8 ideas
7460 | The great moments are the death of Aristotle, Machiavelli, and Romanticism [Berlin, by Watson] |
Full Idea: Berlin says there were three great turning points: after the death of Aristotle (when Greek schools focused on the inner life of individuals, instead of as social beings), Machiavelli's division of political and individual virtues, and Romanticism. | |
From: report of Isaiah Berlin (The Sense of Reality [1996], p.168-9) by Peter Watson - Ideas Intro | |
A reaction: I have the impression that Machiavelli introduced a new hard-boiled ethics, which dominated the sixteenth century, but in the seventeenth and eighteenth century they fought back, and Machiavellianism turned out to be just a phase. |
23881 | All thought about values is philosophical, and thought about anything else is not philosophy [Weil] |
Full Idea: All reflections bearing on the notion of value and on the hierarchy of values is philosophical; all efforts of thought bearing on anything other than value are, if one examines them closely, foreign to philosophy. | |
From: Simone Weil (Reflections on Value [1941], p.30) | |
A reaction: If nothing else proves that Weil is a platonist, this does. She, of course, has a transcendent and religious view of values, whereas I just see them as concepts which embody what is important. That said, I'm not far off agreeing with this. |
23885 | Philosophy aims to change the soul, not to accumulate knowledge [Weil] |
Full Idea: Philosophy does not consist in accumulating knowledge, as science does, but in changing the whole soul. | |
From: Simone Weil (Reflections on Value [1941], p.33) | |
A reaction: I agree, roughly. In the sense that philosophy is a much more personal matter than any pure pursuit of knowledge, such as geology. Though a life in geology could change your soul. Not just any old change, of course…. |
23886 | Systems are not unique to each philosopher. The platonist tradition is old and continuous [Weil] |
Full Idea: People believe that every philosopher has a system that contradicts all the others! But there is a tradition, genuinely philosophical, that is as old as humanity itself. …Plato is the most perfect representative of this tradition. | |
From: Simone Weil (Reflections on Value [1941], p.33) | |
A reaction: I see roughly two traditions. If you believe in transcendence you follow Plato, like Simone. If you are a naturalist (like me) you follow Aristotle. A third tradition might be much more sceptical. |
23884 | Truth is a value of thought [Weil] |
Full Idea: Truth is a value of thought. The word 'truth' cannot have any other meaning. | |
From: Simone Weil (Reflections on Value [1941], p.32) | |
A reaction: This makes a nice change from truth being a mere predicate. I would call truth the criterion of success in thought, and that counts as a value, so she is right. |
1556 | By nature people are close to one another, but culture drives them apart [Hippias] |
Full Idea: I regard you all as relatives - by nature, not by convention. By nature like is akin to like, but convention is a tyrant over humankind and often constrains people to act contrary to nature. | |
From: Hippias (fragments/reports [c.430 BCE]), quoted by Plato - Protagoras 337c8 |
23882 | Ends, unlike means, cannot be defined, which is why people tend to pursue means [Weil] |
Full Idea: Everything that can be taken as an end cannot be defined. Means, such as power and money, are easily defined, and that is why people orient themselves exclusively towards the acquisition of means. | |
From: Simone Weil (Reflections on Value [1941], p.31) | |
A reaction: Nice, but too neat, because so many activities can be treated either as means or as ends, and often as both. It makes sense that people pursue what is clear to them. |
23883 | Minds essentially and always strive towards value [Weil] |
Full Idea: For the mind essentially and always, in whatever manner it is disposed, strives towards value. | |
From: Simone Weil (Reflections on Value [1941], p.31) | |
A reaction: A typically platonist thought. If you accept my view that values identify what is important, the thought is plausible. We might distinguish between what the mind pointlessly entertains, and what it 'strives' for. |