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Full Idea
The philosopher is marked by the distinguishing trait that he possesses inseparably the taste for evidence and the feeling for ambiguity.
Gist of Idea
Philosophers are marked by a joint love of evidence and ambiguity
Source
Maurice Merleau-Ponty (In Praise of Philosophy [1953], p.4), quoted by Sarah Bakewell - At the Existentialist Café 11
Book Ref
Bakewell,Sarah: 'At the Existentialist Café' [Chatto and Windus 2016], p.241
A Reaction
I strongly approve of the idea that philosophers are primarily interested in evidence (rather than reason or logic), and I also like the idea that the ambiguous evidence is the most interesting. The mind looks physical and non-physical.
| 12038 | Translate as 'humans all desire by nature to understand' (not as 'to know') [Aristotle, by Annas] |
| 17949 | Inquiry is the cause of philosophy [Aristotle] |
| 19586 | Philosophers feed on problems, hoping they are digestible, and spiced with paradox [Novalis] |
| 7578 | I conceived it my task to create difficulties everywhere [Kierkegaard] |
| 9254 | In philosophy the truth can only be reached via the ruins of the false [Prichard] |
| 15582 | Perhaps the aim of philosophy is to abolish sham problems [Heidegger] |
| 18704 | Philosophy tries to be rid of certain intellectual puzzles, irrelevant to daily life [Wittgenstein] |
| 21239 | Philosophers are marked by a joint love of evidence and ambiguity [Merleau-Ponty] |
| 22337 | Philosophy must keep returning to the beginning [Murdoch] |
| 13477 | The problems are the monuments of philosophy [Hart,WD] |
| 20446 | Philosophy begins in disappointment, notably in religion and politics [Critchley] |
| 7950 | Philosophy tries to explain how the actual is possible, given that it seems impossible [Macdonald,C] |