8 ideas
21900 | Deleuze relies on Spinoza (immanence), Bergson (duration), and difference (Nietzsche) [May] |
Full Idea: The three tripods on which the philosophy of Deleuze stands are immanence (Spinoza), duration (Bergson), and the affirmation of difference (Nietzsche). | |
From: Todd May (Gilles Deleuze [2006], 2.12) | |
A reaction: [Just to begin sketching how continental philosophy sees its tradition]. |
21898 | For existentialists the present is empty without the pull of the future and weight of the past [May] |
Full Idea: For the existential view of lived time, the present would be empty if it were not for the pull of the future and the weight of the past that give it its character. | |
From: Todd May (Gilles Deleuze [2006], 2.05) | |
A reaction: Bergson seems to be important in developing this idea, though I suspect that Kierkegaard is a source. |
21905 | Liberal theory starts from the governed, not from the governor [May] |
Full Idea: For liberal theory, it is the individual to be governed, not the governor, who is the starting point. | |
From: Todd May (Gilles Deleuze [2006], 4.02) | |
A reaction: I'm inclined to see this as the single-handed achievement of Thomas Hobbes, who starts from the need of citizens to secure their contracts. Plato's society starts from entrepreneurs, but their need for a ruler seems a priori. |
13304 | Learned men gain more in one day than others do in a lifetime [Posidonius] |
Full Idea: In a single day there lies open to men of learning more than there ever does to the unenlightened in the longest of lifetimes. | |
From: Posidonius (fragments/reports [c.95 BCE]), quoted by Seneca the Younger - Letters from a Stoic 078 | |
A reaction: These remarks endorsing the infinite superiority of the educated to the uneducated seem to have been popular in late antiquity. It tends to be the religions which discourage great learning, especially in their emphasis on a single book. |
20820 | Time is an interval of motion, or the measure of speed [Posidonius, by Stobaeus] |
Full Idea: Posidonius defined time thus: it is an interval of motion, or the measure of speed and slowness. | |
From: report of Posidonius (fragments/reports [c.95 BCE]) by John Stobaeus - Anthology 1.08.42 | |
A reaction: Hm. Can we define motion or speed without alluding to time? Looks like we have to define them as a conjoined pair, which means we cannot fully understand either of them. |
22974 | Presentists lack the materials for a realist view of change [Price,H] |
Full Idea: The presentist view seems to have lost the materials for a realist view of passage, change or temporal transition. | |
From: Huw Price (The Flow of Time [2011], 2) | |
A reaction: It is a nice point. How can a presentist talk of change if the only component that exists is the present time slice? Price says change can only be a kind of fiction for the presentist. Change in existence and in properties are distinct concepts. |
22973 | The present moment, time's direction, and time's dynamic quality seem to be objective facts [Price,H] |
Full Idea: The flow of time seems to be an objective feature of reality because of 1) the present moment can be objectively distinguished, 2) time has an objective direction, of earlier and later, and 3) there is something objectively dynamic about time. | |
From: Huw Price (The Flow of Time [2011], 1.1) | |
A reaction: Price sets out to undermine all three of these claims, in implicit defence of a psychological view. I disagree with him. |
22975 | We must explain either the existence of a time direction, or our psychological sense of it [Price,H] |
Full Idea: If the world comes equipped with a time orientation, where does it come from? If it doesn't, what explains our psychological feeling of a direction for time? | |
From: Huw Price (The Flow of Time [2011], 3.5) | |
A reaction: The chances of 'explaining' either one look slim to me. That is, the fact would explain our experience, but the experience without the fact looks ridiculous, and I cannot conceive of any time-free entity which could explain the fact. |