Philosophers Squared – Heraclitus of Ephesus

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Ancient Greek wisdom, Hericlitus, Philosophers Squared, Wisdom

Heraclitus (ca. 535-475 BC) of Ephesus (lat/lon 37.939 27.341) was the Pre-Socratic Greek philosopher of the idea that the Universe is always the same but its details are always changing. He is the creator of the concept of dynamic equilibrium. His most famous statement is,  “No man ever steps in the same river twice.”

Heraclitus? Sculpture at National Museum Naples, Italy. (lat/lon 40.8535 14.2505)

Quotations derived from fragments of Heraclitus: Sources are Wikiquotes, EGS,

“The only permanent thing is that everything is changing.”

“Everything flows, nothing stands still.”

“You can not step in the same river twice because the water has changed and you too have changed.”

“The Universe is an entity out of which everything is created neither by gods nor by men, but exists of itself. It simply is and will remain as eternally vibrant energy, changing itself and becoming hot and cold in its due course.” “Man, like a light in the night, is kindled of the universe’s stuff and is in time put out.”

“He who does not expect and seek will not find out the unexpected, for the unknown is trackless and unexplored.”

“Opposition brings concord. Out of discord comes the fairest harmony.”

“The waking have one world in common; sleepers have each a private world of his own.” We all live in one physical world, but in our dreams and our fantasy we have fewer restraints.

“The path up and the path down are one and the same path.”

“It is harder to control and subdue pleasure than anger.”

“Wine is more likely to reveal our foolishness than our wisdom.”

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COMMENTS:
The collecting of many facts does not create wisdom, as the mind self-assembles the facts it receives based on its preexisting preferences and it will generate new wisdom out of new experiences. A baby’s mind has an infant wisdom that when exposed to facts generates a child’s wisdom, that in turn when exposed to facts generates the adolescent’s wisdom and so on. Every individual is exposed to a multitude of different experiences and his accumulated wisdom may grow in different ways.
Every moment of an individual’s life is a new wisdom coming into being influenced by all of those that went before. Thus, the Proverb, possibly coined by Imhotep, “First get wisdom, and then with all thy getting get understanding.” is of crucial  importance for generating a successful human being. The recommended procedure is to get your wisdom’s perceptive apparatus properly aligned with the reality you will be encountering, before you collect the factual data you will need to cope with your future needs. The computer cliche, “Garbage in, garbage out!” is a crass restatement of that ancient proverb, and thus we should be very careful not to let garbage come into our wisdom-growing cycle.

Hericlitus says, “A man’s character is his fate.” but I would add that most of a man’s character is generated by what he chooses to expose himself to, and how he chooses to respond to what happens to him, and how he chooses to generate his personal wisdom. It is the dynamic clash of forces that creates opportunities for his growth.

“The path up and down are one and the same.” There is a beginning and a end at both ends of a path; but paths have many junctions; although we may have only one beginning we may end up at an infinity of destinations. Only the paths returning to the source are limited.

“He who does not expect will not find out the unexpected, for the unknown is trackless and unexplored.” By carefully watching the ordinary we may observe the unusual and discover the extraordinary.

Choose your destination and your paths will be exposed.

Philosophers Squared – What is PHILOSOPHY ?

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Is philosophy valuable?, What is Philosophy?

Go to the Index of 120 Philosophers Squared

Philosophy club argument in an English pub. Note the newspaper is FIGARO.

“What is philosophy?” It’s a child’s question and can be answered in a way that a child will understand. Philosophy is talking about thinking. Of course that isn’t very informative but it gives the general idea and gets the subject started. Thinking is a mental process that humans do by using symbols to represent things, actions and the relationships between things. Typically these symbols are words or visual icons that represent ideas, but these symbols are not the ideas themselves but only aids to help in thinking about the ideas. These symbols have a use because they can be communicated to other people, and to computers, and they can be stored through time and sent through space. We can have a good idea of what a man named Aristotle was thinking about 2,300 years ago in Greece because he wrote his ideas down and those ideas were valued by other people who copied them and preserved them for people of the future, like us.

A fuller outline based on Bertrand Russell’s “The Value of Philosophy” called “What is Philosophy“by Dr. Bob Zunjic is available at the University of Rhode Island. Philosophy explores everything, even the limits of humanly knowable knowledge and when these peripheral studies begin to have a definite outline they are formed into independently named studies. Natural sciences, astronomy, mathematics, history, psychology, sociology were in ancient times part of what was then considered philosophy. Some questions are perhaps unanswerable, such as: does good and evil have any meaning aside from human judgements? Is there any purpose to the Universe? Can consciousness exist independent of functioning brains? Is life as we know it on Earth a universal phenomena?

Philosophical positions can devolve into dogmatic ideologies, but as that condition grows rigid their connection to what other philosophers value diminishes. Philosophers seem to enjoy the chase after truth more than finding and accepting conclusive answers. To get answers requires narrowing the quest by defining terms with absolute boundaries, which is ultimately impossible, perhaps even in mathematical contexts. The questions posed above, concerning morality, purpose, consciousness and life, are clearly outside of absolute definitions and philosophy about those subjects then becomes limited to discussion of comparisons of personally perceived values.

My personal values gravitate toward finding habits which improve not only my health, independence and tranquility but that of all humanity, including those unborn people of the future. With that goal in mind it becomes possible to avoid those types of quests for which there can be no possible application. Ultimately, any idea might have a use, but there is such an abundance of easily accessed, and obviously valuable ideas, that chasing remotely valuable ideas would prevent me from grasping the readily available good ones.

Is philosophy following the call of curiosity into pursuing a semi-known into the unknown while avoiding the unknowable? As for me:

Philosophy is exploring the alternate paths to human contentment.

Philosophers Squared – Immanuel Kant

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Categorical imperative, Immanuel Kant, Philosophers Squared, philosophy

Go to the Index of 120 Philosophers Squared

Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) was born in Prussia and is known as a German philosopher. He was an idealist seeking reality as mediated by the mind and had an impact on ethics, metaphysics and astronomy.

Immanuel Kant, philosopher of reality mediated by the mind

Quotations sources – Wikiquote, Ranker, EGS

“To be is to do.”

“There is, therefore, only one categorical imperative. It is: Act only according to that maxim by which you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law.” alt “Live your life as though your every act were to become a universal law.”

“Do not feel forced to act, as you’re only willing to act according to your own universal laws. And that’s good. For only willful acts are universal. And that’s your maxim.”

“In the kingdom of ends everything has either a price or a dignity. What has a price can be replaced by something else as its equivalent; what on the other hand is raised above all price and therefore admits of no equivalent has a dignity.”

“All our knowledge begins with the senses, proceeds then to the understanding,” alt “All human knowledge begins with intuitions, proceeds from thence to concepts, and ends with ideas.” alt “and ends with reason. There is nothing higher than reason.”

“It is beyond a doubt that all our knowledge that begins with experience.”

“But although all our knowledge begins with experience, it does not follow that it arises from experience.”

“What can I know? What ought I to do? What can I hope?”

“Science is organized knowledge. Wisdom is organized life.”

“I have no knowledge of myself as I am, but merely as I appear to myself.”

