Philosophy Makes Progress Not By Becoming More

Nowadays, To Say That We Are Clever Animals Is Not To Say Something Philosophical And Pessimistic But Something Political And Hopeful - Namely, If We Can Work Together, We Can Make Ourselves Into Whatever We Are Clever And Courageous Enough To Imagine Ourselves Becoming. This Is To Set Aside Kant's Question "what Is Man?" And To Substitute The Question "what Sort Of World Can We Prepare For Our Great Grandchildren?

[walt] Whitman And [humanist Educator John] Dewey Tried To Substitute Hope For Knowledge. They Wanted To Put Shared Utopian Dreams - Dreams Of An Ideally Decent And Civilized Society - In The Place Of Knowledge Of God's Will, Moral Law, The Laws Of History, Or The Facts Of Science.... As Long As We Have A Functioning Political Left, We Still Have A Chance To Achieve Our Country, To Make It The Country Of Whitman's And Dewey's Dreams.

I Think Of An Intellectual As Just Being Bookish, Being Interested In History Books, Utopian Ideas, That Kind Of Thing.

Had There Been No Plato, The Christians Would Have Had A Harder Time Selling The Idea That All God Really Wanted From Us Was Fraternal Love.

The Difference Between People And Ideas Is... Only Superficial.