philosophers-from-england

"Every thing is what it is, and not another thing."

"The experience of those who have gone before us, conveyed by instruction, shortens our road to knowledge, and by lifting us over a considerable part of the way, leaves us in fresh vigor and spirits to pursue the rest, or run further lengths beyond. For at our entrance into life everything is new, everything unknown, so there is no ground whereon to build a rational conviction, nor other reason to be had for assenting to anything, than because we were taught it. And the like may be said of any particular art or science, wherein docility is the first requisite enabling us to make a proficiency: for judgment comes from experience, and experience is only gotten by practice."

"The judges of England have rarely been original thinkers or great jurists. Many have been craftsmen rather than creators. They have needed the stuff of morals to be supplied to them so that out of it they could fashion the law."

"Ability isn't the most important thing. In most cases the facts aren't really very difficult to get at: no, the most important thing for a judge is—curiously enough—judgment. It’s not so very different from the qualities of a successful businessman or civil servant. I’m always struck by how alike men in high positions seem to be. It’s rather like seeing a lot of different parts of the stage, and finding that they’re all Gerald du Maurier in the end."

"Each jury is a little parliament. The jury sense is the parliamentary sense. I cannot see the one dying and the other surviving. The first object of any tyrant * * * would be to make Parliament utterly subservient to his will; and next to overthrow or diminish trial by jury, for no tyrant could afford to leave a subject’s freedom in the hands of 12 of his countrymen. So that trial by jury is more than an instrument of justice and more than one wheel of the constitution; it is the lamp that shows that freedom lives."

"I think...that it is not possible to set theoretical limits to the power of the State to legislate against immorality. It is not possible to settle in advance exceptions to the general rule or to define inflexibly areas of morality into which the law is in no circumstances to be allowed to enter. Society is entitled by means of its laws to protect itself from dangers, whether from within or without. Here again I think that the political parallel is legitimate. The law of treason is directed against aiding the king's enemies and against sedition from within. The justification for this is that established government is necessary for the existence of society and therefore its safety against violent overthrow must be secured. But an established morality is as necessary as good government to the welfare of society. Societies disintegrate from within more frequently than they are broken up by external pressures. There is disintegration when no common morality is observed and history shows that the loosening of moral bonds is often the first stage of disintegration, so that society is justified in taking the same steps to preserve its moral code as it does to preserve its government... the suppression of vice is as much the law's business as the suppression of subversive activities."

"Competition is something which is actively inculcated in a neoliberal political system as a deliberate way of trying to achieve some kind of progress, but also to impose some kind of discipline. (2016)"

"Politics is a web of very complex technologies, techniques and instruments, as they evolve in a certain direction they can’t simply be reversed at a drop of a hat in the way that I think a lot of the left would like."

"It’s difficult to look at some of the ideas circulated by business gurus, the content of the reports they produce and the fees that they charge for their insights, without becoming a little bit scornful. Some of it’s just so vacuous and therefore extremely difficult to take entirely seriously…"

"In Pascal's view, casuistry was the denial of true morality. It held out no vision of the ideals to which humans should aspire. It commanded no sacrifice, insisted on no heroic dedication. Not only did it trivialize the lofty precepts of the Gospel, it did not even hint at the "natural life of virtue" that had been espoused by Aristotle and Cicero. It was a mere farrago of excuses, loopholes, and evasions."

"Different media of publication—textbooks, monographs, quarterlies, abstracts, and ‘review letters’—have been introduced, one after another, to meet new professional needs; and the historically changing operations of a scientific profession are reflected once more in the transfer of influence from one medium to another. The ‘s’ of seventeenth-century Europe were initially linked by the circulated correspondence of men like Henry Oldenburg. With the foundation of national academies, emphasis shifted to their Transactions and to treatises such as Newton’s Principia, which were published under their auspices. In subsequent centuries, the balance has again shifted several times: to quarterlies, to twice-monthly periodicals, weeklies, and even shorter-term publications. The proliferation of journals and the acceleration of publication are effects, in part of the fragmentation of sub-disciplines, in part of the sharpened competition for priority; but they are associated also with a great decentralization of scientific authority. Where no one can hope to master all the available concepts and theories, scientific professions were bound to move towards a pluralistic pattern of authority. On the very frontiers of research, indeed, we are now back not only with ‘invisible colleges’ but with a multiplicity of Oldenburgs, who circulate duplicated ‘prepublication’ material in highly specialized subjects to an international circle of equally specialized devotees. In the more self-consciously original branches of science—it has even been suggested—only out-of-date ideas ever actually get into print!"

