“The traditional disputes of philosophers are, for the most part, as unwarranted as they are unfruitful.”

— Alfred Jules Ayer, book Language, Truth, and Logic

Source: Language, Truth, and Logic (1936), Ch. 1, first lines.
Context: The traditional disputes of philosophers are, for the most part, as unwarranted as they are unfruitful. The surest way to end them is to establish beyond question what should be the purpose and method of a philosophical enquiry. And this is by no means so difficult a task as the history of philosophy would lead one to suppose. For if there are any questions which science leaves it to philosophy to answer, a straightforward process of elimination must lead to their discovery.

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Alfred Jules Ayer18

English philosopher 1910–1989

Walter Rodney book How Europe Underdeveloped Africa

Source: How Europe Underdeveloped Africa (1972), p. 159.

“Accounting for the most part, remains a legalistic and traditional practice, almost immune to self-criticism by scientific methods.”

Kenneth E. Boulding (1910–1993) British-American economist

Kenneth Boulding (1958, p. 95) as cited in: Edward Stamp, Michael J. Mumford, Ken V. Peasnell (1993) Philosophical Perspectives on Accounting. p. 147
1950s

“The safest general characterization of the European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato.”

Alfred North Whitehead book Process and Reality

Pt. II, ch. 1, sec. 1.
Source: 1920s, Process and Reality: An Essay in Cosmology (1929)

“Computer science research is different from these more traditional disciplines. Philosophically it differs from the physical sciences because it seeks not to discover, explain, or exploit the natural world, but instead to study the properties of machines of human creation. In this it as analogous to mathematics, and indeed the "science" part of computer science is, for the most part mathematical in spirit. But an inevitable aspect of computer science is the creation of computer programs: objects that, though intangible, are subject to commercial exchange.”

Dennis M. Ritchie (1941–2011) American computer scientist

Reflections on Software Research (1984)

“Modern physics often advances only by sacrificing some of our traditional philosophical convictions.”

Fritz London (1900–1954) American physicist

[Fritz London, Edmond Bauer, La théorie de l'observation en mécanique quantique, Hermann, Paris, 1939]
Translation by [John Archibald Wheeler, Wojciech Hubert Zurek, Quantum Theory and Measurement, Princeton University Press, 1983, 0-691-08315-0, 220]

“Simply put, the most powerful state is the one that prevails in a dispute.”

John Mearsheimer book The Tragedy of Great Power Politics

Source: The Tragedy of Great Power Politics (2001), Chapter 3, Wealth and Power, p. 57

“THERE is no method of reasoning more common, and yet none more blameable, than, in philosophical disputes, to endeavour the refutation of any hypothesis, by a pretence of its dangerous consequences to religion and morality.”

David Hume book An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding

Of Liberty and Necessity, Part II (http://www.bartleby.com/37/3/12.html)
An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (1748)
Context: THERE is no method of reasoning more common, and yet none more blameable, than, in philosophical disputes, to endeavour the refutation of any hypothesis, by a pretence of its dangerous consequences to religion and morality. When any opinion leads to absurdities, it is certainly false; but it is not certain that an opinion is false, because it is of dangerous consequence. Such topics, therefore, ought entirely to be forborne; as serving nothing to the discovery of truth, but only to make the person of an antagonist odious.

“…to replace, as far as possible, works in the concrete conditions wherein they were written, spiritual conditions in part, that is to say, philosophical, rhetorical or poetic tradition, material conditions in part, that is to say, scholarly and social milieu, constraints stemming from the material support of writing, historical circumstances. Every work must be replaced in the praxis from which it emanates.”

Pierre Hadot (1922–2010) French historian and philosopher

...replacer, autant que possible, les œuvres dans les conditions concrètes où elles ont été écrites, conditions spirituelles d’une part, c’est-à-dire tradition philosophique, rhétorique ou poétique, conditions matérielles d’autre part, c’est-à-dire milieu scolaire et social, contraintes venues du support matériel de l’écriture, circonstances historiques. Toute œuvre doit être replacée dans la praxis dont elle émane.
La Philosophie comme manière de vivre (2001)

“Philosophers who function within analytic traditions tend to reflect on the self in a way that unwittingly impoverishes and objectifies self.”

Bruce Wilshire (1932–2015) American philosopher

Source: Fashionable Nihilism (2002), p. xiii

“The most intimidating part for me has to do with the whole legacy, and knowing it is a legacy in line with the Christian tradition. I think about Abraham and his son Isaac, and it's kind of frightening.”

Bernice King (1963) American minister, daughter of Martin Luther King, Jr.

Statements on preaching (18 January 1992) http://articles.latimes.com/1992-01-18/entertainment/ca-162_1_martin-luther-king

“The traditional disputes of philosophers are, for the most part, as unwarranted as they are unfruitful.”

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Alfred Jules Ayer18

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