C. S. Lewis Quotes

He could dismiss several schools of philosophy by shifting slightly in his chair or toting his whisky glass.

Philosophy has its bugbears, as well as superstition.

Philosophy just puts everything before us, and neither explains nor deduces anything.-Since everything lies open to view there is nothing to explain

There is philosophy, which is about conceptual analysis - about the meaning of what we say - and there is all of this ... all of life.

The need of reason is not inspired by the quest for truth but by the quest for meaning. And truth and meaning are not the same. The basic fallacy , taking precedence over all specific metaphysical fallacies, is to interpret meaning on the model of truth.

The next time anyone asks you "What is Bertrand Russell's philosophy?" the correct answer is "What year, please?"

About no subject is there less philosophizing than about philosophy.

Metaphysics means nothing but an unusually obstinate effort to think clearly.

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

I have taught Philosophy, Religious Studies, English Literature, Cultural Studies, Writing and Publishing Studies, Critical Thinking.

Logic pervades the world; the limits of the world are also the limits of logic.

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

I see philosophy as a fairly abstract activity, as concerned mainly with the analysis of criticism and concepts, and of course most usefully of scientific concepts.

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

Philosophy as science, as serious, rigorous, indeed apodictically rigorous science -- the dream is over.

In the case of Anathem, most of the research had to do with philosophy and metaphysics. Reading this sort of thing has never been my strong suit, so I actually had to be somewhat more "organized and results-driven" than is my habit. I just made up my mind that I was going to have to read some of these philosophy tomes, and I forced myself to read something like 10 pages a day until I had bashed my way through them.

See skulking Truth to her old cavern fled, Mountains of Casuistry heap'd o'er her head! Philosophy, that lean'd on Heav'n before, Shrinks to her second cause, and is no more. Physic of Metaphysic begs defence, And Metaphysic calls for aid on Sense! See Mystery to Mathematics fly!

Analytical philosophy was very interesting. It always struck me as being very interesting and full of tremendous intellectual curiosities. It is wonderful to see the mind at work in such an intense manner, but, for me, it was still too far removed from my own issues.

Frege has the merit of ... finding a third assertion by recognising the world of logic which is neither mental nor physical.

One of the main reasons for the existence of philosophy is not that it enables you to find truth (it can never do that) but that it does provide you a refuge for definitions.

As soon as we cease to believe in such an engineer and in a discourse which breaks with the received historical discourse, and as soon as we admit that every finite discourse is bound by a certain bricolage and that the engineer and the scientist are also species of bricoleurs , then the very idea of bricolage is menaced and the difference in which it took on its meaning breaks down.

Philosophy ... must not bargain away anything of the emphatic concept of truth.

Philosophy is that part of science which at present people chose to have opinions about, but which they have no knowledge about. Therefore every advance in knowledge robs philosophy of some problems which formerly it had ...and will belong to science.

A philosopher who says, 'There are no truths, only interpretations,' risks the retort: 'Is that true, or only an interpretation?'