"The philosophy of one century is the common sense of the next"
- Henry Ward Beecher
About this Quote
Henry Ward Beecher was a noticeable American clergyman, social radical, as well as audio speaker who lived from 1813 to 1887. This quote is commonly attributed to him as well as it highlights the suggestion that philosophies as well as suggestions that might seem extreme or unusual in one age may become extensively approved and considered as good sense in the next.
In essence, this quote suggests that human culture and society are constantly evolving, as well as what might seem like an extreme idea or approach today might be widely approved in the future.
Beecher himself was recognized for his strong advocacy of abolitionism, equivalent civil liberties, as well as females's suffrage, to name a few radical causes of his time. Nevertheless, most of the social and political reforms that he promoted have actually because become widely approved as common sense in contemporary society.
Generally, Beecher's quote speaks to the concept that our understanding of the globe as well as our area in it is constantly altering, which what might appear unthinkable in one era may become widely approved fact in the following.
"I think philosophers can do things akin to theoretical scientists, in that, having read about empirical data, they too can think of what hypotheses and theories might account for that data. So there's a continuity between philosophy and science in that way"