P. F. Strawson: Quotes about thinking

P. F. Strawson was British philosopher. Explore interesting quotes on thinking.

P. F. Strawson: 16 quotes0 likes

“Part of my aim is to exhibit some general and structural features of the conceptual scheme in terms of which we think about particular things.”

Source: Individuals (1959), p. 2.

“There is a massive central core of human thinking which has no history — or none recorded in histories of thought; there are categories and concepts which, in their most fundamental character, change not at all. Obviously these are not the specialities of the most refined thinking. They are the commonplaces of the least refined thinking; and are yet the indispensable core of the conceptual equipment of the most sophisticated human beings. It is with these, their interconnexions, and the structure that they form, that a descriptive metaphysics will be primarily concerned.”

Source: Individuals (1959), p. xiv.

“We think of the world as containing particular things some of which are independent of ourselves; we think of the world's history as made up of particular episodes in which we may or may not have a part; and we think of these particular things and events as included in the topics of our common discourse, as things about which we can talk to each other. These are remarks about the way we think of the world, about our conceptual scheme. A more recognizably philosophical, though no clearer, way of expressing them would be to say that our ontology comprises objective particulars. It may comprise much else besides.”

Source: Individuals (1959), p. 2.