Where conscious subjectivity is concerned, there is no distinction between the observation and the thing observed.

Whatever is referred to must exist. Let us call this the axiom of existence.

We often attribute 'understanding' and other cognitive predicates by metaphor and analogy to cars, adding machines, and other artifacts, but nothing is proved by such attributions.

In many cases it is a matter for decision and not a simple matter of fact whether x understands y; and so on.

There are clear cases in which "understanding" literally applies and clear cases in which it does not apply; and these two sorts of cases are all I need for this argument.

Our tools are extensions of our purposes, and so we find it natural to make metaphorical attributions of intentionality to them; but I take it no philosophical ice is cut by such examples.

I will argue that in the literal sense the programmed computer understands what the car and the adding machine understand, namely, exactly nothing.

An utterance can have Intentionality, just as a belief has Intentionality, but whereas the Intentionality of the belief is intrinsic the Intentionality of the utterance is derived.

Where conscious subjectivity is concerned, there is no distinction between the observation and the thing observed.

I want to block some common misunderstandings about "understanding": In many of these discussions one finds a lot of fancy footwork about the word "understanding."

Where questions of style and exposition are concerned I try to follow a simple maxim: if you can't say it clearly you don't understand it yourself.

Berkeley had a liberal element in the student body who tended to be quite active. I think that's in general a feature of intellectually active places.

My car and my adding machine understand nothing: they are not in that line of business.

I want to block some common misunderstandings about 'understanding': In many of these discussions one finds a lot of fancy footwork about the word 'understanding.'

There are clear cases in which 'understanding' literally applies and clear cases in which it does not apply; and these two sorts of cases are all I need for this argument.

Where consciousness is concerned the appearance is the reality.

You do not understand your own tradition if you do not see it in relation to others.

The Intentionality of the mind not only creates the possibility of meaning, but limits its forms.

From the standpoint of observation, then, we must regard it as a highly probable hypothesis that the beginnings of the mental life date from as far back as the beginnings of life at large.

A true critic ought to dwell upon excellencies rather than imperfections, to discover the concealed beauties of a writer, and communicate to the world such things as are worth their observation.

From the very commencement the student should set out to witness the progress and effects of sickness and ought to persevere in the daily observation of disease during the whole period of his studies.

The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it.

It's a great mistake, I think, to put children off with falsehoods and nonsense, when their growing powers of observation and discrimination excite in them a desire to know about things.

Our observation of nature must be diligent, our reflection profound, and our experiments exact. We rarely see these three means combined; and for this reason, creative geniuses are not common.

Rhetoric and dialectics can't change what I have learned from observation and experience.

By means of microscopic observation and astronomical projection the lotus flower can become the foundation for an entire theory of the universe and an agent whereby we may perceive Truth.

Much of my work in this period was concerned with exploring the logic of economic models, but also with attempting to reconcile the models with every day observation.

There's certainly nothing original about the observation that conscious experience poses a hard problem.

The five steps in teaching an employee new skills are preparation, explanation, showing, observation and supervision.

Observation is a passive science, experimentation an active science.

Children have very sharp powers of observation - probably sharper than adults - yet at the same time their emotional reactions are murky and much more primitive.

Now the identification of individual sounds by phonetic observation is an artificial way of proceeding.

It is a common observation, that the more solicitous any people are about dress, the more effeminate they are.

There is no more difficult art to acquire than the art of observation, and for some men it is quite as difficult to record an observation in brief and plain language.

Laws and customs may be creative of vice; and should be therefore perpetually under process of observation and correction: but laws and customs cannot be creative of virtue: they may encourage and help to preserve it; but they cannot originate it.

If you make listening and observation your occupation you will gain much more than you can by talk.

My observation is that women are merely waiting for their husbands to assume leadership.

The Artist is he who detects and applies the law from observation of the works of Genius, whether of man or Nature. The Artisan is he who merely applies the rules which others have detected.

We are told that the first part of the process is to select the very smallest seeds from the smallest plants, which is not at all unlikely, but I cannot speak to the fact from my own observation.

The ultimate court of appeal is observation and experiment... not authority.

But what is of great importance to me is observation of the movement of colors.

Nothing has such power to broaden the mind as the ability to investigate systematically and truly all that comes under thy observation in life.

My observation is that after one hundred and twenty years of modernisation since the opening of the country, present-day Japan is split between two opposite poles of ambiguity.

The lesson of the last year is this: foreign policy can't be managed through the politics of personality, and our President would do well to take note of an observation John F. Kennedy made once he was in office - that all of the world's problems aren't his predecessor's fault.

One man's observation is another man's closed book or flight of fancy.

How pathetically scanty my self-knowledge is compared with, say, my knowledge of my room. There is no such thing as observation of the inner world, as there is of the outer world.

The true spirit of conversation consists in building on another man's observation, not overturning it.

We may take it to be the accepted idea that the Mosaic books were not handed down to us for our instruction in scientific knowledge, and that it is our duty to ground our scientific beliefs upon observation and inference, unmixed with considerations of a different order.

In the fields of observation chance favors only the prepared mind.