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to Unedited Philosophy Quotes and Ramblings about Intequinism.
Book title: A NEW HISTORY OF WESTERN
PHILOSOPHY In Four Parts
Author: ANTHONY KENNY (Sir)
©2010
Publisher: CLARENDON PRESS, OXFORD
UNIVERSITY PRESS
Place: Oxford, UK
Date: 2012 paperback edition
ISBN: 978-0-19-965649-3
Reader: Mr.
M.D. Pienaar
Contents
19 October 2013
"Aristotle
was
the first philosopher who systematically studied, recorded,
and criticized the work of previous philosophers."[1]
Anaximander of Miletus (c.547 BC) wrote a book
called On Nature.[2]
"Miletus |mīˈlētəs;
mə-|
an ancient
city of the Ionian Greeks in southwestern Asia Minor. In the
7th and 6th centuries bc it was a powerful port, from which
more than 60 colonies were founded on the shores of the
Black Sea and in Italy and Egypt."[3]
According
to Brugsch the words "natura"
in Latin and φνσις ("fnsis"[4])
in Greek share "innate conception"
with "neter"
("God")
in Egyptian. Different opinions exist about the original
meaning of "neter".
M. Maspero opines the connotation with "strong"
was "derived"
and not "original
meaning".
Brugsch opines the meaning relates to ' "active power which produces and creates" '
and ' "regular
recurrence" '.
Egyptologists
"universally"
translates "neteru"
as "gods".
The Coptic Bible uses the word "nouti"
for the "Supreme
Being".
The difference between "neter"
and "neteru"
is best explained by passages in the pyramids of Unàs
and Tetà, addressed to the dead.
Unàs:
"Thou
exist at the side of God."
Tetà: "He weigheth words, and, behold, God hearkeneth
unto the words God hath called Tetà (in his name, etc.)."[5]
The
word "netert"
was translated as "goddess".[6]
In the pyramid of Unàs
it is explained how the soul (anima[7])
of Unàs
rose in the form of "a god"
and ate "gods"
after he killed them.[8]
These quotations are from Budge's The book of the dead,
which is an abstract of the four full versions of The book of the dead.
The first version "was
edited by the priests of the college of Annu (the On of the
Bible, and the Heliopolis of the Greeks)".
The priests of Ànnu
were very influential, which the passage in the pyramid of
Unàs proves: ' "O God,
thy Ànnu is Unàs; O God, thy Ànnu is Unàs. O Rā, Ànnu is
Unàs, thy Ànnu is Unàs, O Rā. The mother of Unàs is Ànnu,
the father of Unàs is Ànnu; Unàs himself is Ànnu, and was
born in Ànnu." ... in Ànnu dwelt the great and oldest company
of the gods, Tmu, Shu, Tefnut, Seb, Nut, Osiris, Isis, Set
and Nephtys. The abode of the blessed in heaven was called
Ànnu'. [9]
Miletus colonized Egypt and Anaximander wrote On Nature. Was On Nature
translated from "neter"?
On Nature
contained theories of Anaximander about evolution. One of
his theories was that humans came from fish after the seas
dried. Another was that life originated from mist.[10]
Many philosophers wrote about nature. Zeno (334-262 BC) of
Citium and other Stoics placed the study of nature highest
because nature was "identified with God."[11]
"Against this
position, the Eleatics
defended the unity and stability of the universe. Their leader, Parmenides
supposed that language embodies a logic of perfect
immutability: "What is, is." (Fragments)
Since everything is what it is and not something else, he
argued in Περι Φυσις[12]
(On
Nature), it can never correct to say that one
and the same thing both has and does not have some feature,
so the supposed change from having the feature to not having
it is utterly impossible."[13]
It is also possible that the translation
"physis" relates to "fishes" partly due to Anaximander's
book On Nature.
It seems thus more likely that Anaximander used "physis" for
"nature" and not "neter" because of his theory about human
evolution from fish.
"fish
1 |fi sh |
... ORIGIN Old
English fisc (as a noun denoting any animal living
exclusively in water), fiscian (verb), of
Germanic origin; related to Dutch vis,
vissen and German Fisch,
fischen."[14]
Anaximander, who was not a vegetarian, opined we
should not eat fish because fish were human ancestors.[15]
"For
classical Athens, Heraclitus was the proponent of the theory
that everything was in motion, and Parmenides the proponent
of the theory that nothing was in motion. Plato and
Aristotle struggled, in different ways, to defend the
audacious thesis that some things were in motion and some
things were at rest."[16]
Kenny wrote Aristotle gave credit to Parmenides
for introducing "Love
as the efficient cause of everything (Metaph. A 3. 984b27)"[17]
It seems that Kenny did not appreciate Hesiod's "Love" who "ministers" to gods. Parmenides's "Love" i suppose then was something that gods had
without being preached to, and/or received from somewhere
according to Hesiod.
"Now
one of them said that mind was present in the universe, as
in the animals, and that this was the cause of order in
nature and the whole arrangement - making the earlier
thinkers look absurd. We clearly know then that Anaxagoras
embraced this account, but that it was Hermotimus of
Clazomenae who earlier gave it as a cause. ... And one might
suppose that Hesiod was the first to seek for such a thing,
or anyone else who placed love and desire among the entities
as their principle - as also did Parmenides. For he too in
describing the creation of the universe, first says:
'And he
devised Love for all the gods.',
while
Hesiod says:
'Foremost
of all was Chaos, and then next
'Broad
Fronted Earth ... [copied]
'And Love,
who ministers to every god.',
on
the assumption that among entities there must be some cause
which moves and combines things."[18]
"Hesiod |ˈhesēəd|
(c. 700
bc),
Greek poet. One of the earliest known Greek poets, he wrote
the Theogony, an epic poem on the genealogies of the gods.
Parmenides
|pärˈmeniˌdēz|
(fl. 5th
century
bc), Greek philosopher. He founded the Eleatic school of
philosophers. In his work On Nature, he maintained that the
apparent motion and changing forms of the universe are in
fact manifestations of an unchanging and indivisible
reality.
Anaxagoras
|ˌanəkˈsagərəs; ˌanak-|
(c. 500–
c. 428 bc), Greek philosopher. He believed that all
matter was infinitely divisible and motionless until
animated by mind (nous)."[19]
20 October 2013
I came across the following and thought it
relevant to the part from Budge's The book of the dead
and Annu. Thebes and Ammon is mentioned in it. It seems
there was more to the judgement over Socrates because, in Phaedrus by Plato,
Socrates chose the way of Ammon from Thebes and Alexander
the Great destroyed Thebes in Greece. Did Alexander also
destroy Thebes in Egypt? This example shows that in
Christianity there could be an anti-creative culture, which
do not value new creativities, if Ammon and Amen of the
Bible is the same king (god).
"Thebes |θēbz|
1 the Greek
name for an ancient city in Upper Egypt, the ruins of which
are located on the Nile River about 420 miles (675 km) south
of Cairo. The capital of ancient Egypt under the 18th
dynasty (c. 1550–1290 bc), it is the site of the
major temples of Luxor and Karnak.
2 a city in
Greece, in Boeotia, northwest of Athens. A major military
power in Greece following the defeat of the Spartans at the
battle of Leuctra in 371 bc, it was destroyed by Alexander
the Great in 336 bc. Greek name Thívai."[20]
"THE
INFERIORITY OF THE WRITTEN TO THE SPOKEN WORD
...
Socrates: Do
you know the theory and practice which will best please God,
as far as words are concerned?
Phaedrus: No,
I do not. Do you?
Socrates:
Well, I can give you a tradition handed down from men of
old, but they alone know the truth. If we could find that
out for ourselves, should we have any further use for human
fancies?
