1. Quotes
  2. Authors
  3. Dugald Stewart

Dugald Stewart Quotes

Dugald Stewart was a Scottish philosopher and mathematician. He is best known for popularizing the Scottish Enlightenment and his lectures at the University of Edinburgh were widely disseminated by his many influential students. In 1783 he was a joint founder of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. In most contemporary documents he is referred to as Prof Dougal Stewart. Wikipedia  

✵ 22. November 1753 – 11. June 1828
Dugald Stewart photo
Dugald Stewart: 6 quotes3 likes

Famous Dugald Stewart Quotes

“Nothing, in truth, has such a tendency to weaken not only the powers of invention, but the intellectual powers in general, as a habit of extensive and various reading without reflection.”

Dugald Stewart

Source: Elements of the Philosophy of the Human Mind, 1792, p. 334 (in 1829 edition https://books.google.nl/books?id=VxtSAAAAMAAJ)

“As all our knowledge of the material world is derived from the information of our senses, natural philosophers have, in modern times, wisely abandoned to metaphysicians, all speculations concerning the nature of that substance of which it is composed; concerning the possibility or impossibility of its being created; concerning the efficient causes of the changes which take place in it; and even concerning the reality of its existence, independent of that of percipient beings: and have confined themselves to the humbler province of observing the phenomena it exhibits, and of ascertaining their general laws.”

Dugald Stewart

Source: Elements of the Philosophy of the Human Mind, 1792, p. 12

“Every man has some peculiar train of thought which he falls back upon when he is alone. This, to a great degree, moulds the man.”

Dugald Stewart

Dugald Stewart; reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 581

“What we commonly call sensibility, depends, in a great measure, on the power of imagination. Point out two men, any object of compassion; --a man, for example, reduced by misfortune from easy circumstances to indigence. The one feels merely in proportion to what he perceives by his senses. The other follows, in imagination, the unfortunate man to his dwelling, and partakes with him and his family in their domestic distresses…. As he proceeds in the painting, his sensibility increases, and he weeps, not for what he sees, but for what he imagines. It will be said, that it was his sensibility which originally aroused his imagination; and the observation is undoubtedly true; but it is equally evident, on the other hand, that the warmth of his imagination increases and prolongs his sensibility.”

Dugald Stewart

Source: Elements of the Philosophy of the Human Mind, 1792, p. 247

“THE prejudice which is commonly entertained against metaphysical speculations seems to arise chiefly from two causes: First, from an apprehension that the subjects about which they are employed, are placed beyond the reach of the human faculties; and, secondly, from a belief that these subjects have no relation to the business of life.
The frivolous and absurd discussions which abound in the writings of most metaphysical authors, afford but too many arguments in justification of these opinions; and if such discussions were to be admitted as a fair specimen of what the human mind is able to accomplish in this department of science, the contempt, into which it has fallen of late, might with justice be regarded, as no inconsiderable evidence of the progress, which true philosophy has made in the present age.”

Dugald Stewart

Source: Elements of the Philosophy of the Human Mind, 1792, p. 9; Lead paragraph (I)

“Among the various subjects of the inquiry, however, which, inconsequence of the vague use of language, are comprehended under the general title of metaphysics, there are some, which are essentially distinguished from the rest, both by the degree of evidence which accompanies their principles, and by the relation which they bear to the useful sciences and arts: and it has unfortunately happened, that these have shared in that general discredit, into which the other branches of metaphysics have fallen. To this circumstance is probably to be ascribed, the little progress which has hitherto been made in the PHILOSOPHY OF THE HUMAN MIND; a science, so interesting in its nature, and so important in its applications, that it could scarcely have failed, in these inquisitive and enlightened times, to have excited a very general attention, if it had not accidentally been classed, in the public opinion with the vain and unprofitable disquisitions of the schoolmen.”

Dugald Stewart

Source: Elements of the Philosophy of the Human Mind, 1792, p. 9; Lead paragraph (II)

Similar authors

Adam Smith photo
Adam Smith175
Scottish moral philosopher and political economist None
René Descartes photo
René Descartes47
French philosopher, mathematician, and scientist None
David Hume photo
David Hume138
Scottish philosopher, economist, and historian None
Gottfried Leibniz photo
Gottfried Leibniz29
German mathematician and philosopher None
Blaise Pascal photo
Blaise Pascal144
French mathematician, physicist, inventor, writer, and Chri… None
Giordano Bruno photo
Giordano Bruno62
Italian philosopher, mathematician and astronomer None
Robert Burns photo
Robert Burns114
Scottish poet and lyricist None
Galileo Galilei photo
Galileo Galilei70
Italian mathematician, physicist, philosopher and astronomer None
John Locke photo
John Locke144
English philosopher and physician None
Claude Adrien Helvétius photo
Claude Adrien Helvétius8
French philosopher None