The Owl of Minerva

Object of the Game: see who you can recognize as saying what, and, where the quote came from

In philosophy we do not draw conclusions "But it must be like this!" is not a philosophical proposition. Philosophy only states what everyone admits. Answer

"It looks to us, my friend, as if you mean to imply that passing the time with friends over a drink-provided we behave ourselves-is a considerable contribution to education." Answer

Let us take, for example, this piece of wax. It has just been taken from the honeycomb; it has not yet quite lost the taste of honey; it retains some of the scent of the flowers from which it was gathered; its color, shape and size are plain to see; it is hard, cold and can be handled without difficulty; if you rap it with your knuckle it makes a sound. In short, it has everything which appears necessary to enable a body to be known as distinctly as possible. But even as I speak, I put the wax by the fire, and look: the residual taste is eliminated, the smell goes away, the color changes, the shape is lost, the size increases; it becomes liquid and hot; you can hardly touch it, and if you strike it, it no longer makes a sound. But does the same wax remain? It must be admitted that it does; no one denies it, no one thinks otherwise. Answer

The hidden harmony is better than the obvious. Answer

When you come to think of it, almost all human behavior and activity is not especially different from animal behavior. The most advanced technologies and craftsmanship bring us, at best, up to the super Chimpanzee level. Actually, the gap between say Plato or Nietzsche and the average human is greater than the gap between that Chimpanzee and the average human. The realm of the real spirit, the true artist, the saint, the philosopher is rarely achieved. Why so few? Why is world history and evolution not stories of progress but rather this endless and futile addition of zeros. No greater values have developed. Hell, the Greeks 3000 years ago were just as advanced as we are. What are these barriers that prevent people to reach their fullest potential? The answer to that question can be found in another question, and that's this: Which is the most universal human characteristic, fear or laziness? Answer

I read: "…philosophers are no nearer to the meaning of 'Reality' than Plato got,…" What a strange situation. How extraordinary that Plato could have got even as far as he did! Or that we could not get any further! Was it because Plato was so extremely clever? Answer

To be is to be the value of a bound variable? Answer

I am responsible for everything... except for my very responsibility, for I am not the foundation of my being. Therefore everything takes place as if I were compelled to be responsible. I am abandoned in the world... in the sense that I find myself suddenly alone and without help, engaged in a world for which I bear the whole responsibility without being able, whatever I do, to tear myself away from this responsibility for an instant. Answer

"the mind should not multiply entities beyond necessity. What can be done with fewer ... is done in vain with more." entities are not to be multiplied beyond necessity (non sunt multiplicanda entia praeter necessitatem). Answer

The present worker must have made mistakes, some perhaps that to himself will one day appear inexcusable: his one consolation is that the thing he will that day welcome from other hands as most certainly passed through his own, and been deliberately rejected. Where he appears most surely to have sinned against the light, it is most sure that he has passed through an agony of hesitation. Answer

The philosophical I is not the man, not the human body or the human soul of which psychology treats, but the metaphysical subject, the limit-not a part of the world. Answer

I had entertain'd some hopes, that however deficient our theory of the intellectual world might be, it wou'd be free from those contradictions, and absurdities, which seem to attend every explication, that human reason can give of the material world. But upon a more strict review of the section concerning personal identity, I find myself involv'd in such a labyrinth, that, I must confess, I neither know how to correct my former opinions, nor how to render them consistent. If this be not a good general reason for skepticism, 'tis at least a sufficient one (if I were not already abundantly supplied) for me to entertain a diffidence and modesty in all my decisions. Answer

“This too is a property of the rational soul, love of one’s neighbor, and truth and modesty, and to value nothing more than itself, which is also the property of Law. Thus then right reason differs not at all from the reason of justice.” Answer

“The just man is most free from trouble, the unjust most full of trouble.” Answer

“Whenever there is a right, the case is one of justice, and not of the virtue of beneficence; and whoever does not place the distinction between justice and morality in general, where we have now placed it, will be found to make no distinction between them at all, but to merge all morality in justice.” Answer

The Owl of Minerva

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