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Ideas for 'fragments/reports', 'Philosophy as a way of life' and 'Space, Knowledge and Power (interview)'

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5 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

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 / C. History of Philosophy / 4. Later European Philosophy / c. Eighteenth century philosophy

15045	The big issue since the eighteenth century has been: what is Reason? Its effect, limits and dangers? [Foucault]
	Full Idea: I think the central issue of philosophy and critical thought since the eighteenth century has always been, still is, and will, I hope, remain the question: What is this Reason that we use? What are its historical effects? What are its limits and dangers?
	From: Michel Foucault (Space, Knowledge and Power (interview) [1982], p.358)
	A reaction: One can hardly deny the fairness of the question, but I hope that won't prevent us from trying to be rational. Maybe logicians do a better job of clarifying reason than the political and historical speculations of Foucault?

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

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.

1. Philosophy / D. Nature of Philosophy / 6. Hopes for Philosophy

9198	It is no longer possible to be a sage, but we can practice the exercise of wisdom [Hadot]
	Full Idea: Personally I firmly believe, perhaps naively, that it is possible for modern man to live, not as a sage (sophos) - most of the ancients did not hold this to be possible - but as a practitioner of the ever-fragile exercise of wisdom.
	From: Pierre Hadot (Philosophy as a way of life [1987], 7)
	A reaction: It seems to me quite plausible that the philosophical life might yet become a widespread ideal, even though philosophers seem to still be sheltering from storms two thousand years after Plato gave us that image.