Canadian - Philosopher | February 18, 1936 -
A 'philosophical dictionary' is not a dictionary of philosophy that you use to look up obscure thinkers or recondite terms. It is a collection of brief and pithy essays on diverse topics, informed by one vision, and usually arranged in alphabetical order.
Ian Hacking
VisionPhilosophyYouLookObscure
Secrecy is one of the shadier sides of private and public life.
LifeSidesSecrecyPublicPrivate
Although some secrecy is odious, some is essential just to preserve our sense of self.
SelfSenseJustSecrecyPreserve
The word 'revolution' first brings to mind violent upheavals in the state, but ideas of revolution in science, and of political revolution, are almost coeval. The word once meant only a revolving, a circular return to an origin, as when we speak of revolutions per minute or the revolution of the planets about the sun.
ScienceSunMindIdeasSpeakFirst
As a political metaphor, a revolution could, in that sense, mean only a return to better times, or to the true constitution: a ridding of excess or usurpers.
ConstitutionRevolutionBetterTrue
It is possible to argue that our present conception of revolution was staked out more securely in science than in political action.
ScienceActionRevolutionPresent
Despite a certain amount of rhetoric, such as 'the second American Revolution,' there is a fair consensus about which events in the affairs of a people can rightly be called revolutions. It is also clear that such revolutions are proper objects of study for the historian.
PeopleRevolutionAmericanRhetoric
It is so hard to make important decisions that we have a great urge to reduce them to rules.
GreatDecisionsRulesImportantHard
Every moral teacher or spiritual adviser gives injunctions about how to live wisely and well. But life is so complicated and full of uncertainty that rules seldom tell us quite what to do.
LifeLiveTeacherSpiritualRules
Kant taught us that we should follow just those rules of conduct that we would want everybody to follow. Few find this generalization of The Golden Rule a great help.
GreatHelpRulesFindWantGolden
Philip Kitcher thinks that mathematics is surprisingly like empirical science. Few mathematicians would agree; philosophers too, from Socrates on, have held the opposite opinion.
ScienceMathematicsOpinionAgree
Risk analysis can cater to any sort of hazard, but their profession owes its existence to a relatively narrow band of possible dangers.
RiskPossibleBandAnalysisHazard
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