Marvin Minsky Quotes

Logic is not a body of doctrine, but a mirror-image of the world. Logic is transcendental.

How empty is theory in the presence of fact!

Theory and practice sometimes clash. And when that happens, theory loses. Every single time.

God forbid that Truth should be confined to Mathematical Demonstration!

Many scientists think that philosophy has no place, so for me it's a sad time because the role of reflection, contemplation, meditation, self inquiry, insight, intuition, imagination, creativity, free will, is in a way not given any importance, which is the domain of philosophers.

The man of science is a poor philosopher.

A theory must be tempered with reality.

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

I don't see myself as a philosopher. That's awfully boring.

Philosophy: Unintelligible answers to insoluble problems.

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

Logic is the beginning of wisdom, not the end.

Philosophy is the product of wonder.

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

[Logic and philosophy] were of no use, in the church or the state, in the cloister or the court, in peace or war, at home or abroad or anywhere but in the schools

We cannot infer that because sciences of things divine and human are full of controversies and quarrels, therefore their whole subject-matter is uncertain ; for there have been many persons so enamoured of contradiction, as to turn into ridicule geometrical axioms.

In practical life we are compelled to follow what is most probable ; in speculative thought we are compelled to follow truth. A man would perish of hunger and thirst, if he refused to eat or drink, till he had obtained positive proof that food and drink would be good for him. But in philosophic reflection this is not so. On the contrary, we must take care not to admit as true anything, which is only probable. For when one falsity has been let in, infinite others follow.

I want to study philosophy. That fascinates me.

In practical life we are compelled to follow what is most probable ; in speculative thought we are compelled to follow truth.

Man discovers truth by reason only, not by faith.

Facts are not truths; they are not conclusions; they are not even premises, but in the nature and parts of premises.

If we take in our hand any volume; of divinity or school metaphysics, for instance; let us ask, Does it contain any abstract reasoning concerning quantity or number? No. Does it contain any experimental reasoning concerning matter of fact and existence? No. Commit it then to the flames: for it can contain nothing but sophistry and illusion.

Rationality is the recognition of the fact that nothing can alter the truth and nothing can take precedence over that act of perceiving it.

Logic doesn't apply to the real world. D. R. Hofstadter and D. C. Dennett (eds.) The Mind's I, 1981.

My objection to supernatural beliefs is precisely that they miserably fail to do justice to the sublime grandeur of the real world. They represent a narrowing-down from reality, an impoverishment of what the real world has to offer.