Philosophy Bites Quotes

“Think how the world must have looked to our ancestors, as they began to emerge from their animal background and become conscious. By their conversation amongst themselves, they had to learn to structure their experience and build up a picture of the world around them. We have done this for ten thousand years and more, and now we are where we are today. We ourselves had to build up our own picture of the world, by degrees, from within, through our own conversation. That is how the human race came into being.”
― David Edmonds, Philosophy Bites

“Why do we classify all the mental things together as the mental at all? I think action is mental because it’s intentional, in the sense that it’s directed on to something other than itself. So when you act, when you go to buy yourself a coffee, you’re aiming at something beyond yourself, namely the result of getting a coffee.”
― David Edmonds, Philosophy Bites

“the idea is that the infinite doesn’t stand opposed to anything else—it is all-inclusive—while on the other hand, precisely what that is, is a way of contrasting the infinite with the finite. By definition, you can’t contrast the infinite with the finite, although that’s exactly what you want to do.”
― David Edmonds, Philosophy Bites

“Tolerance isn’t just a discourse of power, it is also a discourse of conditionality; that is to say, you will be tolerated unless and until you behave in certain ways, at which point I will no longer tolerate you.”
― David Edmonds, Philosophy Bites

“What I am concerned about is when tolerance is raised to a political principle and used as a substitute for discourses of justice, equality, or even freedom. What I am suggesting is that when it is raised to the level of a political principle of that sort, it usually cloaks the kinds of powers that are at issue.”
― David Edmonds, Philosophy Bites