Combining Philosophers

Ideas for Hermarchus, Oswald Spengler and Augustine

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3 ideas

22. Metaethics / B. Value / 2. Values / g. Love
Love, and do what you will [Augustine]
     Full Idea: Love, and do what you will.
     From: Augustine (works [c.415])
     A reaction: This sounds libertarian, but Augustine had a stern concept of what love required. It nicely captures one of the essential ideas of virtue ethics.
22. Metaethics / C. The Good / 1. Goodness / b. Types of good
Pagans produced three hundred definitions of the highest good [Augustine, by Grayling]
     Full Idea: Augustine claimed that the pagan schools between them had produced nearly three hundred different definitions of the highest good.
     From: report of Augustine (works [c.415]) by A.C. Grayling - What is Good? Ch.5
     A reaction: I would expect the right definition to be in there somewhere, but no doubt Augustine's definition made it 301. Perhaps the biggest problem of human life is that (as with the Kennedy assassination) proliferating stories obscure the true story.
22. Metaethics / C. The Good / 2. Happiness / c. Value of happiness
Everyone wants happiness [Augustine]
     Full Idea: Surely happiness is what everyone wants, so much so that there can be none who do not want it?
     From: Augustine (Confessions [c.398], X.20)
     A reaction: His concept of happiness is, of course, religious. Occasionally you meet habitual grumblers about life who give the impression that they are only happy when they are discontented. So happiness is achieving desires, not feeling good?