Phaedrus:
An absurd question. But tell me your tradition.
Socrates:
They say that there dwelt at Naucratis in Egypt one of the
old gods of that country, to whom the bird they call Ibis
was sacred, and the name of the god himself was Theuth.
Among his inventions were number and calculation and
geometry and astronomy, not to speak of various types of
draughts and dice, and, above all, writing. The king of the
whole country at that time was Thamus, who lived in the
great city of Upper Egypt which the Greeks call Egyptian
Thebes; the name they gave to Thamus is Ammon. To him came
Theuth and exhibited his inventions, claiming that they
ought to be made known to the Egyptians in general. Thamus
enquired into the use of each of them, and as Theuth went
through them expressed approval or disapproval, according as
he judged Theuth's claims to be well or ill founded. It
would take too long to go through all that Thamus is
reported to have said for and against each of Theuth's
inventions. But when it came to writing, Theuth declared:
'Here is an accomplishment, my lord the king, which will
improve both the wisdom and the memory of the Egyptians. I
have discovered a sure receipt for memory and wisdom.'
'Theuth, my paragon of inventors,' replied the king, 'the
discoverer of an art is not the best judge of the good or
harm which will accrue to those who practice it. So it is in
this case; you, who are the father of writing, have out of
fondness for your offspring attributed to it quite the
opposite of its real function. Those who acquire it will
cease to exercise their memory and become forgetful; they
will rely on writing to bring things to their remembrance by
external signs instead of on their own internal resources.
What you have discovered is a receipt for recollection, not
for memory. And as for wisdom, your pupils will have the
reputation for it without the reality: they will receive a
quantity of information without proper instruction, and in
consequence be thought very knowledgeable when they are for
the most part quite ignorant. And because they are filled
with the conceit of wisdom instead of real wisdom they will
be a burden to society.' "[21]
Commentary: “The
content and style of this piece of pseudo-historical writing
immediately call to mind Herodotus' account of Egypt in Book
II of his Histories; and I believe that that is the
intended effect. The initial choice of Egypt as a setting
might itself have been suggested by Herodotus' remark (II.
77) that 'of the Egyptians, those who live in the cultivated
part are the most careful of all men in keeping the memory
of the past, and by far the most given to chronicling (or
'the telling of tales', logiotatoi) of all those I have
questioned'. When it comes to matters relating to memory
(274 e 4 ff.), who should know better than the Egyptians?
(CF. Timaeus 20 d ff., where Egyptian records provide a
suitable pedigree for the myth of Atlantis.) True, Herodotus
does not mention a Theuth,
though he does talk about the sacred ibis (Thamus/Thamous/Ammon
he
calls by what he says is the Egyptian name Amoun, II.
42). But Theuth probably still has Herodotean connections of
a kind. It is Herodotus' stated view that 'nearly all the
gods' names came to Greece from Egypt' (II.50): thus behind
'Theuth' there is an original (?) Thoth (so at least the
name is transcribed later), the chance of the vowel sound
suggesting Prometheus, who is his Greek counterpart as
inventor of the arts and sciences. (Relevantly, Thoth is
also the scribe of the gods: see E.A. Wallis Budge, The
Egyptian Book of the Dead (London 1895, republished New York
1967) cxviii-cxix. For Prometheus, cf. Protagoras 320 d ff.,
and Philebus 16c ff.; the latter passage again implicitly
connects him with Theuth, who this time becomes something of
an expert in theoretical linguistics.) Amoun, Herodotus
says, is the Egyptian Zeus: a different name, in this case,
but the same god. Of course, such ideas need not necessarily
have been restricted to Herodotus, and much of the authentic
detail in the passage clearly does not come from him.
Nonetheless, that Plato is alluding to (parodying?) him is
still in my view a possible hypothesis.
The net result is a new version of an old theme, the
quarrel between Zeus and Prometheus (for its original forms,
see Hesiod Theogony 535 ff., Works and Days 42 ff.). Had
Plato presented it directly as such, he would have had to
use the form of the myth, as Protagoras does in his Great
Speech in the Protagoras (reference above). But
through the device of translating it to Egypt, he is now
able to present it, by way of variation, as if it were
history (though as c 1-3 warns us, no more to be relied upon
for that): Egypt is a place where memories are long enough
even to recall the actual disposition of things in the
beginning . . . (That Zeus should be the real protagonist in
the story will be highly appropriate. The Zeus of the
Phaedrus is the patron of philosophy; Thamus' argument
against the use of writing will soon be the basis of the
argument for the rival medium of conversation as a condition
of intellectual progress.) . . The real Theuth/Thoth seems
to have had no connection with Naucratis. Naucratis was a
Greek foundation, and according to Herodotus the only port
of Egypt in ancient times (II. 179): is Theuth/Prometheus
perhaps located there in the story because of his dual
nationality (see previous note)? (I owe some of the
information on which both notes are based to my colleague
Earl McQueen; he is not to blame for the conclusions I have
derived from it.) . . .
'Thamus they call Ammon': the MS reading τόν θεόν
('while the god they call Ammon') would give an intelligible
sense, since Thamus—who must in any case be meant—is
undoubtedly a god. But it seems to make the reader work
unnecessarily hard, and is even marginally ambiguous, given
that only Theuth has explicitly been identified as a god:
Postgate's τόν Θαμουν looks altogether more convincing,
and can be defended palaeographically (see de Vries)."[22]
Ross writes about Theuth and Zeus, separated by
a comma.[23]
Previously i wondered whether Theuth was Zeus.
The stipulation by Ammon to not use writing
because it will harm memories and give only appearances of
wisdom, could relate to the commandment in the Bible in
Exodus 20 about "gelykenisse". If it does, the printing of
the Bible is paradoxical because it records something, which
should not have been recorded according to Ammon.
Kenny refers to Plato's The
Laws (4. 721b) in which Magnesia, his planned colony will
have a marriage law, which stipulates that "procreation
is the method by which human
beings achieve immortality."[24]
The tenth book of The Laws deals with "worship of
the gods and the elimination of heresy." In the Timaeus (48a) Plato's demiourgos creates the world from a
chaotic state to a good state. Kenny refers to "God", "father,
its maker, or its craftsman" (28c) with regard to Plato's demiourgos. Kenny
contrasts Plato's demiourgos to the "Judaeo-Christian
...
creator", who formed the
world from nothing.[25]
20 October 2013
The relationship between Plato and Aristotle
was portrayed as cordial during the time of the Academy but
later generations showed the relationship between Plato and
Aristotle rested on important differences of thought.
Aristotle did not agree that Plato's Forms existed because
he argued it complicated philosophy of description. The idea
of the Good for example was especially problematic to
Aristotle.[26]
In the place of the idea of the Good Aristotle, like Plato,
postulates "living
happily" connected to "living virtuously".[27]
The
following are extracts from Plato's Republic[28] where he
explained his idea of the Good.
