William Hamilton Quotes on Truth
Sir William Hamilton, the leading British philosopher of the mid nineteenth century, is best known for his doctrine of the relativity of human knowledge, and the quotes gathered here reflect it: all knowledge is of the relative, he held, while the absolute, as such, is unknowable to finite minds. Within those limits Hamilton placed a high value on the activity of inquiry itself. He was drawn to Plato's image of man as the hunter of truth, adding that in such a chase the pursuit is always of greater value than the game, and he posed as the central practical problem of philosophy whether truth or the mental exercise of seeking it is the superior end. Drawn from his Lectures on Metaphysics and Logic and his Discussions, these passages present truth as something pursued rather than possessed.
Quotes
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Attributed to William Hamilton:
“All knowledge is of the relative; the absolute, as such, is unknowable.”
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Attributed to William Hamilton:
“Philosophy is reasoned consciousness.”
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Attributed to William Hamilton:
“Logic is the science of the formal laws of thought.”
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“Truth like a torch, the more 'tis shook, it shines.”
Discussions on Philosophy , Title Page, reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 818-22. -
“"Sordet cognita veritas" is a shrewd aphorism of Seneca . A truth, once known, falls into comparative insignificance.”
Lectures on Metaphysics and Logic(1860) Vol. 1 -
“Plato defines man "the hunter of truth," "for science is a chase, and in a chase the pursuit is always of greater value than the game."”
Lectures on Metaphysics and Logic(1860) Vol. 1 -
“The question—Is Truth, or is the Mental Exercise in the pursuit of truth, the superior end?—this is perhaps the most curious theoretical, and certainly the most important practical, problem in the whole compass of philosophy.”
Lectures on Metaphysics and Logic(1860) Vol. 1 -
“[I]n the very term Philosophy ... the man who first declared that he was not a... possessor, but a... seeker of truth, at once enounced the true end of human speculation, and embodied it in a significant name.”
Lectures on Metaphysics and Logic(1860) Vol. 1