#rescher

[dreamingm4chine]

yeagh

[magical-xirl-4]

Robothead x Robothead love is real

[mukushoh]

"The driving mechanism of dialectic is instability — be it the instability of thought (most drastically exemplified by self-contradiction) or the instability of condition typified by the vagaries of nature or the fickleness of man"

Rescher (2007)

[studyinglogic]

Philosophy bakes no bread. But it is also no less true that we do not live by bread alone. The physical side of our nature that impels us to eat, drink, and be merry is just one of its sides. Homo sapiens requires nourishment for the mind as urgently as nourishment for the body. We seek knowledge not only because we wish, but because we must. The need for information, for knowledge to nourish the mind, is every bit as critical as the need for food to nourish the body.

Nicholas Rescher, Philosophical Standardism: An Empiricist Approach to Philosophical Methodology, p. 67, Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1994.

The full quote is: 

Confusion and ignorance---even in such ``theoretical'' and ``abstruse'' matters as those with which philosophy deals---yield psychic dismay and discomfort. The old saying is perfectly true: Philosophy bakes no bread. But it is also no less true that we do not live by bread alone. The physical side of our nature that impels us to eat, drink, and be merry is just one of its sides. Homo sapiens requires nourishment for the mind as urgently as nourishment for the body. We seek knowledge not only because we wish, but because we must. The need for information, for knowledge to nourish the mind, is every bit as critical as the need for food to nourish the body. Cognitive vacuity or dissonance is as distressing to us as hunger or pain. We want and need our cognitive commitments to comprise an intelligible story, to give a comprehensive and coherent account of things. Bafflement and ignorance---to give suspensions of judgement  the somewhat harsher name they deserve---exact a substantial price. 

[friendethan]

"Science is the best, most thoroughly tested knowledge we have; the 'knowledge' of everyday life pales by comparison..." But the very reverse is the case: our scientific theories are vulnerable and have a short life span; it is our claims at the looser level of ordinary life that are relatively secure and stable.

Rescher, Nicholas (2003). Epistemology: An Introduction to the Theory of Knowledge. State University of New York. Pg. 33