William Cowper (1731–1800) (1731–1800) English poet and hymnodist
The Iliad of Homer: translated into English blank verse (1791), Preface.
Source: The City of God and the True God as its Head (In Royce’s “The Conception of God: a Philosophical Discussion Concerning the Nature of the Divine Idea as a Demonstrable Reality”), p.124-5
William Cowper (1731–1800) (1731–1800) English poet and hymnodist
The Iliad of Homer: translated into English blank verse (1791), Preface.
Michael Shermer book The Science of Good and Evil
[Shermer, The Science of Good and Evil: Why People Cheat, Share, Gossip, and Follow the Golden Rule, 1st edition, 2004, Times Books, New York, ISBN 0805075208, 18]
Roger Wolcott Sperry (1913–1994) American neuroscientist
Discussion in The first Conference on The Central Nervous System and Behavior (1958), p. 420 - 421, as quoted in the obituary at the National Academies Press http://www.nap.edu/html/biomems/rsperry.html <br class="br">Context: I have never been entirely satisfied with the materialistic or behavioristic thesis that a complete explanation of brain function is possible in purely objective terms with no reference whatever to subjective experience; i. e., that in scientific analysis we can confidently and advantageously disregard the subjective properties of the brain process. I do not mean we should abandon the objective approach or repeat the errors of the earlier introspective era. It is just that I find it difficult to believe that the sensations and other subjective experiences per se serve no function, have no operational value and no place in our working models of the brain.
Peter Sloterdijk (1947) German philosopher
Source: Kritik der zynischen Vernunft [Critique of Cynical Reason] (1983), p. 16
Richard Rorty (1931–2007) American philosopher
"John Searle on Realism and Relativism." Truth and Progress: Philosophical Papers, Volume 3 (1998).
Fred Thompson (1942–2015) American politician and actor
page 39
At That Point in Time, Perception of Nixon’s involvement and the nation
John Cunningham Geikie (1824–1906) Scottish Presbyterian minister and author
"My God! My God! why hast Thou forsaken me?"
Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 73.
Edward Abbey (1927–1989) American author and essayist
Source: The Journey Home (1977), p. 121
Context: As for the "solitary confinement of the mind," my theory is that solipsism, like other absurdities of the professional philosopher, is a product of too much time wasted in library stacks between the covers of a book, in smoke-filled coffeehouses (bad for brains) and conversation-clogged seminars. To refute the solipsist or the metaphysical idealist all that you have to do is take him out and throw a rock at his head: if he ducks he's a liar. His logic may be airtight but his argument, far from revealing the delusions of living experience, only exposes the limitations of logic.
Frederick Douglass (1818–1895) American social reformer, orator, writer and statesman
Letter http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/document/the-nations-problem/