more from this thinker | more from this text
Full Idea
We should not only be grateful to those in whose opinions we at all share but also to those who have gone astray, for even the latter have contributed something.
Gist of Idea
Even people who go astray in their opinions have contributed something useful
Source
Aristotle (Metaphysics [c.324 BCE], 0993b12)
Book Ref
Aristotle: 'Metaphysics', ed/tr. Lawson-Tancred,Hugh [Penguin 1998], p.43
A Reaction
Yes, but what have they contributed? Have they revealed lines of reasoning, or are they just a terrible warning?
| 1649 | Socrates opened philosophy to all, but Plato confined moral enquiry to a tiny elite [Vlastos on Socrates] |
| 1749 | If all laws were abolished, philosophers would still live as they do now [Aristippus elder] |
| 559 | Even people who go astray in their opinions have contributed something useful [Aristotle] |
| 15624 | Free thinking has no presuppositions [Hegel] |
| 19227 | Philosophy is a search for real truth [Peirce] |
| 14862 | Philosophy is more valuable than much of science, because of its beauty [Nietzsche] |
| 8226 | A well-posed problem is a problem solved [Bergson, by Deleuze/Guattari] |
| 2944 | If a question can be framed at all, it is also possible to answer it [Wittgenstein] |
| 9763 | For a good theory of the world, we must focus on our flabby foundational vocabulary [Quine] |
| 9198 | It is no longer possible to be a sage, but we can practice the exercise of wisdom [Hadot] |
| 9408 | Science studies phenomena, but only metaphysics tells us what exists [Mumford] |