“The inscrutable wisdom through which we exist is not less worthy of veneration in respect to what it denies us than in respect to what it has granted.”

“Ours is an age of criticism, to which everything must be subjected. The sacredness of religion, and the authority of legislation, are by many regarded as grounds for exemption from the examination by this tribunal; But, if they are exempted, and cannot lay claim to sincere respect, which reason accords only to that which has stood the test of a free and public examination.”

“All thought must, directly or indirectly, by way of certain characters, relate ultimately to intuitions, and therefore, with us, to sensibility, because in no other way can an object be given to us.”

“From such crooked wood as that which man is made of, nothing straight can be fashioned.”

“By a lie a man throws away and, as it were, annihilates his dignity as a man. A man who himself does not believe what he tells another … has even less worth than if he were a mere thing. … makes himself a mere deceptive appearance of man, not man himself.”

“Two things fill me with constantly increasing admiration and awe, the longer and more earnestly I reflect on them: the starry heavens without and the moral law within.”

“It is not God’s will merely that we should be happy, but that we should make ourselves happy” alt “Morality is not the doctrine of how we may make ourselves happy, but how we may make ourselves worthy of happiness.”

“It is not necessary that whilst I live I live happily; but it is necessary that so long as I live I should live honorably.”

“Seek not the favor of the multitude; it is seldom got by honest and lawful means. But seek the testimony of few; and number not voices, but weigh them.”

“In law a man is guilty when he violates the rights of others. In ethics he is guilty if he only thinks of doing so.”

“The only objects of practical reason are therefore those of good and evil. For by the former is meant an object necessarily desired according to a principle of reason; by the latter one necessarily shunned, also according to a principle of reason.”

“Religion is too important a matter to its devotees to be a subject of ridicule. If they indulge in absurdities, they are to be pitied rather than ridiculed.”

“He who is cruel to animals becomes hard also in his dealings with men. We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals.”

“Apart from moral conduct, all that man thinks himself able to do in order to become acceptable to God is mere superstition and religious folly.”

“It is so easy to be immature. If I have a book to serve as my understanding, a pastor to serve as my conscience, a physician to determine my diet for me, and so on, I need not exert myself at all. I need not think, if only I can pay: others will readily undertake the irksome work for me.”

“There will always be some people who think for themselves, even among the self-appointed guardians of the great mass who, after having thrown off the yoke of immaturity themselves, will spread about them the spirit of a reasonable estimate of their own value and of the need for every man to think for himself.” alt “Enlightenment is man’s leaving his self-caused immaturity. Immaturity is the incapacity to use one’s intelligence without the guidance of another.”

“The guardians who have kindly undertaken the supervision will see to it that by far the largest part of mankind, including the entire “beautiful sex,” should consider the step into maturity, not only as difficult but as very dangerous.”

“There are only a few who have pursued a firm path and have succeeded in escaping from immaturity by their own cultivation of the mind.”

“After having made their domestic animals dumb and having carefully prevented these quiet creatures from daring to take any step beyond the lead-strings to which they have fastened them, these guardians then show them the danger which threatens them, should they attempt to walk alone.”

“Human freedom is realized in the adoption of humanity as an end in itself, for the one thing that no-one can be compelled to do by another is to adopt a particular end.”

“Man has his own inclinations and a natural will which, in his actions, by means of his free choice, he follows and directs. There can be nothing more dreadful than that the actions of one man should be subject to the will of another; hence no abhorrence can be more natural than that which a man has for slavery. And it is for this reason that a child cries and becomes embittered when he must do what others wish, when no one has taken the trouble to make it agreeable to him. He wants to be a man soon, so that he can do as he himself likes.”

“There must be a seed of every good thing in the character of men, otherwise no one can bring it out. Lacking that, analogous motives, honor, etc., are substituted. Parents are in the habit of looking out for the inclinations, for the talents and dexterity, perhaps for the disposition of their children, and not at all for their heart or character.”

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COMMENTS:

Kant demands far more of humans than they are capable of delivering. Even the most intelligent and perfectly educated person can’t even for a moment obey him. Humans are individually too slow to learn and cultural transmission of wisdom is too piecemeal for his dictums to function.

Kant’s ideas function only as a fantasy inside of human minds. Outside of the mind, in human physical reality, his fantasy reality fails. It feels good, like the idea of a perfect life after death, but it is too complex for living people to apply. People need maxims they can apply and to cultivate habits that improve their lives.

It would appear that Kant’s most famous maxim is flawed. “There is, therefore, only one categorical imperative. It is: Act only according to that maxim by which you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law.” 1. It is impossible to have agreement on what that universal law would be, even for sophisticated philosophers. 2. It is impossible for normal humans to remember to apply such a complex idea when involved in the complexities of their lives. 3. It is replacing God and society’s laws with their own thoughts of the moment, which is condemned in both cases. 4. It means nothing beyond: do what you need to survive as a living being, and for your species’ living DNA to survive. In this view Kant’s morality predates Darwinian morality.

“But although all our knowledge begins with experience, it does not follow that it arises from experience.” Sometimes, actually usually, we see but we do not perceive. And this is generally true with every step of human thinking. Thus, to perceive doesn’t mean to understand, and to understand doesn’t mean to apply that understanding and that understanding applied to a single case doesn’t necessarily develop into guiding principles, and those principles don’t necessarily grow into wisdom, and that wisdom doesn’t necessarily transmit to humanity at large. We humans need more easily applied maxims like the Golden Rule – Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Or alternately the Silver Rule – Don’t do to others as you would not have them do unto you. Or if you can rise to what Jesus actually said, KJV “All things what so ever ye would that men should do unto you, do so even unto them, for this is the law and the prophets.” That word “should” becomes the difficult thought, but Jesus defines it as, “Help others to live, and to live more abundantly.”

“The greatest problem for the human race, to the solution of which Nature drives man, is the achievement of a universal civic society which administers law among men.” This requires a universal government, a single Legal Sovereign Power which has only a few powers, but chief among them is the power to limit population to the carrying capacity of the environment via peaceful means.

“Human freedom is realized in the adoption of humanity as an end in itself.” When one considers this an absolute then humanity must include all the people who will come into life in the future. Thus the living individual’s ultimate responsibility to humanity and to those future people is to create a society in balance with Nature, so that there will be a decent future world and the necessities available to humanity such that it may thrive.

Philosophers Squared – Alfred E. Newman

Tags

Alfred E. Newman, American comic philosophy, Philosophers Squared, What me worry?

Go to the Index of 120 Philosophers Squared

Alfred E. Newman (gestated 1876, born 1953, flourishing 2013). His history goes back to 1876 in a picture in The Hunting of the Snark by Lewis Carroll. He was named in 1953 by Mad editor Harvey Kurtzman.

Alfred E. Newman? An incredible dunce in The Hunting of the Snark – 1876

Alfred E. Newman, philosopher of the sub-genius America. What me worry?

See more pics of Alfred. The Snarky Alfred is from U of Virginia archives.
Quotes below, arranged by brevity, are reported to be from the MAD magazine.

“Yes we can`t! ”

“What, Me Worry?”

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“Fools rush in… and get the best seats.”

“Crime does not pay … as well as politics.”

“It takes one to know one — and vice versa!”

