The discussions of every age are filled with the issues on which its leading schools of thought differ. But the general intellectual atmosphere of the time is always determined by the views on which the opposing schools agree. They become the unspoken presuppositions of all thought, and common and unquestioningly accepted foundations on which all discussion proceeds.
Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.
Some assumptions may be necessary for coherent discussion.
The argument for liberty is not an argument against organization, which is one of the most powerful tools human reason can employ, but an argument against all …
The part of our social order which can or ought to be made a conscious product of human reason is only a small part of all the forces of society.
Should our moral beliefs really prove to be dependent on factual assumptions shown to be incorrect, it would be hardly moral to defend them by refusing to ackn…
American life is a powerful solvent. It seems to neutralize every intellectual element, however tough and alien it may be, and to fuse it in the native good wi…
Je prefere la pensee a l'action, une idee a une affaire, la contemplation au mouvement.
I once read somewhere that it's a sign of enlightenment to be able to hold two contradicting ideas in your head at the same time.