display all the ideas for this combination of texts
2 ideas
19917 | Without reason and human help, human life is misery [Spinoza] |
Full Idea: Without mutual help and the cultivation of reason, human beings necessarily live in great misery. | |
From: Baruch de Spinoza (Tractatus Theologico-Politicus [1670], 16.05) | |
A reaction: A clarion call from a great voice of the Enlightenment. I agree, but in 2017 the rest of western civilization seems to have given up on this ideal. I blame Adorno and Horkheimer. |
8062 | Proof is a barren idea in philosophy, and the best philosophy never involves proof [MacIntyre] |
Full Idea: Arguments in philosophy rarely take the form of proofs; and the most successful arguments on topics central to philosophy never do. (The ideal of proof is a relatively barren one in philosophy). | |
From: Alasdair MacIntyre (After Virtue: a Study in Moral Theory [1981], Ch.18) | |
A reaction: He seems proud of this, but he must settle for something which is less than proof, which has to be vindicated to the mathematicians and scientists. I agree, though. Plato is the model, and the best philosophy builds a broad persuasive picture. |