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Ideas for 'fragments/reports', 'Significance of the Kripkean Nec A Posteriori' and 'The Nature of Things'

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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 / 5. Modern Philosophy / c. Modern philosophy mid-period

13966	Analytic philosophy loved the necessary a priori analytic, linguistic modality, and rigour [Soames]
	Full Idea: The golden age of analytic philosophy (mid 20th c) was when necessary, a priori and analytic were one, all possibility was linguistic possibility, and the linguistic turn gave philosophy a respectable subject matter (language), and precision and rigour.
	From: Scott Soames (Significance of the Kripkean Nec A Posteriori [2006], p.166)
	A reaction: Gently sarcastic, because Soames is part of the team who have put a bomb under this view, and quite right too. Personally I think the biggest enemy in all of this lot is not 'language' but 'rigour'. A will-o-the-wisp philosophers dream of.

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 / F. Analytic Philosophy / 5. Linguistic Analysis

13974	If philosophy is analysis of meaning, available to all competent speakers, what's left for philosophers? [Soames]
	Full Idea: If all of philosophy is the analysis of meaning, and meaning is fundamentally transparent to competent speakers, there is little room for philosophically significant explanations and theories, since they will be necessary or a priori, or both.
	From: Scott Soames (Significance of the Kripkean Nec A Posteriori [2006], p.186)
	A reaction: He cites the later Wittgenstein as having fallen into this trap. I suppose any area of life can have its specialists, but I take Shakespeare to be a greater master of English than any philosopher I have ever read.