Peter Van Inwagen Quote: "I don’t know about ‘common sense opinion’ by the ..."

Choose a background or upload your own photo, then download a shareable quote image.

Upload background image Your file stays in the browser; nothing is sent to the server.

Quote

I don’t know about ‘common sense opinion’ by the way. It seems to me that the office of common sense is to keep us from playing cards for high stakes with people we meet on trains, and not to endorse metaphysical opinions.
Peter Van Inwagen / Philosopher
Common Sense
Office
People
Copy Quote

Only Text Quote

I don’t know about ‘common sense opinion’ by the way. It seems to me that the office of common sense is to keep us from playing cards for high stakes with people we meet on trains, and not to endorse metaphysical opinions.
⇛ Peter Van Inwagen (Philosopher)

Copy Quote Text

You certainly wouldn’t want to invest much time in an argument with someone who would believe it in the first place.

Peter Van Inwagen Philosopher

It used to be widely held that evil was incompatible with the existence of God: that no possible world contained both God and evil. So far as I am able tell, this thesis is no longer defended

Peter Van Inwagen Philosopher

It looks to me as if Darwinians are like someone who, having observed that tugboats sometimes maneuver ocean liners in tight places by directing high-pressure streams of water at them, concludes that he has discovered the method by which the liners cross the Atlantic.

Peter Van Inwagen Philosopher

Determinism is the thesis that is true at every moment that the way things then are determines a unique future, that only one of the alternative futures that may exist relative to a given moment is a physically possible continuation of the state of things at the moment. Or, if you like, we may say that determinism is the thesis that only one continuation of the state of things at a given moment is consistent with the laws of nature.

Peter Van Inwagen Philosopher

That’s what the human brain is there for—to turn the chaos of given experience into a set of manageable symbols. Sometimes the symbols correspond fairly closely to some of the aspects of the external reality behind our experience; then you have science and common sense. Sometimes, on the contrary, the symbols have almost no connection with external reality; then you have paranoia and delirium. More often there’s a mixture, part realistic and part fantastic; that’s religion.

Aldous Huxley Writer

No, thank you, I don't mind the rain,' I said. I always lacked common sense when taken by surprise.