"At the heart of the Stoic doctrine lay a conviction which was...highly favorable to the development of a systematic natural science. For, first and foremost, the Stoics believed in 'determinism'; there was nothing willful about Nature, and everything happened according to law. The secret of human life was to fathom the general character of this universal order and to live in harmony with it. This conviction led certain of the Stoics to elaborate the scientific ideas inherited from their predecessors, but at the same time it reinforced them in beliefs which, to our eyes, appear superstitious. (Their belief in astrological divination...was justified by appealing to the harmony and interaction between celestial and terrestrial events.)"

"When Science at last escaped from the clutches of medieval Scholasticism (which was itself a hybrid between theology and Formal Logic), it happened that ‘Logic’ remained in the old curriculum. So the students of Science were not taught it, and consequently were not paralysed by its technicalities and ineptitudes. They could therefore go ahead, and advance their subjects by the light of nature, without being blocked at every step by sterile subtleties."

"Though we are certain of many things, yet that Certainty is no absolute Infallibility; there still remains the possibility of our being mistaken in all matters of humane Belief and Inquiry."

"The knowledge we have of the Mathematicks, hath no reason to elate us; since by them we know but numbers, and figures, creatures of our own, and are yet ignorant of our Maker's."

"Time as a River, hath brought down to us what is more light and superficial; while things more solid and substantial have been immersed."

"The Sages of old live again in us; and in opinions there is a Metempsychosis."

"The precipitancy of disputation, and the stir and noise of Passions, that usually attend it, must needs be prejudicial to Verity."

"At their parting they say [A Boy! merry meet, merry part.]"

"At their parting they use to say, Merry meet merry part, and that before they are carried to their meetings, their Foreheads are anointed with greenish Oyl that they have from the Spirit which smells raw. They for the most part are carried in the Air. As they pass, they say, Thout, tout a tout, tout, throughout and about. Passing back they say, Rentum Tormentum, and another word which she doth not remember."

"The belief of our Reason is an Exercise of Faith; and Faith is an Act of Reason."

"The indisputable Mathematicks, the only Science Heaven hath yet vouchsaft Humanity, have but few Votaries among the slaves of the Stagirite."

"The Woman in us, still prosecutes a deceit, like that begun in the Garden."

"We cannot conceive how the Fœtus is form'd in the Womb, nor as much as how a Plant springs from the Earth we tread on; we know not how our Souls move the Body, nor how these distant and extream natures are united: ... And if we are ignorant of the most obvious things about us, and the most considerable within our selves, 'tis then no wonder that we know not the constitution and powers of the Creatures, to whom we are such strangers."

"For Mathematical Sciences, he that doubts their certainty, hath need of a dose of Hellebore."

"The Understanding also hath its Idiosyncrasies, as well as other faculties."

"... the as a substitute for is a law about the metrical properties of space around the "attracting" mass. Since it is to have universal validity, it must be a mathematical formula whose form is preserved when it is transformed from any one system of coordinates to any other; and since each system has its own time-measure as well as its own space-measures, time as well as space must be involved in the metrical properties with which the law deals."

"Every scheme of education being, at bottom, a practical philosophy, necessarily touches life at every point. Hence any educational aims which are concrete enough to give definite guidance are correlative to ideals of life—and, as ideals of life are eternally at variance, their conflict will be reflected in educational theories."

"In this context, Hans Asperger and other medics began dividing autistics up into those deemed to have potential worth to the Third Reich given their purportedly strong logical capacities, and those who were to be sterilized or killed along with countless other mad and disabled targets."

"It was capitalism that allowed the body itself to go from being understood as a dynamic organism to being a working or broken machine. And it was not just the fact that new machines were increasingly part of daily life, making it seem natural to use machines as metaphors for the sciences of the age. It was also that the mode of production itself favored a reduction of people to living machines, since they were seen as working or broken in relation to their productive potential."

