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3 ideas
21832 | Buddhists reject God and the self, and accept suffering as key, and liberation through wisdom [Flanagan] |
Full Idea: Buddhism rejected the idea of a creator God, and the unchanging self [atman]. They accept the appearance-reality distinction, reward for virtue [karma], suffering defining our predicament, and that liberation [nirvana] is possible through wisdom. | |
From: Owen Flanagan (The Really Hard Problem [2007], 3 'Buddhism') | |
A reaction: [Compressed] Flanagan is an analytic philosopher and a practising Buddhist. Looking at a happiness map today which shows Europeans largely happy, and Africans largely miserable, I can see why they thought suffering was basic. |
4151 | Grammar tells what kind of object anything is - and theology is a kind of grammar [Wittgenstein] |
Full Idea: Grammar tells what kind of object anything is. (Theology as grammar) | |
From: Ludwig Wittgenstein (Philosophical Investigations [1952], §373) | |
A reaction: A classic twentieth century blunder, originating in Frege and culminating in Quine, of thinking that the analysis of language is the last word in ontology. |
4159 | The human body is the best picture of the human soul [Wittgenstein] |
Full Idea: The human body is the best picture of the human soul. | |
From: Ludwig Wittgenstein (Philosophical Investigations [1952], II.iv) | |
A reaction: Nice. How did we imagine the soul before reading that remark? My soul requires fingernails and eyelids in order to fulfil its essential nature. |