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All the ideas for 'Classical Cosmology (frags)', 'fragments/reports' and 'Introduction of 'Essence of Christianity''

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12 ideas

2. Reason / C. Styles of Reason / 1. Dialectic

20768	Like spiderswebs, dialectical arguments are clever but useless [Ariston, by Diog. Laertius]
	Full Idea: He said that dialectical arguments were like spiderswebs: although they seem to indicate craftsmanlike skill, they are useless.
	From: report of Ariston (fragments/reports [c.250 BCE]) by Diogenes Laertius - Lives of Eminent Philosophers 07.161
	A reaction: Useful for the spider, but useless to Ariston.

18. Thought / A. Modes of Thought / 5. Rationality / a. Rationality

19451	When absorbed in deep reflection, is your reason in control, or is it you? [Feuerbach]
	Full Idea: When, submerged in deep reflection, you forget both yourself and your surroundings, is it you who controls reason, or is it rather reason that controls and absorbs you?
	From: Ludwig Feuerbach (Introduction of 'Essence of Christianity' [1841], I)
	A reaction: A delightful question, even if it looks like a false dichotomy. I'm not sure what to make of 'me', if my reason can be subtracted from it. Aquinas was one the same wavelength here.

22. Metaethics / C. The Good / 1. Goodness / b. Types of good

19450	Reason, love and will are the highest perfections and essence of man - the purpose of his life [Feuerbach]
	Full Idea: Reason, love and power of will are perfections of man; they are his highest powers, his absolute essence in so far as he is man, the purpose of his existence. Man exists in order to think, love and will.
	From: Ludwig Feuerbach (Introduction of 'Essence of Christianity' [1841], I)
	A reaction: Feuerbach was a notable atheist, but adopts a religious style of language which modern atheists would find rather alien. Personally I love talk of ideals and perfections. Ideals have been discredited in modern times, but need a revival.

23. Ethics / C. Virtue Theory / 2. Elements of Virtue Theory / f. The Mean

3049	The chief good is indifference to what lies midway between virtue and vice [Ariston, by Diog. Laertius]
	Full Idea: The chief good is to live in perfect indifference to all those things which are of an intermediate character between virtue and vice.
	From: report of Ariston (fragments/reports [c.250 BCE]) by Diogenes Laertius - Lives of Eminent Philosophers 07.2.1

23. Ethics / D. Deontological Ethics / 1. Deontology

3549	Ariston says rules are useless for the virtuous and the non-virtuous [Ariston, by Annas]
	Full Idea: Ariston says that rules are useless if you are virtuous, and useless if you are not.
	From: report of Ariston (fragments/reports [c.250 BCE]) by Julia Annas - The Morality of Happiness 2.4

27. Natural Reality / E. Cosmology / 1. Cosmology

5994	Is the cosmos open or closed, mechanical or teleological, alive or inanimate, and created or eternal? [Robinson,TM, by PG]
	Full Idea: The four major disputes in classical cosmology were whether the cosmos is 'open' or 'closed', whether it is explained mechanistically or teleologically, whether it is alive or mere matter, and whether or not it has a beginning.
	From: report of T.M. Robinson (Classical Cosmology (frags) [1997]) by PG - Db (ideas)
	A reaction: A nice summary. The standard modern view is closed, mechanistic, inanimate and non-eternal. But philosophers can ask deeper questions than physicists, and I say we are entitled to speculate when the evidence runs out.

27. Natural Reality / G. Biology / 5. Species

19448	Consciousness is said to distinguish man from animals - consciousness of his own species [Feuerbach]
	Full Idea: What constitutes the essential difference between man and animal? The most simple, general, and most widely held answer to this question is consciousness. Consciousness is given only in the case of a being to whom his species ...is an object of thought.
	From: Ludwig Feuerbach (Introduction of 'Essence of Christianity' [1841], I)
	A reaction: Rather speculative. Since other species cohabit and breed only with their fellow species members, one might have thought they were aware of them.

28. God / A. Divine Nature / 6. Divine Morality / b. Euthyphro question

19454	A God needs justice, kindness and wisdom, but those concepts don't depend on the concept of God [Feuerbach]
	Full Idea: The concept of God depends on the concepts of justice, kindness and wisdom - a God who is not kind, not just, and not wise is no God. But these concepts do not depend on the concept of God. That a quality is possessed by God does not make it divine.
	From: Ludwig Feuerbach (Introduction of 'Essence of Christianity' [1841], II)
	A reaction: This is part of Feuerbach's argument for atheism, but if you ask for the source of our human concepts of justice, kindness and wisdom, no one, I would have thought, could cite God for the role.

28. God / C. Attitudes to God / 4. God Reflects Humanity

19452	The nature of God is an expression of human nature [Feuerbach]
	Full Idea: God is the manifestation of man's inner nature, his expressed self.
	From: Ludwig Feuerbach (Introduction of 'Essence of Christianity' [1841], II)
	A reaction: Even if you are a deeply committed theist, you have to concede some of this point. The perfections attributed to God are usually of human qualities. Leibniz, though, says that God has an infinity of perfection, mostly unknown to us.

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

19453	If love, goodness and personality are human, the God who is their source is anthropomorphic [Feuerbach]
	Full Idea: If love, goodness, and personality are human determinations, the being which constitutes their source and ...their presupposition is also an anthropomorphism; so is the existence of God.
	From: Ludwig Feuerbach (Introduction of 'Essence of Christianity' [1841], II)
	A reaction: It is certainly a struggle for the imagination to grasp a being which is characterised by idealised versions of human virtues, and yet has an intrinsic nature which is utterly different from humanity.

29. Religion / D. Religious Issues / 1. Religious Commitment / a. Religious Belief

19449	Religion is the consciousness of the infinite [Feuerbach]
	Full Idea: Religion is the consciousness of the infinite.
	From: Ludwig Feuerbach (Introduction of 'Essence of Christianity' [1841], I)

19455	Today's atheism will tomorrow become a religion [Feuerbach]
	Full Idea: What is regarded as atheism today will be religion tomorrow.
	From: Ludwig Feuerbach (Introduction of 'Essence of Christianity' [1841], II)
	A reaction: Modern critics of atheism frequently accuse it of being a new religion. I doubt whether Feuerbach is right, but it is a nice provocative idea.