NOTHING is more usual than for writers, even, on moral, political, or physical subjects, to distinguish between reason and experience, and to suppose, that these species of argumentation are entirely different from each other. The former are taken for the mere result of our intellectual faculties, which, by considering à priori the nature of things, and examining the effects, that must follow from their operation, … Continue reading Hume on the false dichotomy of Reason and Experience
Tag: philosophy
Seneca to Lucilius on philosophy
I point other men to the right path, which I have found late in life, when wearied with wandering. I cry out to them: “Avoid whatever pleases the throng: avoid the gifts of Chance! Halt before every good which Chance brings to you, in a spirit of doubt and fear; for it is the dumb … Continue reading Seneca to Lucilius on philosophy
Cicero on magnanimity
'A spirit which is utterly courageous and noble is conspicuous especially for two features. The first of these is disregard for external circumstances, springing from the conviction that a man ought to revere or aspire to or seek nothing except what is honourable and proper, and should not lie down before any man or emotional … Continue reading Cicero on magnanimity
Seneca on Anger
A description of anger. "Some of the wisest of men have ... called anger a short madness: for it is equally devoid of self-control, regardless of decorum, forgetful of kinship, obstinately engrossed in whatever it begins to do, deaf to reason and advice, excited by trifling causes, awkward at perceiving what is true and just, … Continue reading Seneca on Anger
The rhetorician and the dialectician distinguished
"The business of the rhetorician is to plant and establish some given point of persuasion, whether as to a general resolution or a particular fact, in the bosoms of certain auditors before him: hence he gives prominence and emphasis to some views of the question, suppressing or discrediting others, and especially keeping out of sight … Continue reading The rhetorician and the dialectician distinguished
Seneca to Lucilius on grief
"Grief like yours has this among other evils: it is not only useless, but thankless. Has it then all been for nothing that you have had such a friend? During so many years, amid such close associations, after such intimate communion of personal interests, has nothing been accomplished? Do you bury friendship along with a … Continue reading Seneca to Lucilius on grief
Seneca on the Shortness of Life
The portion of life allotted to us, if rightly arranged, is sufficient. “We do not have a very short time assigned to us, but we lose a great deal of it: life is long enough to carry out the most important projects: we have an ample portion, if we do but arrange the whole of … Continue reading Seneca on the Shortness of Life
Socratic temperance
Socrates: "he who desires to be happy must pursue and practise temperance and run away from intemperance as fast as his legs will carry him: he had better order his life so as not to need punishment; but if either he or any of his friends, whether private individual or city, are in need of … Continue reading Socratic temperance
Seneca to Lucilius on the length and quality of life
"We should strive, not to live long, but to live rightly; for to achieve long life you have need of Fate only, but for right living you need the soul. A life is really long if it is a full life; but fulness is not attained until the soul has rendered to itself its proper … Continue reading Seneca to Lucilius on the length and quality of life
Despise death; flee not from life.
From Seneca's twenty-fourth letter to Lucilius. "You write me that you are anxious about the result of a lawsuit, with which an angry opponent is threatening you; and you expect me to advise you to picture to yourself a happier issue, and to rest in the allurements of hope. Why, indeed, is it necessary to … Continue reading Despise death; flee not from life.
Notes in the Margins of the Days 