“A teacher is someone who talks in our sleep!”

“Most people don’t act stupid: it’s the real thing!”

“Smoking helps you lose weight — one lung at a time!”

“You can be on the right track and still get hit by a train!”

“Politicians are people who get sworn in and cursed out!”

“Medical insurance is what allows people to be ill at ease!”

“If people wanted your unsolicited advice, they’d ask for it.”

“Blood is thicker than water . . . but it makes lousy lemonade!”

“Who says nothing is impossible? Some people do it every day!”

“If most people said what’s on their minds, they’d be speechless.”

“If opera is entertainment, then falling off a roof is transportation!”

“Most minds are like concrete . . . all mixed up and permanently set!”

“Most people are so lazy, they don’t even exercise good judgement!”

“In retrospect it becomes clear that hindsight is definitely overrated!”

“Getting old is when a narrow waist and a broad mind change places!”

“The world is a place that’s gone from being flat to round to crooked.”

“Plenty of people believe in energy conservation – mainly their own.”

“A college jock is someone who minds his build instead of vice versa!”

“When you’re in deep water it’s a good idea to keep your mouth shut!”

“Most people are too lazy to open the door when opportunity knocks!”

“Nowadays, a balanced diet is when every McNugget weighs the same!”

“Any dentist who says “This won’t hurt a bit” is lying through your teeth.”

“America is still a land of promise, especially during a political campaign.”

“A lawyer is someone who writes a 40-page document and calls it a brief!”

“Teenagers are people who act like babies if they’re not treated like adults!”

“The only advantage to living in the past is that the rents are much cheaper!”

“Nowadays, the perfect crime is getting caught and selling your story to T.V.!”

“Anyone who says the truth shall set you free has never been to traffic court.”

“Nowadays, an after-dinner mint is what you need to pay the restaurant check.”

“Money still talks these days! Trouble is, you have to increase the volume alot!”

“Too often, people who want to offer sound advice give more sound than advice!”

“It’s a good idea to save your money. One day it might be worth something again!”

“Today, too many workers spend their time trying to make their weekends meet.”

“A family vacation is when you go away with the people you need to get away from.”

“A gossip columnist is someone who uses dirt to make a mountain out of a molehill.”

“How come stealing from one book is plagiarism, but stealing from many is research?”

“These days, the only time politicians tell the truth is when they call each other a liar.”

“The psychiatrist’s office is where you say what you think and be told what you mean.”

“The U.N. is a place where governments opposed to free speech demand to be heard!”

“Good hospitality is making your guests feel at home, even when you wish they were.”

“How come we choose from just two people for President, and fifty for Miss America?”

“The suburbs are where they cut down all the trees and then name streets after them!”

“Most bosses never lift a finger at work, unless it’s to point out something you did wrong.”

“Ever notice how random chance always picks you for Jury Duty, but not to win the lottery?”

“Starting a war in the name of peace is like poking a hole in a balloon to get more air into it.”

“If banks are so good with numbers, why are there always eight windows and three tellers?”

“These days the meaning of a faithful husband is one whose alimony checks arrive on time.”

“You know the Honeymoon’s over when your dog brings your slippers, and your wife barks at you!”

“Today, if you ask a car dealer to let you see something for 10 grand, he’ll show you the door!”

“A plastic surgeon’s office the only place where no one gets offended when you pick your nose!”

“Most wives are like ventriloquists: they stand there nodding while the dummy does all the talking.”

“A business executive is someone who talks golf in the office and business on the golf course!”

“If we really learned from our past mistakes, most of us would never get out of bed in the morning.”

“Do not confuse motion and progress. A rocking horse keeps moving but does not make any progress.”

“Ever notice how many government officials make their raises effective long before they ever are?”

“Political speeches are like steer horns. A point here, a point there, and a lot of bull in between”

“These days, the problem with many neighborhoods is that there’re more hoods than neighbors!”

“Today it takes more brains and effort to make out the income tax form than it does to make the income.”

“Family reunions are when relatives gather from all over to be reminded why they scattered in the first place.”

“A sense of humor is what makes you laugh at something that would make you sore if it happened to you!”

“Elections are when people find out what politicians stand for and politicians find out what people will fall for.”

“Politicians are always trying to convince you that they can solve the unemployment problem if you’ll just give them a job.”

“Most people still believe in a hard day’s work, but they also believe it should be spread out over the course of a week or two.”

“We are living in a world today where lemonade is made from artificial flavors and furniture polish is made from real lemons…”

“Thanks to the new welfare bill, the question “Paper or plastic?” now refers to many American’s sleeping arrangements!”

“Prison inmates are treated to cable TV, hot meals and a college education, while on the outside some people can only afford these things through a life of crime!”

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COMMENTS:

Alfred E. Newman is the American semi-intellectuals’ philosophical comic book icon. He is not really very bright or very perceptive, but he seems to hit on problems we all have experienced, and haven’t yet put into words. Alfred, not being smart, puts his ideas into as few words as possible, and as “brevity is the soul of wit,” (Hamlet Act 2, scene 2, 86–92) he seems smart. I find that hearing a single one of these lines in a normal conversation seems quite refreshing, but reading this long list I compiled gets cloying and tedious. The brief ones are listed first and feel the most pithy, but the long ones at the bottom, although carrying more information, seem contrived, tedious and pretentiously intellectual. Perhaps there is little here in the way of a coherent philosophical point of view, but I thought some light-hearted sarcasm in the midst of the heavy philosophers would be enjoyable. After creating this page I’m not so sure.

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Philosophers Squared – Adam Smith

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Adam Smith, Personal time effort and money, Philosophers Squared, Wealth of Nations

Go to the Index of 120 Philosophers Squared

Adam Smith (1723-1790) was a professor of Moral Philosophy at the Universities of Edinburgh and Glasgow, Scotland. He is the father of modern economic theory.

A portrait medallion of Adam Smith, moral philosopher and economist

Adam Smith engraving based on the medallion portrait seen above.

Adam Smith’s grave with the blogger Charles Scamahorn visiting.

Quotes of Adam Smith selected from the web. — WikiQuotes, The Adam Smith Institute, Goodreads

“What can be added to the happiness of a man who is in health, out of debt, and has a clear conscience?”

“By pursuing his own interest he frequently promotes that of the society more effectually than when he really intends to promote it.”

“It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own self-interest. We address ourselves not to their humanity but to their self-love, and never talk to them of our own necessities, but of their advantages.”

“It is the interest of every man to live as much at his ease as he can; and if his emoluments are to be precisely the same, whether he does, or does not perform some very laborious duty, it is certainly his interest…either to neglect it altogether, or…to perform it in [a] careless and slovenly a manner…”

“The real and effectual discipline which is exercised over a workman is that of his customers. It is the fear of losing their employment which restrains his frauds and corrects his negligence. “

“Every individual is continually exerting himself to find out the most advantageous employment for whatever capital he can command. It is his own advantage, indeed, and not that of the society which he has in view. But the study of his own advantage naturally, or rather necessarily, leads him to prefer that employment which is most advantageous to society… He intends only his own gain, and he is in this, as in many other cases, led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was not part of his intention”

“The real tragedy of the poor is the poverty of their aspirations.”

