4 ideas
291 | Don't assume that wisdom is the automatic consequence of old age [Plato] |
Full Idea: Don't assume that wisdom is the automatic consequence of old age. | |
From: Plato (Laches [c.381 BCE], 188b) | |
A reaction: I have taught teenagers who seemed to me wiser than nearly all the adults I have ever met. |
19393 | What is not active is nothing [Leibniz] |
Full Idea: We can now show from the inner truths of metaphysics that what is not active is nothing. | |
From: Gottfried Leibniz (True Method in Philosophy and Theology [1686], p.64) | |
A reaction: This is Leibniz's rebellion against the Cartesian idea that all that matters for natural existence is spatial extension. I agree (tentatively) with Leibniz's vision of nature here. Modern physics reveals a seething turmoil beneath the placid exterior. |
2667 | A false object might give the same presentation as a true one [Arcesilaus, by Cicero] |
Full Idea: Arcesilaus said that no presentation proceeding from a true object is such that a presentation proceeding from a false one might not also be of the same form. This is the one argument that has held the field down to the present day. | |
From: report of Arcesilaus (fragments/reports [c.275 BCE]) by M. Tullius Cicero - Academica II.24.77 |
293 | Being unafraid (perhaps through ignorance) and being brave are two different things [Plato] |
Full Idea: To be unafraid (like a small child who doesn't understand the danger) and to be brave are two quite different things. | |
From: Plato (Laches [c.381 BCE], 197b) |