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Sidney Morgenbesser quotes
Morgenbesser in response to B. F. Skinner: "Are you telling me it's wrong to anthropomorphize people?" (quoted by Daniel Dennett: The Evolution of Purposes)
Sidney Morgenbesser
In response to Leibniz's ontological query "Why is there something rather than nothing?" Morgenbesser answered "If there were nothing you'd still be complaining!"
Sidney Morgenbesser
Interrogated by a student whether he agreed with Chairman Mao's view that a statement can be both true and false at the same time, Morgenbesser replied "Well, I do and I don't.”.
Sidney Morgenbesser
During campus protests of the 1960s, Sidney Morgenbesser was hit on the head by police. When asked whether he had been treated unfairly or unjustly, he responded that it was "unjust, but not unfair. It was unjust because they hit me over the head, but not unfair because they hit everyone else over the head.”.
Sidney Morgenbesser
Asked to prove a questioner's existence, Morgenbesser shot back, "Who's asking?"
Sidney Morgenbesser
A student once interrupted him and said, "I just don't understand." He responded, "Why should you have the advantage over me?"
Sidney Morgenbesser
During a lecture the Oxford linguistic philosopher J. L. Austin made the claim that although a double negative in English implies a positive meaning, there is no language in which a double positive implies a negative. To which Morgenbesser responded in a dismissive tone, "Yeah, yeah."
Sidney Morgenbesser
Morgenbesser said the following of George Santayana: "There's a guy who asserted both p and not-p, and then drew out all the consequences...”.
Sidney Morgenbesser
When challenged why he had written so little, he fired back: "Moses wrote one book. Then what did he do?"
Sidney Morgenbesser
On the independence of irrelevant alternatives: Morgenbesser, ordering dessert, is told by the waitress that he can choose between apple pie and blueberry pie. He orders the apple pie. Shortly thereafter, the waitress comes back and says that cherry pie is also an option; Morgenbesser says "In that case I'll have the blueberry pie."
Sidney Morgenbesser
When asked his opinion of pragmatism, Morgenbesser replied "It's all very well in theory but it doesn't work in practice."
Sidney Morgenbesser