“The man whose whole life is spent in performing a few simple operations, of which the effects are perhaps always the same, or very nearly the same, has no occasion to exert his understanding or to exercise his invention in finding out expedients for removing difficulties which never occur. He naturally loses, therefore, the habit of such exertion, and generally becomes as stupid and ignorant as it is possible for a human creature to become.”

“Every man, as the Stoics used to say, is first and principally recommended to his own care; and every man is certainly, in every respect, fitter and abler to take care of himself than of any other person. Every man feels his own pleasures and his own pains more sensibly than those of other people. The former are the original sensations; the latter the reflected or sympathetic images of those sensations. The former may be said to be the substance; the latter the shadow.”

“The man of system, on the contrary, is apt to be very wise in his own conceit; and is often so enamored with the supposed beauty of his own ideal plan of government, that he cannot suffer the smallest deviation from any part of it. He goes on to establish it completely and in all its parts, without any regard either to the great interests, or to the strong prejudices which may oppose it. He seems to imagine that he can arrange the different members of a great society with as much ease as the hand arranges the different pieces upon a chess-board. He does not consider that the pieces upon the chess-board have no other principle of motion besides that which the hand impresses upon them; but that, in the great chess-board of human society, every single piece has a principle of motion of its own, altogether different from that which the legislature might choose to impress upon it. If those two principles coincide and act in the same direction, the game of human society will go on easily and harmoniously, and is very likely to be happy and successful. If they are opposite or different, the game will go on miserably, and the society must be at all times in the highest degree of disorder.”

“Are you in earnest resolved never to barter your liberty for the lordly servitude of a court, but to live free, fearless, and independent? There seems to be one way to continue in that virtuous resolution; and perhaps but one. Never enter the place from whence so few have been able to return; never come within the circle of ambition; nor ever bring yourself into comparison with those masters of the earth who have already engrossed the attention of half mankind before you.”

“It is the maxim of every prudent master of a family, never to attempt to make at home what it will cost him more to make than to buy…What is prudence in the conduct of every private family, can scarce be folly in that of a great kingdom.”

“By means of glasses, hotbeds, and hot-walls, very good grapes can be raised in Scotland, and very good wine too can be made of them at about thirty times the expense for which at least equally good can be brought from foreign countries. Would it be a reasonable law to prohibit the importation of all foreign wines, merely to encourage the making of claret and burgundy in Scotland?”

“Little else is requisite to carry a state to the highest degree of opulence from the lowest barbarism, but peace, easy taxes, and a tolerable administration of justice: all the rest being brought about by the natural course of things.”

It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest. We address ourselves, not to their humanity but to their self-love, and never talk to them of our necessities but of their advantages.”

“It is the highest impertinence and presumption… in kings and ministers, to pretend to watch over the economy of private people, and to restrain their expense… They are themselves always, and without any exception, the greatest spendthrifts in the society. Let them look well after their own expense, and they may safely trust private people with theirs. If their own extravagance does not ruin the state, that of their subjects never will.”

“The natural effort of every individual to better his own condition…is so powerful, that it is alone, and without any assistance, not only capable of carrying on the society to wealth and prosperity, but of surmounting a hundred impertinent obstructions with which the folly of human laws too often encumbers its operations.”

“The proprietor of stock is necessarily a citizen of the world, and is not necessarily attached to any particular country. He would be apt to abandon the country in which he was exposed to a vexatious inquisition, in order to be assessed to a burdensome tax, and would remove his stock to some other country where he could either carry on his business, or enjoy his fortune more at his ease.”

“Adventure upon all the tickets in the lottery, and you lose for certain; and the greater the number of your tickets the nearer your approach to this certainty.”

“All money is a matter of belief.”

“No complaint, however, is more common than that of a scarcity of money.”

“How many people ruin themselves by laying out money on trinkets of frivolous utility? What pleases these lovers of toys is not so much the utility, as the aptness of the machines which are fitted to promote it. All their pockets are stuffed with little conveniences. They contrive new pockets, unknown in the clothes of other people, in order to carry a greater number. They walk about loaded with a multitude of baubles, … all of which might at all times be very well spared, and of which the whole utility is certainly not worth the fatigue of bearing the burden.”

“The difference between the most dissimilar characters, between a philosopher and a common street porter, for example, seems to arise not so much from nature, as from habit, custom, and education. – By nature a philosopher is not in genius and disposition half so different from a street porter, as a mastiff is from a greyhound.”

“The liberal reward of labor, therefore, as it is the effect of increasing wealth, so it is the cause of increasing population. To complain of it, is to lament over the necessary effect and cause of the greatest public prosperity.”

“Corn is a necessary, silver is only a superfluity.”

“Good roads, canals, and navigable rivers, by diminishing the expense of carriage, put the remote parts of the country more nearly upon a level with with those of the neighborhood of the town. They are upon that the greatest of all improvements.”

“Among civilized and thriving nations, on the contrary, though a great number of people do no labor at all, many of whom consume the produce of ten times, frequently of a hundred times more labor than the greater part of those who work; yet the produce of the whole labor of the society is so great, that all are often abundantly supplied, and a workman, even of the lowest and poorest order, if he is frugal and industrious, may enjoy a greater share of the necessaries and conveniences of life than it is possible for any savage to acquire.”

“With the greater part of rich people, the chief enjoyment of riches consists in the parade of riches, which in their eye is never so complete as when they appear to possess those decisive marks of opulence which nobody can possess but themselves.”

“Virtue is more to be feared than vice, because its excesses are not subject to the regulation of conscience.”

“Mercy to the guilty is cruelty to the innocent.”

“Science is the great antidote to the poison of enthusiasm and superstition.”

“The theory that can absorb the greatest number of facts, and persist in doing so, generation after generation, through all changes of opinion and detail, is the one that must rule all observation.”

“What can be added to the happiness of a man who is in health, out of debt, and has a clear conscience?”

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COMMENTS:
The Wealth of Nations was published in 1776 — that’s 237 years ago — and it seems our government’s leaders have lost sight of his writings. The Internal Revenue Service targeting political organizations for tax review is an absolute and clear violation of the health of a nation. The US grew stronger than others because of the freedoms of every individual to solve the problems he faced personally with his local understanding. The government from afar has little understanding of specific situations and should leave those local things to people who understand them. The government does have a role in promoting trade, within the country, of creating better communications. In Smith’s day that meant better roads, canals, and port facilities, but today that means, in addition to those, the creation of better electronic communications and better information services. The creation of a huge organization spying on the public network, to which the public has no access, will eventually stifle creativity, manufacturing and trade.

Philosophers Squared – A. J. Ayer

Tags

A. J. Ayer, Logical Positivism, Philosophers Squared, Verification principle

Go to the Index of 120 Philosophers Squared

A. J. Ayer (1910-1989) was an English Logical Positivist and Professor of Logic at Oxford. He developed the verification principle questioning the possibility of truth of a statement based on if it can be verified or is essentially unverifiable.

A. J. Ayer, English philosopher and Logical Positivist of the Verification principle.

Quotes attributed to A. J. Ayer (primary sources are Wikiquotes, PhilPapers,):

“Why should you mind being wrong if someone can show you that you are?”

