Sidney Hook
Sidney Hook
Sidney Hookwas an American philosopher of the Pragmatist school known for his contributions to the philosophy of history, the philosophy of education, political theory, and ethics. After embracing Communism in his youth, Hook was later known for his criticisms of fascism and Marxism–Leninism. A pragmatic social democrat, Hook sometimes cooperated with conservatives, particularly in opposing Communism. After World War II, he argued that members of such groups as the Communist Party USA and other Leninist conspiracies could ethically be barred...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionPhilosopher
Date of Birth20 December 1902
CountryUnited States of America
Philosophy, most broadly viewed, is the critical survey of existence from the standpoint of value.
Idealism, alas, does not protect one from ignorance, dogmatism, and foolishness.
Those who say that life is worth living at any cost have already written an epitaph of infamy, for there is no cause and no person that they will not betray to stay alive.
Students rarely disappoint teachers who assure them in advance that they are doomed to failure.
I was guilty of judging capitalism by its operations and socialism by its hopes and aspirations; capitalism by its works and socialism by its literature.
Tolerance always has limits - it cannot tolerate what is itself actively intolerant.
It still remains true that as a set of cognitive beliefs about the existence of God in any recognizable sense continuous with the great systems of the past, religious doctrines constitute a speculative hypothesis of an extremely low order of probabil
Where an intelligent grasp of principles requires a knowledge of mathematics, its fundamental ideas should be presented in such a way that students carry away the sense of mathematics not only as a tool for the solution of problems but as a study of types of order, system, and language.
Wisdom is a kind of knowledge. It is knowledge of the nature, career, and consequences of human values.
Russell's prose has been compared by T.S. Eliot to that of David Hume's. I would rank it higher, for it had more color, juice, and humor. But to be lucid, exciting and profound in the main body of one's work is a combination of virtues given to few philosophers. Bertrand Russell has achieved immortality by his philosophical writings.
[A]nti-Semitism was rife in almost all varieties of socialism.
Life has meaning for anyone who takes an interest in it.
If one shoots at a king, one must not miss.
The mob that hails the man on horseback, the Caesars and conquering heroes, does not retain its freedoms for long.