
"Reflex Action and Theism"
1890s, The Will to Believe and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy (1897)
Source: Anti-Intellectualism in American Life (1974), p. 30
"Reflex Action and Theism"
1890s, The Will to Believe and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy (1897)
“It is the responsibility of intellectuals to speak the truth and expose lies.”
Falsehood in Wartime (1928), Introduction
Source: Anti-Intellectualism in American Life (1974), pp. 32-33
Source: The Meaning of God in Human Experience (1912), Ch. XIV : The Need of an Absolute, p. 192.
Context: As in reply to the skeptic or agnostic, who asserts in despair that there is no absolute truth. The dialectician retorts: Then at least your own assertion must be absolutely true. There must be some absolute truth, for you cannot assert that there is none without self-contradiction. As in Descartes' case, the doubter is reminded of himself. There, in his own assertion, is a certainty from which he cannot escape.
This turn of thought which reminds the enquirer of himself, we shall call the reflexive turn. It reappears in all discoveries of the Absolute. It is clinching--but is likely to disappoint, even as Descartes' result disappoints. For the skeptic finds that he also was in search of objective truth: and that the absolute truth of his statement is irrelevant to his quest. Whence his skepticism toward objective truth remains unanswered.
Random Thoughts http://townhall.com/columnists/thomassowell/2004/02/25/random_thoughts/page/full, Feb 25, 2004
2000s
Seminar on Nietzsche's Beyond Good and Evil (1971–1972)
Source: Anti-Intellectualism in American Life (1974), p. 27