DEFINITIONS
The Study of philosophy is not that we may know what men have thought, but what the truth of things is. - Saint Thomas Aquinas
All philosophy is concerned with the relations between two things, the fundamental truth of existence and the forms in which existence presents itself to our experience. ~ Sri Aurobindo
Philosophy is only a way of formulating to ourselves intellectually in their essential significance the psychological and physical facts of existence and their relation to any ultimate reality that may exist. ~ Sri Aurobindo
The most general science. Pythagoras is said to have called himself a lover of wisdom. But philosophy has been both the seeking of wisdom and the wisdom sought. Originally, the rational explanation of anything, the general principles under which all facts could be explained; in this sense, indistinguishable from science. Later, the science of the first principles of being; the presuppositions of ultimate reality. Now, popularly, private wisdom or consolation; technically, the science of sciences, the criticism and systematization or organization of all knowledge, drawn from empirical science, rational learning, common experience, or whatever. Philosophy includes metaphysics, or ontology and epistemology, logic, ethics, aesthetics, etc. (all of which see). ~ J.K.F.
Philosophy is to be studied, not for the sake of any definite answers to its questions since no definite answers can, as a rule, be known to be true, but rather for the sake of the questions themselves. ~ Bertrand Russell
My desire and wish is that the things I start with should be so obvious that you wonder why I spend my time stating them. This is what I aim at because the point of philosophy is to start with something so simple as not to seem worth stating, and to end with something so paradoxical that no one will believe it. ~ Bertrand Russell
Philosophy, like all other studies, aims primarily at knowledge. The knowledge it aims at is the kind of knowledge which gives unity and system to the body of the sciences, and the kind which results from a critical examination of the grounds of our convictions, prejudices, and beliefs. But it cannot be maintained that philosophy has had any very great measure of success in its attempts to provide definite answers to its questions. If you ask a mathematician, a mineralogist, a historian, or any other man of learning, what definite body of truths has been ascertained by his science, his answer will last as long as you are willing to listen. But if you put the same question to a philosopher, he will, if he is candid, have to confess that his study has not achieved positive results such as have been achieved by other sciences. It is true that this is partly accounted for by the fact that, as soon as definite knowledge concerning any subject becomes possible, this subject ceases to be called philosophy, and becomes a separate science. The whole study of the heavens, which now belongs to astronomy, was once included in philosophy; Newton's great work was called 'the mathematical principles of natural philosophy'. Similarly, the study of the human mind, which was a part of philosophy, has now been separated from philosophy and has become the science of psychology. Thus, to a great extent, the uncertainty of philosophy is more apparent than real: those questions which are already capable of definite answers are placed in the sciences, while those only to which, at present, no definite answer can be given, remain to form the residue which is called philosophy. - Bertrand Russell
AUTHORS
Albert Camus
Aldous Huxley
Aleister Crowley
Alfred North Whitehead
Aristotle
Arthur Schopenhauer
Baruch Spinoza
Bertrand Russell
Blaise Pascal
class
Confucius
David Hume
Diogenes
Dogen
Epictetus
Franz Kafka
Friedrich Nietzsche
Fyodor Dostoevsky
Georg C Lichtenberg
George Bernard Shaw
G. W. F. Hegel
Henri Bergson
Henry David Thoreau
Heraclitus
Immanuel Kant
Jean Baudrillard
Jean-Paul Sartre
Jiddu Krishnamurti
Jurgen Habermas
Ken Wilber
Lao Tzu
Ludwig Wittgenstein
Maimonides
Marcus Aurelius
Martin Heidegger
Mencius
Paracelsus
Plato
Plotinus
Proclus
Pythagoras
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Seneca
Simone de Beauvoir
Soren Kierkegaard
Sri Aurobindo
Sri Ramakrishna
Thomas Carlyle
Voltaire
William James
Albert Camus, Aristotle, Arthur Schopenhauer, Baruch Spinoza, Bertrand Russell, Blaise Pascal, David Hume, Diogenes, Donald Davidson, Epictetus, Francis Bacon, Franz Kafka, Friedrich Nietzsche, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Gottfried Leibniz,Immanuel Kant, Jacques Derrida, Jean Baudrillard, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Jean-Paul Sartre, John Stuart Mill, Jurgen Habermas, Karl Popper, Lucius Annaeus Seneca, Marcus Aurelius, Martin Heidegger, Michel Foucault, Michel de Montaigne, Plato, Plotinus, Rene Descartes, Saul Kripke, Simone de Beauvoir, Slavoj Zizek, Socrates, Soren Kierkegaard, Walter Kaufmann, William James Sidis, Heraclitus, Soren Kierkegaard, Pythagoras, Jiddu Krishnamurti, Lao Tzu, George Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Eugene Thacker, Sri Francis Bacon, Jeffrey J. Kripal, Jeff Kripal, Proclus, William Irwin Thompson, Gustav Fechner, Moses Maimonides, Maimonides, Rudolf Steiner, Thomas Carlyle, Ren Gunon, Epicurus, Ludwig Feuerbach, John Locke, Denis Diderot, Mikhail Bakhtin, Seneca the Younger, Thomas Hobbes, Lucretius, Michel de Montaigne, Henri Bergson, Eric Hoffer, Mahatma Gandhi, Niccolo Machiavelli, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Emberto Eco, Voltaire, Erich Fromm, Emanuel Swedenborg, Omar Khayyam, Baron de Montesquieu, Mortimer J. Adler, Mortimer Jerome Adler, Immanuel Kant, Giles Deleuze, Jacques Lacan, Edmund Husserl, Mikhail Bakunin, Mikhail Alexandrovich Bakunin, Friedrich Schiller, Helena Blavatsky<
PHILOSOPHY BRITANNICA
Philosophy, (from Greek, by way of Latin, philosophia, love of wisdom) the rational, abstract, and methodical consideration of reality as a whole or of fundamental dimensions of human existence and experience. Philosophical inquiry is a central element in the intellectual history of many civilizations.
