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Single Idea 21484
[filed under theme 23. Ethics / C. Virtue Theory / 2. Elements of Virtue Theory / e. Character
]
Full Idea
As a botanist can recognise the whole plant from one leaf, …so an accurate knowledge of a man's character can be arrived at from a single characteristic action.
Gist of Idea
A man's character can be learned from a single characteristic action
Source
Arthur Schopenhauer (Parerga and Paralipomena [1851], VIII:118)
Book Ref
Schopenhauer,Arthur: 'Essays and Aphorisms [from Pand P]', ed/tr. Hollingdale,R.J. [Penguin 1970], p.144
A Reaction
Very true. Great novelists specialise in such observations. One word can reveal a character, as well as one action.
The
88 ideas
from Arthur Schopenhauer
4187
|
'There is nothing without a reason why it should be rather than not be' (a generalisation of 'Why?')
[Schopenhauer]
|
4189
|
Time may be defined as the possibility of mutually exclusive conditions of the same thing
[Schopenhauer]
|
4190
|
All understanding is an immediate apprehension of the causal relation
[Schopenhauer]
|
4191
|
What we know in ourselves is not a knower but a will
[Schopenhauer]
|
4192
|
All necessity arises from causation, which is conditioned; there is no absolute or unconditioned necessity
[Schopenhauer]
|
21368
|
The knot of the world is the use of 'I' to refer to both willing and knowing
[Schopenhauer]
|
21379
|
Man's three basic ethical incentives are egoism, malice and compassion
[Schopenhauer]
|
21375
|
Reason can be vicious, and great crimes have to be rational
[Schopenhauer]
|
21376
|
Philosophy treats animals as exploitable things, ignoring the significance of their lives
[Schopenhauer]
|
21921
|
Concepts are abstracted from perceptions
[Schopenhauer, by Lewis,PB]
|
21362
|
Necessity is physical, logical, mathematical or moral
[Schopenhauer, by Janaway]
|
21361
|
For Schopenhauer, material things would not exist without the mind
[Schopenhauer, by Janaway]
|
21920
|
No need for a priori categories, since sufficient reason shows the interrelations
[Schopenhauer, by Lewis,PB]
|
21918
|
Sufficient Reason can't be proved, because all proof presupposes it
[Schopenhauer, by Lewis,PB]
|
21919
|
Object for a subject and representation are the same thing
[Schopenhauer]
|
21917
|
The four explanations: objects by causes, concepts by ground, maths by spacetime, ethics by motive
[Schopenhauer, by Lewis,PB]
|
21363
|
Motivation is causality seen from within
[Schopenhauer]
|
21378
|
We clearly feel responsible for our deeds, because we are quite certain that we did them
[Schopenhauer]
|
21924
|
As the subject of willing I am wretched, but absorption in knowledge is bliss
[Schopenhauer]
|
21915
|
To deduce morality from reason is blasphemy, because it is holy, and far above reason
[Schopenhauer]
|
21916
|
Philosophers can't be religious, and don't need to be; philosophy is perilous but free
[Schopenhauer]
|
21474
|
Metaphysics studies the inexplicable ends of explanation
[Schopenhauer]
|
21473
|
All knowledge and explanation rests on the inexplicable
[Schopenhauer]
|
21476
|
A priori propositions are those we could never be seriously motivated to challenge
[Schopenhauer]
|
21475
|
All of our concepts are borrowed from perceptual knowledge
[Schopenhauer]
|
21372
|
Aesthetics concerns how we can take pleasure in an object, with no reference to the will
[Schopenhauer]
|
21477
|
We don't control our own thinking
[Schopenhauer]
|
21478
|
Half our thinking is unconscious, and we reach conclusions while unaware of premises
[Schopenhauer]
|
21479
|
Knowledge is not power! Ignorant people possess supreme authority
[Schopenhauer]
|
21480
|
Boredom is only felt by those clever enough to need activity
[Schopenhauer]
|
21470
|
For me the objective thing-in-itself is the will
[Schopenhauer]
|
21485
|
The state only exists to defend citizens, from exterior threats, and from one another
[Schopenhauer]
|
21486
|
Poverty and slavery are virtually two words for the same thing
[Schopenhauer]
|
21487
|
The freedom of the press to sell poison outweighs its usefulness
[Schopenhauer]
|
21482
|
The five Chinese virtues: pity, justice, politeness, wisdom, honesty
[Schopenhauer]
|
21481
|
Buddhists wisely start with the cardinal vices
[Schopenhauer]
|
21483
|
Man is essentially a dreadful wild animal
[Schopenhauer]
|
21484
|
A man's character can be learned from a single characteristic action
[Schopenhauer]
|
21469
|
Human life is a mistake, shown by boredom, which is direct awareness of the fact
[Schopenhauer]
|
21466
|
Pleasure is weaker, and pain stronger, than we expect
[Schopenhauer]
|
21467
|
Would humanity still exist if sex wasn't both desired and pleasurable?
