosophy to live by"But our imperfect minds have also generated terrible mistakes and dangerous ideologies."
— Julian Baggini
Think yourself better: 10 rules of philosophy to live by"Without these “intellectual virtues” even the cleverest end up merely playing theoretical games."
— Julian Baggini
Think yourself better: 10 rules of philosophy to live by"“A wrangler is one who aims only at victory, being indifferent whether the arguments which he employs support his own contention or that of his opponent.”"
— Julian Baggini
Think yourself better: 10 rules of philosophy to live by"Gautama distinguishes between three kinds of debate. In jalpa (wrangling) the aim is victory, while vitanda (cavilling) is concerned wholly with criticising the other side. But in good or honest discussion, vada, the aim is truth."
— Julian Baggini
Think yourself better: 10 rules of philosophy to live by"One such philosopher, Bernard Williams, identified sincerity as one of the two primary “virtues of truth”, alongside accuracy."
— Julian Baggini
Think yourself better: 10 rules of philosophy to live by"The most dangerous enemy of sincerity is not deliberate deception but the desire to be right overpowering the desire to get to the truth. Sincerity in thought therefore requires overcoming an ego that hates admitting being wrong."
— Julian Baggini
Think yourself better: 10 rules of philosophy to live by"“People’s real reasons for reaching their practical conclusions are so often not the ones they give in their arguments.”"
— Julian Baggini
Think yourself better: 10 rules of philosophy to live by"But just as we are not as smart as we like to think we are, other people are not usually as stupid as we take them to be."
— Julian Baggini
Think yourself better: 10 rules of philosophy to live by"To avoid what David Hume called the “vulgar error” of “putting nothing but nonsense into the Mouth of the Adversary” we should employ the principle of charity."
— Julian Baggini
Think yourself better: 10 rules of philosophy to live by"This requires us to consider the best, strongest version of an opponent’s argument, not only the worst."
— Julian Baggini
Think yourself better: 10 rules of philosophy to live by"But there were more serious, less easily dismissed arguments, and those were the ones that most demanded a response."
— Julian Baggini
Think yourself better: 10 rules of philosophy to live by"“I’m not clever, I don’t find arguments easy to follow.”"
— Julian Baggini
Think yourself better: 10 rules of philosophy to live by"Similarly, Warnock’s excellence was not as an original thinker."
— Julian Baggini
Think yourself better: 10 rules of philosophy to live by"There are times when confidence and conviction are needed. But when we’re trying to think as clearly as possible, their absence is a virtue, not a vice."
— Julian Baggini
Think yourself better: 10 rules of philosophy to live by"4. Keep it simple, but not simplistic"
— Julian Baggini
Think yourself better: 10 rules of philosophy to live by"“It is futile to do with more things that which can be done with fewer.”"
— Julian Baggini
Think yourself better: 10 rules of philosophy to live by"“What is necessary is to rectify names.”"
— Julian Baggini
Think yourself better: 10 rules of philosophy to live by"“If names be not correct, language is not in accordance with the truth of things. If language be not in accordance with the truth of things, affairs cannot be carried on to success.”"
— Julian Baggini
Think yourself better: 10 rules of philosophy to live by"Philosophers have always been keen to define their terms and use language accurately."
— Julian Baggini
Think yourself better: 10 rules of philosophy to live by"Getting words right sometimes requires changing them. “Gay marriage” used to be an oxymoron but most have come to agree that it is right that the meaning of “marriage” has evolved."
— Julian Baggini
Think yourself better: 10 rules of philosophy to live by"“I suspect I’ve always been an awful trespasser.”"
— Julian Baggini
Think yourself better: 10 rules of philosophy to live by"Many – maybe most – important issues cannot be resolved with just one kind of expertise. To think about how to feed a nation you need to call on the knowledge of dieticians, ethicists, farmers, ecologists, cooks and economists."
— Julian Baggini
Think yourself better: 10 rules of philosophy to live by"Breadth used to be a typical characteristic of philosophers."
— Julian Baggini
Think yourself better: 10 rules of philosophy to live by"Breadth of thought, however, always requires the sacrifice of some depth."
— Julian Baggini
Think yourself better: 10 rules of philosophy to live by"7. Think for yourself, not by yourself"
— Julian Baggini
Think yourself better: 10 rules of philosophy to live by"“No culture has a monopoly on wisdom, no culture embodies all the great values, and therefore each culture has a great deal to learn from others, through dialogue.”"
— Julian Baggini
Think yourself better: 10 rules of philosophy to live by"‘Have courage to make use of your own understanding’ is thus the motto of enlightenment.”"
— Julian Baggini
Think yourself better: 10 rules of philosophy to live by"As Bhikhu Parekh argues, our willingness to draw on outside knowledge should extend to thinkers beyond our own cultures."
— Julian Baggini
Think yourself better: 10 rules of philosophy to live by"Just as it is arrogant to think that we as individuals have nothing to learn from our peers, to assume any one tradition has a monopoly on making sense of the world is pure chauvinism."
— Julian Baggini
Think yourself better: 10 rules of philosophy to live by"8. Seek clarity not certainty"
— Julian Baggini
Think yourself better: 10 rules of philosophy to live by"“Philosophy aims at the logical clarification of thoughts. Philosophy is not a body of doctrine but an activity.”"
— Julian Baggini
Think yourself better: 10 rules of philosophy to live by"Philosophers – and I suspect all of us – tend towards one of two different objectives: clarity and certainty."
— Julian Baggini
Think yourself better: 10 rules of philosophy to live by"Another reason to be suspicious of certainty is that it is seductive."
— Julian Baggini
Think yourself better: 10 rules of philosophy to live by"Certainty is also the friend of dogmatism, arrogance and fundamentalism. Those who seek it should be careful what they wish for."
— Julian Baggini
Think yourself better: 10 rules of philosophy to live by"“Attention is rewarded by a knowledge of reality.”"
— Julian Baggini
Think yourself better: 10 rules of philosophy to live by"Paying close attention, rather than constructing arguments, lies at the heart of the best philosophising."
— Julian Baggini
Think yourself better: 10 rules of philosophy to live by"It was also by paying close attention that Hume saw how Descartes was wrong to conclude that this thinker whose existence was certain was an indivisible, mental substance."
— Julian Baggini
Think yourself better: 10 rules of philosophy to live by"Hume, like the Buddha, invited us to attend more carefully and observe that we are only ever aware of particular thoughts, feelings and sensations, not an “I” that stands behind them."
— Julian Baggini
Think yourself better: 10 rules of philosophy to live by"Arguments do matter, but assessing the validity of our reasoning requires paying close attention to its progression more than it does knowledge of formal logic. Good thinking is just thinking with full attention."
— Julian Baggini
Think yourself better: 10 rules of philosophy to live by"“Some vices miss what is right because they are deficient, others because they are excessive, in feelings or in actions, while virtue finds and chooses the mean.”"
— Julian Baggini
Think yourself better: 10 rules of philosophy to live by"One principle that can be applied almost universally is Aristotle’s incredibly useful doctrine of the mean, a version of which is also taught by Kongzi. This says that for practically every virtue, there is not an opposite vice but an excess and a deficiency."
— Julian Baggini
Think yourself better: 10 rules of philosophy to live by"Aristotle said: “It is the mark of the trained mind never to expect more precision in the treatment of any subject than the nature of that subject permits.”"
— Julian Baggini
Think yourself better: 10 rules of philosophy to live by"That is why every intellectual virtue needs to come with a warning not to slavishly apply it: follow the argument wherever it leads but don’t follow it to absurdity"
— Julian Baggini
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