Combining Texts

All the ideas for 'Mahaprajnaparamitashastra', 'The Epic of Gilgamesh' and 'Letter to the Editor about Bayle'

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4 ideas

23. Ethics / C. Virtue Theory / 3. Virtues / a. Virtues

7903	The six perfections are giving, morality, patience, vigour, meditation, and wisdom [Nagarjuna]
	Full Idea: The six perfections are of giving, morality, patience, vigour, meditation, and wisdom.
	From: Nagarjuna (Mahaprajnaparamitashastra [c.120], 88)
	A reaction: What is 'morality', if giving is not part of it? I like patience and vigour being two of the virtues, which immediately implies an Aristotelian mean (which is always what is 'appropriate').

26. Natural Theory / A. Speculations on Nature / 5. Infinite in Nature

8659	The gods alone live forever with Shamash. The days of humans are numbered. [Anon (Gilg)]
	Full Idea: The gods alone are the ones who live forever with Shamash. / As for humans, their days are numbered.
	From: Anon (Gilg) (The Epic of Gilgamesh [c.2300 BCE], 3.2.34), quoted by Michèle Friend - Introducing the Philosophy of Mathematics 1.2
	A reaction: Friend quotes this to show the antiquity of the concept of infinity. It also, of course, shows that Sumerians at that time did not believe in human immortality.

26. Natural Theory / D. Laws of Nature / 8. Scientific Essentialism / c. Essence and laws

11945	In addition to laws, God must also create appropriate natures for things [Leibniz]
	Full Idea: It isn't sufficient to say that God has made a general law, for in addition to the decree there has also to be a natural way of carrying it out. It is necessary, that is, that what happens should be explicable in terms of the God-given nature of things.
	From: Gottfried Leibniz (Letter to the Editor about Bayle [1698], p.205)
	A reaction: Thus Leibniz is an ancestor of scientific essentialism, but he was too frightened to take the next step, which is to see that once God has endowed the natures, he doesn't need to wield his laws as well. The natures will do the whole job.

27. Natural Reality / A. Classical Physics / 1. Mechanics / a. Explaining movement

19348	All that is real in motion is the force or power which produces change [Leibniz]
	Full Idea: As for motion, what is real in it is force or power; that is to say, what there is in the present state which carries with it a change in the future. The rest is only phenomena and relations.
	From: Gottfried Leibniz (Letter to the Editor about Bayle [1698], §13)
	A reaction: This presumably contradicts Newton's concept of inertia, which allows constant motion without force. I always like a reference to powers. What is 'kinetic energy' in this context?