The subject of philosophy is treated in a number of articles. For discussion of major systems of Eastern philosophy, see Buddhism; Chinese philosophy; Confucianism; Daoism; Hinduism; Indian philosophy; Jainism; Japanese philosophy; Shint; Sikhism.
For biographies of major Eastern philosophers, see Buddha; Confucius; Dai Zhen; Han Feizi; Laozi; Mencius; Mozi; Nichiren; Nishida Kitar; Wang Yangming; Xunzi; Zhu Xi.
For historical coverage of Western philosophy, see Western philosophy. For discussion of philosophies associated with the major religious traditions of the West, see Christianity: Christian philosophy; Islam: Islamic philosophy; Judaism: Jewish philosophy.
For discussion of major Western schools, movements, and systems, see atomism; analytic philosophy; Continental philosophy; deconstruction Eleaticism; empiricism; existentialism; idealism; materialism; phenomenology; positivism; postmodernism; pragmatism; rationalism; realism; Scholasticism; skepticism; Stoicism; utilitarianism.
For biographies of major Western philosophers and treatment of their associated movements, see Aristotle and Aristotelianism; Ren Descartes and Cartesianism; Epicurus and Epicureanism; Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel and Hegelianism; Immanuel Kant and Kantianism; Karl Marx and Marxism; Plato and Platonism; Pythagoras and Pythagoreanism.
For discussion of other major Western philosophers, see Peter Abelard; St. Anselm; St. Thomas Aquinas; St. Augustine; Noam Chomsky; Jacques Derrida; Duns Scotus; Michel Foucault; Jrgen Habermas; Martin Heidegger; David Hume; William James; Saul Kripke; Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz; John Locke; John Stuart Mill; Friedrich Nietzsche; Hilary Putnam; Jean-Jacques Rousseau; Bertrand Russell; Jean-Paul Sartre; Socrates; Benedict de Spinoza; Bernard Williams; Ludwig Wittgenstein.
For coverage of the particular branches of Western philosophy, see aesthetics; epistemology; ethics; ideology; logic; metaphysics; philosophical anthropology; philosophy of biology; philosophy of education; philosophy of history; philosophy of language; philosophy of law; philosophy of logic; philosophy of mathematics; philosophy of mind ; philosophy of physics; philosophy of religion; philosophy of science.
PHILOSOPHY WIKIPEDIA
Philosophy (from Greek: , philosophia, 'love of wisdom') is the study of general and fundamental questions about existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. The term was probably coined by Pythagoras (c. 570 495 BCE). Philosophical methods include questioning, critical discussion, rational argument, and systematic presentation.
Classic philosophical questions include: 'is it possible to know anything and to prove it?'[10][11][12] and 'what is most real?' Philosophers also pose more practical and concrete questions such as: 'is there a best way to live?', 'is it better to be just or unjust (if one can get away with it)?', 'do humans have free will?'
Historically, philosophy encompassed all bodies of knowledge. From the time of Ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle to the 19th century, "natural philosophy" encompassed astronomy, medicine, and physics. For example, Newton's 1687 Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy later became classified as a book of physics.
In the 19th century, the growth of modern research universities led academic philosophy and other disciplines to professionalize and specialize. In the modern era, some investigations that were traditionally part of philosophy became separate academic disciplines, including psychology, sociology, linguistics, and economics. Other investigations closely related to art, science, politics, or other pursuits remained part of philosophy. For example, is beauty objective or subjective? Are there many scientific methods or just one? Is political utopia a hopeful dream or hopeless fantasy?
Major sub-fields of academic philosophy include: metaphysics, which is "concerned with the fundamental nature of reality and being;" and epistemology, which is about "nature and grounds of knowledge [and]its limits and validity;" as well as ethics, aesthetics, political philosophy, logic, and philosophy of science.
Syntheses of Eastern and Western philosophy
In antiquity elements of Eastern philosophy appear to have directly influenced Western philosophy.
The Ancient Greek philosopher Pyrrho accompanied Alexander the Great in his eastern campaigns, spending about 18 months in India. Pyrrho subsequently returned to Greece and founded Pyrrhonism. The Greek biographer Diogenes Lartius explained that Pyrrho's equanimity and detachment from the world were acquired in India.[134] Pyrrho was directly influenced by Buddhism in developing his philosophy, which is based on Pyrrho's interpretation of the Buddhist three marks of existence.[135] According to Edward Conze, Pyrrhonism can be compared to Buddhist philosophy, especially the Indian Madhyamika school.[136] The Pyrrhonists' goal of ataraxia (the state of being untroubled) is a soteriological goal similar to nirvana. The Pyrrhonists promoted suspending judgment (epoch) about dogma (beliefs about non-evident matters) as the way to reach ataraxia. This is similar to the Buddha's refusal to answer certain metaphysical questions which he saw as non-conductive to the path of Buddhist practice and Nagarjuna's "relinquishing of all views (drsti)". Adrian Kuzminski argues for direct influence between these two systems of thought. In Pyrrhonism: How the Ancient Greeks Reinvented Buddhism[137] According to Kuzminski, both philosophies argue against assenting to any dogmatic assertions about an ultimate metaphysical reality behind our sense impressions as a tactic to reach tranquility and both also make use of logical arguments against other philosophies in order to expose their contradictions.[137]
The philosopher Hegesias of Cyrene is thought by some to have been influenced by the teachings of Ashoka's Buddhist missionaries.[138]
In the modern era there have been many attempts to integrate Western and Eastern philosophical traditions.