Book
VII. '5. The Good as Ultimate Object of Knowledge'
Page
231: 507a
Visible
World |
Intelligible
World |
The Sun |
The Good |
Source of
growth and light |
Source of
reality and truth, |
which gives
visibility to objects of sense and the power of
seeing to the eye. |
which gives
intelligibility to objects of thought and the
power of knowing to the
mind. |
The faculty
of sight. |
The faculty
of knowledge.' |
PART VIII. EDUCATION
OF THE PHILOSOPHER
Page
266: 534a
[Socrates]: " 'Then
let us be content with the terms we used earlier on for the
four divisions of our line –
calling them, in order, pure knowledge (A), reason [B],
belief [C], and illusion [D]. The last two we class together
as opinion, the
first two as knowledge (A + B), opinion being concerned with
the world of becoming, knowledge (A + B) with the world of
reality. Knowledge (A + B) stands to opinion as the world of
reality does to that of becoming, and pure
knowledge (A) stands to belief and reason to illusion as
knowledge (A + B) stands to opinion. The relation of the
realities corresponding to knowledge (A + B) and opinion and
the twofold divisions into which they fall we had better
omit if we're not to involve ourselves in an argument even
longer than we've already had' ... So you agree in calling a
man a dialectician who can take account of the essential
nature of each thing; and in saying that anyone who is
unable to give such an account of things either to himself
or to other people has to that extent failed to understand
them. ... Then doesn't the same apply to the good? If a man
can't define the form of the good and distinguish it clearly
in his account from everything else, and then battle his way
through all objections, determined to give them refutation
based on reality and not opinion, and come through with his
argument unshaken, you wouldn't say he knew what the good in
itself was, or indeed any
other good. Any shadowy notion such a man gets hold of is
the product of opinion rather than knowledge, and he's
living in a dream from which he will not awake on this side
of the other world, where he will finally sleep for ever
(sic). ... So you will lay it down that they must devote
themselves especially to this discipline [of a
dialectician], which will enable them to ask and answer
questions with the highest degree of understanding ... Then
you agree that dialectic is the coping-stone that tops our
educational system; it completes the course of studies and
there is no other study that can rightly be placed above
it.' "
The following was paraphrased from Venter's History of philosophy.[29]
Plato's epistemology is situated in the
following cosmos: Two regions can initially be identified.
That is the sensible world and the intelligible world. The
sensible world can be divided into two regions again; one
pertaining to senses and the other pertaining to
intellectual insight. Intellectual insight is the domain of
Plato's epistemology. Intellectual insight is still part of
the sensible world but it is nearing the intellectual world
where the perfect Forms are situated—being true and good
cause beauty. Senses and intellectual insight can again be
subdivided each into two areas. Senses are divided into
imaginations (for example the skewness of something under
water due to light refraction that is not a real skewness)
and 'beliefs' (physicality that we see with our eyes and
hear with our ears). Intellectual insights make use of these
sense experiences to deduce knowledge from 'beliefs' (seen
and heard etc.). Intellectual insights (knowledge) are also
acquired by dialectical reasoning from 'beliefs' (seen and
heard etc.) towards higher realities that are stable and do
not ever change. The sensible world is subject to constant
change. Higher realities (Forms) or the 'really real'
according to Venter's terminology are the first stable
existing principles, that order dialectics and deductions of
intellectual insights scientifically. These higher realities
that are called higher, because of the stableness and
timelessness thereof, are a priori truths that can be
summarized by saying; being true and good cause beauty. In
the intelligible world below being, truthfulness, and
goodness Plato incorporated Pythagoras' numbers that serve
as measurement units in order to make scientific measurement
possible. There are thus two extreme sides with regard to
belief that work together. The belief (Religion) of the
intelligible world supports the 'beliefs' (positivism) of
the sensible world and in between we have opinion. 'Beliefs'
of the sensible world, although close to realities are still
only opinion because only the realities of the intelligible
world are stable enough to be called truths. Basically there
are just two regions for Plato. On one side is Belief
(stable) and on another side 'beliefs' (opinions).
Diagram 1: Plato's epistemology
CERTAINTY |
5 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
x |
x |
4 |
x |
|
|
|
x |
x |
|
|
|
3 |
|
|
|
x |
|
|
|
|
|
2 |
|
|
x |
|
|
|
|
|
|
1 |
|
x |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Opinion is/are |
Belief
(Being) Ought
to be |
|||||||
|
|
SENSIBLE
WORLD |
INTELLECTUAL
WORLD |
||||||
|
|
Sense
experience |
Intellectual
insight (knowledge) |
Numbers |
Beauty |
Being True |
Being Good |
||
|
|
' Belief '
= Reality |
Imaginations |
Deduction
by hypothesis |
Dialectics |
|
|
|
|
I concluded the above diagram and the following
after studying Venter's historical insights about Plato and
reading The Republic.
The philosophy of Plato we can fathom, with regard to the
cosmos, seems to be agreeable. There is a problem with
regard to his philosophy though. According to Karl Popper,
Plato wanted a stable sensible world. A stable sensible
world was not possible during his time and is not possible
currently, because of change and creativities that are the
results of truths. I call it the anomaly of Plato.
The following
was extracted from Popper's The open society and
its enemies. "Accordingly,
no
sensible things (except perhaps the most excellent ones)
resemble their Forms sufficiently closely to be
unchangeable. 'Absolute and eternal immutability is assigned
only to the most divine of all things, and bodies do not
belong to this order'[30] "[31]
This quotation from Statesman
shows that Plato excluded immanent things from divine
status. Divine to Plato thus meant perfect being of his
Forms. In Statesman he however clearly distinguished between
good and evil statesmen. Plato did not classify all immanent
things together as bad because of the divine nature of
Forms.
The differences between Plato's, and
Aristotle's philosophies are rooted in Plato's honesties and
Aristotle's deceits. Aristotle opined that deceiving is an attribute of
knowledgeable men.[32]
Taylor and Lee mentioned a
thesis about inability to prove existence of misleading,
because lies do not exist. The thesis appeared in three of
Plato's works.[33]
Logic implies, the non-existence of what lies portray,
proves lies. This statement could imply that Plato's Forms
were results of lies because proof of existence of Forms is
not visible. Forms however were concepts and Plato did not
hide that it was a concept or idea. Lies refer to
misleading, with reference to misrepresenting facts we can
agree on by observation. Where Plato's Forms inspired to
create, Aristotle opposed creativities with his emphasis on
descriptive philosophy. Aristotle wrote: "So we can do
away with the business of Forms Being Established As
Templates."[34]
The
quotation by Popper from Plato's Statesman, and
Popper's opinion, however makes it look as if Plato was also
opposed to creativities, but the anomaly of Plato shows
certainty about this opinion does not exist.
The difference between Plato and Aristotle can
further be seen in Aristotle's view about settlement of
benefit. Creative actions can benefit more than one party,
or all, but according to Aristotle, benefit can only settle
with a corresponding disadvantage to another. Aristotle
stated: "There is a
parallel with the way that what is good in itself cannot be
so because of anything else and what is good for its own
sake cannot be so for the sake of anything else."[35] Aristotle felt
that theories should not be trusted until observation
confirms theory.[36]
Aristotle did not agree with "Platonic
communism" because he thought property should be held
privately. Plato's ideas about procreation were not
acceptable to Aristotle because Aristotle preferred
traditional families. Aristotle did not believe women should
be involved militarily.[37]
Whilst reading i thought with reference to the
different opinions that no system can be fixed because any
system depends on the actual circumstances, which differ
from place to place and time to time. The word system can
only refer to something temporal. The most important
principle is thus to institute honesties, which show what
the facts are, for human reason to adapt situations, based
on realities. The institutions of honesties are dependent on
faiths in God and therefore it is not possible for
unreasonable people to make accusations against "pagan
heathens", who only rely on human reason above God. Only
honesties as results of faiths in God can cause coherence
amongst different specialist subjects. No human has the life
span to acquire enough knowledge to have a coherent view of
the cosmos therefore something has to cause integrity of
different fields to form a coherent whole. That something is
correspondence with physical realities, which is caused by
faiths in God. True realism can benefit communication
amongst people who study different subjects. Ambivalent
realism, which claims percepts of the "cosmos as cosmos" are
possible through "God himself" is problematic because of
totalitarianism.
"Since
the Renaissance it has been traditional to regard the
Academy and the Lyceum as two opposite poles of philosophy.
