all this behavior can be more or less plausibly explained as the effects of some humdrum combination of "instinct" or tropism and conditioned response. It is the novel bits of behavior, the acts that couldn't plausibly be accounted for in terms of prior conditioning or training or habit, that speak eloquently of intelligence; but if their very novelty and unrepeatability make them anecdotal and hence inadmissible evidence, how can one proceed to develop the cognitive case for the intelligence of one's target species?
Source: The Intentional Stance (1987), p. 250
“A Decalogue of Canons for Observation in Practical Life”
1820s
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Thomas Jefferson 456
3rd President of the United States of America 1743–1826Related quotes
Source: Ashtanga Yoga Primer, 1981, p.5
Source: False Necessityː Anti-Necessitarian Social Theory in the Service of Radical Democracy (1987), p. 361
Source: Archbishop Pozzo: SSPX Continuing Dialogue With Holy See https://www.ncregister.com/blog/archbishop-pozzo-sspx-continuing-dialogue-with-holy-see (July 2016)
Knowing Yourself: The True in the False (1996)
Source: Fiction Sets You Free: Literature, Liberty and Western Culture (2007), p. 19.
“… the Bible is probably the most genocidal book in the literary canon.”
Quotes 2000s, 2004, Interview by Wallace Shawn, 2004
Context: You can find things in the traditional religions which are very benign and decent and wonderful and so on, but I mean, the Bible is probably the most genocidal book in the literary canon. The God of the Bible - not only did He order His chosen people http://www.bible.org/netbible/1sa15.htm to carry out literal genocide - I mean, wipe out every Amalekite to the last man, woman, child, and, you know, donkey and so on, because hundreds of years ago they got in your way when you were trying to cross the desert - not only did He do things like that, but, after all, the God of the Bible was ready to destroy every living creature on earth because some humans irritated Him. That's the story of Noah. I mean, that's beyond genocide - you don't know how to describe this creature. Somebody offended Him, and He was going to destroy every living being on earth? And then He was talked into allowing two of each species to stay alive - that's supposed to be gentle and wonderful.
“Evermore mayst thou be canonized as the Nonparreille of impious epistlers.”
Four Letters 1592.