[Schopenhauer]
|
21468
|
The Creator created the possibilities for worlds, so should have made a better one than this possible
[Schopenhauer]
|
21471
|
If suicide was quick and easy, most people would have done it by now
[Schopenhauer]
|
21488
|
The beautiful is a perception of Plato's Forms, which eliminates the will
[Schopenhauer]
|
21472
|
Only religion introduces serious issues to uneducated people
[Schopenhauer]
|
8116
|
The will-less contemplation of art brings a liberation from selfhood
[Schopenhauer, by Gardner]
|
7187
|
Schopenhauer was caught in Christian ideals, because he didn't deify his 'will'
[Nietzsche on Schopenhauer]
|
21370
|
Schopenhauer is a chief proponent of aesthetic experience as 'disinterested'
[Schopenhauer, by Janaway]
|
5649
|
Will casts aside each of its temporary fulfilments, so human life has no ultimate aim
[Schopenhauer, by Scruton]
|
21923
|
Schopenhauer can't use force/energy instead of 'will', because he is not a materialist
[Lewis,PB on Schopenhauer]
|
21926
|
Schopenhauer, unlike other idealists, says reality is irrational
[Schopenhauer, by Lewis,PB]
|
4162
|
The world only exists in relation to something else, as an idea of the one who conceives it
[Schopenhauer]
|
4164
|
Direct feeling of the senses are merely data; perception of the world comes with understanding causes
[Schopenhauer]
|
4163
|
All perception is intellectual
[Schopenhauer]
|
12171
|
Absurdity is incongruity between correct and false points of view
[Schopenhauer]
|
21922
|
We know reality because we know our own bodies and actions
[Schopenhauer]
|
21365
|
Only the will is thing-in-itself, seen both in blind nature and in human action
[Schopenhauer]
|
21367
|
I know both aspects of my body, as representation, and as will
[Schopenhauer]
|
21371
|
We can never attain happiness while our will is pursuing desires
[Schopenhauer]
|
21928
|
The Sublime fights for will-less knowing, when faced with a beautiful threat to humanity
[Schopenhauer, by Lewis,PB]
|
21374
|
We should no more expect ethical theory to produce good people than aesthetics to produce artists
[Schopenhauer]
|
21913
|
Kant rightly separates appearance and thing-in-itself
[Schopenhauer]
|
21366
|
Metaphysics must understand the world thoroughly, as a principal source of knowledge
[Schopenhauer]
|
4167
|
The knowing subject and the crude matter of the world are both in themselves unknowable
[Schopenhauer]
|
4166
|
A consciousness without an object is no consciousness
[Schopenhauer]
|
4165
|
Descartes found the true beginning of philosophy with the Cogito, in the consciousness of the individual
[Schopenhauer]
|
4168
|
Matter and intellect are inseparable correlatives which only exist relatively, and for each other
[Schopenhauer]
|
21927
|
Schopenhauer emphasises Ideas in art, unlike most romantics
[Schopenhauer, by Lewis,PB]
|
4169
|
Every true act of will is also at once and without exception a movement of the body
[Schopenhauer]
|
4170
|
Man's actions are not free, because they follow strictly from impact of motive on character
[Schopenhauer]
|
4171
|
Philosophy considers only the universal, in nature as everywhere else
[Schopenhauer]
|
4172
|
Happiness is the swift movement from desire to satisfaction, and then again on to desire
[Schopenhauer]
|
21369
|
We have hidden and unadmitted desires and fears, suppressed because of vanity
[Schopenhauer]
|
21380
|
The only aim of our existence is to grasp that non-existence would be better
[Schopenhauer]
|
4173
|
If we were essentially intellect rather than will, our moral worth would depend on imagined motives
[Schopenhauer]
|
4174
|
Man is more beautiful than anything else, and the loftiest purpose of art is to reveal his nature
[Schopenhauer]
|
4175
|
It is as perverse to resent our individuality being replaced by others, as to resent the body renewing itself
[Schopenhauer]
|
4176
|
We all regard ourselves a priori as free, but see from experience that character and motive compel us
[Schopenhauer]
|
4177
|
Most people would probably choose non-existence at the end of their life, rather than relive the whole thing
[Schopenhauer]
|
4178
|
Christianity is a pessimistic religion, in which the world is equated with evil
[Schopenhauer]
|
4179
|
The essence of nature is the will to life itself
[Schopenhauer]
|
4180
|
Religion is the mythical clothing of the truth which is inaccessible to the crude human intellect
[Schopenhauer]
|
4181
|
Every good is essentially relative, for it has its essential nature only in its relation to a desiring will
[Schopenhauer]
|
4182
|
A principal pleasure of the beautiful is that it momentarily silences the will
[Schopenhauer]
|
4185
|
Altruistic people make less distinction than usual between themselves and others
[Schopenhauer]
|
4184
|
Virtue must spring from an intuitive recognition that other people are essentially like us
[Schopenhauer]
|
4183
|
Only self-love can motivate morality, but that also makes it worthless
[Schopenhauer]
|
4186
|
Everyone is conscious of all philosophical truths, but philosophers bring them to conceptual awareness
[Schopenhauer]
|