Once we have taken the backward step to an abstract view of our whole system of beliefs, evidence, and justification, and seen that it works only, despite its pretensions, by taking the world largely for granted, we are not in a position to contrast all these appearances with an alternative reality. We cannot shed our ordinary responses, and if we could it would leave us with no means of conceiving a reality of any kind.

A theory of motivation is defective if it renders intelligible behaviour which is not intelligible.

fundamentally an organism has conscious mental states if and only if there is something that it is like to be that organism--something it is like for the organism.

There is a tendency to seek an objective account of everything before admitting its reality.

If I thought that everything I did was determined by my circumstancse and my psychological condition, I woudl feel trapped.

Any reductionist program has to be based on an analysis of what is to be reduced. If the analysis leaves something out, the problem will be falsely posed.

I conceive ethics as a branch of psychology.