Combining Texts

All the ideas for 'Mahaprajnaparamitashastra', 'Reply to Foucher' and 'The Scientific Image'

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4 ideas

6. Mathematics / A. Nature of Mathematics / 5. The Infinite / d. Actual infinite

19406	I strongly believe in the actual infinite, which indicates the perfections of its author [Leibniz]
	Full Idea: I am so much for the actual infinite that instead of admitting that nature abhors it, as is commonly said, I hold that it affects nature everywhere in order to indicate the perfections of its author.
	From: Gottfried Leibniz (Reply to Foucher [1693], p.99)
	A reaction: I would have thought that, for Leibniz, while infinities indicate the perfections of their author, that is not the reason why they exist. God wasn't, presumably, showing off. Leibniz does not think we can actually know these infinities.

10. Modality / B. Possibility / 7. Chance

23900	Chance is compatible with necessity, and the two occur together [Weil]
	Full Idea: Chance is not the contrary of necessity; it is not incompatible with necessity. On the contrary, it never appears except at the same time as necessity.
	From: Simone Weil (The Scientific Image [1941], p.175)
	A reaction: She illustrates it with the six terminating results of a die throw, and the innumerabe ways the throw can occur. This thought strikes me as relevant to discussions of free will. …But I'm not sure I fully understand it.

21. Aesthetics / A. Aesthetic Experience / 4. Beauty

23899	The secret of art is that beauty is a just blend of unity and its opposite [Weil]
	Full Idea: A just blend of unity and that which opposes it is the condition of the beautiful, and it is the secret of art.
	From: Simone Weil (The Scientific Image [1941], p.169)
	A reaction: Rather sweeping, but the observation strikes me as fairly accurate. It seems to work for most novels, paintings and music, though more recent art may provide counterexamples.

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').