Raimond Gaita > Quotes

“They have extended the arrogance and insularity of the worst kind of academic professionalism beyond the academy. Generally they show no fear or even slight anxiety at the responsibility they have assumed; they have no sense of awe in the face of the questions they have raised, and no sense of humility in the face of the traditions which they condescendingly dismiss. They are aggressively without a sense of mystery and without a suspicion that anything might be too deep for their narrowly professional competence. They mistake these vices for the virtues of thinking radically, courageously and with an unremitting hostility to obscurantism.”
― Raimond Gaita

“Philosophy is at its heart always a meta-activity, stepping back to think about thinking. It thinks not only about what our obligations are, but also about the concept of obligation; not only about what is just, but also about the concept of justice; not only about what it is rational to do or believe, but also about the concept of the rational. This makes it difficult for some people to find their feet with philosophy, and it makes them impatient of it. To them, I repeat Wittgenstein’s advice concerning how philosophers should greet one another. He said they should say, ‘Take your time.”
― Raimond Gaita, A Common Humanity: Thinking about Love and Truth and Justice

“God went forth to create the world, and he took his dog with him.

- Kato Indian creation story”
― Raimond Gaita, The Philosopher's Dog

“either we hold on to the possibility of moral judgement of their terrible deeds and then we must blame them; or we refuse to blame and must then relinquish the possibility of moral judgement.”
― Raimond Gaita, A Common Humanity: Thinking about Love and Truth and Justice

“I think, that the moral and legal structure of the concept of genocide has not yet been settled in ways that are true to what we want it to capture.”
― Raimond Gaita, A Common Humanity: Thinking about Love and Truth and Justice

“There but for the grace of God go I’,”
― Raimond Gaita, A Common Humanity: Thinking about Love and Truth and Justice