Diogenes used his simple lifestyle and behavior to criticize the social values and institutions of what he saw as a corrupt or at least confused society. In a highly non-traditional fashion, he had a reputation of sleeping and eating wherever he chose and took to toughening himself against nature. He declared himself a cosmopolitan…
This same will has at its service an apparently opposite drive of the spirit, a suddenly adopted preference of ignorance, of deliberate shutting out, a shutting of one’s windows, an inner No to this or that, a prohibition to approach, a sort of defensive attitude against much that is knowable, a contentment with the…
229. In these later ages, which may be proud of their humanity, there still remains so much fear, so much SUPERSTITION of the fear, of the “cruel wild beast,” the mastering of which constitutes the very pride of these humaner ages–that even obvious truths, as if by the agreement of centuries, have long remained…
In the age of Socrates, among men of fatigued instincts, among the conservatives of ancient Athens who let themselves go—- “toward happiness,” as they said, toward pleasure, as they acted—- and who all the while still mouthed the ancient pompous words to which their lives no longer gave them any right, irony may have…
The stupidity of the average man will permit the oligarch, whether economic or political, to hide his real purposes from the scrutiny of his fellows and to withdraw his activities from effective control. Since it is impossible to count on enough moral goodwill among those who possess irresponsible power to sacrifice it for the…
Its comforting when the morning sun breaks over the tree tops and streams into the windows here at Starbucks. On a winter morning, one’s spirit shouts, “light, light!” I understand in part how our ancestors worshiped the sun as a god. The Mayans structured their cities around their great pyramids, temples for worship of…
This quotation from Simone Weil is worth passing on: At the very best, a mind enclosed in language is in prison. It is limited to the number of relations which words can make simultaneously present to it; and it remains in ignorance of thoughts which involve a combination of a greater number. The intelligent…
The comment heightened my awareness. “What about the lying…?”—-a query with a tone of uncertainty, a Freudian slip, — concluding after thought by a Trump supporter. The interview was coming to an end, and the resident of Charlotte had just spoken his full-throated support for the president. And then came the hint of doubt….
In the intellectual tradition of the West, through the Middle Ages, until the modern era, Theology was considered the “queen of the sciences.” With the demise of Roman law and order the Catholic Church was the guarantor of European social order in the Middle Ages. God’s law, the cathedrals and monasteries were the conservators…
Can’t focus on anything in particular this morning. Thus, I offer for consideration a selection of aphorisms from Nietzsche in section 4, Epigrams and Interludes, found in Beyond Good and Evil. This is a playlist, some of Nietzsche’s Greatest Hits. 69. One has watched life badly, if one has failed to see the hand…