Arthur Schopenhauer developed a philosophy that was essentially a synthesis of Hinduism with Western thought. He anticipated that the Upanishads (primary Hindu scriptures) would have a much greater influence in the West than they have had. However, Schopenhauer was working with heavily flawed early translations (and sometimes second-degree translations), and many feel that he may not necessarily have accurately grasped the Eastern philosophies which interested him.[139]
Recent attempts to incorporate Western philosophy into Eastern thought include the Kyoto School of philosophers, who combined the phenomenology of Husserl with the insights of Zen Buddhism. Watsuji Tetsur, a 20th-century Japanese philosopher attempted to combine the works of Soren Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, and Heidegger with Eastern philosophies. Some have claimed that there is also a definite eastern element within Heidegger's philosophy.[140] For the most part this is not made explicit within Heidegger's philosophy, apart from in the dialogue between a Japanese and inquirer. Heidegger did spend time attempting to translate the Tao Te Ching into German, working with his Chinese student Paul Hsaio. It has also been claimed that much of Heidegger's later philosophy, particularly the sacredness of Being, bears a distinct similarity to Taoist ideas. There are clear parallels between Heidegger and the work of Kyoto School, and ultimately, it may be read that Heidegger's philosophy is an attempt to 'turn eastwards' in response to the crisis in Western civilization. However, this is only an interpretation.
The 20th century Hindu guru Sri Aurobindo was influenced by German Idealism and his integral yoga is regarded as a synthesis of Eastern and Western thought. The German phenomenologist Jean Gebser's writings on the history of consciousness referred to a new planetary consciousness that would bridge this gap. Followers of these two authors are often grouped together under the term Integral thought.
Swiss psychologist Carl Jung was deeply influenced by the I Ching (Book of Changes), an ancient Chinese text that dates back to the Bronze Age Shang Dynasty (. 1,700-1,050 BCE). It uses a system of Yin and Yang, which it places into hexagrams for the purposes of divination. Carl Jung's idea of synchronicity moves towards an Oriental view of causality, as he states in the foreword to Richard Wilhelm's translation of the I Ching.[141] He explains that this Chinese view of the world is based not on science as the West knows it, but on chance.
1. For Comte Altruism meant the discipline and eradication of self-centered desire, and a life devoted to the good of others; more particularly, selfless love and devotion to Society. In brief, it involved the self-abnegating love of Catholic Christianity redirected towards Humanity conceived as an ideal unity. As thus understood, altruism involves a conscious opposition not only to egoism (whether understood as excessive or moderate self-love), but also to the formal or theological pursuit of charity and to the atomic or individualistic social philosophy of 17th-18th century liberalism, of utilitarianism, and of French Ideology.
4. In the philosophy of nature, aggregate has various meanings: it is a mass formed into clusters (anat.); a compound or an organized mass of individuals (zool.); an agglomerate (bot.) an agglomeration of distinct minerals separable by mechanical means (geol.); or, in general, a compound mass in which the elements retain their essential individuality. -- T.G.
Abailard, Peter: (1079-1142) Was born at Pallet in France; distinguished himself as a brilliant student of the trivium and quadrivium; studied logic with Roscelin and Wm. of Champeaux. He taught philosophy, with much emphasis on dialectic, at Melun, Corbeil, and the schools of St. Genevieve and Notre Dame in Paris. He was lecturing on theology in Paris c. 1113 when he was involved in the romantic and unfortunate interlude with Heloise. First condemned for heresy in 1121, he became Abbot of St. Gildas in 1125, and after returning to teach theology in Paris, his religious views were censured by the Council of Sens (1141). He died at Cluny after making his peace with God and his Church. Tactless, but very intelligent, Abailard set the course of mediaeval philosophy for two centuries with his interest in the problem of universals. He appears to have adopted a nominalistic solution, rather than the semi-realistic position attributed to him by the older historians. Chief works: Sic et Non (c. 1122), Theologia Christiana (c. 1124), Scito Teipsum (1125-1138) and several Logical Glosses (ed. B. Geyer, Abaelard's Philos. Schrift. BGPM, XXI, 1-3).
Abhasa, abhasana: (Skr.) "Shining forth", the cosmopsychological process of the One becoming the Many as described by the Trika (q.v.) which regards the Many as a real aspect of the ultimate reality or Parama Siva (cf. Indian Philosophy). Reflection, objectivity. -- K.F.L.
Abheda: (Skr. "not distinct") Identity, particularly in reference to any philosophy of monism which does not recognize the distinctness of spiritual and material, or divine and essentially human principles. -- K.F.L.
Absolute Ego: In Fichte's philosophy, the Ego or Subject prior to its differentiation into an empirical (or historical) self and not-self. -- W.L.
academic ::: a. --> Alt. of Academical ::: n. --> One holding the philosophy of Socrates and Plato; a Platonist.
A member of an academy, college, or university; an academician.
academical ::: a. --> Belonging to the school or philosophy of Plato; as, the Academic sect or philosophy.
