We need science. We need empirical evidence. We can't just use mathematical reasoning to deduce the nature of the world. Rebecca Goldstein More Quotes by Rebecca Goldstein More Quotes From Rebecca Goldstein And what is it, according to Plato, that philosophy is supposed to do? Nothing less than to render violence to our sense of ourselves and our world, our sense of ourselves in the world. Rebecca Goldstein our-world plato philosophy A child's natural form of behavior is play, and in our aim to educate, play should be honored and preserved for as long past childhood as can be. Rebecca Goldstein play children past The sum and substance of education is the right training that effectually leads the soul of the child at play on to the love of the calling in its adult life. Rebecca Goldstein soul play children What one tries to force into a child against its own nature will never come to good. Rebecca Goldstein force trying children In Greek, our word for play is paidia and the word for education is paideia, and it is very natural and right that these words should be entangled at the root, together with our word for children, paides, which gave you your words pedagogy and pediatrician. Rebecca Goldstein roots play children From the beginning philosophy sought for The order behind the disorder Thales sipped cheap wine And in this did divine: "Why it's nothing at all but pure water!" Rebecca Goldstein wine philosophy order One of the peculiar features of philosophical questions is how eager people are to offer solutions that miss the point of the questions. Sometimes these failed solutions are scientific, and sometimes they are religious, and sometimes they are based on what is called plain common sense. Rebecca Goldstein philosophical religious people Colleges seem to want candidates that are so well-rounded they'd have to be two different people use together with mutually exclusive characteristics! They have to be gung ho athletes and sensitive artists, studious nerds and gregarious social networkers, future rulers of the universe and selfless altruists. Rebecca Goldstein artist athlete college In order to refute a conclusion, you have to put forth the best possible argument for it. Rebecca Goldstein conclusion argument order There is nothing superstitious about forcing bad consequences for the hubris of paternalistic utopianism. Humanity should never be frozen into a vision of the best. A creative society must be willing to tolerate some degree of instability because creativity is inherently unstable. Rebecca Goldstein creativity creative humanity In fact, the answers that religion, as we have come to know it, provides to the question of human worth have played so dominant a role in the preceding centuries that believers often cannot conceive how non-believers can muster sufficient commitment to their own lives to get out of bed each morning, let alone the ethical wherewithal to regard others as deserving of moral regard. Once one "comes out" as an atheist, these are the inquisitions to which one is often subjected. Rebecca Goldstein atheist morning commitment What is it precisely, that they are doing when they are doing science. Are they refining their instruments for observation or discovering new aspects of reality? Rebecca Goldstein aspect instruments reality We become more worthy the more we bend our minds to the impersonal. We become better as we take in the universe, thinking more about the largeness that it is and laugh about the smallness that is us. Rebecca Goldstein mind laughing thinking I have a Greek-American friend who named her daughter "Nike" and is often asked why she chose to name her offspring after a sneaker. Rebecca Goldstein sneakers nike daughter If we don't understand our tools, then there is a danger we will become the tool of our tools. We think of ourselves as Google's customers, but really we're its products. Rebecca Goldstein google tools thinking Like mathematics and music and cosmology and philosophy, poetry, too, can "infinitize" us, granting us what immortality there is to be had in this mortal life. And all those who vibrate in harmony to language that itself vibrates to the harmonies of the infinite are entitled to inclusion among the "small group of people. Rebecca Goldstein groups philosophy people Thinking is the soul speaking to itself. Rebecca Goldstein soul thinking It is an essential feature of the just state that the wealthy be kept away from political power and that the politically powerful be kept away from wealth. Rebecca Goldstein essentials political powerful What is play and delightful one kind of child is coercion and torture for another, and will not take no matter how much coercion is applied. Rebecca Goldstein coercion play children When we call a philosopher distinguished, we are not saying that she is worthy and not saying that she is recognized, but we are saying that she occupies the intersection of both - that she is recognized and worthy; even that she is recognized because she's worthy. Rebecca Goldstein distinguished philosopher worthy
