John McTaggart Quotes
John McTaggart Ellis McTaggart was a British metaphysician and the leading defender of absolute idealism in early-twentieth-century Cambridge philosophy. A fellow of Trinity College, where his pupils included Bertrand Russell and G. The quotes below are attributed to John McTaggart, organized by topic.
Browse John McTaggart by topic
John McTaggart on God
-
“On the determinist hypothesis an omnipotent God could have prevented all sin by creating us with better natures and in more favourable surroundings. … Hence we should not be responsible for our sins to God.”
Some Dogmas of Religion (1906), p. 165.
John McTaggart on Knowledge
-
“The really fundamental aspect of the dialectic is not the tendency of the finite category to negate itself but to complete itself.”
Studies in the Hegelian Dialectic (1896), p. 10.
John McTaggart on Life
-
“Human Immortality and Pre-existence . London: Longmans, Green & Company. 1915. p. 12.”
* ... It is clear that if I am a mere effect of my body—a form of its activity—I shall cease when the body ceases. And it is also clear that, if I could not exist without this particular body, then the destruction of the body will be a sign that I have ceased to exist. But, besides death, there is another characteristic of nature which tends to make us doubt our immortality. Of all things around u
John McTaggart on Love
-
Attributed to John McTaggart:
“Reality is a society of selves bound together by love.”
John McTaggart on Mind
-
Attributed to John McTaggart:
“Selfhood is the most fundamental feature of reality.”
John McTaggart on Nature
-
“Religion has always, I think, implied a belief in some fundamental harmony, some sort of reconciliation between the claims of our own nature and the facts of the universe.”
Some Dogmas of Religion (1906), p. 9.
John McTaggart on Time
-
Attributed to John McTaggart:
“Time is unreal.”
-
Attributed to John McTaggart:
“The A-series and the B-series of temporal predicates cannot both be ultimate.”
John McTaggart on Truth
-
Attributed to John McTaggart:
“Philosophy must distinguish appearance from reality.”