Here, there is simply no substitute for the kind of work that experimental psychologists do, work which shows some mechanisms to be quite reliable, and others to be quite unreliable.

But there is no doubt that my own views on this are, in quite a number of ways, very different from those of Quine.

The kinds of claims I make about knowledge are thus meant to be illustrative of a general argumentative strategy which might well bear fruit in areas of philosophy which I have not thus far explored.

I was often asked how one could even make sense of this. Isn't the category of knowledge something that we project upon the world, rather than something that we discover in it?

I think that when I first suggested the idea that knowledge should be viewed as a natural kind, many people thought this was just crazy.

In my view, since the case can be made that knowledge too is a natural kind, the role of pretheoretical intuitions is similarly diminished in epistemology.

My own reasons for favouring talk of natural kinds is just that I believe the best accounts of the success of scientific theories presupposes the existence of natural kinds.

I do realise that talk of natural kinds dates back to Aristotle, but I'd better not say too much about ancient philosophers lest I be convicted of practicing history of philosophy without a license.

There is a worry that many have expressed that, on the naturalistic way of approaching philosophical questions, philosophy will somehow be co-opted by science. I'm not much worried about this.

What I hankered for was an account of knowledge which would do far more than get our intuitions about cases right; I wanted a kind of account which would somehow be explanatory.

When reflection is thereby demystified, I believe that the temptation to view human knowledge as different in kind from animal knowledge is undermined.

In the liquid amber within the ivory porcelain, the initiated may touch the sweet reticence of Confucius, the piquancy of Laotse, and the ethereal aroma of Sakyamuni himself.

Sadness brings delicacy. Happiness brings subliminal terror.

The future has no memory of your past or present. You are free to make it anything you choose. So make it great!

If anyone has a new idea in this country there are twice as many people who keep putting a man with a red flag in front of it.

In the next 15 years, we can halve childhood deaths. That's doable.

For the purpose of knowledge we must know how to make use of the inward current which draws us towards a thing, and also of the current which after a time draws us away from it.

Words were her plague and words were her redemption.

When a doctor refuses money, even the most ethical ones, you usually start driving a good bargain with the undertaker.

In performance, you dont always feel that sort of family bond right off the top. It sort of develops and grows over time.