C. S. Lewis Quotes

I preferred the weapons of dialectic to all the other teachings of philosophy, and armed with these, I chose the conflicts of disputation rather than the trophies of war.

You know, I've taught philosophy for years and one argues in the hypothetical all the time.

A philosopher once said, 'Half of good philosophy is good grammar.'

Dialectic thought is an attempt to break through the coercion of logic by its own means.

When we reason upon general subjects, one may justly affirm, that our speculations can scarce ever be too fine, provided they be just.

Reason is non-negotiable. Try to argue against it, or to exclude it from some realm of knowledge, and you've already lost the argument, because you're using reason to make your case. ... We don't "believe" in reason.

Philosophy may describe unreasoning, as it may describe force; it cannot hope to refute them.

Logic works, metaphysics contemplates.

What I always liked about Socrates was his insistence on questioning things for the sake of reaching some sort of clarity - even if it is only clarity about the gaps in our knowledge.

I am aware that a philosopher's ideas are not subject to the judgment of ordinary persons, because it is his endeavour to seek the truth in all things, to the extent permitted to human reason by God.

Philosophy has to be enquiring; it can take nothing on faith, and its methods are based not on the blind acceptance of authority, but on establishing truths by reason and argument.

The very essence of rationalism is that it assumes that the reason is the highest faculty in man and the lord of all the rest.

I have never entered into any controversy in defense of my philosophical opinions; I leave them to take their chance in the world. If they are right, truth and experience will support them; if wrong, they ought to be refuted and rejected. Disputes are apt to sour one's temper and disturb one's quiet.

Whoever does not philosophize for the sake of philosophy, but rather uses philosophy as a means, is a sophist.

There is no philosophy without the art of ignoring objections.

Those who invalidate reason ought seriously to consider whether they argue against reason with or without reason.

Logic is the last scientific ingredient of Philosophy; its extraction leaves behind only a confusion of non-scientific, pseudo problems.

There is only one thing a philosopher can be relied upon to do, and that is to contradict other philosophers.

Philosophy is a battle against the bewitchment of our intelligence by means of language.

The method of exposition which philosophers have adopted leads many to suppose that they are simply inquiries, that they have no interest in the conclusions at which they arrive, and that their primary concern is to follow their premises to their logical conclusions.

By free-thinking I mean the use of the understanding in endeavoring to find out the meaning of any proposition whatsoever, in considering the nature of the evidence for or against it, and in judging of it according to the seeming force or weakness of the evidence.

Use your logick, and then your rhetorick. Rhetorick without logick, is like a tree with leaves and blossoms, but no root; yet I confess more are taken with rhetorick than logick, because they are catched with a free expression, when they understand not reason. Logick must be natural, or it is worth nothing at all: Your rhetorick figures may be learned.

Philosophy is a performance sport - you have to play it with somebody back and forth.

That's one thing I learned in my philosophy training - if you're writing a paper on Aristotle, you have to first show that you understand him. Then you can make your counterargument.

Every single university student should study philosophy. You need to lead the examined life and question your beliefs. If you don't learn critical thinking, then political debate degenerates into a contest of slogans.