05 June 2010

The one certain truth (Wm. James)

There is but one indisputably certain truth, and that is the truth that skepticism itself leaves standing: The truth that the present phenomenon of consciousness exists. That, however, is the bare starting-point of knowledge -- the mere admission of a stuff to be philosophized about. The various philosophies are but so many attempts at expressing what this stuff really is.

-- William James (1842-1910), from "The Will to Believe"