Plato, according to this tradition, was idealistic, utopian,
other-wordly; Aristotle was realistic, utilitarian,
commonsensical."[38]
Two other schools replaced the Academy and the
Lyceum as most profound. They were The Garden of Epicurus
and Zeno's school of Stoics. Epicurus's objective was to
remove the fear of death, which was caused by superstitious
religion. Superstitions should be avoided by scientific
studies according to Epicurus. Epicureanism was based on
Democritus's atomism.[39]
"Epicureanism
|ˌepəkyəˈrēəˌnizəm; -ˈkyoŏrēə-| noun - an ancient school of
philosophy founded in Athens by Epicurus. The school
rejected determinism and advocated hedonism (pleasure as the
highest good), but of a restrained kind: mental pleasure was
regarded more highly than physical, and the ultimate
pleasure was held to be freedom from anxiety and mental
pain, esp. that arising from needless fear of death and of
the gods."[40]
Whilst listening to Jack Johnson's Losing Hope i
thought there is not something like a white lie. We should
all tell truths whilst knowing of the possibility of death
by imposition from devils. It's all understood, the next song spoke of
the kind of temporality i had in mind when writing that
systems has no permanence.
Chrysippus combined a lot of Stoic philosophy
and he replaced Cleanthes's fire with "breath
(pneuma)". The "human soul
and mind" and "God" was made of "pneuma".[41]
For Stoics reason was paramount but subject to the laws of "Nature". Society was important and people had to live
according to "Nature". Chrysippus who differed from other Stoics
defended incest and cannibalism.[42]
21 October 2013
Aristotle "had spoken, obscurely," of an
intellect, which was responsible for forming of concepts.
Alexander of Aphrodisias understood this intellect as "God" and the Arab
world was influenced by this belief. Christians of the time
however believed that humans form concepts self.[43]
"We
have dreams in which we think we are flying; a man may go
mad and think he is a god. Surely these are cases where what
seems to a person is not true?"[44]
7 N0vember
2013
"Without
a
capital, the English word 'being' has, in philosophy, two
uses, one corresponding to the Greek participle and one to
the Greek infinitive. A being, we can say, using the
participle, is an individual that is; whereas being (using
the verbal noun is, as it were, what any individual being is
engaged in. The totality of individual beings make up Being."[45]
<self: Kenny identifies three uses of the word; two uses
for 'being' and one use for 'Being'. My current
understanding is that 'being(s)' can refer to flesh and bone
with souls as in--(a) 'human being(s)' who sit(s) on
couche(s)--. The word 'being(s)' can also refer to the
present participle verb when--human being(s) is/(are) busy
being human by their actions he/she/(they) is/(are) busy
with--. The word being(s) can also refer to the action(s),
which Kenny called the "verbal noun". For the
word "being" i distinguished thus today three meanings. The
word "being" relates to immanence. The word "Being" can
similarly refer to transcendental concepts and therefore is
a transposition from singular to plural, but with a
religious sense attached. The words "human Being" can refer
to the totality of all (living?) humans' flesh, bones and
souls. The present participle "Being" can refer to a single
good human's actions, which when combined with other Beings
(verbal noun) of other good humans make up bigger parts of
God. Kenny understands "Being" as all humans' flesh, bones
and soles combined. It seems thus that the words "being" and
"Being" should rather be excluded from discussion because of
the varied meanings, which can be ascribed to the two
("Being" and "being") forms. Kenny did not ascribe a
religious connotation to "Being" because "Being" referred to
all human beings. I am sure other meanings can also be found
if looked for intensely.>
Parmenides's ontology ascribed value of "Being" (noun) to
anything a person can think of. The word "Unbeing" in
Parmenides's ontology refers to nothing because it cannot be
thought. Predicates cannot be attached to "Unbeing".[46]
Kenny refers later to Plato's Parmenides and Sophist and to "false". After
reading p. 161, i thought that Parmenides wrote that any
thought, including a false thought had being. According to Sophist it seems
Plato wrote that something false has not being. Kenny gives
examples; " 'Theaetetus
is sitting' " and " 'Theaetetus
is flying' ". Where predicates refer to what is "false" are not
references to "Unbeing" because birds
fly. "False" exists not
therefore "false" cannot be
referred to. "False" relates to
non-correspondence according to Plato in the Sophist. It is not
clear what Plato wrote. It seems however that Kenny opined
the anomaly of Plato, was cleared by Plato in Sophist because
there he combined Heraclitus's change and Parmenides's
constancy into a new synthesis.[47]
"The Sophist shows us
the way to have our cake and eat it and say that Being
encompasses all that is unchangeable and all that is in
change (271d)." It seems Statesman by Plato was extracted from the Sophist, Kenny
referred to.
From Plato's Statesman:
"[271c] and hence arises their name
and the tradition about them, except those of them whom God
removed to some other fate.1
Younger
Socrates: Certainly
that follows from what preceded. But was the life in the
reign of Cronus, which you mentioned, in that previous
period of revolution or in ours? For evidently the change in
the course of the stars and the sun takes place in both
periods.
Stranger: You
have followed my account very well."[48]
"[271d] No, the life about which you
ask, when all the fruits of the earth sprang up of their own
accord for men, did not belong at all to the present period
of revolution, but this also belonged to the previous one.
For then, in the beginning, God ruled and supervised the
whole revolution, and so again, in the same way, all the
parts of the universe were divided by regions among gods who
ruled them, and, moreover, the animals were distributed by
species and flocks among inferior deities as divine
shepherds, each of whom was in all respects the independent
guardian of the creatures under his own care,"[49]
<self: Plural can be implied by a capital letter
in the middle of a sentence for example when "God" is used
in stead of "a god" or "Being" in stead of "a being". Plural
can also be explicitly stated, by using plural "s" for
example "gods" and "beings". It seems there is no plural "s"
for "God", unless maybe in Philosophy of religion and
Christian philosophy discourse. Plural "s" can be applicable
to present participle "Beings" of gods and goddesses if they
are all honest but busy with different actions ("Beings").
With regard to the predicates; 'nothing is nothing' makes
sense. 'Unbeing is Unbeing', makes sense but other
predicates make not sense in conjunction with 'nothing' and
'unbeing'. I cannot say: 'Nothing is divine' or 'Unbeing is
divine' but an atheist can say that. It seems thus that
according to Kenny, Parmenides's reasoning was contradictory
because atheists can attach a predicate to "Unbeing",
without lying.>
Taylor and Lee mentioned a
thesis about inability to prove existence of misleading,
because lies exist not. Theses appeared in three of Plato's
works.[50]
Logic implies non-being of that what lies portray, proves
lies "false".[51]
According to my current logic a thought
[phenomenon in a mind], which is not correspondent, exist
but has not being. Being is thus of higher grade than
existence. That implies that belief (similar to thinking) in
corresponding language and logos could be argued to
exist, but to have not being. Belief in logos and 'eerlikes'
has however of the highest grade of being and has therefore
being and lower existence, because it is belief in
correspondence and not mere thinking about "use of a false
thing", which exists as a phenomena in minds. What happens
when thoughts are about another's thinking about "use of a
false thing"? What then determine whether phenomena in minds
have being? Phenomena have being when phenomena have
creating effects.
10 November 2013
"Thales,
for
instance, is credited with an early version of 'Do as you
would be done by':
asked how we could best live, he replied, 'if we do
not ourselves do what we blame others for doing'."[52]
In Protagoras
by Plato an opinion was raised that a science is needed,
which establishes what "good", are according to measures of
pain and pleasure (356d-357b).[53]
I read up to 358d[54]
and it seems Socrates did figure some sort of
consequentialism (utilitarianism?) a valid science. It is
however not clear whether Socrates would have prioritized
consequentialist reasoning above duties. My overall
knowledge of Socrates today makes me think that he would
have prioritized certain duties for example courage higher
than consequentialist reasoning about pains and pleasures.