Belonging to an academy or other higher institution of learning; scholarly; literary or classical, in distinction from scientific.
academicism ::: n. --> A tenet of the Academic philosophy.
A mannerism or mode peculiar to an academy.
academism ::: n. --> The doctrines of the Academic philosophy.
Academy: (Gr. akademia) A gymnasium in the suburbs of Athens, named after the hero Academus, where Plato first taught; hence, the Platonic school of philosophy. Plato and his immediate successors are called the Old Academy; the New Academy begins with Arcesilaus (c. 315-c. 241 B.C.), and is identified with its characteristic doctrine, probabilism (q.v.). -- G.R.M.
academy ::: n. --> A garden or grove near Athens (so named from the hero Academus), where Plato and his followers held their philosophical conferences; hence, the school of philosophy of which Plato was head.
An institution for the study of higher learning; a college or a university. Popularly, a school, or seminary of learning, holding a rank between a college and a common school.
A place of training; a school.
A society of learned men united for the advancement of the
According to the common teaching of the Schoolmen, philosophy is able to demonstrate the existence of God, though any statement of his essence is at best only analogical. See Analogy. Aquinas formulated the famous five ways by which to demonstrate God's existence, as prime motor, first cause, pure act to be assumed because there has to be act for anything to come into existence at all, necessary being in which existence and essence aie one, as set over against contingent beings which may be or not be, as summit of the hierarchy of beings. A basic factor in these demonstrations is the impossibility of infinite regress. God is conceived as the first cause and as the ultimate final cause of all beings. He is pure act, ens realissimum and summum bonum. Thomism and later Scholasticism denied that any adequate statement can be made on God's essence; but earlier thinkers, especially Anselm of Canterbury indulged in a so-called "Christian Rationalism" and believed that more can be asserted of God by '"necessary reasons". Anselm's proof of God's existence has been rejected by Aquinas and Kant. See Ontologtcal argument. -- R.A.
::: "A cosmic Will and Wisdom observant of the ascending march of the soul"s consciousness and experience as it emerges out of subconscient Matter and climbs to its own luminous divinity fixes the norm and constantly enlarges the lines of the law — or, let us say, since law is a too mechanical conception, — the truth of Karma.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
“A cosmic Will and Wisdom observant of the ascending march of the soul’s consciousness and experience as it emerges out of subconscient Matter and climbs to its own luminous divinity fixes the norm and constantly enlarges the lines of the law—or, let us say, since law is a too mechanical conception,—the truth of Karma.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
adept ::: n. --> One fully skilled or well versed in anything; a proficient; as, adepts in philosophy. ::: a. --> Well skilled; completely versed; thoroughly proficient.
ADVAITA. :::One Existence; the One without a second; non-dual, absolute and indivisible unity; Monism.
People are apt to speak of the Advaita as if it were identical with Mayavada monism, just as they speak of Vedanta as if it were identical with Advaita only; that is not the case. There are several forms of Indian philosophy which base themselves upon the One Reality, but they admit also the reality of the world, the reality of the Many, the reality of the differences of the Many as well as the sameness of the One (bhedābheda). But the Many exist in the One and by the One, the differences are variations in manifestation of that which is fundamentally ever the same. This we actually see in the universal law of existence where oneness is always the basis with an endless multiplicity and difference in the oneness; as for instance there is one mankind but many kinds of man, one thing called leaf or flower, but many forms, patterns, colours of leaf and flower. Through this we can look back into one of the fundamental secrets of existence, the secret which is contained in the one reality itself. The oneness of the Infinite is not something limited, fettered to its unity; it is capable of an infinite multiplicity. The Supreme Reality is an Absolute not limited by either oneness or multiplicity but simultaneously capable of both; for both are its aspects, although the oneness is fundamental and the multiplicity depends upon the oneness.
Wide Realistic Advaita.
Aesthetics: (Gr. aesthetikos, perceptive) Traditionally, the branch of philosophy dealing with beauty or the beautiful, especially in art, and with taste and standards of value in judging art. Also, a theory or consistent attitude on such matters. The word aesthetics was first used by Baumgarten about 1750, to imply the science of sensuous knowledge, whose aim is beauty, as contrasted with logic, whose aim is truth. Kant used the term transcendental aesthetic in another sense, to imply the a priori principles of sensible experience. Hegel, in the 1820's, established the word in its present sense by his writings on art under the title of Aesthetik.
agamas. ::: Saiva scriptures that describe the rules and procedures for image worship, which include temple construction, installation and consecration of the deities, methods of performing pujas in the temples, philosophy, recitation of mantras, worship involving figures or yantras and bhakti yoga
Akasa: (Skr.) "Ether"; space) in Indian philosophy the continuum that is to be postulated in connection with the paramanus (q.v.). -- K.F.L.
Albertus, Magnus: St., O.P. (1193-1280) Count of Bollstädt, Bishop of Ratisbon, Doctor Universalis, was born at Lauingen, Bavaria, studied at Padua and Bologna, entered the Dominican Order in 1223. He taught theology at the Univ. of Paris from 1245-48, when he was sent to Cologne to organize a new course of studies for his Order; St. Thomas Aquinas was his student and assistant at this time. Later his time was given over to administrative duties and he was made Bishop of Ratisbon in 1260. In 1262 he gave up his bishopric and returned to a life of writing, teaching and controversy. Of very broad interests in science, philosophy and theology, Albert popularized a great part of the corpus of Aristotelian and Arabic philosophic writings in the 13th century. His thought incorporates elements of Augustinism, Aristotelianism, Neoplatonism, Avicennism, Boethianism into a vast synthesis which is not without internal inconsistencies. Due to the lack of critical editions of his works, a true estimate of the value of his philosophy is impossible at present. However, he must have had some influence on St. Thomas, and there was a lively Albertinian school lasting into the Renaissance. Chief works: Summa de Creaturis, Comment, in IV Lib. Sent., Philos, Commentaries on nearly all works of Aristotle, De Causis, De intellectu et intellig., Summa Theologiae (Opera Omnia, ed. Borgnet, 38 vol., Paris, 1890-99). -- V.J.B.
