11 ideas
13560 | A wise man is not subservient to anything [Seneca] |
Full Idea: I do not call any man wise who is subservient to anything. | |
From: Seneca the Younger (On the Happy Life [c.60], §11) | |
A reaction: At the very least, a wise man should be subservient to a wiser man. |
13132 | A snowball's haecceity is the property of being identical with itself [Plantinga, by Westerhoff] |
Full Idea: Plantinga assumes that being identical with that snowball names a property which is that snowball's haecceity. | |
From: report of Alvin Plantinga (De Essentia [1979]) by Jan Westerhoff - Ontological Categories §52 | |
A reaction: Only a philosopher would suggest such a bizarre way of establishing the unique individuality of a given snowball. You could hardly keep track of the snowball with just that criterion. How do you decide whether something has Plantinga's property? |
13558 | The supreme good is harmony of spirit [Seneca] |
Full Idea: The highest good is harmony of spirit. | |
From: Seneca the Younger (On the Happy Life [c.60], §08) | |
A reaction: This idea is straight from Plato's Republic. |
13559 | I seek virtue, because it is its own reward [Seneca] |
Full Idea: You ask what I seek from virtue? Virtue herself. For she has nothing better, she is herself her own reward. | |
From: Seneca the Younger (On the Happy Life [c.60], §09) | |
A reaction: Presumably this is the source of the popular saying that 'virtue is its own reward'. The trouble is that this doesn't seem a very persuasive thing to say to a sceptic who doubts whether being virtuous is worth the trouble. |
13561 | Virtue is always moderate, so excess need not be feared [Seneca] |
Full Idea: In the case of virtue excess should not be feared, since in virtue resides moderation. | |
From: Seneca the Younger (On the Happy Life [c.60], §13) | |
A reaction: This seems to imply that all of the virtues are unified in the one achievement of the virtuous state. It leaves the notion of 'virtue' a bit thin in content, though. |
13562 | It is shameful to not even recognise your own slaves [Seneca] |
Full Idea: Why, to your shame, are you so careless that you do not know your handful of slaves by sight? | |
From: Seneca the Younger (On the Happy Life [c.60], §17) |
13564 | There is far more scope for virtue if you are wealthy; poverty only allows endurance [Seneca] |
Full Idea: What doubt can there be that the wise man has greater scope for displaying his powers if he is rich than if he is poor, since in the case of poverty only one kind of virtue exists - refusal to be bowed down and crushed. | |
From: Seneca the Younger (On the Happy Life [c.60], §22) | |
A reaction: It is against this view that I see Jesus proposing poverty as central to virtue. But then he has the surprising view (to Seneca) that humility is a virtue. What Nietzsche calls the slaves' inversion of values. |
13563 | Why does your wife wear in her ears the income of a wealthy house? [Seneca] |
Full Idea: Why does your wife wear in her ears the income of a wealthy house? | |
From: Seneca the Younger (On the Happy Life [c.60], §17) |
13565 | If wealth was a good, it would make men good [Seneca] |
Full Idea: Wealth is not a good; for it it was, it would make men good. | |
From: Seneca the Younger (On the Happy Life [c.60], §24) | |
A reaction: An immediately attractive argument, but should we assume that anything which is good will enhance our personal goodness? If goodness is a habit, then continual pursuit of wealth is the test case to examine. Seneca is right! |
13557 | Unfortunately the majority do not tend to favour what is best [Seneca] |
Full Idea: Human concerns are not so happily arranged that the majority favours the better things. | |
From: Seneca the Younger (On the Happy Life [c.60], §02) | |
A reaction: On the whole Seneca is unimpressed by democracy, as people are rushed into decisions by the crowd, and live to regret them. |
12709 | Motion is not absolute, but consists in relation [Leibniz] |
Full Idea: In reality motion is not something absolute, but consists in relation. | |
From: Gottfried Leibniz (On Motion [1677], A6.4.1968), quoted by Daniel Garber - Leibniz:Body,Substance,Monad 3 | |
A reaction: It is often thought that motion being relative was invented by Einstein, but Leibniz wholeheartedly embraced 'Galilean relativity', and refused to even consider any absolute concept of motion. Acceleration is a bit trickier than velocity. |