12 ideas
13560 | A wise man is not subservient to anything [Seneca] |
Full Idea: I do not call any man wise who is subservient to anything. | |
From: Seneca the Younger (On the Happy Life [c.60], §11) | |
A reaction: At the very least, a wise man should be subservient to a wiser man. |
19000 | Read 'all ravens are black' as about ravens, not as about an implication [Belnap] |
Full Idea: 'All ravens are black' might profitably be read as saying not that being a raven 'implies' being black, but rather something more like 'Consider the ravens: each one is black'. | |
From: Nuel D. Belnap (Conditional Assertion and Restricted Quantification [1970], p.7), quoted by Stephen Yablo - Aboutness 04.5 | |
A reaction: Belnap is more interested in the logic than in the paradox of confirmation, since he evidently thinks that universal generalisations should not be read as implications. I like Belnap's suggestion. |
13558 | The supreme good is harmony of spirit [Seneca] |
Full Idea: The highest good is harmony of spirit. | |
From: Seneca the Younger (On the Happy Life [c.60], §08) | |
A reaction: This idea is straight from Plato's Republic. |
13559 | I seek virtue, because it is its own reward [Seneca] |
Full Idea: You ask what I seek from virtue? Virtue herself. For she has nothing better, she is herself her own reward. | |
From: Seneca the Younger (On the Happy Life [c.60], §09) | |
A reaction: Presumably this is the source of the popular saying that 'virtue is its own reward'. The trouble is that this doesn't seem a very persuasive thing to say to a sceptic who doubts whether being virtuous is worth the trouble. |
13561 | Virtue is always moderate, so excess need not be feared [Seneca] |
Full Idea: In the case of virtue excess should not be feared, since in virtue resides moderation. | |
From: Seneca the Younger (On the Happy Life [c.60], §13) | |
A reaction: This seems to imply that all of the virtues are unified in the one achievement of the virtuous state. It leaves the notion of 'virtue' a bit thin in content, though. |
13562 | It is shameful to not even recognise your own slaves [Seneca] |
Full Idea: Why, to your shame, are you so careless that you do not know your handful of slaves by sight? | |
From: Seneca the Younger (On the Happy Life [c.60], §17) |
13564 | There is far more scope for virtue if you are wealthy; poverty only allows endurance [Seneca] |
Full Idea: What doubt can there be that the wise man has greater scope for displaying his powers if he is rich than if he is poor, since in the case of poverty only one kind of virtue exists - refusal to be bowed down and crushed. | |
From: Seneca the Younger (On the Happy Life [c.60], §22) | |
A reaction: It is against this view that I see Jesus proposing poverty as central to virtue. But then he has the surprising view (to Seneca) that humility is a virtue. What Nietzsche calls the slaves' inversion of values. |
13563 | Why does your wife wear in her ears the income of a wealthy house? [Seneca] |
Full Idea: Why does your wife wear in her ears the income of a wealthy house? | |
From: Seneca the Younger (On the Happy Life [c.60], §17) |
13565 | If wealth was a good, it would make men good [Seneca] |
Full Idea: Wealth is not a good; for it it was, it would make men good. | |
From: Seneca the Younger (On the Happy Life [c.60], §24) | |
A reaction: An immediately attractive argument, but should we assume that anything which is good will enhance our personal goodness? If goodness is a habit, then continual pursuit of wealth is the test case to examine. Seneca is right! |
13557 | Unfortunately the majority do not tend to favour what is best [Seneca] |
Full Idea: Human concerns are not so happily arranged that the majority favours the better things. | |
From: Seneca the Younger (On the Happy Life [c.60], §02) | |
A reaction: On the whole Seneca is unimpressed by democracy, as people are rushed into decisions by the crowd, and live to regret them. |
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 |
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. |