“But it is not sensible to cry for what is logically impossible.”

“No moral system can rest solely on authority.”

“Even logical positivists are capable of love.”

“The traditional disputes of philosophers are, for the most part, as unwarranted as they are unfruitful. The surest way to end them is to establish beyond question what should be the purpose and method of a philosophical enquiry. And this is by no means so difficult a task as the history of philosophy would lead one to suppose. For if there are any questions which science leaves it to philosophy to answer, a straightforward process of elimination must lead to their discovery.”

“The criterion which we use to test the genuineness of apparent statements of fact is the criterion of verifiability. We say that a sentence is factually significant to any given person, if, and only if, he knows how to verify the proposition which it purports to express — that is, if he knows what observations would lead him, under certain conditions, to accept the proposition as being true, or reject it as being false.”

“It is possible to be a meta-physician without believing in a transcendent reality; for we shall see that many metaphysical utterances are due to the commission of logical errors, rather than to a conscious desire on the part of their authors to go beyond the limits of experience.”

“The propositions of philosophy are not factual, but linguistic in character – that is, they do not describe the behavior of physical, or even mental, objects; they express definitions, or the formal consequences of definitions.”

“A point which is not sufficiently brought out by Russell, if indeed it is recognized by him at all, is that every logical proposition is valid in its own right.”
“In other words, the propositions of philosophy are not factual, but linguistic in character – that is, they do not describe the behavior of physical, or even mental, objects; they express definitions, or the formal consequences of definitions. Accordingly we may say that philosophy is a department of logic. For we will see that the characteristic mark of a purely logical inquiry, is that it is concerned with the formal consequences of our definitions and not with questions of empirical fact.”

“A point which is not sufficiently brought out by Russell, if indeed it is recognized by him at all, is that every logical proposition is valid in its own right. Its validity does not depend upon its being incorporated in a system, and deduced from certain propositions which are taken as self-evident. The construction of systems of logic is useful as a means of discovering and certifying analytic propositions, but it is not in principle essential even for this purpose. For it is possible to conceive of a symbolism in which every analytic proposition could be seen to be analytic in virtue of its form alone. The fact that the validity of an analytic proposition in no way depends on its being deducible from other analytic propositions is our justification for disregarding the question whether the propositions of mathematics are reducible to propositions of formal logic, in the way that Russell supposed (1919, chap. 2). For even if it is the case that the definition of a cardinal number as a class of classes similar to a given class is circular, and it is not possible to reduce mathematical notions to purely logical notions, it will still remain true that the propositions of mathematics are analytic propositions. They will form a special class of analytic propositions, containing special terms, but they will be none the less analytic for that. For the criterion of an analytic proposition is that its validity should follow simply from the definition of the terms contained in it, and this condition is fulfilled by the propositions of pure mathematics.”

“The principles of logic and mathematics are true universally simply because we never allow them to be anything else. And the reason for this is that we cannot abandon them without contradicting ourselves, without sinning against the rules which govern the use of language, and so making our utterances self-stultifying. In other words, the truths of logic and mathematics are analytic propositions or tautologies.”

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COMMENTS:

Ayer asks for an impossible level of verification. Our human brains are made of layers of cells responding to other layers of cells which are responding to simple organizing principles based on the degree of energy received from connected cells. Only a tiny portion of this activity is ever available to our conscious observation, and yet we do have the capacity to direct its activity by where we choose to direct our attention. In such a loose system of cells there are no possibilities for absolute conditions of thought or of ideas; but our mind can point to things that are themselves absolutes. For example we can easily add 17 to 3,000 and get 3,017 and get an absolute number, but the absoluteness is in the number, not in our brain.

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A. J. Ayer books at Amazon

Philosophers Squared – René Descartes

Tags

Descartes, I think therefore I am., Philosophers Squared

Go to the Index of 120 Philosophers Squared

René Descartes (1596-1650), French philosopher and mathematician. He was a ‘Father of Modern Philosophy’ and is famous for “I think, therefore I am.” He is a father of modern mathematics, creating the Cartesian system of measurement in multi-dimensions. He emancipated humanity from the church by granting the individual autonomous reason.

Rene Descartes, Father of modern philosophy and mathematics

Quotes attributed to Rene Descartes

“In order to improve the mind, we ought less to learn, than to contemplate.”

“Common sense is the most fairly distributed thing in the world, for each one thinks he is so well-endowed with it that even those who are hardest to satisfy in all other matters are not in the habit of desiring more of it than they already have.”

“There is nothing so strange and so unbelievable that it has not been said by one philosopher or another.”

Cogito ergo sum, “I think, therefore I am.” alt “I think therefore I exist.”

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My attempt to link isolated quotes into a flowing discourse

“In philosophy, when we make use of false principles, we depart the farther from the knowledge of truth and wisdom exactly in proportion to the care with which we cultivate them, and apply ourselves to the deduction of diverse consequences from them, thinking that we are philosophizing well, while we are only departing the farther from the truth; from which it must be inferred that they who have learned the least of all that has been hitherto distinguished by the name of philosophy are the most fitted for the apprehension of truth.”

“But to live without philosophizing is in truth the same as keeping the eyes closed without attempting to open them; and the pleasure of seeing all that sight discloses is not to be compared with the satisfaction afforded by the discoveries of philosophy.”

“I have observed, on examining the natural constitutions of different minds, that there are hardly any so dull or slow of understanding as to be incapable of apprehending good opinions, or even of acquiring all the highest sciences, if they be but conducted along the right road.”

“When he has acquired some skill in discovering the truth in these questions, he should commence to apply himself in earnest to true philosophy, of which the first part is Metaphysics, containing the principles of knowledge, among which is the explication of the principal attributes of God, of the immateriality of the soul, and of all the clear and simple notions that are in us; the second is Physics, in which, after finding the true principles of material things, we examine, in general, how the whole universe has been framed.”

“Yet although the senses sometimes deceive us about objects that are very small or distant, that doesn’t apply to my belief that I am here, sitting by the fire, wearing a winter dressing-gown, holding this piece of paper in my hands, and so on. It seems to be quite impossible to doubt beliefs like these, which come from the senses.”

“At the same time I must remember that I am a man, and that consequently I am in the habit of sleeping, and in my dreams representing to myself the same things or sometimes even less probable things, than do those who are insane in their waking moments.”

“Suppose then that I am dreaming—it isn’t true that I, with my eyes open, am moving my head and stretching out my hands. Suppose, indeed that I don’t even have hands or any body at all. Still, it has to be admitted that the visions that come in sleep are like paintings: they must have been made as copies of real things; so at least these general kinds of things— eyes, head, hands and the body as a whole—must be real and not imaginary.”

“As if I didn’t remember other occasions when I have been tricked by exactly similar thoughts while asleep! As I think about this more carefully, I realize that there is never any reliable way of distinguishing being awake from being asleep. This discovery makes me feel dizzy, which itself reinforces the notion that I may be asleep!”

“To doubt such things I would have to liken myself to brain-damaged madmen who are convinced they are kings when really they are paupers, or say they are dressed in purple when they are naked, or that they are pumpkins, or made of glass. Such people are insane, and I would be thought equally mad if I modeled myself on them.”