He was a decorated soldier; his actions must have included
possibility of pain. The problem of consequentialism is the
prioritization of own reasoning above universal laws for
example honesties, which is a requirement for societal
competence.
Kenny opines that it is not certain whether
Socrates espoused virtue with consequentialist hedonism. "Plato certainly did
not."[55]
11 November 2013
Plato regarded souls, which move things to be
gods and he agreed with Thales that everything was full of
gods (898e-899b).[56]
The word "θεῶν" ("gods", "theó̱n")[57]
was used by Plato in the Laws at 899b where
Thales was quoted. It seems the quotation was derived by
implication from Aristotle; "A dictum
of Thales: Aristot. Soul 411 a 7 ff." [58]
"Augustine's Christianization of Plato is most
explicit in the treatise De Ideis, which is the forty-sixth question in
his Eighty-Three
Different Questions. He offers three Latin words for
Ideas: 'formae', 'species', and 'rationes'. The Ideas cannot
be thought to exist anywhere but in the mind of the creator.
If creation was a work of intelligence, it must have been in
accord with eternal reasons. But it is blasphemous to think
that God, in creating the world in accordance with Ideas,
looked up to anything outside himself. Hence the unique,
eternal, unchanging Ideas have their existence in the
unique, eternal, unchanging Mind of God. 'Ideas are
archetypal forms, stable and immutable essences of things,
not created but eternally and unchangeably existent within
the divine intellect' (83Q 46. 2)."[59]
"Aquinas
on Faith, Knowledge, and Science ... Doctrines such as
the Trinity and the Incarnation were known only by
revelation and unprovable by unaided reason."[60]
"Just as Augustine opposed those Christians who
justified suicide to avoid rape, so he took a rigorous line
against those who justified lying in a good cause (e.g. to
hide the mysteries of the faith from inquisitive pagans). He
wrote two treatises on lying, which he defines as 'uttering
one thing by words or signs, while having another thing in
one's mind' (DM 3.
3). He denies that such lying, with intention to deceive, is
ever permissible. Naturally he has to deal with cases in
which it seems prima facie that a good person might do well
to tell a lie. Suppose there is, hidden in your house, an
innocent person unjustly condemned. May you lie to protect
him? Augustine agrees that you may try to throw the
persecutors off the scent, but you may not tell a deliberate
lie. 'Since by lying you lose an eternal life, you may not
ever lie to save an earthly life' (DM 6. 9)."[61]
1 December 2013
"The grace that enables human beings to avoid
sin is allotted to some people rather than others not on the
basis of any merit of theirs, whether actual or foreseen. It
is awarded simply by the inscrutable good pleasure of God.
No one can be saved without being predestined.
... A British ascetic named Pelagius, who came first
to Rome, and then after its sack to Africa, preached a view
of human freedom quite in conflict with Augustine's. The sin
of Adam, he taught, had not damaged his heirs except by
setting them a bad example; human beings, throughout their
history, retained full freedom of the will. Death was not a
punishment for sin but a natural necessity, and even pagans
who lived virtuously enjoyed a happy afterlife."[62]
Augustine secured the condemnation of Pelagius
at a council at Carthage in 418 (DB 101-8) but that was not
the end of the matter. Devout ascetics in monasteries in
Africa and France complained that if Augustine's account of
freedom was correct, then exhortation and rebuke were vain
and the whole monastic discipline was pointless.
...
The crabbed crusader of predestination in the
monastery at Hippo is very different from the youthful
defender of human freedom in the gardens of Cassiciacum. It
was the former, and not the latter, whose influence was
powerful after his death and cast a shadow over centuries to
come."[63]
Augustine promoted honesties and was probably
honest at some time according to the quotation on p. 455.
According to my definition of God, Augustine was at that
time he was honest, part of God. It seems though that later
on in his life he became dishonest because why would a man
go to such extremes to condemn another man like Pelagius,
except maybe out of self-defense. Maybe Pelagius promoted
dishonesty but that would still not justify condemnation?
"Montaigne piles up stories of faithful and
magnanimous dogs and grateful and gentle lions, to contrast
with the cruelty and treachery of human beings. Most of his
examples of beasts' ingenuity are drawn from Greek and Latin
texts, such as the legendary logical dog, who while
following a scent reaches a crossroads, and sniffs out two
routes, and on drawing a blank charges immediately down the
third route without further sniffing."[64]
Nicholas Malebranche claimed only "God" causes. His
definition of "God" seems to have
not included anthropomorphic parts.[65]
The impression Kenny gives is that Malebranche promoted a
totalitarian system of development because humans, according
to Malebranche, had no part in creativities.[66]
Malebranche was son of a secretary of Louis XIV of France.
Malebranche's Treatise
was placed on the Roman Catholic index of forbidden books in
1690.[67]
"Louis
XIV (1638–1715), son of Louis XIII; reigned 1643–1715; known
as the Sun King. His reign represented the high
point of the Bourbon dynasty and of French power in Europe.
His almost constant wars of expansion united Europe against
him, however, and gravely weakened France's financial
position." (NEW Oxford
American Dictionary)
Malebranche's metaphysics were "strongly opposed" by Leibniz.[68]
Leibniz wrote Theodicy
of 1710.[69]
"The
philosophy of nature seeks an understanding of the concepts
we employ in describing and accounting for natural
phenomena: concepts such as 'space', 'time', 'motion', and
'change'."[70]
Malebranche and Spinoza philosophized that God
cause everything.[71]
"Leibniz
took issue here Malebranche and Spinoza: in order to allow
for divine and human freedom he wished to make room for
contingency throughout the universe. In the Monadology Leibniz
makes a distinction between truths of reason and truths of
fact. Truths of reason are necessary and their opposite is
impossible; truths of fact are contingent and their opposite
is possible. Truths of reason are ascertained by a logical
analysis parallel to the mathematician's derivation of
theorems from axioms and definitions; their ultimate basis
is the principle of non-contradiction. Truths of fact are
based on a different principle: the principle that nothing
is the case without there being a sufficient reason why it
should be thus rather than otherwise (G, 6, 612-13)."[72]
"His [Kant's] ethics of
duty remains to this day the main competitor to the
eudaimonistic virtue ethics of Plato and Aristotle, and to
the consequentialist utilitarian ethics that became the most
influential moral system of much of the nineteenth and
twentieth centuries."[73]
12 January 2014
"He [John Stuart
Mill] began to
learn Greek at the age of three and by the age of twelve had
read much of Plato in the original. At that age he began
studying logic from the text of Aristotle, while helping to
proofread his father's History of India."[74]
Recently i submitted a new proposal (filename ends
with 9) to NWU for my MPhil to prof. M. Heyns and dr. A.
Verhoef. Part of the proposal was to identify whether Plato
was arguing against only 'utilitarian' changes ('progress').
Maybe that is why Popper wrote Plato wanted to "arrest all
change" by mistake. Maybe Popper did not distinguish between
utilitarian (mimetic) change and creative (diegetic?)
change. The definition of 'diegetic' in the Penguin
Dictionary of philosophy used to explain the opposition
between mimetic and diegetic for Plato, could imply that the
author's 'diegetic' in modern times could just as well be
'mimetic'. Diegetic was there defined as being removed from
actuality, for example when viewing a film. As written
before, i do not believe the statement before many fiction
stories that the story was not based on actual events. If
Mill read all of Plato at the age of 12 and he became the
utilitarian he was, it could imply that Plato did not
influence Mill sufficiently to not be a utilitarian. That
could mean that Plato was a utilitarian in essence. It
however does not make sense because Plato seems to have
promoted a business of casting of "Forms", which Aristotle
opposed. Maybe there genuinely was a serious anomaly in
Plato's reasoning. It seems it could be the case if Plato
promoted corresponding truths, which are necessary,
according to my current understanding to design good forms
and be reasonable. The necessity of corresponding truths for
reasonability will perhaps be an assumption for my work
because maybe others will not accept pre-knowledge, etc. and
the example of Wan, Others and Others-than-only-self as
enough logical proof.