"It was in Nazi-occupied Austria that autism was coined as a diagnosis. While the term had been coined by the eugenicist and psychiatrist Eugene Bleuler in 1911, Bleuler only meant it to refer to a temporary symptom of schizophrenia. It was only under Nazi rule, in the work of Hans Asperger in the 1930s and 1940s that those who came to be called autistic were singled out as having a unique way of being. During a war where men were expected to express a 'soldier mentality' and to be part of the group, boys who failed to fit this economic requirement were singled out as pathological (it was mostly boys who got the diagnosis) and were baptized with a new name: autism. Those women who were diagnosed were also singled out if they had intellectual disabilities, since they were not seen as fit to reproduce."

"I haue nowe enterprised to describe in our vulgare tunge the fourme of a iuste publike weale: whiche mater I haue gathered as well moste noble autours (grekes and latynes) as by myne owne experience, I beinge continually trayned in some dayly affaires of the publike weale of this your moste noble realme all mooste from my chyldhode."

"Lorde god, howe many good and clene wittes of children be nowe a dayes perisshed by ignorant schole maisters. Howe litle substancial doctrine is apprehended by the fewenesse of good gramariens? Not withstanding I knowe that there be some well lerned, whiche haue taught, and also do teache, but god knoweth a fewe, and they with small effecte, hauing therto no comforte, theyr aptist and moste propre scholers, after they be well instructed in speakyng latine, and understanding some poetes, being taken from theyr schole by their parentes, and either be brought to the courte, and made lakayes or pages, or els are bounden prentises; wherby the worshyp that the maister, aboue any reward, couaiteih to haue by the praise of his scholer, is utterly drowned; wherof I haue herde schole maisters, very well lerned, of goode righte complayne. But yet (as I sayd) the fewenesse of good gramariens is a great impediment of doctrine. ...Undoubtedly ther be in this realme many well lerned, whiche if the name of a schole maister were nat so moche had in contempte, and also if theyr labours with abundant salaries mought be requited, were righte sufficient and able to induce their herers to excellent lernynge, so they be nat plucked away grene, and er they be in doctrine sufficiently rooted. But nowe a dayes, if to a bachelar or maister of arte studie of philosophie waxeth tediouse, if he haue a spone full of latine, he wyll shewe forth a hoggesheed without any lernynge, and offre to teache grammer and expoune noble writers, and to be in the roome of a maister: he wyll, for a small salarie, sette a false colour of lernyng on propre wittes, whiche wyll be wasshed away with one shoure of raine. For if the children be absent from schole by the space of one moneth, the best lerned of them will uneth tell wheder Fato, wherby Eneas was brought in to Itali, were other a man, a horse, a shyppe, or a wylde goose. Al thoughe their maister wyll perchance auaunte hym selfe to be a good philosopher."

"In euery daunse, of a moste auncient custome, there daunseth to gether a man and a woman, holding eche other, by the hande or the arme, whiche betokeneth concorde. Nowe it behouethe the daunsers and also the beholders of them to knowe all qualities incident to a man, and also, all qualities to a woman lyke wyse appertaynynge.A man in his naturall perfection is fiers, hardy, stronge in opinion, couaitous of glorie, desirous of knowlege, appetiting by generation to brynge forthe his semblable. The good nature of a woman is to be milde, timerouse, tractable, benigne, of sure remembrance, and shamfast. Diuers other qualities of eche of them mought be founde, out, but these be moste apparaunt, and for this time sufficient.Wherfore, whan we beholde a man and a woman daunsinge to gether, let us suppose there to be a concorde of all the saide dualities, beinge ioyned to gether, as I haue set them in ordre. And the meuing of the man wolde be more vehement, of the woman more delicate, and with lasse aduauncing of the body, signifienge the courage and strenthe that oughte to be in a man, and the pleasant sobrenesse that shulde be in a woman. And in this wise fiersenesse ioyned with mildenesse maketh Seueritie; audacitie with timerositie maketh Magnanimitie; wilfull opinion and tractabilitie (which is to be shortly persuaded and meued) makethe Constance a vertue; Couaitise of Glorie adourned with benignititie causeth honour; desire of knowlege with sure remembrance procureth Sapienee; Shamfastnes ioyned to appetite of generation maketh Continence, whiche is a meane betwene Chastilie and inordinate luste. These qualities, in this wise beinge knitte to gether, and signified in the personages of man and woman daunsinge, do expresse or sette out the figure of very nobilitie; whiche in the higher astate it is contained, the more. excellent is the vertue in estimation."

