Combining Texts

All the ideas for 'Mahaprajnaparamitashastra', 'Seven Types of Atheism' and 'De Mundo Praesenti'

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8 ideas

8. Modes of Existence / C. Powers and Dispositions / 4. Powers as Essence

12714	The substantial form is the principle of action or the primitive force of acting [Leibniz]
	Full Idea: The substantial form is the principle of action or the primitive force of acting.
	From: Gottfried Leibniz (De Mundo Praesenti [1686], A6.4.1507-8), quoted by Daniel Garber - Leibniz:Body,Substance,Monad 3
	A reaction: The clearest statement of the modification of Aristotle's hylomorphism which Leibniz preferred in his middle period, and which strikes me as an improvement, and about right. Shame that monads got too much of a grip on him, but he was trying to dig deeper.

9. Objects / D. Essence of Objects / 1. Essences of Objects

12743	A true being must (unlike a chain) have united parts, with a substantial form as its subject [Leibniz]
	Full Idea: In a Being one per se a real union is required consisting not in the situation or motion of parts, as in a chain or a house, but in a unique individual principle and subject of attributes and operations, in us a soul and in a body a substantial form.
	From: Gottfried Leibniz (De Mundo Praesenti [1686], A6.4.1506), quoted by Daniel Garber - Leibniz:Body,Substance,Monad 7
	A reaction: Leibniz is said not to be an essentialist, by making all properties essential, but he is certainly committed to substance, and it sounds like essence here (or one view of essence), when it makes identity possible. This idea is pure Aristotle.

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').

28. God / C. Attitudes to God / 5. Atheism

23061	Free atheism should start by questioning its faith in humanity [Gray]
	Full Idea: A free-thinking atheism would begin by questioning the prevailing faith in humanity. But there is little prospect of contemporary atheists giving up their reverence for this phantom.
	From: John Gray (Seven Types of Atheism [2018], Conc)
	A reaction: He seems to be referring to 'humanism', which I take to be quite different from atheism. I take it as obvious that simple atheism is entirely neutral on the question of whether we should have 'faith' in humanity (which presumably mean optimism).

29. Religion / A. Polytheistic Religion / 4. Dualist Religion

23057	Gnosticism has a supreme creator God, giving way to a possibly hostile Demiurge [Gray]
	Full Idea: Gnostic traditions envisage a supreme God that created the universe and then withdrew into itself, leaving the world to be ruled by a lesser god, or Demiurge, which might be indifferent or hostile to mankind.
	From: John Gray (Seven Types of Atheism [2018], Intro)
	A reaction: It doesn't seem to solve any problems, given that the first God is 'supreme', and is therefore responsible for the introduction and actions of the later Demiurge.

29. Religion / B. Monotheistic Religion / 2. Judaism

23056	Judaism only became monotheistic around 550 BCE [Gray]
	Full Idea: It was only sometime around the sixth century BC, during the period when the Israelites returned to Jerusalem, that the idea that there is only one God emerged in Jewish religion.
	From: John Gray (Seven Types of Atheism [2018], Intro)
	A reaction: There seems to be a parallel move among the Greeks to elevate Zeus to special status.

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

23055	Christians introduced the idea that a religion needs a creed [Gray]
	Full Idea: The notion that religions are creeds - lists of propositions or doctrines that everyone must accept or reject - emerged only with Christianity.
	From: John Gray (Seven Types of Atheism [2018], Intro)
	A reaction: With a creed comes the possibility of heresy. I''m not happy with children being taught to recite something which begins 'I believe…', but which they have never thought about and barely understand.

29. Religion / C. Spiritual Disciplines / 3. Buddhism

23058	Buddhism has no divinity or souls, and the aim is to lose the illusion of a self [Gray]
	Full Idea: Buddhism says nothing of any divine mind and rejects any idea of the soul. The world consists of processes and events. The human sense of self is an illusion; freedom is found in ridding oneself of this illusion.
	From: John Gray (Seven Types of Atheism [2018], Intro)
	A reaction: I'm not clear why shaking off the illusion of a self is a superior state. Freedom to do what? Presumably nothing at all, since there is no self to desire anything.