Simon Blackburn
British academic philosopher known for his work in quasi-realism and his efforts to popularise philosophy.
Perhaps to restore human freedom we should deny determinism?
Paradigms can be asked to show their worth, an some of them do not stand up.
There was content, but no container.
But if nothing does as well as something about which nothing can be said, it vanishes.
The word 'philosophy' carries unfortunate connotations: impractical, unworldly, weird.
We think about what to do, and muster considerations and arguments in favor of one course or another. How are we to think about that?
Chance is as relentless as necessity.
Finding a mechanism does not bypass the problem of induction.
Since there is no telling in advance where it may lead, reflection can be seen as dangerous.
If our best efforts come to nothing often enough, we need consolation, and thoughts of unfolding, infinite destiny, or karma, are sometimes consoling.
"In Michigan recently a man won a lawsuit for substantial damages because, he claimed, a rear-end collision in his car had made him a homosexual."
Contemporary culture is not very good on responsibility.
Motion however will not help unless we have things moving.
We can grieve over lost powers and memories, or rejoice over gained knowledge and maturity, according to taste.
A signpost doesn't in and of itself represent the way to the village. We have to learn how to take it.
Why should thinkers mock the simple pieties of the people?
Thoughts are strange things. they have 'representational' powers: a thought typically represents the world as being one way or another. A sensation, by contrast, seems to just sit there.
It can seem an amazing fact that laws of nature keep on holding, that the frame of nature does not fall apart.
In the end, it is ideas for which people kill each other.
A god that created the world and then walked off the site leaving it to its own devices is not a fit object of worship, nor a source of moral authority.