Philosophy and Wisdom

⚪️ ⚪️ ⚪️ ⚪️ ⚪️ Human reason has the peculiar fate in one species of its cognitions that it is burdened with questions which it cannot dismiss, since they are given to it as problems by the nature of reason itself, but which it also cannot answer, since they transcend every capacity" of human reason. Reason falls into this perplexity through no fault of its own. It begins from principles whose use is unavoidable in the course of experience and at the same time sufficiently warranted by it. With these principles it rises (as its nature also requires) ever higher, to more remote conditions. But since it becomes aware in this way that its business must always remain incomplete because the questions never cease, reason sees itself necessitated to take refuge in principles that overstep all possible use in experience, and yet seem so unsuspicious that even ordinary common sense agrees with them. But it thereby falls into obscurity and contradictions, from which it can indeed surmise that it must somewhere be proceeding on the ground of hidden errors; but it cannot discover them, for the principles on which it is proceeding, since they surpass the bounds of all experience, no longer recognize any touchstone of experience. The battlefield of these endless controversies is called metaphysics. Preface The Critique of Pure Reason Immanuel Kant

Philosophy should show us the hierarchy of our instinctive beliefs, beginning with those we hold most strongly and presenting each as much isolated and as free from irrelevant additions as possible. It should take care to show that, in the form in which they are finally set forth, our instinctive beliefs do not clash but form a harmonious system. There can never be any reason for rejecting one instinctive belief except that it clashes with others; thus, if they are found to harmonise, the whole system becomes worthy of acceptance. The Problems of Philosophy Bertrand Russell

Of course, it is not by argument that we originally come by our belief in an independent external world. We find this belief ready in ourselves as soon as we begin to reflect: it is what may be called an instinctive belief. We should never have been led to question this belief but for the fact that, at any rate in the case of sight, it seems as if the sense-datum itself were instinctively believed to be the independent object, whereas argument shows that the object cannot be identical with the sense-datum. This discovery, how-ever— which is not at all paradoxical in the case of taste and smell and sound, and only slightly so in the case of touch — leaves un- diminished our instinctive belief that there are objects corresponding to our sense-data. The Problems of Philosophy Bertrand Russell

Thus, every principle of simplicity urges us to adopt the natural view, that there really are objects other than our selves and our sense-data which have an existence not dependent upon our perceiving them. The Problems of Philosophy Bertrand Russell

⚪️ ⚪️ ⚪️ ⚪️ ⚪️ In whatever way and through whatever means a cognition may relate to objects, that through which it relates immediately to them, and at which all thought as a means is directed as an end, is intuition. This, however, takes place only insofar as the object is given to us; but this, in turn, is possible only if it affects the mind in a certain way. The capacity (receptivity) to acquire representations through the way in which we are affected by objects, which is called sensibility. Objects are therefore given to us by means of sensibility, and it alone affords us intuitions; but they are thought through the understanding, and from it arise concepts. But all thought, whether straightaway (directe) or through a detour (indirecte), must ultimately be related to intuitions, thus, in our case, to sensibility, since there is no other way in which objects can be given to us. The critique of Pure Reason Immanuel Kant

Thus, if there are to be public neutral objects, which can be in some sense, known to many different people, there must be something over and above the private and particular sense-data which appear to various people. The Problems of Philosophy Bertrand Russel

By inventing the method of doubt, and by showing that subjective things are the most certain, Descartes performed a great service to philosophy, and one which makes him still useful to all students of the subject. The Problems of Philosophy Bertrand Russell

Descartes (1596_1650) the founder of modern philosophy, invented a method which may still be used with profit _ the method of systematic doubt. He determined that he would believe nothing which he did not see quite clearly and distinctly to be true. Whatever he could bring himself to doubt, he would doubt, until he saw reason for not doubing it. By applying this method he gradually became convinced that the only existence of which he could be quite certain was his own. The Problems of Philosophy Bertrand Russell

Philosophy, if it cannot answer so many questions as we could wish, has at least the power of asking questions which increase the interest of the world and show the strangeness and wonder lying just below the surface even in the commonest things of daily life. Bertrand Russell The Problems of Philosophy

⚪️ ⚪️ ⚪️ If I knew of something that could serve my nation but would ruin another, I would not propose it to my prince, for I am first a man and only then a Frenchman ... because I am necessarily a man, and only accidentally am I French. Montesquieu (1689–1755)

Thus what we directly see and feel is merely "appearance," which we believe to be a sign of some "reality" behind. Bertrand Russell The Problems of Philosophy

But whether valid or not, the argument has been very widely advanced in one form or another; and very many philosophers, perhaps a majority, have held that there is nothing real except minds and their ideas. Such philosophers are called "idealists." When they come to explaining matter, they either say, like Berkeley, that matter is really nothing but a collection of ideas, or they say, like Leibniz (1646—1716), that what appears as matter is really a collection of more or less rudimentary minds. Bertrand Russell The Problems of Philosophy

But Berkeley retains the merit of having shown that the existence of matter is capable of being denied without absurdity, and that if there are any things that exist independently of us they cannot be the immediate objects of our sensations. Bertrand Russell The problems of Philosophy

⚪️ ⚪️ ⚪️ ⚪️ If I take death into my life, acknowledge it, and face it squarely, I will free myself from the anxiety of death and the pettiness of life - and only then will I be free to become myself. Martin Heidegger

In the search for certainty, it is natural to begin with our present experiences, and in some sense, no doubt, knowledge is to be derived from them. But any statement as to what it is that our immediate experiences make us know is very likely to be wrong. Bertrand Russell The problems of Philosophy

⚪️ ⚪️ ⚪️ In daily life, we assume as certain many things which, on a closer scrutiny, are found to be so full of apparent contradictions that only a great amount of thought enables us to know what it is that we really may believe. Bertrand Russell The Problems of Philosophy

⚪️ ⚪️ ⚪️ Is there any knowledge in the world which is so certain that no reasonable man could doubt it? This question, which at first sight might not seem difficult, is really one of the most difficult that can be asked. Bertrand Russell The problems of Philosophy

⚪️ ⚪️ ⚪️ Even if there is only one possible unified theory, it is just a set of rules and equations. What is it that breathes fire into the equations and makes a universe for them to describe? Stephen Hawking

⚪️ ⚪️ ⚪️ To confine our attention to terrestrial matters would be to limit the human spirit. Stephen Hawking

⚪️ ⚪️ ⚪️ In my opinion, there is no aspect of reality beyond the reach of the human mind. Stephen Hawking