“So I shall suppose that some malicious, powerful, cunning demon has done all he can to deceive me—rather than this being done by God, who is supremely good and the source of truth. I shall think that the sky, the air, the earth, colors, shapes, sounds and all external things are merely dreams that the demon has contrived as traps for my judgment.”

“I shall stubbornly persist in this train of thought; and even if I can’t learn any truth, I shall at least do what I can do, which is to be on my guard against accepting any falsehoods, so that the deceiver—however powerful and cunning he may be—will be unable to affect me in the slightest.”

“It might be thought that since the reality that I am considering in my ideas is merely representative, it might be possessed by its cause only representatively and not intrinsically.”

“If I had derived my existence from myself, I would not now doubt or want or lack anything at all; for I would have given myself all the perfections of which I have any idea. So I would be God.”

“The word ‘invent’ points to what is wrong with relying on my imagination in this matter: if I used imagination to show that I was something or other, that would be mere invention, mere story-telling; for imagining is simply contemplating the shape or image of a bodily thing.”

“Well, if God didn’t exist, from what would I derive my existence? It would have to come from myself, or from my parents, or from some other beings less perfect than God (a being more perfect than God, or even one as perfect, is unthinkable).”

“Being able to imagine isn’t essential to me, as being able to understand is; for even if I had no power of imagination I would still be the same individual that I am. This seems to imply that my power of imagining depends on something other than myself; and I can easily understand that · if there is such a thing as my body—that is ·, if my mind is joined to a certain body in such a way that it can contemplate that body whenever it wants to—then it might be this very body that enables me to imagine corporeal things.”

“As vividly as it teaches me anything, my own nature teaches me that I have a body, that when I feel pain there is something wrong with this body, that when I am hungry or thirsty it needs food and drink, and so on. So I shouldn’t doubt that there is some truth in this.”

“But the error of those who lean too much to the side of doubt, was not followed for any length of time, and that of the opposite party has been to some extent corrected by the doctrine that the senses are deceitful in many instances.”

“Of philosophy I will say nothing, except that when I saw that it had been cultivated for many ages by the most distinguished men, and that yet there is not a single matter within its sphere which is not still in dispute, and nothing, therefore, which is above doubt, I did not presume to anticipate that my success would be greater in it than that of others; and further, when I considered the number of conflicting opinions touching a single matter that may be upheld by learned men, while there can be but one true, I reckoned as well-nigh false all that was only probable.”

——

“The first [maxim] was to obey the laws and customs of my country, adhering firmly to the faith in which, by the grace of God, I had been educated from my childhood and regulating my conduct in every other matter according to the most moderate opinions, and the farthest removed from extremes, which should happen to be adopted in practice with general consent of the most judicious of those among whom I might be living.”

“My second maxim was to be as firm and resolute in my actions as I was able, and not to adhere less steadfastly to the most doubtful opinions, when once adopted, than if they had been highly certain; imitating in this the example of travelers who, when they have lost their way in a forest, ought not to wander from side to side, far less remain in one place, but proceed constantly towards the same side in as straight a line as possible, without changing their direction for slight reasons, although perhaps it might be chance alone which at first determined the selection; for in this way, if they do not exactly reach the point they desire, they will come at least in the end to some place that will probably be preferable to the middle of a forest .”

“My third maxim was to endeavor always to conquer myself rather than fortune, and change my desires rather than the order of the world, and in general, accustom myself to the persuasion that, except our own thoughts, there is nothing absolutely in our power; so that when we have done our best in things external to us, all wherein we fail of success is to be held, as regards us, absolutely impossible: and this single principle seemed to me sufficient to prevent me from desiring for the future anything which I could not obtain, and thus render me contented.”

“But the chief ground of my satisfaction with thus method, was the assurance I had of thereby exercising my reason in all matters, if not with absolute perfection, at least with the greatest attainable by me: besides, I was conscious that by its use my mind was becoming gradually habituated to clearer and more distinct conceptions of its objects; and I hoped also, from not having restricted this method to any particular matter, to apply it to the difficulties of the other sciences, with not less success than to those of algebra.”

“This method, from the time I had begun to apply it, had been to me the source of satisfaction so intense as to lead me to, believe that more perfect or more innocent could not be enjoyed in this life; and as by its means I daily discovered truths that appeared to me of some importance, and of which other men were generally ignorant, the gratification thence arising so occupied my mind that I was wholly indifferent to every other object.”

“But even superior men have no reason for any great anxiety to know these principles, for if what they desire is to be able to speak of all things, and to acquire a reputation for learning, they will gain their end more easily by remaining satisfied with the appearance of truth, which can be found without much difficulty in all sorts of matters, than by seeking the truth itself which unfolds itself but slowly and that only in some departments, while it obliges us, when we have to speak of others, freely to confess our ignorance.”

——–

“When it is not in our power to follow what is true, we ought to follow what is most probable.”

“If you would be a real seeker after truth, it is necessary that at least once in your life you doubt, as far as possible, all things.”

“The long chains of simple and easy reasonings by means of which geometers are accustomed to reach the conclusions of their most difficult demonstrations, had led me to imagine that all things, to the knowledge of which man is competent, are mutually connected in the same way, and that there is nothing so far removed from us as to be beyond our reach, or so hidden that we cannot discover it, provided only we abstain from accepting the false for the true, and always preserve in our thoughts the order necessary for the deduction of one truth from another.”

“A state is better governed which has few laws, and those laws strictly observed.”

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COMMENTS:
Descartes said in Latin, “Cogito ergo sum,” which gives options for English restatement. Usually stated, “I think, therefore I am.” Several years ago I wrote “I think I think, therefore I think I am.” and my dog Tiger, upon farting, opined, “I stink, therefore I am”; at the moment “I know I think therefore I know I am,” and that statement seems more authoritative and convincing than merely thinking I think. It evolved into observing you, and I can say, “I think you think, but I know you are as surely as I know I think and I know I am.”

“In order to improve the mind, we ought less to learn, than to contemplate.” This is different than the motto of education of Descartes’ day, The goal of education was “To learn to listen and speak, to read and write.” Contemplating demands more, it requires internal mental work. Because of my penchant for action based on careful analysis, and the avoidance of empty learning which never has the possibility of leading to action, I had to pause on Descartes’ word contemplate. I would contend that contemplating is action, it is mental action based on what is known and what might be deduced from what is known, but I believe even this should be couched in ways that might lead to the possibility of action, even though its use may not be known or even knowable at the moment. In that way it is similar to Karl Popper’s ideas about stating scientific theories and findings in a ways that are falsifiable. I want them to be potentially useful. Or as the US Patent Law requires, “new and useful.”

“There is nothing so far removed from us as to be beyond our reach, or so hidden that we cannot discover it, provided only we abstain from accepting the false for the true.” This concept is based on having tested and proven sound ideas upon which other ideas may be safely founded. This is like a geometry of ideas based on axioms and building a logical structure for measuring and using space. That aspect of modern reality that works is based on historical reality that functioned. It is a form of societal evolution.

