Combining Texts

All the ideas for 'Through the Looking Glass', 'The Poetics' and 'De Veritate (On Truth)'

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4 ideas

3. Truth / A. Truth Problems / 1. Truth

4748	Anselm of Canterbury identified truth with God [Anselm, by Engel]
	Full Idea: Anselm of Canterbury identified truth with God.
	From: report of Anselm (De Veritate (On Truth) [1095]) by Pascal Engel - Truth §1.6
	A reaction: An interesting claim, perhaps, depending on what it means. God decrees truth, God knows all truth, God makes truth possible, God connects us to the world, God is the world…?

7. Existence / A. Nature of Existence / 3. Being / e. Being and nothing

21982	I only wish I had such eyes as to see Nobody! It's as much as I can do to see real people. [Carroll,L]
	Full Idea: "I see nobody on the road," said Alice. - "I only wish I had such eyes," the King remarked. ..."To be able to see Nobody! ...Why, it's as much as I can do to see real people."
	From: Lewis Carroll (C.Dodgson) (Through the Looking Glass [1886], p.189), quoted by A.W. Moore - The Evolution of Modern Metaphysics 07.7
	A reaction: [Moore quotes this, inevitably, in a chapter on Hegel] This may be a better candidate for the birth of philosophy of language than Frege's Groundwork.

10. Modality / B. Possibility / 1. Possibility

22518	The actual must be possible, because it occurred [Aristotle]
	Full Idea: Actual events are evidently possible, otherwise they would not have occurred.
	From: Aristotle (The Poetics [c.347 BCE], 1451b18)
	A reaction: [quoted online by Peter Adamson] Seems like common sense, but it's important to have Aristotle assert it.

21. Aesthetics / B. Nature of Art / 8. The Arts / b. Literature

16566	Poetry is more philosophic than history, as it concerns universals, not particulars [Aristotle]
	Full Idea: Poetry is something more philosophic and of graver import than history, since its statements are rather of universals, whereas those of history are singulars.
	From: Aristotle (The Poetics [c.347 BCE], 1451b05)
	A reaction: Hm. Characters in great novels achieve universality by being representated very particularly. Great depth of mind seems required to be a poet, but less so for a historian (though there is, I presume, no upward limit on the possible level of thought).