"What Mill
took from Comte and the Saint-Simonians was the idea of
Progress. Between each organic period and the next there
was, so Mill understood, a critical and disruptive period,
and he believed that he was living in such a period. He now
began to look forward"[75]
In Mills first publication he followed Berkeley
with an idealist view. Matter was only in Mind.[76]
It implies his idealism and belief in his own reason, partly
lead him into false beliefs about consequentialism.
"Mill sets
out five rules, or canons, of experiment to guide inductive
scientific research. The use of such canons, Mill maintains,
enables empirical inquiry to proceed without any appeal to a
priori truths."[77]
"Mill
maintained that arithmetic and geometry, no less than
physics, consist of empirical hypotheses--hypotheses that
have been very handsomely confirmed in experience, but
hypotheses that are none the less corrigible in the light of
later experience.
This thesis--implausible as it has appeared to most
subsequent philosophers--was essential to Mill's overriding
aim in A System of
Logic, which was to refute a notion that he regarded
as 'the great intellectual support of false
doctrines and bad institutions', namely
the notion that truths external to the mind may be known by
intuition independently of experience. Mill indeed saw this
issue as the most important in all philosophy. 'The difference
between these two schools of philosophy, that of Intuition,
and that of Experience and Association, is not a mere matter
of abstract speculation; it is full of practical
consequences, and lies at the foundation of all the greatest
differences of practical opinion in an age of progress' (A 162)[78]."[79]
When considering Mill's statements above together
with his promotion of utilitarianism it could mean that he
was not a consequentialist but yet a utilitarian; it could
also mean that he just never realized his own fallibilities
and therefore belief in his own consequentialist thought.
Elsewhere Kenny stated Mill never addressed the utilitarian
implications for sacrifice[80]:
reasonings that one could be morally sacrificed for more.
What does that imply? Does it imply something about his
belief? That Mill was a Caiaphas not because of Caiaphas
syndrome but because of his belief. Functionalist
monotheism. It could imply that Caiaphas syndrome should not
be seen as a syndrome but rather as a belief system. There
are differences between true monotheism and functionalist
monotheism, which relate to definitions of 'God'.
17 January 2014
"Both
empiricism and idealism entail that the mind has no direct
knowledge of anything but its own contents. The history of
both movements shows that they lead in the direction of
solipsism, the doctrine 'Only I exist'. "[81]
"No
general rules can be set out that will prevent us from ever
going wrong in a specific piece of concrete reasoning. Aristotle in his
Ethics told us that no code of laws, or moral treatise,
could map out in advance the path of individual virtue: we
need a virtue of practical wisdom (phronesis) to
determine what to do from moment to moment."[82]
"If God
created the world, then mechanistic explanation is
underpinned by teleological explanation; the fundamental
explanation of the existence and operation of any creature
is the purpose of the creator. If there is no God, but the
universe is due to the operation of necessary laws upon
blind chance, then it is the mechanistic level of
explanation that is fundamental."[83]
"For
Plato the Ideal Horse was itself a horse: only by being
itself a horse could it impart horsiness to the non-ideal
horses of the everyday world.[84]"[85]
"All
states of consciousness, James there says, can be called
'feelings'; and by 'feeling' he means the same as Locke
meant by 'idea' and Descartes meant by 'thought'. ... ,James
invites us to consider a feeling of the most basic possible
kind: 'Let us
suppose it attached to no matter, nor localized at any point
in space, but left swinging in vacuo, as it
were, by the direct creative fiat of a god. And
let us also, to escape entanglement with difficulties about
the physical or psychical nature of its 'object', not call
it a feeling of fragrance or of any other determinate sort,
but limit ourselves to assuming that it is a feeling of q. (T 3)[86]' "[87]
"fiat |ˈfēət;
ˈfēˌät|
noun
a formal
authorization or proposition; a decree : adopting a
legislative review program, rather than trying to regulate
by fiat.
• an
arbitrary order : the appraisal dropped the value from
$75,000 to $15,000, rendering it worthless by bureaucratic
fiat.
ORIGIN late
Middle English : from Latin, ‘let it be done,’ from fieri
‘be done or made.’ " (New Oxford American Dictionary)
"To
safeguard liberty, Mill [John Stuart] maintains, it is not
sufficient to replace autocratic monarchy by responsible
democracy, because within a democratic society the majority
may exercise tyranny over the minority. Nor is it sufficient
to place limits upon the authority of government, because
society can exercise other and more subtle means of
coercion.
'There needs
protection also against the tyranny of the prevailing
opinion and feeling; against the tendency of society to
impose, by other means than civil penalties, its own ideas
and practices as rules of conduct on those who dissent from
them; to fetter the development, and if possible, prevent
the formation, of any individuality not in harmony with its
ways. (L 130)[88] '
In
order to place a just limit on coercion by physical force or
public opinion we must affirm, as a fundamental principle,
that the only part of the conduct of anyone for which he is
accountable to society is that which concerns others. In the
part which merely concerns himself, his independence should
be absolute." [89]
"The
individual's rule of conduct should be his or her own
character, not the traditions or customs of other people. If
this principle is denied, 'there is
wanting one of the principal ingredients of human happiness,
and quite the chief ingredient of individual and social
progress' (L 185)[90]." [91]
"To value a
commodity, we should look on it as a piece of crystallized
labour. How is labour itself measured? By the length of time
the labour lasts. A silken handkerchief is worth more than a
brick because it takes longer to make than a brick does.
Marx states his theory thus: 'The value of
one commodity is to the value of another commodity as the
quantity of labour fixed in the one to the quantity of
labour fixed in the other' (VPP 31)[92].
Two qualifications must be made to this simple equation. A
lazy or unskilful worker will take longer to produce a
commodity than an energetic and skilful one: does this mean
that his product is worth more? Of course not: when we speak
of the quantity of labour fixed in a commodity we mean the
time that is necessary
for a worker of average energy and skill to produce it.
Moreover, we must add into the equation the labour
previously worked up into the raw material of the commodity,
and into the technology employed.
