The tendency has always been strong to believe that whatever received a name must be an entity or being, having an independent existence of its own. And if no real entity answering to the name could be found, men did not for that reason suppose that none existed, but imagined that it was something peculiarly abstruse and mysterious.
About This Quote
About John Stuart Mill
John Stuart Mill was a 19th-century English philosopher and author. John Stuart Mill was an English philosopher, political economist, politician and civil servant. One of the most influential thinkers in the history of liberalism and social liberalism, he contributed widely to social theory, political theory, and political economy. Read more on Wikipedia →
Themes
- Science — Discovery, inquiry, and the wonders of the natural world