General Von

Famous quotes containing the words general and/or von:

    ‘A thing is called by a certain name because it instantiates a certain universal’ is obviously circular when particularized, but it looks imposing when left in this general form. And it looks imposing in this general form largely because of the inveterate philosophical habit of treating the shadows cast by words and sentences as if they were separately identifiable. Universals, like facts and propositions, are such shadows.
    David Pears (b. 1921)

    The bad thing is that thinking about thought doesn’t help at all; one has to have it from nature so that the good ideas appear before us like free children of God calling to us: Here we are.
    —Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (1749–1832)