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Ideas for 'fragments/reports', 'A Priori Knowledge' and 'fragments/reports'

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6 ideas

1. Philosophy / A. Wisdom / 1. Nature of Wisdom

9199	Wisdom for one instant is as good as wisdom for eternity [Chrysippus]
	Full Idea: If a person has wisdom for one instant, he is no less happy than he who possesses it for eternity.
	From: Chrysippus (fragments/reports [c.240 BCE]), quoted by Pierre Hadot - Philosophy as a way of life 8
	A reaction: [Hadot quotes Plutarch 'On Common Conceptions' 8,1062a] This makes it sound awfully like some sort of Buddhist 'enlightenment', which strikes like lightning. He does wisdom recognise itself - by a warm glow, or by the cautious thought that got you there?

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

20801	A wise man's chief strength is not being tricked; nothing is worse than error, frivolity or rashness [Zeno of Citium, by Cicero]
	Full Idea: Zeno held that the wise man's chief strength is that he is careful not to be tricked, and sees to it that he is not deceived; for nothing is more alien to the conception that we have of the seriousness of the wise man than error, frivolity or rashness.
	From: report of Zeno (Citium) (fragments/reports [c.294 BCE]) by M. Tullius Cicero - Academica II.66
	A reaction: I presume that this concerns being deceived by other people, and also being deceived by evidence. I suggest that the greatest ability of the wise person is the accurate assessment of evidence.

20853	Wise men should try to participate in politics, since they are a good influence [Chrysippus, by Diog. Laertius]
	Full Idea: The wise man will participate in politics unless something prevents him, for he will restrain vice and promote virtue.
	From: report of Chrysippus (fragments/reports [c.240 BCE]) by Diogenes Laertius - Lives of Eminent Philosophers 07.121
	A reaction: [from lost On Ways of Life Bk 1] We have made modern politics so hostile for its participants, thanks to cruel media pressure, that the best people now run a mile from it. Disastrous.

1. Philosophy / D. Nature of Philosophy / 1. Philosophy

1771	When shown seven versions of the mowing argument, he paid twice the asking price for them [Zeno of Citium, by Diog. Laertius]
	Full Idea: When shown seven species of dialectic in the mowing argument, he asked the price, and when told 'a hundred drachmas', he gave two hundred, so devoted was he to learning.
	From: report of Zeno (Citium) (fragments/reports [c.294 BCE]) by Diogenes Laertius - Lives of Eminent Philosophers 07.Ze.20
	A reaction: Wonderful. I have a watertight proof that pleasure is not the good, which I will auction on the internet.

1. Philosophy / D. Nature of Philosophy / 4. Divisions of Philosophy

20770	Philosophy has three parts, studying nature, character, and rational discourse [Zeno of Citium, by Diog. Laertius]
	Full Idea: They say that philosophical theory is tripartite. For one part of it concerns nature [i.e. physics], another concerns character [i.e. ethics], and another concerns rational discourse [i.e. logic]
	From: report of Zeno (Citium) (fragments/reports [c.294 BCE]) by Diogenes Laertius - Lives of Eminent Philosophers 07.39
	A reaction: Surely 'nature' included biology, and shouldn't be glossed as 'physics'? And I presume that 'rational discourse' is 'logos', rather than 'logic'. Interesting to see that ethics just is the study of character (and not of good and bad actions).

20772	Three branches of philosophy: first logic, second ethics, third physics (which ends with theology) [Chrysippus]
	Full Idea: There are three kinds of philosophical theorems, logical, ethical, and physical; of these the logic should be placed first, ethics second, and physics third (and theology is the final topic in physics).
	From: Chrysippus (fragments/reports [c.240 BCE]), quoted by Plutarch - 70: Stoic Self-contradictions 1035a
	A reaction: [in his lost 'On Lives' Bk 4] 'Theology is the final topic in physics'! That should create a stir in theology departments. Is this an order of study, or of importance? You come to theology right at the end of your studies.