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| 23025 | Philosophers should be more inductive, and test results by their conclusions, not their self-evidence |
| Full Idea: The progress of philosophy seems to demand that, like science, it should learn to practise induction, to test its premisses by the conclusions to which they lead, and not merely by their apparent self-evidence. | |||
| From: Bertrand Russell (Explanations in reply to Mr Bradley [1899], nr end) | |||
| A reaction: [from Twitter] Love this. It is 'one person's modus ponens is another person's modus tollens'. I think all philosophical conclusions, without exception, should be reached by evaluating the final result fully, and not just following a line of argument. |