7 ideas
468 | Musical performance can reveal a range of virtues [Damon of Ath.] |
Full Idea: In singing and playing the lyre, a boy will be likely to reveal not only courage and moderation, but also justice. | |
From: Damon (fragments/reports [c.460 BCE], B4), quoted by (who?) - where? |
7257 | All modern social systems seem to be conspiracies of the rich [More,T] |
Full Idea: When I consider any social system that prevails in the modern world, I can't see it as anything but a conspiracy of the rich to advance their own interests under the pretext of organizing society. | |
From: Thomas More (Utopia [1516], Bk 2) | |
A reaction: I'm afraid this is my own view of most conservative politics. I don't deny that there is a good case to be made for the conservative view (by Burke and Scruton, for example), but the rich will always latch onto its coat-tails. Cf. Idea 122. |
7254 | If you try to get elected, you should be permanently barred from seeking office [More,T] |
Full Idea: In Utopia, anyone who deliberately tries to get himself elected to a public office is permanently disqualified from holding one. | |
From: Thomas More (Utopia [1516], Bk 2) | |
A reaction: This echoes a thought found in Plato (Idea 2149). I've always liked this idea. Why can't we have elections were a group of the best people are invited to stand? Well, yes, it would lead to corruption... Still, the best should be pushed to the front. |
7255 | Only Utopians fail to see glory in warfare [More,T] |
Full Idea: Utopians are practically the only people on earth who fail to see anything glorious in war. | |
From: Thomas More (Utopia [1516], Bk 2) | |
A reaction: A refreshing thought for such an early date. Whatever dubious behaviour is nowadays attributed to Thomas More, you have to admire someone who writes this during the reign of Henry VIII. |
7253 | In Utopia, legal euthanasia is considered honourable [More,T] |
Full Idea: In Utopia, officially sanctioned euthanasia is regarded as an honourable death. | |
From: Thomas More (Utopia [1516], Bk 2) | |
A reaction: A bit surprising coming from a writer who is now a Catholic martyr and saint. |
5974 | People report seeing through rocks, or over the horizon, or impossibly small works [Plutarch] |
Full Idea: It is said that Lynceus could see through rock and tree, and a lookout in Sicily saw Carthaginian ships a day and a half away, and Callicrates and Myrmecides are said to fashion carriages canopied with the wings of fly, and write on sesame seeds. | |
From: Plutarch (72: Against Stoics on common Conceptions [c.85], 1083e) | |
A reaction: A warning from Plutarch against believing everything you hear! |
7256 | In Utopia, the Supreme Being is identical with Nature [More,T] |
Full Idea: Everyone in Utopia agrees that the Supreme Being (which they call Mythras) is identical with Nature. | |
From: Thomas More (Utopia [1516], Bk 2) | |
A reaction: This sounds remarkably like full-blown Spinozean pantheism, though it should be interpreted with caution. It certainly seems to show that pantheism was a possibility in the minds of late medieval religious thinkers. |