Philosophy Concordance - online philosophical quotations

The measuring which is connected with the meaning of a term is not exact, though in physics we do sometimes specify the temperature of the measuring rod. If, for example, we try to make the notion of a "precise time" more exact, we do not push it back far, for the striking of a clock at "precisely 4:30" takes time. And "to be here at precisely 4:30" is also not precise: should one be opening the door or be inside? Likewise with "having the same colour".

Other examples of it are the explanation of striking a table in a rage as a remnant of a time when people struck to kill, or of the burning of an effigy because of its likeness to human beings, who were once burnt.

Similarly, striking an object may merely be a natural reaction in rage.

Quine and Davidson are striking examples of resolute empiricism.

More striking is the possibility that numbers themselves (beyond those that can be subitized) are parasitic on language—that they depend on learning the sequence of number words, the syntax of number phrases, or both (Bloom, 1994a; Wiese, 2004) (though see Grinstead, MacSwan, Curtiss,

Besides, fictitious narratives lead us to imagine the possibility of many events that are impossible; and even the most faithful histories, if they do not wholly misrepresent matters, or exaggerate their importance to render the account of them more worthy of perusal, omit, at least, almost always the meanest and least striking of the attendant circumstances; hence it happens that the remainder does not represent the truth, and that such as regulate their conduct by examples drawn from this source, are apt to fall into the extravagances of the knight-errants of romance, and to entertain projects that exceed their powers.

They select the most striking observations and instances from common life; place opposite characters in a proper contrast; and alluring us into the paths of virtue by the views of glory and happiness, direct our steps in these paths by the soundest precepts and most illustrious examples.

When we ask what human language is, we find no striking similarity to animal communication systems.

But the most striking fact about the original statement is the unusual role which is being played by the English word 'and.'

In Naming and Necessity, Saul Kripke presented some striking examples that convinced many philosophers that there are truths that are both necessary and a posteriori, and also truths that are both contingent and a priori.