David Hume Quotes

Philosophy likes to keen common sense on the run.

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.

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

The true function of philosophy is to educate us in the principles of reasoning and not to put an end to further reasoning by the introduction of fixed conclusions.

Finding bad reasons for what one believes for other bad reasons - that's philosophy.

Like all religions, Reason presents itself as the solution to the problems it has created

Rationalism is an adventure in the clarification of thought.

Good philosophy must exist, if for no other reason, because bad philosophy needs to be answered.

Logic works, metaphysics contemplates.

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.

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.

Skepticism is the first step on the road to philosophy.

Reason is the test of ridicule, not ridicule the test of truth.

I read, I study, I examine, I listen, I think, and out of all that I try to form an idea into which I put as much common sense as I can.

Doubt the conventional wisdom unless you can verify it with reason and experiment.

The first step towards philosophy is incredulity.

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

It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.

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.

My profession is I'm a dissident philosopher.

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.

I enjoy a good reasoned argument. I love the power of logic.

Philosophy teaches you to think big.

The first thing you get from the humanities, when they're well taught, is critical thinking. Philosophy in particular can play that role, not just in universities but in schools as well.

Philosophy, as the modern world knows it, is only intellectual club-swinging.