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Ideas for 'fragments/reports', 'A Discourse on Method' and 'Towards a Critique of Hegel's Philosophy'

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4 ideas

1. Philosophy / D. Nature of Philosophy / 1. Philosophy
3600 Slow and accurate thought makes the greatest progress [Descartes]
     Full Idea: Those who go forward only very slowly can progress much further if they always keep to the right path, than those who run and wander off it.
     From: René Descartes (A Discourse on Method [1637], §1.2)
     A reaction: Like Descartes' 'Method'. This seems to place a low value on 'nous' or intuition.
1. Philosophy / D. Nature of Philosophy / 5. Aims of Philosophy / a. Philosophy as worldly
19442 I don't study Plato for his own sake; the primary aim is always understanding [Feuerbach]
     Full Idea: Plato in writing is only a means for me; that which is primary and a priori, that which is the ground to which all is ultimately referred, is understanding.
     From: Ludwig Feuerbach (Towards a Critique of Hegel's Philosophy [1839], p.63)
     A reaction: It always seems to that the main aim of philosophy is understanding - which is why its central activity is explanation.
1. Philosophy / D. Nature of Philosophy / 7. Despair over Philosophy
3601 Most things in human life seem vain and useless [Descartes]
     Full Idea: Looking at the various activities and enterprises of mankind with the eye of a philosopher, there is hardly one which does not seem to me vain and useless.
     From: René Descartes (A Discourse on Method [1637], §1.3)
     A reaction: Well, yes. The obvious retort is that everything is vain and useless; or if not, then certainly metaphysics is. Useful for what? Is ornamental gardening useless, or sport? Art? What is the use of cosmology? He's right, of course.
3602 Almost every daft idea has been expressed by some philosopher [Descartes]
     Full Idea: There is nothing one can imagine so strange or so unbelievable that has not been said by one or other of the philosophers.
     From: René Descartes (A Discourse on Method [1637], §2.16)
     A reaction: Actually I think that extensive areas of logical possibilities for existence remain totally unexplored. On the other hand, most of the metaphysical beliefs of most of the human race, including the majority of philosophers, strike me as being false.