Combining Texts

All the ideas for 'Mahaprajnaparamitashastra', 'Fath and Love, or the King and Queen' and 'Fragments'

unexpand these ideas     |    start again     |     specify just one area for these texts


3 ideas

23. Ethics / C. Virtue Theory / 3. Virtues / a. Virtues
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 / C. Ruling a State / 2. Leaders / b. Monarchy
The whole point of a monarch is that we accept them as a higher-born, ideal person [Novalis]
     Full Idea: The distinguishing character of the monarchy lies precisely in the fact of belief in a higher-born person, of voluntary acceptance of an ideal person. I cannot choose a leader from among my peers.
     From: Novalis (Fath and Love, or the King and Queen [1798], 18)
     A reaction: Novalis was passionately devoted to the new king and queen of Prussia, only a few years after the French Revolution. This attitude seems to me unchanged among monarchists in present day Britain. Genetics has undermined 'higher-born'.
25. Social Practice / E. Policies / 5. Education / d. Study of history
Dividing history books into separate chapters is disastrous [Weil]
     Full Idea: The division of history textbooks into chapters will cost us many disastrous mistakes.
     From: Simone Weil (Fragments [1936], p.131)
     A reaction: Nice observation. The point is that we fail to grasp what really happened if we draw sharp lines across history.