The Good Quote
Open menu
Quotes
Authors
Topics
More
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
Home
Authors
Morris Raphael Cohen
Russian
Philosopher
About the author
Let philosophy resolutely aim to be as scientific as possible, but let her not forget her strong kinship with literature.
Morris Raphael Cohen,
Russian
Philosopher
#Forget
#Literature
#Philosophy
#Kinship
The picture which the philosopher draws of the world is surely not one in which every stroke is necessitated by pure logic.
Morris Raphael Cohen,
Russian
Philosopher
#World
#Logic
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.
Morris Raphael Cohen,
Russian
Philosopher
#Interest
#Concern
Literature and philosophy both allow past idols to be resurrected with a frequency which would be truly distressing to a sober scientist.
Morris Raphael Cohen,
Russian
Philosopher
#Past
#Literature
#Philosophy
#Idols
Liberalism, on the other hand, regards life as an adventure in which we must take risks in new situations, in which there is no guarantee that the new will always be the good or the true, in which progress is a precarious achievement rather than inevitability.
Morris Raphael Cohen,
Russian
Philosopher
#Life
#Will
#Progress
#Achievement
#Adventure
#Liberalism
If religion cannot restrain evil, it cannot claim effective power for good.
Morris Raphael Cohen,
Russian
Philosopher
#Evil
#Power
#Religion
Liberalism regards life as an adventure in which we must take risks in new situation, in which there is no guarantee that the new will always be the good or the true, in which progress is a precarious achievement rather than inevitability.
Morris Raphael Cohen,
Russian
Philosopher
#Life
#Will
#Progress
#Achievement
#Adventure
#Liberalism
To be sure, the vast majority of people who are untrained can accept the results of science only on authority.
Morris Raphael Cohen,
Russian
Philosopher
#People
#Authority
#Science
#Majority
#Results
Liberalism is an attitude rather than a set of dogmas - an attitude that insists upon questioning all plausible and self-evident propositions, seeking not to reject them but to find out what evidence there is to support them rather than their possible alternatives.
Morris Raphael Cohen,
Russian
Philosopher
#Support
#Self
#Questioning
#Attitude
#Liberalism
This open eye for possible alternatives which need to be scrutinized before we can determine which is the best grounded is profoundly disconcerting to all conservatives and to almost all revolutionaries.
Morris Raphael Cohen,
Russian
Philosopher
#Eye
#Open
Lastly, literature and philosophy both allow past idols to be resurrected with a frequency which would be truly distressing to a sober scientist.
Morris Raphael Cohen,
Russian
Philosopher
#Past
#Literature
#Philosophy
#Idols
It is not impossible to think that the minds of philosophers sometimes act like those of other mortals, and that, having once been determined by diverse circumstances to adopt certain views, they then look for and naturally find reasons to justify these views.
Morris Raphael Cohen,
Russian
Philosopher
#Act
#Circumstances
In thus pointing out certain respects in which philosophy resembles literature more than science, I do not mean, of course, to imply that it would be well for philosophy if it ceased to aim at scientific rigor.
Morris Raphael Cohen,
Russian
Philosopher
#Science
#Literature
#Philosophy
If a philosophic theory is once ruled out of court, no one can tell when it will appear again.
Morris Raphael Cohen,
Russian
Philosopher
#Will
#Court
#Theory
Cruel persecutions and intolerance are not accidents, but grow out of the very essence of religion, namely, its absolute claims.
Morris Raphael Cohen,
Russian
Philosopher
#Religion
#Accidents
#Intolerance
Conservatism clings to what has been established, fearing that, once we begin to question the beliefs that we have inherited, all the values of life will be destroyed.
Morris Raphael Cohen,
Russian
Philosopher
#Life
#Will
#Question
#Values
#Beliefs
#Conservatism
Again, both literature and philosophy work by appealing to certain reigning idols.
Morris Raphael Cohen,
Russian
Philosopher
#Work
#Literature
#Philosophy
#Idols
A creative element is surely present in all great systems, and it does not seem possible that all sympathy or fundamental attitudes of will can be entirely eliminated from any human philosophy.
Morris Raphael Cohen,
Russian
Philosopher
#Will
#Present
#Philosophy
#Sympathy
Law is a formless mass of isolated decisions.
Morris Raphael Cohen,
Russian
Philosopher
#Law
#Decisions
It has generally been assumed that of two opposing systems of philosophy, e.g., realism and idealism, one only can be true and one must be false; and so philosophers have been hopelessly divided on the question, which is the true one.
Morris Raphael Cohen,
Russian
Philosopher
#Question
#Philosophy
#Realism
#Idealism