10 ideas
| 16000 | Fixed ideas should be tackled aggressively [Kierkegaard] |
| Full Idea: Fixed ideas are like a cramp in your foot: the best remedy is to stomp on them. | |
| From: Søren Kierkegaard (The Journals of Kierkegaard [1850], JP-III, 635) | |
| A reaction: Sound philosophical advice at any time. [SY] Does this apply in seminars, as well as in private meditation? [PG] |
| 16012 | Philosophy can't be unbiased if it ignores language, as that is no more independent than individuals are [Kierkegaard] |
| Full Idea: If the claim of philosophers to be unbiased were all it pretends to be, it would have to take account of language and its significance...Language is partly given and partly develops freely. As individuals cannot be truly independent, so too with language. | |
| From: Søren Kierkegaard (The Journals of Kierkegaard [1850], 1840.07.18) | |
| A reaction: A surprisingly prophetic entry from Kierkegaard anticipating the linguistic turn. [SY] |
| 21846 | Bergson was a rallying point, because he emphasised becomings and multiplicities [Bergson, by Deleuze] |
| Full Idea: Bergson was a rallying point for all the opposition, …not so much because of the theme of duration, as of the theory and practice of becoming of all kinds, of coexistent multiplicities. | |
| From: report of Henri Bergson (Matter and Memory [1896]) by Gilles Deleuze - A Conversation: what is it? What is it for? I | |
| A reaction: The three heroes of Deleuze are Spinoza, Nietzsche and Bergson. All philosophers are either of Being, or of Becoming, I suggest. |
| 21854 | Bergson showed that memory is not after the event, but coexists with it [Bergson, by Deleuze] |
| Full Idea: Bergson has shown that memory is not an actual image which forms after the object has been perceived, but a virtual image coexisting with the actual perception of the object. | |
| From: report of Henri Bergson (Matter and Memory [1896]) by Gilles Deleuze - The Actual and the Virtual p.114 | |
| A reaction: It strikes me as plausible to say that all conscious life is memory. Perceiving the present instant is only possible because it endures for a tiny moment. |
| 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 |
| 16003 | If people marry just because they are lonely, that is self-love, not love [Kierkegaard] |
| Full Idea: People despair about being lonely and therefore get married. But is this love? I should say it is self-love. | |
| From: Søren Kierkegaard (The Journals of Kierkegaard [1850], JP-III, 40-41) | |
| A reaction: If you decide to marry someone because you don't want to be an old maid/bachelor in your elder years, try to actually love the person you're marrying. Not just for money or sex. [SY] |
| 21910 | Our destiny is the highest pitch of world-weariness [Kierkegaard] |
| Full Idea: Our destiny in this life is to be brought to the highest pitch of world-weariness. | |
| From: Søren Kierkegaard (The Journals of Kierkegaard [1850], 1855.09.25), quoted by Alastair Hannay - Kierkegaard 10 | |
| A reaction: The beginning of his last entry. Hardly a great general truth, but interesting. Should we aspire to exhaust life? |
| 16001 | Life may be understood backwards, but it has to be lived forwards [Kierkegaard] |
| Full Idea: Philosophy is perfectly right in saying that life must be understood backwards. But then it forgets the other side - that it must be lived forwards. | |
| From: Søren Kierkegaard (The Journals of Kierkegaard [1850], JP-III, 635) | |
| A reaction: Some of the best philosophers dwell too much on philosophy, history and the past, while forgetting to actually live and enjoy their lives. [SY] |
| 16008 | The best way to be a Christian is without 'Christianity' [Kierkegaard] |
| Full Idea: One best becomes a Christian - without 'Christianity'. | |
| From: Søren Kierkegaard (The Journals of Kierkegaard [1850], JP-1:214) | |
| A reaction: A very healthy attitude for followers of Jesus, given today's television evangelists, religious fundamentalist and zealots. [SY] |
| 20735 | We need to see that Christianity cannot be understood [Kierkegaard] |
| Full Idea: The problem is not to understand Christianity, but to understand that it cannot be understood. | |
| From: Søren Kierkegaard (The Journals of Kierkegaard [1850], p.146), quoted by Kevin Aho - Existentialism: an introduction 1 'Roots' | |
| A reaction: This seems to cut us intellectually adrift. We could say the same of supporting Real Madrid. There has to be some magnetism which holds our attention, and there must be something to say about that. |