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16566
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Poetry is more philosophic than history, as it concerns universals, not particulars [Aristotle]
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Full Idea:
Poetry is something more philosophic and of graver import than history, since its statements are rather of universals, whereas those of history are singulars.
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From:
Aristotle (The Poetics [c.347 BCE], 1451b05)
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A reaction:
Hm. Characters in great novels achieve universality by being representated very particularly. Great depth of mind seems required to be a poet, but less so for a historian (though there is, I presume, no upward limit on the possible level of thought).
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23282
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If all that matters in morality is motive and intention, that makes moral luck irrelevant [Williams,B]
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Full Idea:
The idea that one's whole life can be immune to luck has not prevailed (e.g. in Christianity), …but its place has been taken by the idea that moral value can be immune, …if it is motive that counts, and in actions it is not worldly changes but intention.
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From:
Bernard Williams (Moral Luck [1976], p.20)
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A reaction:
[compressed] That is, that Kant offers a way to make luck irrelevant to morality. Williams disagrees, but says at least Kant offers 'solace to a sense of the world's unfairness'.
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