"A gentil man, er he take a cooke in to his seruice, he wyll firste diligently examine hym, howe many sortes of meates, potages, and sauces, he can perfectly make, and howe well he can season them, that they may be bothe pleasant and nourishynge; yea and if it be but a fauconer, he wyll scrupulously enquire what skyll he hath in feedyng, called diete, and kepyng of his hauke from all sickenes, also how he can reclaime her and prepare her to flyght. And to suche a cooke or fauconer, whom he findeth expert, he spareth nat to gyue moche wages with other bounteous rewardes. But of a schole maister, to whom he will committe his childe, to be fedde with lernynge and instructed in vertue, whose lyfe shall be the principall monument of his name and honour, he neuer maketh forther enquirie but where he may haue a schole maister; and with howe litel charge; and if one be perchance founden, well lerned, but he will nat take paynes to teache without he may haue a great salary, he than speketh. nothing more, or els saith, What shall so moche wages be gyuen to a schole maister whiche wolde kepe me two seruantes? to whom maye be saide these wordes, that by his sonne being wel lerned he shall receiue more commoditie and also worship than by the seruice of a hundred cokes and fauconers."

"If the two great nations, India and England, cannot be united by political chords, the ties of spiritual and intellectual co-operation will certainly prove a stronger bond of union."

"The maxim of manner, when one tries to be as clear, as brief, and as orderly as one can in what one says, and where one avoids obscurity and ambiguity."

"The maxim of relation, where one tries to be relevant, and says things that are pertinent to the discussion."

"Strong freedom ensures that some actions are represented as directed to ends which are not merely mine, but which are also freely adopted or pursued by me."

"The maxim of quality, where one tries to be truthful, and does not give information that is false or that is not supported by evidence."

"The maxim of quantity, where one tries to be as informative as one possibly can, and gives as much information as is needed, and no more."

"In ages of Faith religion is not only sublime; it is intimate, humorous, domestic; it sits at the hearth and plays in the nursery."

"The real antithesis is not between East and West, but between India and the rest of the world." Only India is different; only India un spools some other possibility fantastically. India is the odd man out of the global citizenry... Thus India stands for something, which distinguishes it from all other peoples...Standing on the Ghats at Benares or by any village well we are transported into the beautiful antique world."

"The scientific denial of immortality is based upon the admitted fact of the connection between mind and brain; whence it is assumed that the death of the brain must involve the death of that, whatever it be, which has been called the soul. This may indeed be true; but it is not necessarily or obviously true; it does not follow logically from the fact of the connection."

"What we commonly have in our mind when we speak of religion is a definite set of doctrines, of a more or less metaphysical character, formulated in a creed and supported by an organization distinct from the state. And the first thing we have to learn about the is that it included nothing of the kind. There was no church, there was no creed, there were no articles. Priests there were, but they were merely public officials, appointed to perform certain religious rites. The distinction between cleric and layman, as we know it, did not exist; and whatever the religion of the Greeks may have been, one thing at any rate is clear, that it was something very different from all that we are in the habit of associating with the world."

"... I doubt whether there is one book of his by which, in the field of his teaching, he is likely to be permanently significant. But if ever I have met wisdom incarnate, Lowes Dickinson was its embodiment. There is not one book of his that does not suggest vistas; nor one that does not make the claim of reason seem more worthy of reverence. He wrote nothing that did not possess beauty of form, delicacy of insight, the call of a supremely generous nature to the life upon the heights."

"Some of my readers may have heard of a club known as the Seekers. It is now extinct; but in its day it was famous, and included a number of men prominent in politics or in the professions. We used to meet once a fortnight, on the Saturday night, in London during the winter, but in the summer usually at the country house of one or other of the members, where we would spend the week end together."

"History may be used to support any conclusion, according to the emphasis of our conscious or unconscious principle of selection."

"... Dickinson published a wide range of books, plays and dialogues throughout his career, including Revolution and Reaction in Modern France (1892), Letters from a Chinese Official (1901), Goethe and Faust (1928), and Plato and His Dialogues (1932). As the breadth of these texts suggests, Dickinson's career stands as testament to an intellectual life led before the concretion of academic specialization. He has been variously described as a classicist, a historian, and a political scientist, and his work on international relations was deeply influenced by an overall critical humanist perspective on intellectual inquiry that embraced a variety of historical, philosophical, literary and political perspectives."

"Science, like art, should not be something extraneous, added as a decoration to other activities of existence; it should be part of them, inspiring our most trivial actions as well as our noblest thoughts."