'For example,
the value of a certain amount of cotton yarn is the
crystallization of the quantity of labour added to the
cotton during the spinning process, the quantity of labour
previously realised in the cotton itself, the quantity of
labour realised in the coal, oil, and other auxiliary matter
used, the quantity of labour fixed in the steam engine, the
spindles, the factory building and so forth.' (VPP 32) "[93]
"Equal quantities of labour, at all times and
places, may be said to be of equal value to the labourer. In
his ordinary state of health, strength, and spirits; in the ordinary degree of his skill and
dexterity, he must always lay
down the same portion of his ease, his liberty, and his
happiness[94]. The price which he pays must always be the
same, whatever may be the quantity of goods which he
receives in return for it. Of these, indeed, it may
sometimes purchase a greater and sometimes a smaller
quantity; but it is their value which varies, not that of
the labour which purchases them. At all times and places,
that is dear which it is difficult to come at, or which it
costs much labour to acquire; and that cheap which is to be
had easily, or with very little labour. Labour alone,
therefore, never varying in its own value, is alone the
ultimate and real standard by which the value of all
commodities can at all times and places be estimated and
compared. It is their real price; money is their nominal
price only."[95]
"Though the Earth, and all inferior
Creatures be common to all men, yet every Man has a Property
in his own Person. This no Body has any Right to but
himself. The Labour of his Body, and the Work of his hands,
we may say, are properly his. Whatsoever then he removes out
of the State that Nature hath provided, and left it in, he
hath mixed his Labour with, and joyned (sic) to it something
that is his own, and thereby makes it his Property. It being
by him removed from the common state Nature placed it in, it
hath by this labour something annexed to it, that excludes
the common right of other Men. For this Labour being the
unquestionable Property of the Labourer, no Man but he can
have a right to what that is once joyned to, at least where
there is enough, and as good left in common for others."[96]
"Just as Christian thinkers
throughout the ages have given fuller accounts of hell than
heaven, so too Marx's description of the evils of
nineteenth-century capitalism are more vivid than his
predictions of the final beatific state of communism. All we
are told is that communist society will 'make it possible for me to do one
thing today and another tomorrow, to hunt in the morning,
fish in the afternoon, rear cattle in the evening, and write
criticism just as I have a mind, without ever becoming
hunter, fisherman, shepherd or critic' (GI 66)[97]."[98] [99]
Smith
explains that the division of labor is a result of
bartering. Bartering distinguishes humans from other animals
because all humans are one race that benefits from one
another's skills. Animals can look after themselves and do
not benefit as much from the other members of their species.[100]
"THIS DIVISION OF
LABOUR, from which so many advantages are derived, is not
originally the effect of any human wisdom, which foresees
and intends that general opulence to which it gives
occasion." [101] [102]
"Biblical and classical
literature, Kierkegaard reminds us, offers other examples of
parents sacrificing their children: Agamemnon offering up
Iphigenia to avert the gods' curse on the Greek expedition
to Troy, Jephta giving up his daughter in fulfilment of a
rash vow, Brutus condemning to death his treasonable sons.
These were all sacrifices made for the greater good of a
community: they were, in ethical terms, a surrender of the
individual for the sake of the universal."[103] [104]
According to
Kierkegaard Abraham's planned sacrifice of Isaac was not for
a community but for something higher and relating to a
direct agreement with God.
[105] [106]
"In
his [Kierkegaard's]
Philosophical
Fragments and his Concluding Unscientific
Postscripts he offers a number of arguments to the
effect that faith is not the outcome of any objective
reasoning. The form of religious faith that he has in mind
is the Christian belief that Jesus saved the human race by
his death on the cross."[107] [108]
"In
defending his [Darwin] theory
from geological objections he pleads that the imperfections
of the geological record 'do not overthrow the theory of
descent from a few created forms with subsequent
modification' (OS 376)[109].
'I should infer from analogy', he
tells
us, 'that probably all the organic
beings which have ever lived on this earth have descended
from some one primordial form, into which life was first
breathed by the Creator' (OS 391)."[110]
"Natural
selection and intelligent design are not incompatible with
each other, in the way that natural selection is
incompatible with the Genesis story."[111] [112]
ARISTOTLE. 1986. De anima: on the
soul. (London,
England: Penguin)
ARISTOTLE. 2004. The
metaphysics. (London, England: Penguin)
BUDGE Wallis,
E.A. 1895. The book of the dead: the
papyrus of Ani. (New York: Dover, 1967)
JOHNSON, J.
Losing hope. (On Brushfire fairytales)
KENNY, A. 2010. A new history of
Western philosophy in four parts. (Oxford, UK:
Clarendon, 2012 paperback edition)
Laslett,
P. ed. 1989. John Locke's Two treatises
of government, edited with an introduction and notes by Peter
Laslett, fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press. Student edition)
MAUTNER,
T. 2005. The Penguin dictionary of
philosophy. (London, England: Penguin, 2nd edition)
NEW
Oxford American Dictionary.
© 2005-2009 Apple Inc.
Version 2.1 (80)
PLATO. 1973. Phaedrus. (London, England:
Penguin, 1995 edition)
PLATO. 1986. Phaedrus. (Wiltshire, England:
Aris & Phillips Ltd., 2nd edition)
PLATO. 2007. The republic. (London, England:
Penguin, 2nd edition)
POPPER,
K. 2011. The open society and its
enemies. (London and New York: Routledge Classics)
ROSS,
S.D. 1993. Injustice and
restitution: the ordinance of time. (Albany, New York:
State University of New York)
Manis,
J. ed. 2012. Adam Smith's An
inquiry into the nature and causes of the wealth of nations.
(Electronic Classics Series Publication, Pennsylvania State
University. From: http://www2.hn.psu.edu/faculty/jmanis/adam-smith/Wealth-Nations.pdf
on 14 November 2012)
TAYLOR, C.C.W. & LEE, M. The sophists. (The
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, spring 2012 edition, Edward N.
Zalta (ed.), from: http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2012/entries/sophists/)
VENTER. 2012. Leesbundel. (In Geskiedenis van die filosofie studiegids - PHIL
221 PAC. Potchefstroom, South-Africa: North-West University,
2012.)
[1]
Kenny, A. 2010. A new history, 8.
[2]
Kenny, A. 2010. A new history, 11.
[3]
New Oxford American Dictionary.
[4]
Google translate on 10 October 2013. This
translation is close to "physis" (nature), which the
sophists contrasted with "nomos" (laws).
[5]
Budge, W.E.A. 1895. The book of the dead,
lxxxii-lxxxiii.
[6]
Budge, W.E.A. 1895. The book of the dead,
lxxxix.
[7]
Budge's The book of the dead is not the full
version because it is based on the papyrus of Ani, which
compiled an important abstract of the full Book of the
dead. Aristotle's book De Anima was
translated as De soul.
[8]
Budge, W.E.A. 1895. The book of the dead,
lxxviii-lxxix.
[10]
From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_Nature_(Anaximander)
on 18 October
2013.
[11]
Kenny, A. 2010. A new history, 80.
[12]
"About Physis" translated by Google Translate on
18 October 2013.
[13]
From: http://www.philosophypages.com/hy/2b.htm
on 18 October 2013.
[14]
New Oxford American Dictionary.
[15]
Kenny, A. 2010. A new history, 12.
[16]
Kenny, A. 2010. A new history, 20.
[17]
Kenny, A. 2010. A new history, 21.
[18]
Aristotle. The metaphysics, pp.15-16,
984b16-984b34.
[19]
New Oxford American Dictionary.
[20]
New Oxford American Dictionary.
[21]
Plato. 1973. Phaedrus, pp. 74-76, 274c.
[22]
Plato. 1986. Phaedrus, 208-209.
[23]
Ross, S.D. 1993. Injustice and
restitution, 245.
[24]
Kenny, A. 2010. A new history, 54.
[25]
Kenny, A. 2010. A new history, 55.
[26]
Kenny, A. 2010. A new history, 59.
[27]
Kenny, A. 2010. A new history, 69.
[28]
Plato. 2007. The republic.
[29]
Venter. 2012. Leesbundel,
189.
[30]
"This quotation is from the Statesman,
269d. ... Ultimately, I may perhaps refer to
general psychological considerations. On the one hand the
fear
of innovation (illustrated by many passages in the Laws,
e.g. 758c/d) and on the other hand, the idealization of
the past ... All this indicates the view that
our unhappy and unblessed state is a consequence of the
development which makes us different from our original
nature—our Idea; and it further indicates that the
development is one from a state of goodness and
blessedness to a state where goodness and blessedness are
being lost; but this means that the development is one of
increasing corruption." (Popper. 2011: 530-531)
[31]
Popper, K. 2011. The open
society, 36.
[32]
Aristotle. 2004. The Metaphysics, p. 149, 1025a.
[33]
Taylor, C.C.W.
& Lee, M. The.
"Euthydemus 284a–c, Theaetetus 188d–189a
and Sophist 236e–237e".
[34]
Aristotle. 2004. The Metaphysics, p. 195, 1034a.