Alcuin: (c. 730-804) Was born in Northumbria and studied at the School of York under Egbert. In 781 he was called to head the Palatine School of Charlemagne. He died at St. Martin of Tours. It is his general influence on the revival of Christian learning that is significant in the history of philosophy. His psychology is a form of simplified Augustinianism. His treatise, De animae ratione ad Eulaliam Virginem, is extant (PL 101). -- V.J.B.
Alexandrian School: A convenient designation for the various religious philosophies that flourished at Alexandria from the first to the fourth centuries of the Christian era, such as Neo-Pythagoreanism, the Jewish Platonism of Philo, Christian Platonism, and Neo-Platonism. Common to all these schools is the attempt to state Oriental religious beliefs in terms of Greek philosophy. -- G.R.M.
Al Farabi: Died 950, introduced Aristotelian logic into the world of Islam. He was known to posterity as the "second Aristotle". He continued the encyclopedic tradition inaugurated by Al Kindi. His metaphysical speculation influenced Avicenna who found in the works of his predecessor the fundamental notion of a distinction between existence and essence, the latter not implying necessarily in a contingent being the former which therefore has to be given by God. He also emphasizes the Aristotelian notion of the "first mover". The concretization of the universal nature in particular things points to a creative power which has endowed being with such a nature. Al Farabi's philosophy is dependent in certain parts on Neo-Platonism. Creation is emanation. There is an anima mundi the images of which become corporeal beings. Logic is considered as the preamble to all science. Physics comprises all factual knowledge, including psychology; metaphysics and ethics are the other parts of philosophy. Cl. Baeumker, Alfarabi, Ueber den Vrsprung der Wissensehaften, Beitr. z. Gesch. d. Philos. d. MA. 1916. Vol. XIX. M. Horten, Das Buch der Ringsteine Farabis. ibid. 1906. Vol. V. -- R.A. Al
Al Kindi, Al Farabi, and Ibn Sina (Avicenna) were the first great philosophers who made large use of Aristotelian books. Their writings are of truly encyclopedic character and comprise the whole edifice of knowledge in their time. Their Aristotelianism is, however, mainly Neo-Platonism with addition of certain peripatetic notions. Avicenna is more of an Aristotelian than his predecessors. Al Farabi, e.g., held that cognition is ultimately due to an illumination, whereas Avicenna adopted a more Aristotelian theory. While these thinkers had an original philosophy, Averroes (Ibn Roshd) endeavored to clarify the meaning of the Aristotelian texts by extensive and minute commentaries. Translations from these writings first made known to medieval philosophy the non-logical works of the "Philosopher", although there existed, at the same time, some translations made directly from Greek texts.
". . . all birth is a progressive self-finding, a means of self-realisation.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
“… all birth is a progressive self-finding, a means of self-realisation.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
Allgemeingültig: (Ger. allgemein + gelten, universally valid) A proposition or judgment which is universally valid, or necessary. Such propositions may be either empirical, i.e., dependent upon experience, or a priori, i.e., independent of all experience. In Kant's theoretical philosophy the necessary forms of the sensibility and understanding are declared to have universal validity a priori, because they are the sine qua non, of any and all experience. -- O.F.K.
"All living thought is a world in preparation; all real act is a thought manifested.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
“All living thought is a world in preparation; all real act is a thought manifested.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
Alteration: (Lat. alter, other) In Aristotle's philosophy change of quality, as distinguished from change of quantity (growth and diminution) and from change of place (locomotion). -- G.R.M.
"A mind of light will replace the present confusion and trouble of this earthly ignorance; it is likely that even those parts of humanity which cannot reach it will yet be aware of its possibility and consciously tend towards it; not only so, but the life of humanity will be enlightened, uplifted, governed, harmonised by this luminous principle and even the body become something much less powerless, obscure and animal in its propensities and capable instead of a new and harmonised perfection. It is this possibility that we have to look at and that would mean a new humanity uplifted into Light, capable of a spiritualised being and action, open to governance by some light of the Truth-consciousness, capable even on the mental level and in its own order of something that might be called the beginning of a divinised life.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
“A mind of light will replace the present confusion and trouble of this earthly ignorance; it is likely that even those parts of humanity which cannot reach it will yet be aware of its possibility and consciously tend towards it; not only so, but the life of humanity will be enlightened, uplifted, governed, harmonised by this luminous principle and even the body become something much less powerless, obscure and animal in its propensities and capable instead of a new and harmonised perfection. It is this possibility that we have to look at and that would mean a new humanity uplifted into Light, capable of a spiritualised being and action, open to governance by some light of the Truth-consciousness, capable even on the mental level and in its own order of something that might be called the beginning of a divinised life.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
Analogy: Originally a mathematical term, Analogia, meaning equality of ratios (Euclid VII Df. 20, V. Dfs. 5, 6), which entered Plato's philosophy (Republic 534a6), where it also expressed the epistemological doctrine that sensed things are related as their mathematical and ideal correlates. In modern usage analogy was identified with a weak form of reasoning in which "from the similarity of two things in certain particulars, their similarity in other particulars is inferred." (Century Dic.) Recently, the analysis of scientific method has given the term new significance. The observable data of science are denoted by concepts by inspection, whose complete meaning is given by something immediately apprehendable; its verified theory designating unobservable scientific objects is expressed by concepts by postulation, whose complete meaning is prescribed for them by the postulates of the deductive theory in which they occur. To verify such theory relations, termed epistemic correlations (J. Un. Sc. IX: 125-128), are required. When these are one-one, analogy exists in a very precise sense, since the concepts by inspection denoting observable data are then related as are the correlated concepts by postulation designating unobservable scientific objects. -- F.S.C.N. Analogy of Pythagoras: (Gr. analogia) The equality of ratios, or proportion, between the lengths of the strings producing the consonant notes of the musical scale. The discovery of these ratios is credited to Pythagoras, who is also said to have applied the principle of mathematical proportion to the other arts, and hence to have discovered, in his analogy, the secret of beauty in all its forms. -- G.R.M.
