Combining Texts

All the ideas for 'Mahaprajnaparamitashastra', 'On Sufficient Reason' and 'The Putney Debates'

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4 ideas

2. Reason / B. Laws of Thought / 1. Laws of Thought

19404	Necessities rest on contradiction, and contingencies on sufficient reason [Leibniz]
	Full Idea: The principle of contradiction is the principle of necessity, and the principle that a sufficient reason must be given is the principle of contingency.
	From: Gottfried Leibniz (On Sufficient Reason [1686], p.95)
	A reaction: [this paragraph is actually undated] Contradictions occur in concrete actuality, as well as in theories and formal systems. If so, then there are necessities in nature. Are they discoverable a posteriori? Leibniz says not.

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').

24. Political Theory / B. Nature of a State / 2. State Legitimacy / c. Social contract

23215	Even the poorest have a life to lead, and so should consent to who governs them [-]
	Full Idea: For really I think that the poorest hee that is in England hath a life to live, as the greatest hee; …and every Man that is to live under a Government ought first by his own Consent to put himself under that Government.
	From: - (The Putney Debates [1647])
	A reaction: [remark made by Thomas Rainsborough] This is the social contract idea which is explicit in Hobbes. I'm sure we can at least trace it back to John Lilburne in the 1630s.

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

19403	Each of the infinite possible worlds has its own laws, and the individuals contain those laws [Leibniz]
	Full Idea: As there are an infinity of possible worlds, there are also an infinity of laws, some proper to one, another to another, and each possible individual of any world contains in its own notion the laws of its world.
	From: Gottfried Leibniz (On Sufficient Reason [1686], p.95)
	A reaction: Hence Leibniz is not really a scientific essentialist, in that he doesn't think the laws arise out of the nature of the matter consituting the world. I wonder if the primitive matter of bodies which attaches to the monads is the same in each world?