Combining Texts

All the ideas for 'works', 'works' and 'Of Liberty and Necessity'

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5 ideas

10. Modality / B. Possibility / 5. Contingency

6215	'Contingent' means that the cause is unperceived, not that there is no cause [Hobbes]
	Full Idea: For contingent, men do not mean that which hath no cause, but that which hath not for cause any thing that we perceive, as when a traveller meets a shower, they both had sufficient causes, but they didn't cause one another, so we say it was contingent.
	From: Thomas Hobbes (Of Liberty and Necessity [1654], §95)
	A reaction: Contingent nowadays means 'might not have happened', or 'does not happen in all possible worlds'. Personally I share Hobbes' doubts about the concept of contingency, and this is quite a good account of the misunderstanding.

21. Aesthetics / C. Artistic Issues / 7. Art and Morality

22022	Beauty motivates morality, by harmonising feeling and reason [Schiller, by Pinkard]
	Full Idea: On Schiller's view, only beauty could shape or evince the necessary harmony between sensibility and reason (between inclination and duty) which provides the crucial motivation for the moral life.
	From: report of Friedrich Schiller (works [1794]) by Terry Pinkard - German Philosophy 1760-1860 06
	A reaction: Maybe. Reason should probably be drawn towards feelings which seem inspiring.

25. Social Practice / A. Freedoms / 5. Freedom of lifestyle

7675	Schiller speaks obsessively of freedom throughout his works [Schiller, by Berlin]
	Full Idea: Schiller constantly speaks of spiritual freedom: freedom of reason, the kingdom of freedom, our free self, inner freedom, freedom of mind, moral freedom, the free intelligence - a very favourite phrase - holy freedom, the impregnable citadel of freedom.
	From: report of Friedrich Schiller (works [1794]) by Isaiah Berlin - The Roots of Romanticism
	A reaction: Kant's philosophy and his Kingdom of Ends are an obvious source for this, but I trace the sentiment back to 'Freeborn John' Lilburne during the English Civil War. The English, thanks to Voltaire, embodied freedom in the Enlightenment.

29. Religion / B. Monotheistic Religion / 4. Christianity / d. Heresy

16713	Philosophers are the forefathers of heretics [Tertullian]
	Full Idea: Philosophers are the forefathers of heretics.
	From: Tertullian (works [c.200]), quoted by Robert Pasnau - Metaphysical Themes 1274-1671 20.2

29. Religion / D. Religious Issues / 1. Religious Commitment / e. Fideism

6610	I believe because it is absurd [Tertullian]
	Full Idea: I believe because it is absurd ('Credo quia absurdum est').
	From: Tertullian (works [c.200]), quoted by Robert Fogelin - Walking the Tightrope of Reason n4.2
	A reaction: This seems to be a rather desperate remark, in response to what must have been rather good hostile arguments. No one would abandon the support of reason if it was easy to acquire. You can't deny its engaging romantic defiance, though.