Combining Texts

All the ideas for 'works', 'Laches' and 'Reply to 'Rorarius' 2nd ed'

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4 ideas

1. Philosophy / A. Wisdom / 3. Wisdom Deflated

291	Don't assume that wisdom is the automatic consequence of old age [Plato]
	Full Idea: Don't assume that wisdom is the automatic consequence of old age.
	From: Plato (Laches [c.381 BCE], 188b)
	A reaction: I have taught teenagers who seemed to me wiser than nearly all the adults I have ever met.

9. Objects / C. Structure of Objects / 6. Constitution of an Object

6019	If someone squashed a horse to make a dog, something new would now exist [Mnesarchus]
	Full Idea: If, for the sake of argument, someone were to mould a horse, squash it, then make a dog, it would be reasonable for us on seeing this to say that this previously did not exist but now does exist.
	From: Mnesarchus (fragments/reports [c.120 BCE]), quoted by John Stobaeus - Anthology 179.11
	A reaction: Locke would say it is new, because the substance is the same, but a new life now exists. A sword could cease to exist and become a new ploughshare, I would think. Apply this to the Ship of Theseus. Is form more important than substance?

23. Ethics / C. Virtue Theory / 3. Virtues / d. Courage

293	Being unafraid (perhaps through ignorance) and being brave are two different things [Plato]
	Full Idea: To be unafraid (like a small child who doesn't understand the danger) and to be brave are two quite different things.
	From: Plato (Laches [c.381 BCE], 197b)

27. Natural Reality / D. Time / 1. Nature of Time / b. Relative time

19384	Space and time are the order of all possibilities, and don't just relate to what is actual [Leibniz]
	Full Idea: Space and time taken together constitute the order of possibilities of the one entire universe, so that these orders relate not only to what actually is, but also to anything that could be put in its place.
	From: Gottfried Leibniz (Reply to 'Rorarius' 2nd ed [1702], GP iv 568), quoted by Richard T.W. Arthur - Leibniz 7 'Space and Time'
	A reaction: A very nice idea. Rather like the 'space of reasons', where all rational thought must exist, space and time are the 'space of existence and action'. Their concepts involve more than relations between what actually exists.