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Single Idea 5361
[filed under theme 1. Philosophy / D. Nature of Philosophy / 1. Philosophy
]
Full Idea
Whoever wishes to become a philosopher must learn not to be frightened by absurdities.
Gist of Idea
Philosophers must get used to absurdities
Source
Bertrand Russell (Problems of Philosophy [1912], Ch. 2)
Book Ref
Russell,Bertrand: 'The Problems of Philosophy' [OUP 1995], p.9
A Reaction
He says this jokingly, but it is obviously true. Philosophy requires extreme imagination, and it also requires taking seriously possibilities that are dismissed by others. It would be a catastrophe if we all dismissed the truth as self-evidently false.
The
32 ideas
with the same theme
[general remarks about philosophy]:
162
|
Can we understand an individual soul without knowing the soul in general?
[Plato]
|
326
|
For relaxation one can consider the world of change, instead of eternal things
[Plato]
|
549
|
All philosophy begins from wonder, either at the physical world, or at ideas
[Aristotle]
|
1798
|
He studied philosophy by suspending his judgement on everything
[Pyrrho, by Diog. Laertius]
|
1771
|
When shown seven versions of the mowing argument, he paid twice the asking price for them
[Zeno of Citium, by Diog. Laertius]
|
3600
|
Slow and accurate thought makes the greatest progress
[Descartes]
|
17016
|
Philosophy must abstract from the senses
[Newton]
|
8095
|
We must think with our entire body and soul
[Joubert]
|
19583
|
Philosophy only begins when it studies itself
[Novalis]
|
8927
|
Philosophy moves essentially in the element of universality
[Hegel]
|
21916
|
Philosophers can't be religious, and don't need to be; philosophy is perilous but free
[Schopenhauer]
|
7834
|
Great philosophies are confessions by the author, growing out of moral intentions
[Nietzsche]
|
4424
|
A warlike philosopher challenges problems to single combat
[Nietzsche]
|
7848
|
Philosophy begins in the horror and absurdity of existence
[Nietzsche, by Ansell Pearson]
|
2909
|
Thinking has to be learned in the way dancing has to be learned
[Nietzsche]
|
4520
|
I don't want to persuade anyone to be a philosopher; they should be rare plants
[Nietzsche]
|
7846
|
Nietzsche thinks philosophy makes us more profound, but not better
[Nietzsche, by Ansell Pearson]
|
22657
|
All good philosophers start from a dumb conviction about which truths can be revealed
[James]
|
5361
|
Philosophers must get used to absurdities
[Russell]
|
2937
|
What we cannot speak about we must pass over in silence
[Wittgenstein]
|
2626
|
A philosopher is outside any community of ideas
[Wittgenstein]
|
20435
|
If philosophy could be summarised it would be pointless
[Adorno]
|
21849
|
Thought should be thrown like a stone from a war-machine
[Deleuze]
|
21887
|
Derrida focuses on other philosophers, rather than on science
[Derrida]
|
3269
|
If your life is to be meaningful as part of some large thing, the large thing must be meaningful
[Nagel]
|
3242
|
Philosophy is the childhood of the intellect, and a culture can't skip it
[Nagel]
|
7973
|
There is no longer anything on which there is nothing to say
[Baudrillard]
|
9786
|
Philosophers working like teams of scientists is absurd, yet isolation is hard
[Cartwright,R]
|
3695
|
Philosophy is a priori if it is anything
[Bonjour]
|
8220
|
Philosophy is in a perpetual state of digression
[Deleuze/Guattari]
|
22519
|
Philosophers are revealed by their fears
[Billington]
|
1606
|
You have to be a Platonist to debate about reality, so every philosopher is a Platonist
[Roochnik]
|