“Divide each difficulty into as many parts as is feasible and necessary to resolve the problem.” This concept is similar to Ockham’s Razor in intent, but different in the goal of finding a working concept. Ockham wrote, “Entities should not be multiplied beyond necessity.” Descartes alone created many profound advancements in various fields, philosophy, mathematics, geometry and religion using his methods and theories, whereas several hundred years of the entire Scholastic community produced few. The old saying, “You may know them by their fruits” applies. Thus -

Amplify the verifiable assumptions until a working solution can be demonstrated.

Philosophers Squared – Albert Camus

Tags

Absurdism, Albert Camus, Existentialism, Nihilism, Philosophers Squared, Rebel

Go to the Index of 120 Philosophers Squared

Albert Camus (1913-1960) was a French-Algerian philosopher of a variation of existentialism called absurdism and opposed to the variation called nihilism.

Albert Camus, the existential philosopher of Absurdism

The main web sources for these quotes are – Goodreads, EGS, WikiQuote.

“Don’t walk behind me; I may not lead. Don’t walk in front of me’ I may not follow. Just walk beside me and be my friend.”

“For those of us who have been thrown into hell, mysterious melodies and the torturing images of a vanished beauty will always bring us, in the midst of crime and folly, the echo of that harmonious insurrection which bears witness, throughout the centuries, to the greatness of humanity.”

“The slave begins by demanding justice and ends by wanting to wear a crown. He must dominate in his turn.”

“Every rebellion implies some kind of unity.”

“Absolute freedom mocks at justice. Absolute justice denies freedom. To be fruitful, the two ideas must find their limits in each other.”

“Every revolutionary ends as an oppressor or a heretic.”

“Every ideology is contrary to human psychology.”

“The evil that is in the world always comes of ignorance, and good intentions may do as much harm as malevolence, if they lack understanding. On the whole men are more good than bad; that, however, isn’t the real point. But they are more or less ignorant, and it is this that we call vice or virtue; the most incorrigible vice being that of an ignorance which fancies it knows everything and therefore claims for itself the right to kill. There can be no true goodness, nor true love, without the utmost clear-sightedness.”

“One might think that a period which, in a space of fifty years, uproots, enslaves, or kills seventy million human beings should be condemned out of hand. But its culpability must still be understood… In more ingenuous times, when the tyrant razed cities for his own greater glory, when the slave chained to the conqueror’s chariot was dragged through the rejoicing streets, when enemies were thrown to the wild beasts in front of the assembled people, the mind did not reel before such unabashed crimes, and the judgment remained unclouded. But slave camps under the flag of freedom, massacres justified by philanthropy or by a taste for the superhuman, in one sense cripple judgment. On the day when crime dons the apparel of innocence — through a curious transposition peculiar to our times — it is innocence that is called upon to justify itself.”

“Yes, there was an element of abstraction and unreality in misfortune. But when an abstraction starts to kill you, you have to get to work on it.”

“The important thing isn’t the soundness or otherwise of the argument, but for it to make you think.”

“What on earth prompted you to take a hand in this?” “I don’t know. My… my code of morals, perhaps.” “Your code of morals. What code, if I may ask?” “Comprehension.”

“If Nietzsche and Hegel serve as alibis to the masters of Dachau and Karaganda, that does not condemn their entire philosophy. But it does lead to the suspicion that one aspect of their thought, or of their logic, can lead to these appalling conclusions.”

“… there is no other solution but to speak out and show the obscenity hidden under the verbal cloak.”

“To be happy, we must not be too concerned with others.”

“Let’s not beat around the bush; I love life — that’s my real weakness. I love it so much that I am incapable of imagining what is not life.”

“God is not needed to create guilt or to punish. Our fellow men suffice, aided by ourselves.”

“An intellectual is someone whose mind watches itself.”

“We all have a weakness for beauty.”

“It takes time to live. Like any work of art, life needs to be thought about.”

“Nothing is harder to understand than a symbolic work. A symbol always transcends the one who makes use of it and makes him say in reality more than he is aware of expressing.”

“What must be remembered in any case is that secret complicity that joins the logical and the everyday to the tragic.”

“A fate is not a punishment.”

“What is a rebel? A man who says no.”

“I can understand only in human terms.”

“Nothing can discourage the appetite for divinity in the heart of man.”

“I rebel — therefore we exist.”

“There may be responsible persons, but there are no guilty ones,”

“Great novelists are philosopher-novelists who write in images instead of arguments.”

“I do not have much liking for the too famous existential philosophy, and, to tell the truth, I think its conclusions false.”

“Don’t walk behind me; I may not lead. Don’t walk in front of me’ I may not follow. Just walk beside me and be my friend.”

Main sources for these quotes – Goodreads, EGS, WikiQuote.

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COMMENTS:
Albert Camus wrote: The Myth of Sisyphus 1942, The Plague 1947. The Rebel. 1951, The Fall. 1956, Resistance, Rebellion, and Death. 1960, A Happy Death. 1971.

I disagree with Camus’ statement, “I would rather live my life as if there is a God and die to find out there isn’t, than live my life as if there isn’t and die to find out there is.” That is a pathetically weak argument! For assuming God exists and is all knowing He would discount Camus’ belief as false and intended to deceive Him. Therefore, God would send Camus and people who followed that argument for ascending into Heaven into the deepest Hell.

A stronger argument is that a belief in God puts constrictions on people’s behavior, but unfortunately the belief permits a believer to mistreat one’s fellow man if they don’t believe exactly as you do. And, since no one can believe exactly as you do, it permits you to mistreat anyone, and for them to mistreat you. Without God it is easier to think for one’s self, and ask the simple question, “Should I do this?”. Camus writes, “What on earth prompted you to take a hand in this?” “I don’t know. My… my code of morals, perhaps.” “Your code of morals. What code, if I may ask?” “Comprehension.” – What is the comprehension Camus writes of, except the suffering of others, and yet when we look around there is plenty of suffering to be observed and comprehended, but little done to prevent it by supposedly comprehending people.

Camus writes, “But what is happiness except the simple harmony between a man and the life he leads?” But he doesn’t give the path to this harmony as clearly as the Classic Greek and Roman Stoics and Epicureans.

“If Nietzsche and Hegel serve as alibis to the masters of Dachau and Karaganda, that does not condemn their entire philosophy. But it does lead to the suspicion that one aspect of their thought, or of their logic, can lead to these appalling conclusions.” – This illustrates another problem I have with Camus: it is his carrying his ideas to extremes which inevitably causes problems. To implement any idea whatsoever to extremes of its possibilities will lead to suffering.

“And since a dead man has no substance unless one actually sees him dead, a hundred million corpses broadcast through history are no more than a puff of smoke in the imagination.” This seems like such a grand statement until one realizes that Camus is off by three decimal points. Nature has killed, not a hundred million, but a hundred billion. There is a difference.

I enjoy reading Camus, but perhaps it’s only to stimulate my need to contradict his ideas.

“With rebellion, awareness is born.” – But with rebellion comes suppression and the awareness of who is in charge. “To rebel against nature amounted to rebelling against oneself.”

Camus writes constantly of rebellion, but the undertone is constantly that rebellion is futile, to rebel is to lose and to suffer. As we only live once and can not enjoy the benefits of our futile actions that end in our death, it is more enjoyable to live the life of a Stoic and be content with all of the past and most of the present and near future, and once again with all of the distant future. We have no choice over the inevitable but to be contented with it.

