Dave Robinson > Quotes

“إذا كانت الشعوب الأخرى تعتقد فى أشياء مختلفة عما تعتقده أنت، فكيف تعرف أن معتقداتك صحيحة؟ بل كيف يمكن لك أن تعرف أن معتقداتك شخص ما صحيحة؟”
― Dave Robinson, Introducing Philosophy

“إن الفلاسفة اليونانيين الأُول سعوا إلى إجابات نسميها الآن إجابات "علمية" وليست "دينية".”
― Dave Robinson, Introducing Philosophy

“Artificial needs stimulated artificial greeds.”
― Dave Robinson & Judy Groves, Introducing Philosophy

“politics was a necessarily dirty game of treachery and deceit.”
― Dave Robinson, Introducing Philosophy: A Graphic Guide

“Science fiction, as a genre is fundamentally about ideas. It's about asking an impossible question, "What if...?" and building a story out of the answer.

Romance on the other hand, is fundamentally about relationships. The hypothetical romance transposed to the past could be rewritten without the futuristic elements and still work as a story, which is something that can't happen with SF. It works in romance, because the story is the relationship and that depends on character, not setting.

Lots of books take elements from multiple genres, and there are elements that put them into one genre or another, but setting isn't a key determinant.”
― Dave Robinson

“Knowledge is a dynamic cultural and historical process, not some timeless product waiting to be discovered “out there”.”
― Dave Robinson, Introducing Philosophy: A Graphic Guide

“يعتقد الفلاسفة أنهم ملزمون بتقديم نوع ما من التفسير، والدليل أو البرهان، على أفكارهم. وهذا الإلزام يبين أحد الفروق الواضحة بين الفلسفة والدين.”
― Dave Robinson, Introducing Philosophy

“IF A MAJORITY IN EVERY CIVILIZED COUNTRY SO DESIRED, WE COULD, WITHIN 20 YEARS, ABOLISH ALL ABJECT POVERTY, QUITE HALF THE ILLNESS IN THE WORLD, THE WHOLE ECONOMIC SLAVERY WHICH BINDS DOWN NINE TENTHS OF OUR POPULATION; WE COULD FILL THE WORLD WITH BEAUTY AND JOY, AND SECURE THE REIGN OF UNIVERSAL PEACE.”
― Dave Robinson, Introducing Bertrand Russell: A Graphic Guide

“Thoughts without content are empty, intuitions without concepts are blind”
― Dave Robinson, Introducing Philosophy: A Graphic Guide

“if a friendship exists only because it benefits us personally, then perhaps it’s a lesser kind of relationship. Kant would say that friends have to be ends in themselves, not means. Friendship has ‘intrinsic’, not mere ‘instrumental’ worth.”
― Dave Robinson, A Practical Guide to Ethics for Everyday Life: Be a Good Person

“For Marx, history is the story of a constant dialectical struggle, not between abstract Hegelian ideas but between all too real classes and economic forces. This is why his philosophy is sometimes called Dialectical Materialism”
― Dave Robinson, Introducing Philosophy: A Graphic Guide

“Hobbes encouraged a new interest in human nature and a belief that governments only have the right to rule through contract.”
― Dave Robinson, Introducing Philosophy: A Graphic Guide

“لقد احتكرت الكنيسة جميع أشكال التفكير الفلسفة، وأحبطت - بهمة ونشاط - أية آراء مستقلة أو معتدلة.”
― Dave Robinson, Introducing Philosophy

“Epicurus (341–270 B.C.) suggested that the individual just needed tranquillity and peace of mind to be happy. As a follower of Democritus, he maintained that death was nothing to fear – it was simply the inevitable melting of our souls and bodies into atoms.”
― Dave Robinson, Introducing Philosophy: A Graphic Guide

“Kierkegaard’s analysis of this “fear of freedom” is an intriguing one, pursued and expanded on by philosophers as different as Jean-Paul Sartre and Erich Fromm (1900–80). It can make individuals and whole societies “inauthentic”. People, as individuals or en masse, are too often happy to “escape” this fear by retreating into an obedience to ideologies dictated by others.”
― Dave Robinson, Introducing Kierkegaard: A Graphic Guide

“By the 11th century, philosopher theologians were called “schoolmen” and the philosophy they produced “Scholasticism”
― Dave Robinson, Introducing Philosophy: A Graphic Guide

“Those who wish to preserve political power structures are often very keen on genetic determinism.”
― Dave Robinson, Introducing Ethics: A Graphic Guide

“Human beings seem reluctant to accept that morality is something invented by themselves and so tend to legitimize moral rules by mythologizing their origins:”
― Dave Robinson, Introducing Ethics: A Graphic Guide

“He didn’t accept that material objects were just inferior copies of eternal “Forms”. For Aristotle, everything is made of unique “substances” which have “essential” or “accidental” properties. Essential properties define something.”
― Dave Robinson, Introducing Philosophy: A Graphic Guide

“Theocratic societies governed by priestly castes are usually static and monopolize thought. They insist on orthodox explanations and actively discourage independent and unconventional ideas. Today’s beliefs must always be like yesterday’s.”
― Dave Robinson, Introducing Philosophy: A Graphic Guide

“المجتمعات الثيوقراطية - الحكم الدينى - التى يحكمها طوائف الكهنة هى فى العادة ذات فكر ساكن احتكارى. تصر على تفسيرات معتدلة، وتحبط بهمة الأفكار المستقلة غير المتعارف عليها. فمعتقدات اليوم دائما أن تشبه معتقدات الأمس.”
― Dave Robinson, Introducing Philosophy

“All human beings are pain-pleasure organisms. Moral and political philosophy should therefore seek to increase pleasure and minimize pain. It should be democratic.”
― Dave Robinson, Introducing Philosophy: A Graphic Guide