Combining Philosophers

All the ideas for Herodotus, Steven Weinberg and Naguib Mahfouz

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3 ideas

1. Philosophy / A. Wisdom / 2. Wise People

15833	Tell cleverness from answers, but wisdom from questions [Mahfouz]
	Full Idea: You can tell whether a man is clever by his answers. You can tell whether a man is wise by his questions.
	From: Naguib Mahfouz (works [1998])
	A reaction: [Popped up on Twitter. I am adjusting to the 21st century] The observation is simplistic, of course, but very nice indeed.

6. Mathematics / C. Sources of Mathematics / 4. Mathematical Empiricism / b. Indispensability of mathematics

8732	It is spooky the way mathematics anticipates physics [Weinberg]
	Full Idea: It is positively spooky how the physicist finds the mathematician has been there before him or her.
	From: Steven Weinberg (Lecture on Applicability of Mathematics [1986], p.725), quoted by Stewart Shapiro - Thinking About Mathematics 2.3
	A reaction: This suggests that mathematics might be the study of possibilities or hypotheticals, like mental rehearsals for physics. See Hellman's modal structuralism. Maybe mathematicians are reading the mind of God, but I doubt that.

29. Religion / D. Religious Issues / 2. Immortality / a. Immortality

1513	The Egyptians were the first to say the soul is immortal and reincarnated [Herodotus]
	Full Idea: The Egyptians were the first to claim that the soul of a human being is immortal, and that each time the body dies the soul enters another creature just as it is being born.
	From: Herodotus (The Histories [c.435 BCE], 2.123.2)