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2 ideas
5961 | The soul gets its goodness from god, and its evil from previous existence. [Plato] |
Full Idea: From its composer the soul possesses all beautiful things, but from its former condition, everything that proves to be harsh and unjust in heaven. | |
From: Plato (The Statesman [c.356 BCE], 273b) | |
A reaction: A neat move to explain the origins of evil (or rather, to shift the problem of evil to a long long way from here). This view presumably traces back to the views of Empedocles on good and evil. Can the soul acquire evil in its current existence? |
3648 | Empiricists are collecting ants; rationalists are spinning spiders; and bees do both [Bacon] |
Full Idea: Empiricists are like ants; they collect and put to use; but rationalists, like spiders, spin threads out of themselves. (…and bees follow the middle way, of collecting material and transforming it). | |
From: Francis Bacon (Cogitata et Visa [1607]) | |
A reaction: Nice (and so concisely expressed). Bees seem to be just more intelligent and energetic empiricists. |