Combining Texts

All the ideas for 'Mahaprajnaparamitashastra', 'On the True Doctrine (Against Christians)' and 'works'

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4 ideas

22. Metaethics / A. Ethics Foundations / 2. Source of Ethics / e. Human nature

7667	There are two sides to men - the pleasantly social, and the violent and creative [Diderot, by Berlin]
	Full Idea: Diderot is among the first to preach that there are two men: the artificial man, who belongs in society and seeks to please, and the violent, bold, criminal instinct of a man who wishes to break out (and, if controlled, is responsible for works of genius.
	From: report of Denis Diderot (works [1769], Ch.3) by Isaiah Berlin - The Roots of Romanticism
	A reaction: This has an obvious ancestor in Plato's picture (esp. in 'Phaedrus') of the two conflicting sides to the psuché, which seem to be reason and emotion. In Diderot, though, the suppressed man has virtues, which Plato would deny.

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').

25. Social Practice / F. Life Issues / 6. Animal Rights

1868	The world was made as much for animals as for man [Celsus]
	Full Idea: The world was made as much for the irrational animals as for men.
	From: Celsus (On the True Doctrine (Against Christians) [c.178], §V)
	A reaction: A good remark. It seems to be a classic distortion of European Christianity that the world is made for us, and that animals only exist to fill our sandwiches.

29. Religion / B. Monotheistic Religion / 4. Christianity / a. Christianity

1867	Christians presented Jesus as a new kind of logos to oppose that of the philosophers [Celsus]
	Full Idea: Christians put forth this Jesus not only as the son of God, but as the very Logos - not the pure and holy Logos known to the philosophers, but a new kind of Logos.
	From: Celsus (On the True Doctrine (Against Christians) [c.178], III)