Ananke ::: “This truth of Karma has been always recognised in the East in one form or else in another; but to the Buddhists belongs the credit of having given to it the clearest and fullest universal enunciation and the most insistent importance. In the West too the idea has constantly recurred, but in external, in fragmentary glimpses, as the recognition of a pragmatic truth of experience, and mostly as an ordered ethical law or fatality set over against the self-will and strength of man: but it was clouded over by other ideas inconsistent with any reign of law, vague ideas of some superior caprice or of some divine jealousy,—that was a notion of the Greeks,—a blind Fate or inscrutable Necessity, Ananke, or, later, the mysterious ways of an arbitrary, though no doubt an all-wise Providence.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
Anaxagoras, of Klazomene: (about 430 B.C.) As a middle-aged man he settled in Athens; later he was accused of impiety and forced to leave the city. Anaxagoras taught that there is an infinity of simple substances, that is, such as are only divisible into parts of the same nature as the whole. These "seeds" are distributed throughout the universe. Their coming together gives rise to individual things, their separation entails the passing away of individual things. To account for the cause of motion of these "seeds" or elemental substances Anaxagoras conceived of a special kind of matter or "soul-substance" which alone is in motion itself and can communicate this motion to the rest. Now, since the universe displays harmony, order and purposiveness in its movements, Anaxagoras conceived this special substance as a mind-stuff or an eternal, imperishable Reason diffused throughout the universe. Anaxagoras was thus the first to introduce the teleological principle into the explanation of the natural world. Cf. Burnet, Early Greek Philosophy; Diels, Frag. d. Vorsokr. -- M.F.
Anaximander: (6th Cent. B.C.) With Thales and Anaximenes he formed the Milesian School of Greek Philosophy; with these and the other thinkers of the cosmological period he sought the ground of the manifold processes of nature in a single world-principle or cosmic stuff which he identified with "the Infinite". He was the first to step out of the realm of experience and ascribed to his "Infinite" the attributes of eternity, imperishability and inexhaustability. Cf. Burnet, Early Greek Philosophy; Diels, Frag. d. i Vorsokr. -- M.F.
Anaximenes: (6th Cent. B.C.) With Thales and Anaximander he belongs to the Milesian School of Greek Philosophy; as an Ionian he sought a cosmic material element which would explain the manifold processes of the natural world and declared this to be air. Air, he felt, had the attribute of Infinity which would account for the varieties of nature more readily than water, which his predecessor Thales had postulated. Cf. Burnet, Early Greek Philosophy, Diels, Frag. d. Vorsokr. -- M.F.
"A new humanity means for us the appearance, the development of a type or race of mental beings whose principle of mentality would be no longer a mind in the Ignorance seeking for knowledge but even in its knowledge bound to the Ignorance, a seeker after Light but not its natural possessor, open to the Light but not an inhabitant of the Light, not yet a perfected instrument, truth-conscious and delivered out of the Ignorance. Instead, it would be possessed already of what could be called a mind of Light, a mind capable of living in the truth, capable of being truth-conscious and manifesting in its life a direct in place of an indirect knowledge. Its mentality would be an instrument of the Light and no longer of the Ignorance. At its highest it would be capable of passing into the supermind and from the new race would be recruited the race of supramental beings who would appear as the leaders of the evolution in earth-nature. Even, the highest manifestations of a mind of Light would be an instrumentality of the supermind, a part of it or a projection from it, a stepping beyond humanity into the superhumanity of the supramental principle. Above all, its possession would enable the human being to rise beyond the normalities of his present thinking, feeling and being into those highest powers of the mind in its self-exceedings which intervene between our mentality and supermind and can be regarded as steps leading towards the greater and more luminous principle. This advance like others in the evolution might not be reached and would naturally not be reached at one bound, but from the very beginning it would be inevitable: the pressure of the supermind creating from above out of itself the mind of Light would compel this certainty of the eventual outcome.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
“A new humanity means for us the appearance, the development of a type or race of mental beings whose principle of mentality would be no longer a mind in the Ignorance seeking for knowledge but even in its knowledge bound to the Ignorance, a seeker after Light but not its natural possessor, open to the Light but not an inhabitant of the Light, not yet a perfected instrument, truth-conscious and delivered out of the Ignorance. Instead, it would be possessed already of what could be called a mind of Light, a mind capable of living in the truth, capable of being truth-conscious and manifesting in its life a direct in place of an indirect knowledge. Its mentality would be an instrument of the Light and no longer of the Ignorance. At its highest it would be capable of passing into the supermind and from the new race would be recruited the race of supramental beings who would appear as the leaders of the evolution in earth-nature. Even, the highest manifestations of a mind of Light would be an instrumentality of the supermind, a part of it or a projection from it, a stepping beyond humanity into the superhumanity of the supramental principle. Above all, its possession would enable the human being to rise beyond the normalities of his present thinking, feeling and being into those highest powers of the mind in its self-exceedings which intervene between our mentality and supermind and can be regarded as steps leading towards the greater and more luminous principle. This advance like others in the evolution might not be reached and would naturally not be reached at one bound, but from the very beginning it would be inevitable: the pressure of the supermind creating from above out of itself the mind of Light would compel this certainty of the eventual outcome.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
