“We want philosophers, among other reasons, because the world is full of false philosophy.”

—  L. P. Jacks

The Usurpation Of Language (1910)
Context: We want philosophers, among other reasons, because the world is full of false philosophy. The way of experience is beset on every hand by a multitude of verbal judgments, of empty phrases, of word-copies, which pass themselves off as the real thing, which pretend to do duty for concrete fact and, by force of their number and importunity, capture our attention and cause the true originals to be overlooked. If it is true that philosophy must perforce fight its battles with words, is it not equally true that words are the weapons against which it must everywhere contend? The philosopher bent on the enlargement of experience perceives at once that his work cannot be done, cannot even be commenced, until he has cleared away the heaps of verbal detritus under which the bedrocks of experience lie buried.

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L. P. Jacks photo
L. P. Jacks 26
British educator, philosopher, and Unitarian minister 1860–1955

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