Combining Texts

All the ideas for 'reports', 'works' and 'A Short History of German Philosophy'

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4 ideas

1. Philosophy / E. Nature of Metaphysics / 3. Metaphysical Systems
22820 Early Romantics sought a plurality of systems, in a quest for freedom [Hösle]
     Full Idea: It was an early Romantic idea that there is necessarily a plurality of systems in which individuality is expressed; for a complete system would destroy freedom.
     From: Vittorio Hösle (A Short History of German Philosophy [2013], 7)
     A reaction: I'm not clear why you are free because you are locked into system that differs from that of other people. True freedom seems to be either no system, or continually remaking one's own system. Why is such freedom valuable? Freedom v truth?
10. Modality / A. Necessity / 8. Transcendental Necessity
3016 Even the gods cannot strive against necessity [Pittacus, by Diog. Laertius]
     Full Idea: Even the gods cannot strive against necessity.
     From: report of Pittacus (reports [c.610 BCE]) by Diogenes Laertius - Lives of Eminent Philosophers 01.5.4
21. Aesthetics / B. Nature of Art / 4. Art as Expression
8120 Objects can be beautiful which express nothing at all, such as the rainbow [Herbart, by Tolstoy]
     Full Idea: Objects are often beautiful which express nothing at all, as, for instance, the rainbow, which is beautiful for its lines and colours and not for its mythological connexion with Iris, or Noah's rainbow.
     From: report of Johann Herbart (works [1830]) by Leo Tolstoy - What is Art? Ch.3
     A reaction: A nice counterexample to Tolstoy's own theory. The example is one of a natural beauty, but it would be harder to find examples in human art. How much the artist may feel, though, has little to do with the success of a work of art.
25. Social Practice / E. Policies / 5. Education / d. Study of history
22819 In the 18th century history came to be seen as progressive, rather than cyclical [Hösle]
     Full Idea: The turning point in the history of the philosophy of history occurs in the eighteenth century, when the ancient cyclical model of Vico is superseded by the idea of progress.
     From: Vittorio Hösle (A Short History of German Philosophy [2013], 6)
     A reaction: He says that Hegel merely inherited this progressive view, rather than creating it. I'm not sure how widely held the cyclical view was. I don't recognise it in Shakespeare. Science and technology must have suggested progress.