Anglo-Catholic Philosophy: Anglo-Catholicism is the name frequently used to describe the Church of England and her sister communions, including the Episcopal Church in America. As a religious system, it may be described as the maintenance of the traditional credal, ethical and sacramental position of Catholic Christianity, with insistence on the incorporation into that general position of the new truth of philosophy, science and other fields of study and experience. Historically, the Anglo-Catholic divines (as in Hooker and the Caroline writers) took over the general Platonic-Aristotelian philosophy of the schools; their stress, however, was more on the Platonic than the Aristotelian side: "Platonism", Dr. Inge has said, "is the loving mother-nurse of Anglicanism." Statements of this position, modified by a significant agnosticism concerning areas into which reason (it is said) cannot penetrate, may be found collected in Anglicanism (edited by More and Cross). A certain empiricism has always marked Anglo-Catholic theological and philosophical speculation; this is brought out in recent writing by Taylor (Faith of a Moralist), the writers in Lux Mundi (edited by Gore) and its modern successor Essays Catholic and Critical.
Anschauung: A German term used in epistemology to mean intuition or perception with a quality of directness or immediacy. It is a basic term in Kant's philosophy, denoting that which presents materials to the intellect through the forms of space and time. These forms predetermine what types of objects (schemata) can be set up when the understanding applies its own forms to the facts of sense. Kant distinguished "empirical" intuitions (a posteriori) of objects through sensation, and "pure" intuitions (a priori) with space and time as the forms of sensibility. The characteristics and functions of Anschauung are discussed in the first division (Aesthetic) of the Critique of Pure Reason. Caird disputes the equivalence of the Kantian Anschauung with intuition; but it is difficult to find an English word more closely related to the German term. -- T.G.
Anselrn of Canterbury, St.: (1033-1109) Was born at Aosta in Italy, educated by the Benedictines, entered the Order c. 1060. Most of his writings were done at the Abbey of Le Bec in Normandy, where he served as Abbot. In 1093 he became Archbishop of Canterbury, which post he occupied with distinction till his death. Anselm is most noted for his much discussed "ontological" argument to prove the existence of God. His theory of truth and his general philosophy are thoroughly Augustinian. Chief works: Monologium, Proslogium, De Veritate, Cur Deus Homo (in PL 158-9). -- V.J.B.
An Sich: (Ger. literally in or by self. Lat. in se) Anything taken in itself without relation to anything else, especially without relation to a knowing consciousness. In Hegel's philosophy whatever has disowned its relations is an sich. In this status it reveals its inner potentialities. Thus in Hegel's system an sich frequently refers to that which is latent, undeveloped, or in certain connections, that which is unconscious. Kant used an sich more loosely to describe any thing independent of consciousness or experience. Thus he contrasted the "Ding-an-sich" (thing-in-itself) with appearance (phenomenon), the latter being a function of consciousness, the former outside all consciousness. -- O.F.K.
antinomy ::: n. --> Opposition of one law or rule to another law or rule.
An opposing law or rule of any kind.
A contradiction or incompatibility of thought or language; -- in the Kantian philosophy, such a contradiction as arises from the attempt to apply to the ideas of the reason, relations or attributes which are appropriate only to the facts or the concepts of experience.
Antisthenes: Of Athens (c. 444-368 B.C.) founder of the Cynic School of Greek Philosophy. See Cynics. -- M.F.
Apart from philosophy, Descartes' contribution to the development of analytical geometry, the theory of music and the science of optics, are noteworthy achievements.
Apathia: (Gr. apathla, no feeling) In Epicurean (q.v.) and Stoic (q.v.) ethics: the inner equilibrium and peace of mind, freedom from emotion, that result from contemplation, for its own sake, on the ends of life. Apeiron: (Gr. apeiron) The boundless; the indeterminate; the infinite. In the philosophy of Anaximander the apeiron is the primal indeterminate matter out of which all things come to be. The apeiron appears frequently elsewhere in early Greek philosophy, notably in the dualism of the Pythagoreans, where it is opposed to the principle of the Limit (peras), or number. -- G.R.M.
"A philosophy of change?(1) But what is change? In ordinary parlance change means passage from one condition to another and that would seem to imply passage from one status to another status. The shoot changes into a tree, passes from the status of shoot to the status of tree and there it stops; man passes from the status of young man to the status of old man and the only farther change possible to him is death or dissolution of his status. So it would seem that change is not something isolated which is the sole original and eternal reality, but it is something dependent on status, and if status were non-existent, change also could not exist. For we have to ask, when you speak of change as alone real, change of what, from what, to what? Without this ‘what" change could not be. ::: —Change is evidently the change of some form or state of existence from one condition to another condition.” Essays Divine and Human
“A philosophy of change?(1) But what is change? In ordinary parlance change means passage from one condition to another and that would seem to imply passage from one status to another status. The shoot changes into a tree, passes from the status of shoot to the status of tree and there it stops; man passes from the status of young man to the status of old man and the only farther change possible to him is death or dissolution of his status. So it would seem that change is not something isolated which is the sole original and eternal reality, but it is something dependent on status, and if status were non-existent, change also could not exist. For we have to ask, when you speak of change as alone real, change of what, from what, to what? Without this ‘what’ change could not be.
