Combining Texts

All the ideas for 'The Birth of Tragedy', 'Paradoxes of the Infinite' and 'The Communists and Peace'

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4 ideas

1. Philosophy / D. Nature of Philosophy / 1. Philosophy

7848	Philosophy begins in the horror and absurdity of existence [Nietzsche, by Ansell Pearson]
	Full Idea: For Nietzsche philosophy begins in horror - existence is something both horrible and absurd.
	From: report of Friedrich Nietzsche (The Birth of Tragedy [1871]) by Keith Ansell Pearson - How to Read Nietzsche Ch.1
	A reaction: A striking contrast to Aristotle (Idea 549). Personally I think my philosophy begins with confusion. Not that I endorse a Wittgenteinian view, that we are just trying to cure ourselves of self-inflicted wounds. Life is very complex and we are bit simple.

4. Formal Logic / F. Set Theory ST / 1. Set Theory

9987	An aggregate in which order does not matter I call a 'set' [Bolzano]
	Full Idea: An aggregate whose basic conception renders the arrangement of its members a matter of indifference, and whose permutation therefore produces no essential difference, I call a 'set'.
	From: Bernard Bolzano (Paradoxes of the Infinite [1846], §4), quoted by William W. Tait - Frege versus Cantor and Dedekind IX
	A reaction: The idea of 'sets' was emerging before Cantor formalised it, and clarified it by thinking about infinite sets. Nowadays we also have 'ordered' sets, which rather contradicts Bolzano, and we also expect the cardinality to be determinate.

6. Mathematics / A. Nature of Mathematics / 5. The Infinite / a. The Infinite

10856	A truly infinite quantity does not need to be a variable [Bolzano]
	Full Idea: A truly infinite quantity (for example, the length of a straight line, unbounded in either direction) does not by any means need to be a variable.
	From: Bernard Bolzano (Paradoxes of the Infinite [1846]), quoted by Brian Clegg - Infinity: Quest to Think the Unthinkable §10
	A reaction: This is an important idea, followed up by Cantor, which relegated to the sidelines the view of infinity as simply something that could increase without limit. Personally I like the old view, but there is something mathematically stable about infinity.

24. Political Theory / D. Ideologies / 9. Communism

21240	The truth about events always comes from the oppressed and disadvantaged [Sartre, by Bakewell]
	Full Idea: Work out who is most oppressed and disadvantaged in the situation, and then adopt their version of events as the right one. If something is not true in the eyes of the least favoured, then it is not true.
	From: report of Jean-Paul Sartre (The Communists and Peace [1953], final part) by Sarah Bakewell - At the Existentialist Café 12
	A reaction: A theory of social truth, rather than truth in general. A bit simplistic, but appealing. If you want to know the truth, ask the people involved. This is true of the Savoy Grill, as well as of homeless life. You must first care about the oppressed.