“Since we’re all going to die, it’s obvious that when and how don’t matter.” This statement is absurd. It does matter. It matters infinitely.

We are all sentenced to death, and if not today it will come tomorrow.

Philosophers Squared – Anaxagoras

Tags

Anaxagoras, Basic questions of reality, Philosophers Squared

Go to the Index of 120 Philosophers Squared

Anaxagoras (c. 510 – 428 BC) was a Pre-Socratic Greek philosopher who formed and stated basic questions about reality and speculated on astronomy and rainbows. See a graphic layout of Classic Greek Philosophers.

Anaxagoras, a Pre-Socratic philosopher of science

Quotations and thoughts attributed to Anaxagoras from Wikiquote, EGS:

“Is it not natural that beginners in philosophy should lose heart? For to seek the truth would be to pursue flying game.”

“There is Anaxagoras, a doughty champion, whom they call Mind, because forsooth his was the mind which suddenly woke up and fitted closely together all that had formerly been in a medley of confusion.”

“Almost all the things that are homogeneous are generated and destroyed (as water or fire is) only by aggregation and segregation, and are not in any other sense generated or destroyed, but remain eternally.”

“For Anaxagoras uses reason as a deus ex machina for the making of the world, and when he is at a loss to tell for what cause something necessarily is, then he drags reason in, but in all other cases ascribes events to anything rather than to reason.”

“All things were together; then came Mind and set them in order.”

“The Greeks do not think correctly about coming-to-be and passing-away; for no thing comes to be or passes away, but is mixed together and dissociated from the things that are. And thus they would be correct to call coming-to-be mixing-together and passing-away dissociating.”

“There is a principle of things which is at the same time the cause of beauty, and that sort of cause from which things acquire movement.”

“Anaxagoras said to a man who was grieving because he was dying in a foreign land, The descent to Hades is the same from every place.”

“All things were together, infinite both in number and in smallness; for the small too was infinite.”

“And since these things are so, we must suppose that there are contained many things and of all sorts in the things that are uniting, seeds of all things, with all sorts of shapes and colours and savours.”

“Mind is infinite and self-ruled, and is mixed with nothing, but is alone itself by itself.”

“The sun provides the moon with its brightness. “

“Anaxagoras of Clazomenae being asked, ‘Who was the happiest of men’? answered, ‘None of those you suppose, but one who would appear a strange being to you’, because he saw that the questioner thought it impossible for one not great and beautiful or rich to deserve the epithet ‘happy’, while he himself perhaps thought that the man who lived painlessly and pure of injustice or else engaged in some divine contemplation was really, as far as a man may be, blessed.”

“Is it not natural that beginners in philosophy should lose heart? For to seek the truth would be to pursue flying game.”

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COMMENTS:

In reading these ancient philosophers I feel gratitude to them for their efforts to puzzle through these intellectual conundrums. In doing so they laid the foundations for our modern social and intellectual world to come into being. A physical comparison would be a modern automobile, which a person of normal abilities can easily drive from one place to another without understanding any of the immense complexities of the machine and the society that created it. A ordinary modern person can benefit from both of these vast and highly evolved structures with ease. Modern thinking, social relationships and technology are founded on an enormous past of humans discovering relationships that function and finding ways of transmitting these improvements effectively to the world around them and improving upon the improvements.

The common man has such a great command of the world because he stands on the shoulders of multitudes of giants, who themselves are standing on other multitudes of giants.

Philosophers Squared – Ayn Rand

Tags

Ayn Rand, Objectivism, Objectivist philosophy, Philosophers Squared, The function of money

Go to the Index of 120 Philosophers Squared

Ayn Rand (1905-1982) born Saint Petersburg, Russia, lived in New York City, and Hollywood, CA. Wrote The Fountainhead 1943 and Atlas Shrugged 1957 and created a political movement based on her Objectivist philosophy. Her ideas still have a major influence on conservative politics supporting individualism and property rights.

Ayn Rand, Objectivist philosopher

Quotes attributed to Ayn Rand:

“The truth is not for all men but only for those who seek it.”

“The hardest thing to explain is the glaringly evident which everybody has decided not to see.”

“Learn to value yourself, which means: fight for your happiness.”

“Happiness is that state of consciousness which proceeds from the achievement of one’s values.”

“The man who does not value himself, cannot value anything or anyone.”

“There are no white lies, there is only the blackest of destruction, and a white lie is the blackest of all.”

“A person’s sexual choice is the result and sum of their fundamental convictions. Tell me what a person finds sexually attractive and I will tell you their entire philosophy of life. Show me the person they sleep with and I will tell you their valuation of themselves.”

“A creative man is motivated by the desire to achieve, not by the desire to beat others.”

“The smallest minority on earth is the individual. Those who deny individual rights cannot claim to be defenders of minorities.”

“Civilization is the progress toward a society of privacy. The savage’s whole existence is public, ruled by the laws of his tribe. Civilization is the process of setting man free from men.”

“A government is the most dangerous threat to man’s rights: it holds a legal monopoly on the use of physical force against legally disarmed victims.”

“Individual rights are not subject to a public vote; a majority has no right to vote away the rights of a minority; the political function of rights is precisely to protect minorities from oppression by majorities (and the smallest minority on earth is the individual).”

“Man’s unique reward, however, is that while animals survive by adjusting themselves to their background, man survives by adjusting his background to himself.”

“All you have to do is look straight and see the road, and when you see it, don’t sit looking at it – walk.”

“There is a level of cowardice lower than that of the conformist: the fashionable non-conformist.”

“The most depraved type of human being is the man without a purpose.”

“Just as man can’t exist without his body, so no rights can exist without the right to translate one’s rights into reality — to think, to work and to keep the results — which means: the right of property.”

“Every great new thought was opposed. Every great new invention was denounced.”

“The degree of a man’s productiveness is the degree of his reward. This is the code of existence whose tool and symbol is money.”

“Money is the material shape of the principle that men who wish to deal with one another must deal by trade and give value for value.”

“Money is made — before it can be looted or mooched — made by the effort of every honest man, each to the extent of his ability.”

“Run for your life from any man who tells you that money is evil. That sentence is the leper’s bell of an approaching looter. So long as men live together on earth and need means to deal with one another — their only substitute, if they abandon money, is the muzzle of a gun.”

“The question isn’t who is going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me.”

“The only proper, moral purpose of a government is to protect man’s rights, which means: to protect him from physical violence—to protect his right to his own life, to his own liberty, to his own property and to the pursuit of his own happiness. Without property rights, no other rights are possible.”

“When you consider socialism, do not fool yourself about its nature. Remember that there is no such dichotomy as ‘human rights’ versus ‘property rights.’ No human rights can exist without property rights.”

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COMMENTS:
With each of these great philosophers there is wisdom based on a point of view. It appears that Ayn Rand’s view is nearly identical to Thomas Jefferson’s as stated in the Declaration of Independence – Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. With happiness being founded on property rights which was intended by Jefferson. Thus Ayn Rand who was born and educated through college in Russia became a quintessential American.
Money isn’t the root of all evil — it is the flower pollen of all that has been created.