[35]
Aristotle. 1986. De anima, p.
140, 406b.
[36]
Kenny, A. 2010. A new history, 62.
[37]
Kenny, A. 2010. A new history, 70.
[38]
Kenny, A. 2010. A new history, 75.
[39]
Kenny, A. 2010. A new history, 78-79.
[40]
New Oxford American Dictionary.
[41]
Kenny, A. 2010. A new history, 81.
[42]
Kenny, A. 2010. A new history, 82.
[43]
Kenny, A. 2010. A new history, 92.
[44]
Kenny, A. 2010. A new history, 123-124.
[45]
Kenny, A. 2010. A new history, 160.
[46]
Kenny, A. 2010. A new history, 161.
[47]
Kenny, A. 2010. A new history, 171-172.
[48]
From:
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0172%3Atext%3DStat.%3Asection%3D271c
on
9 November 2013.
[49]
From:
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0172%3Atext%3DStat.%3Asection%3D271d
on
9 November 2013.
[50]
Taylor, C.C.W.
& Lee, M. 2012. The
sophists. "Euthydemus
284a–c, Theaetetus 188d–189a and Sophist
236e–237e".
[51]
"Used of
a false thing. On the one hand, either because it has
not been assembled or because it would be impossible for
it to be assembled."
(Aristotle, 2004. The metaphysics, p.148, 1024b)
[52]
Kenny, A. 2010. A new history, 204.
[53]
Kenny, A. 2010. A new history, 209.
[54]
From:
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0178%3Atext%3DProt.%3Asection%3D358d
on
10 November 2013.
[56]
Kenny, A. 2010. A new history, 233.
[57]
Google translate
[58]
From:
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0165%3Abook%3D10%3Apage%3D899
on
11 November 2013.
[59]
Kenny, A. 2010. A new history, 377.
[60]
Kenny, A. 2010. A new history, 383.
[61]
Kenny, A. 2010. A new history, 455.
[62]
Kenny, A. 2010. A new history, 471.
[63]
Kenny, A. 2010. A new history, 472.
[64]
Kenny, A. 2010. A new history, 512.
[65]
Kenny, A. 2010. A new history, 545.
[66]
Kenny, A. 2010. A new history, 544-547, 645-646.
[67]
Kenny, A. 2010. A new history, 544.
[68]
Mautner, T. 2005. The Penguin dictionary,
371.
[69]
Mautner, T. 2005. The Penguin dictionary,
343.
[70]
Kenny, A. 2010. A new history, 624.
[72]
Kenny, A. 2010. A new history, 645-646. G =
References to the Gerhardt edition of Leibniz's complete
works by volume and page. (Kenny, 2010:1009)
[73]
Kenny, A. 2010. A new history, 704.
[74]
Kenny, A. 2010. A new history, 760.
[75]
Kenny, A. 2010. A new history, 761.
[76]
Kenny, A. 2010. A new history, 762.
[77]
Kenny, A. 2010. A new history, 762.
[78]
"A = Autobiography, ed. J. Stillinger (Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 1969) (Kenny, 2010:1012)
[79]
Kenny, A. 2010. A new history, 763.
[80]
Kenny, A. 2010. A new history, 928.
[81]
Kenny, A. 2010. A new history, 863.
[82]
Kenny, A. 2010. A new history, 869.
[83]
Kenny, A. 2010. A new history, 890.
[84]
"See
above, p. 166" (Kenny, 2010:893). On p. 166 Kenny
explained Plato's theory of Ideas with citations to
Plato's works.
[85]
Kenny, A. 2010. A new history, 891.
[86]
"T = The
Meaning of Truth (New York: Prometheus Books, 1997)" (Kenny,
2010:1012)
[87]
Kenny, A. 2010. A new history, 907.
[88]
"L = On
Liberty and Other Essays, Oxford World's Classics (Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 1991). (Kenny, 2010: 1012).
[89]
Kenny, A. 2010. A new history, 963.
[90]
"L = On Liberty and Other
Essays, Oxford World's Classics (Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 1991). (Kenny, 2010: 1012).
[91]
Kenny, A. 2010. A new history, 964.
[92]
"VPP = Value, Price and
Profit, ed. E. M. Aveling (New York: International
Publishers, 1935)" (Kenny, 2010: 1012).
[93]
Kenny, A. 2010. A new history, 971.
[94]
Intequities with regard to honesties and group
consequential utilitarian comforts. Remember Plato's
Republic and the treatment of good people.
[95]
Manis, J. ed. 2012. Adam Smith's An inquiry into the nature and causes of the
wealth of nations, 33-34.
[96]
Laslett, P. ed. 1989. John Locke's Two
treatises of government, par. 27:1
[97]
"GI = The German Ideology, ed. C.J. Allen (London: Lawrence &
Wishart, 1920, 2004)" (Kenny, 2010: 1012).
[98]
Kenny, A. 2010. A new history, 973.
[99]
I wonder what Marx wanted to fish and hunt with. If
he wanted to hunt with a bow and arrow his wish could make
sense. Fishing is however another matter because how do
ones fish without nets or without fishing lines and rods.
Nets and fishing lines imply division of labour to produce
the lines and nets. Was Marx predicting a future in which
men, due to mechanisation, will have freedoms to live like
men of the gentry? It raises a question whether Marx had
the same disrespect of creativities, which Rousseau had.
If Marx predicted a future of mechanised freedoms, it
could be, that he had not the disrespect of creativities,
which Rousseau had.
[100]
Manis, J. ed. 2012. Adam Smith's An inquiry into the nature and causes of the
wealth of nations, 18-21.
[101]
Manis, J. ed. 2012. Adam Smith's An inquiry into the nature and causes of the
wealth of nations, 18.
[102]
In contrast to Rousseau's and Marx's opinions.
[103]
Kenny, A. 2010. A new history, 979.
[104]
Does Kenny here write in Kierkegaard's words
without making it his own or does he agree? To state that
a utilitarian sacrifice is to benefit a universal is not
right because the universal duties of the categorical
imperative forbid such sacrifices. What would the world
become if everyone or every group starts sacrificing
his/her/their fellow human beings?
[105]
Kenny, A. 2010. A new history, 979.
[106]
We do not know what happened There with Abraham and
Isaac. Maybe Isaac was naughty and working on the nerves
of Abraham and Abraham wanted to give Isaac a big scare to
make him more disciplined, especially at the old age of
Abraham. Maybe the plan of Abraham can be compared to
giving a young child Ritalin. "Ritalin |ˈritl-in| noun trademark for methylphenidate
." "methylphenidate |ˌmeθəlˈfenəˌdāt| noun Medicine a
synthetic drug that stimulates the sympathetic and central
nervous systems and is used to improve mental activity in
attention deficit disorder and other conditions." (New Oxford Americam Dictionary)
[107]
Kenny, A. 2010. A new history, 980.
[108]
According to Intequinism Christianity makes
objective sense if it is postulated that the practice to
sacrifice creators should have stopped when Jesus was
sacrificed. Jesus's sacrifice thus directly should have
saved other creators after him, which indirectly will
benefit all of humanity with more free time due to
mechanization. Therefore creativities will sustain
communities and prohibit conditions conducive to being
colonized.
[109]
"OS = On the Origin of Species, Oxford
World's Classics (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996)"
(Kenny, 2010:
1010).
[110]
Kenny, A. 2010. A new history, 984.
[111]
Kenny, A. 2010. A new history, 985.
[112]
When comparing the quotations of Darwin on p. 984,
with this statement of Kenny on p. 985, seemingly as his
own, it seems he does not understand Darwin's statement
like i do, because the quotations of Darwin is compatible
with Genesis and i think Darwin also thought so.