Jerome Bruner Quotes

All our knowledge begins with the senses, proceeds then to the understanding, and ends with reason. There is nothing higher than reason.

Knowledge consists in understanding the evidence that establishes the fact, not in the belief that it is a fact.

All reasoning ends in an appeal to self-evidence.

The only good reason to embrace a philosophical position is that you are convinced it is true or at least makes sense of the world better than the alternatives.

The psychologists and the metaphysicians wrangle endlessly over the nature of the thinking process in man, but no matter how violently they differ otherwise they all agree that it has little to do with logic and is not much conditioned by overt facts.

Intuition and concepts constitute... the elements of all our knowledge, so that neither concepts without an intuition in some way corresponding to them, nor intuition without concepts, can yield knowledge.

The belief of our Reason is an Exercise of Faith, and Faith is an Act of Reason.

The word 'belief' is a difficult thing for me. I don't believe. I must have a reason for a certain hypothesis. Either I know a thing, and then I know it - I don't need to believe it.

I had therefore to remove knowledge, in order to make room for belief.

Scientia is knowledge. It is only in the popular mind that it is equated with facts.

It is not rational to assume, without evidence, that rationality can disclose everything about the world, just because it can disclose some things. Our intuition in favour of rationality, where we are inclined to use it, is just that - an intuition. Reason is founded in intuition and ends in intuition, like a pair of massive bookends.

The logic of validation allows us to move between the two limits of dogmatism and skepticism.

Dogmatism and skepticism are both, in a sense, absolute philosophies; one is certain of knowing, the other of not knowing. What philosophy should dissipate is certainty, whether of knowledge or ignorance.

We must never assume that which is incapable of proof.

Science gives us knowledge, but only philosophy can give us wisdom.

A very great deal more truth can become known than can be proved.

Science is what you know. Philosophy is what you don't know.

In my opinion, it helps enormously to know why something is true, rather than being told it is true, for why should you believe me? Never believe anything on the authority of a single person but seek confirmation — and reason is the best confirmation

The scientist insists on verification; the religious theologian does not; the philosopher sometimes does and sometimes does not

The fact that a belief has a good moral effect upon a man is no evidence whatsoever in favor of its truth.

If faith is a valid tool of knowledge, then anything can be true 'by faith,' and therefore nothing is true. If the only reason you can accept a claim is by faith, then you are admitting that the claim does not stand on its own merits.

Truth is something that we can attempt to doubt, and then perhaps, after much exertion, discover that part of the doubt is not justified.

The things of which we want the proof are those we know the best.

God forbid that Truth should be confined to Mathematical Demonstration!

Intuition does not in itself amount to knowledge, yet cannot be disregarded by philosophers and psychologists.