“Phenomenology is not a philosophy; it is a philosophical method, a tool. It is like an adjustable spanner that can be used for dismantling a refrigerator or a car, or used for hammering in nails, or even for knocking somebody out.”
Source: Introduction to the New Existentialism (1966), p. 92
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Colin Wilson 192
author 1931–2013Related quotes
The Psychology of Science: A Reconnaissance (1966), Ch. 2, p. 15; although some similar statements to describe fundamental errors in human perception have been attributed to others, his expression, or slight paraphrases of it, is one of the earliest yet found to be documented in published writings, and remains among the most popular.
1940s-1960s

“To a man with a hammer, everything looks like a nail.”
Source: Tools For Survival (2009), P.149
Peter Bernus, Laszlo Nemes, Günter Schmidt (eds.) Handbook on Enterprise Architecture. 2003. p. 22; Cited in: Dennis F.X. Mathaisel (2007) Sustaining the Military Enterprise. p. 69

“It is better to be the hammer than the nail.”
Egwene al'Vere
(15 October 1991)