Haack On Old Deferentialists and New Cynics

The Old Deferentialists, taking the rationality of science for granted, assumed that there must be a uniquely rational method of inquiry exclusive to the sciences; the New Cynics, noticing the failure of efforts to articulate what that uniquely rational method is, conclude that science is not a rational enterprise, in fact, that the whole idea of objectively better or worse conducted inquiry is ideological humbug. Neither the Old Deferentialism nor the New Cynicism will do: the former is too uncritically deferential to science, the latter is too uncritically critical. 
Susan Haack, Manifesto of a Passionate Moderate, p.3
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Wittgenstein On Calculi Containing Contradictions

Indeed, even at this stage I predict a time when there will be mathematical investigations of calculi containing contradictions, and people will actually be proud of having emancipated themselves even from consistency.
Ludwig Wittgenstein, Philosophical Remarks
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Priest On the Say-so of Experts

[N]o one is an expert in many areas, and we all have to accept things on the say-so of experts in some areas. If someone believes that it is irrational to believe contradictions on the basis of experts in logic and philosophy, their belief is not irrational. The charge of irrationality is levelled against people who ought to have known better. 
Graham Priest, Doubt Truth to be a Liar, p.121
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論理性

有些基本的行為動機並非出於理性 ── 例如愛、品味與性格 ── 但是,「與理性無關」並不等同於「非理性」。喜歡草莓更甚於覆盆子,這與理性或非理性無關;然而,就偏好來看,如果此時草莓與覆盆子的價格相同,卻捨草海而買覆盆子,就是個非理性的選擇。
朱立安.巴吉尼,自願被吃的豬
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Rorty On Analytic Philosophy

Any problem that enjoys a simultaneous vogue in ten of the hundred or so “analytic” philosophy departments in America is doing exceptionally well. The field these days is a jungle of competing research programs, programs which seem to have a shorter and shorter half-life as the years go by.
Richard Rorty, Consequences of Pragmatism: Essays: 1972 - 1980
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Moore On the Business of Philosophers

It is not the business of the ethical philosopher to give personal advice or exhortation.
G. E. Moore, Principia Ethica
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Grice On Philosophy

It is no more sensible to complain that philosophy is no longer capable of solving practical problems than it is to complain that the study of the stars no longer enables one to predict the course of world events. 
Paul Grice, “Postwar Oxford Philosophy”
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Wittgenstein On Language

Our language can be regarded as an ancient city: a maze of little streets and squares, of old and new houses, and of houses with extensions from various periods; and this surrounded by a multitude of new suburbs with straight and regular streets and uniform houses. 
Ludwig Wittgenstein, Philosophical Investigation
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Quine On Empiricism

For my part I do, qua lay physicist, believe in physical objects and not in Homer’s gods; and I consider it a scientific error to believe otherwise. But in point of epistemological footing the physical objects and the gods differ only in degree and not in kind. Both sorts of entities enter our conception only as cultural posits. The myth of physical objects is epistemologically superior to most in that it has proved more efficacious than other myths as a device for working a manageable structure into the flux of experience.
W. V. Quine, “Two Dogmas of Empiricism”
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Russell On Wittgenstein

It has long been one of my dreams to found a great school of mathematically-minded philosophers, but I don’t know whether I shall ever get it accomplished. I had hopes of Norton, but he has not the physique, Broad is all right, but has no fundamental originality. Wittgenstein of course is exactly my dream. 
Bertrand Russell to Lady Ottoline Morrell, December 29, 1912
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How is Pure Mathematics Possible

The question which Kant put at the beginning of his philosophy, namely “How is pure mathematics possible?” is an interesting and difficult one, to which every philosophy which is not purely sceptical must find some answer. 
Bertrand Russell, The Problems of Philosophy
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Schwartz On Kripke

Here I must pause a moment to pay homage to Saul Kripke. I do not think that I am exaggerating too much if say that Kripke's Naming and Necessity is the apotheosis of analytic philosophy. Kripke’s analysis involving his prying apart of analyticity, a prioricity, and necessity, including his demonstrating that such statements as “Water is H20,” “Tigers are animals,” and “Gold is the element with atomic num­ber 79,” are necessary, a posteriori, and synthetic is the dialectical synthesis of logical positivism and Quinean pragmatism. It respects Quine’s insistence that such claims are revisable without admitting contingency. It respects the logical positivists’ insistence that such claims are necessary while avoiding confusions about analyticity. Kripke’s analysis is a fruitful application of modal logic, and a deep expression of our ordinary linguistic intuitions on which he relies. It honors Aristotelian essentialism and natural science. It is a meld­ ing of metaphysics and physics. His distinction between descriptions used as definitions and used to fix the reference is a masterpiece of philosophical insight. It clarifies all sorts of issues. I must pause to emphasize also that many others were involved in this apotheosis and had anticipated it in various ways: Putnam and Donnellan, of course; but also Carnap, Ruth Barcan Marcus, Alvin Plantinga, David Lewis and, of course, Quine as the spur. But no one else pulled it together, made it as cogent and compelling, and made as many connections as did Kripke.

Stephen Schwartz, A Brief History of Analytic Philosophy: From Russell to Rawls
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Stalnaker On Kripke

[Kripke’s] most important philosophical accomplishment is in the way he posed and clarified the questions, and not in the particular answers that he gave to him. 
Robert Stalnaker, “Reference and Necessity”
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Weston On Arguments

Once we have arrived at a conclusion that is well supported by reasons, we use arguments to explain and defend it. A good argument doesn't merely repeat conclusions. Instead it offers reasons and evidence so that other people can make up their minds for themselves. If you become convinced that we should indeed change the way we raise and use animals, for example, you must use arguments to explain how you arrived at your conclusion. That is how you will convince others: by offering the reasons and evidence that convinced you. It is not a mistake to have strong views. The mistake is to have nothing else.
Anthony Weston, A Rulebook for Arguments (4th), p. xii

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Hand On Understanding

Of course, people seem to think that understanding a phenomenon takes away its mystery. This is true in the sense that understanding means removing obscurity, obfuscation, ambiguity and confusion.
David Hand, The Improbability Principle
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