Bad philosophers may have a certain influence; good philosophers, never.
Interpretation
The impact of philosophy depends greatly on its quality, as bad ideas can spread but good ones often go unacknowledged.
In this quote, Bertrand Russell suggests that while bad philosophers can sway opinions and ideas, the influence of good philosophers is often overlooked or understated. This highlights the unfortunate reality that important, thoughtful contributions to philosophy may not receive the recognition they deserve, whereas flawed ideas can gain traction more easily. The quote serves as a reminder of the importance of discernment in philosophical thought and the often unappreciated value of insightful philosophy.
In practice
This quote can be used in a philosophical discussion about the impact of ideas on society.
St. Paul introduced an entirely novel view of marriage, that it existed primarily to prevent the sin of fornication. It is just as if one were to maintain that the sole reason for baking bread is to prevent people from stealing cake.
Freedom comes only to those who no longer ask of life that it shall yield them any of those personal goods that are subject to the mutations of time.
Of these austerer virtues the love of truth is the chief, and in mathematics, more than elsewhere, the love of truth may find encouragement for waning faith. Every great study is not only an end in itself, but also a means of creating and sustaining a lofty habit of mind; and this purpose should be kept always in view throughout the teaching and learning of mathematics.
At all times, except when a monarch could enforce his will, war has been facilitated by the fact that vigorous males, confident of victory, enjoyed it, while their females admired them for their prowess.
Moreover, the attitude that one ought to believe such and such a proposition, independently of the question whether there is evidence in its favor, is an attitude which produces hostility to evidence and causes us to close our minds to every fact that does not suit our prejudices.
Extreme hopes are born from extreme misery.
"My insides don't match up with my outsides." "Do anyone's inside and outsides match up?" "I don't know. I'm only me." "Maybe that's what a person's personality is: the difference between the inside and the outside."
The South is very beautiful but its beauty makes one sad because the lives that people live here, and have lived here, are so ugly.
And therefore in geometry (which is the only science that it hath pleased God hitherto to bestow on mankind), men begin at settling the significations of their words; which settling of significations, they call definitions, and place them in the beginning of their reckoning.
Know that this universe is nothing but a dream bluff of nature to test your consciousness of immortality.
If there's good, strong evidence from science that such and such is the case and this is contrary to Buddhism, then we will change.
If women had power, what would men be but women who can't bear children? And what would women be but men who can?" "Hah!" went Tenar; and presently, with some cunning, she said, "Haven't there been queens? Weren't they women of power?" "A queen's only a she-king," said Ged. She snorted. "I mean, men give her power. They let her use their power. But it isn't hers, is it? It isn't because she's a woman that she's powerful, but despite it.
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