Theme

Philosophy quotes about method

Method appears in this archive as a live philosophical concern—not a slogan. These verified English passages show how thinkers treat method as a problem of judgment, practice, or explanation.

Why this theme matters

Across 4 recurring voices here (notably William of Ockham and Kwasi Wiredu), method is framed through Africana Philosophy and Scholasticism. Some passages define method; others warn how it fails; still others relocate it inside habit, community, or language.

In the history of philosophy

Discussions of method travel through Islamic and Africana traditions. Compare the quotations below with their school labels rather than forcing a single definition.

Thinkers in this collection

William of Ockham , René Descartes , Laozi , Hu Shi , Confucius , Alfred North Whitehead , Ludwig Wittgenstein , John Locke

Frequently asked questions

What did philosophers say about method?

They disagreed in productive ways. In this archive, William of Ockham, Kwasi Wiredu, and related voices treat method as something to clarify, cultivate, or critique—not merely to celebrate.

Where can I find philosophy quotes about method?

This theme page gathers 16 verified English quotations tagged Method, with links to thinkers and sources.

How should I read quotes about method?

Read the sentence, then check school and source. A compact line is an entry point into an argument about method, not a substitute for the surrounding text.

  1. Plurality should not be posited without necessity.
  2. Once in a lifetime, everything must be doubted.
  3. Difficult affairs under Heaven must arise from the easy; great affairs under Heaven must arise from the small.
  4. Boldly hypothesize; carefully verify.
  5. The Master said: The craftsman who wishes to do his work well must first sharpen his tools.
  6. Seek simplicity and distrust it.
  7. Don’t think, but look!
  8. Entities must not be multiplied beyond necessity.
  9. It is of great use to the sailor to know the length of his line, though he cannot with it fathom all the depths of the ocean.
  10. Assent is of three kinds: rhetorical, dialectical, and demonstrative; people differ in nature as to which kind persuades them.
  11. History is a discipline that has a large number of approaches. Its useful aspects are very many. Its goal is distinguished.
  12. By decolonization, I mean divesting African philosophical thinking of all undue influences emanating from our colonial past. The crucial word in this formulation is "undue".
  13. On the negative side, avoiding or reversing through a critical conceptual self-awareness the unexamined assimilation in our thought of the conceptual frameworks embedded in the foreign philosophical traditions that have had an impact on African life and thought. And, on the positive side, exploiting as much as is judicious the resources of our own indigenous conceptual schemes in our philosophical meditations.
  14. By 'African philosophy' I mean a set of texts, specifically, the set of texts written by Africans and described as philosophical by their authors themselves.
  15. In fact, it is an ethnological work with philosophical pretensions, or more simply, if I may coin the word, a work of 'ethnophilosophy'.
  16. To philosophize soberly and accurately is to distinguish carefully what belongs to the mind from what belongs to the living body.