Combining Philosophers

All the ideas for Hermarchus, Hippocrates and Oscar Wilde

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5 ideas

17. Mind and Body / E. Mind as Physical / 1. Physical Mind
All of our happiness and misery arises entirely from the brain [Hippocrates]
     Full Idea: Men ought to know that from the brain, and from the brain alone, arise our pleasures, joys, laughter and jests, as well as our sorrow, pains, griefs and tears.
     From: Hippocrates (Hippocrates of Cos on the mind [c.430 BCE], p.32)
     A reaction: If this could be assertedly so confidently at that date, why was the fact so slow to catch on? Brain injuries should have convinced everyone.
21. Aesthetics / C. Artistic Issues / 6. Value of Art
All art is quite useless [Wilde]
     Full Idea: All art is quite useless.
     From: Oscar Wilde (Preface to 'Dorian Gray' [1891])
     A reaction: Echoes Kant's thought that art is 'purposive without purpose'. Although I find Wilde's claims that morality has nothing to do with art to be naïve, I find this remark sympathetic. Art may play with moral feelings, but is unlikely to affect actions.
21. Aesthetics / C. Artistic Issues / 7. Art and Morality
Books are only well or badly written, not moral or immoral [Wilde]
     Full Idea: There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written. That is all.
     From: Oscar Wilde (Preface to 'Dorian Gray' [1891])
     A reaction: This is simply false. Novels that are viciously (or subtly) racist, sexist, homophobic, or egotistical can obviously be immoral. I could write a nasty story about Oscar Wilde. It might, though, be very well written. If life is moral, so are novels.
Having ethical sympathies is a bad mannerism of style in an artist [Wilde]
     Full Idea: No artist has ethical sympathies. An ethical sympathy in an artist is an unpardonable mannerism of style.
     From: Oscar Wilde (Preface to 'Dorian Gray' [1891])
     A reaction: This has a Nietzschean suggestion that the artist is 'beyond good and evil', and operates on some higher level of values, which in Wilde's case seem to be purely aesthetic. You can't justify a callous murder by executing it beautifully.
25. Social Practice / F. Life Issues / 6. Animal Rights
Animals are dangerous and nourishing, and can't form contracts of justice [Hermarchus, by Sedley]
     Full Idea: Hermarchus said that animal killing is justified by considerations of human safety and nourishment and by animals' inability to form contractual relations of justice with us.
     From: report of Hermarchus (fragments/reports [c.270 BCE]) by David A. Sedley - Hermarchus
     A reaction: Could the last argument be used to justify torturing animals? Or could we eat a human who was too brain-damaged to form contracts?