Appreciation: (Royce) The faculty by which an individual feels, likes or hates, or, in general, evaluates certain experiences, as opposed to the faculty by which he describes them, communicates them, and renders them permanent through the use of forms or categories. (Royce: Spirit of Modern Philosophy, pp. 390-4.) -- A.C.B.
A pupil of late followers of Hegel, he emphasized the unity of spirit which he recognized in the pure act. His philosophy is therefore called actualism. He is responsible for the philosophic theory of Fascism with the conception of the Ethic State to which the individual must be totally sacrificed.
Arabic Philosophy: The contact of the Arabs with Greek civilization and philosophy took place partly in Syria, where Christian Arabic philosophy developed, partly in other countries, Asia Minor, Persia, Egypt and Spain. The effect of this contact was not a simple reception of Greek philosophy, but the gradual growth of an original mode of thought, determined chiefly by the religious and philosophical tendencies alive in the Arab world. Eastern influences had produced a mystical trend, not unlike Neo-Platonism; the already existing "metaphysics of light", noticeable in the religious conception of the Qoran, also helped to assimilate Plotinlan ideas. On the other hand, Aristotelian philosophy became important, although more, at least in the beginning, as logic and methodology. The interest in science and medicine contributed to the spread of Aristotelian philosophy. The history of philosophy in the Arab world is determined by the increasing opposition of Orthodoxy against a more liberal theology and philosophy. Arab thought became influential in the Western world partly through European scholars who went to Spain and elsewhere for study, mostly however through the Latin translations which became more and more numerous at the end of the 12th and during the 13th centuries. Among the Christian Arabs Costa ben Luca (864-923) has to be mentioned whose De Differentia spiritus et animae was translated by Johannes Hispanus (12th century). The first period of Islamic philosophy is occupied mainly with translation of Greek texts, some of which were translated later into Latin. The Liber de causis (mentioned first by Alanus ab Insulis) is such a translation of an Arab text; it was believed to be by Aristotle, but is in truth, as Aquinas recognized, a version of the Stoicheiosis theologike by Proclus. The so-called Theologia Aristotelis is an excerpt of Plotinus Enn. IV-VI, written 840 by a Syrian. The fundamental trends of Arab philosophy are indeed Neo-Platonic, and the Aristotelian texts were mostly interpreted in this spirit. Furthermore, there is also a tendency to reconcile the Greek philosophers with theological notions, at least so long as the orthodox theologians could find no reason for opposition. In spite of this, some of the philosophers did not escape persecution. The Peripatetic element is more pronounced in the writings of later times when the technique of paraphrasis and commentary on Aristotelian texts had developed. Beside the philosophy dependent more or less on Greek, and partially even Christian influences, there is a mystical theology and philosophy whose sources are the Qoran, Indian and, most of all, Persian systems. The knowledge of the "Hermetic" writings too was of some importance.
Ardigo, Roberto: (1828-1920) Was the leader in the Italian positivistic movement in philosophy. He was born in Padua and educated as a Catholic priest, but he became interested in the views of Comte, abandoned the ministry and became a professor at the Univ. of Padua. His emphasis on psychology differentiates his thought from Comtism. Chief works: La psicologia come scienze positive (1870), La morale dei positivisti (1885). -- V.J.B.
aretology ::: n. --> That part of moral philosophy which treats of virtue, its nature, and the means of attaining to it.
Aristobulus: A philosopher of the second century B.C. who combined Greek philosophy with Jewish theology. -- M.F.
Aristotelianism: The philosophy of Aristotle, (384-322 B.C.). Aristotle was born in the Greek colony of Stagira, in Macedon, the son of Nicomachus, the physician of King Amyntas of Macedon. In his eighteenth year Aristotle became a pupil of Plato at Athens and remained for nearly twenty years a member of the Academy. After the death of Plato he resided for some time at Atarneus, in the Troad, and at Mitylene, on the island of Lesbos, with friends of the Academy; then for several years he acted as tutor to the young Alexander of Macedon. In 335 he returned to Athens, where he spent the following twelve years as head of a school which he set up in the Lyceum. The school also came to be known as the Peripatetic, and its members Peripatetics, probably because of the peripatos, or covered walk, in which Aristotle lectured. As a result of the outburst of anti-Macedonian feeling at Athens in 323 after the death of Alexander, Aristotle retired to Chalcis, m Euboea, where he died a year later.
aristotelianism ::: --> The philosophy of Aristotle, otherwise called the Peripatetic philosophy.
aristotelic ::: a. --> Pertaining to Aristotle or to his philosophy. html{color:
Aristotle, medieval: Contrary to the esteem in which the Fathers held Platonic and especially Neo-Platonic philosophy, Aristotle plays hardly any role in early Patristic and Scholastic writings. Augustine seems not to have known much about him and admired him more as logician whereas he held Plato to be the much greater philosopher. The Middle Ages knew, until the end of the 12th and the beginning of the 13th century, only the logical texts, mostly in the translations made by Boethius of the texts and of the introduction by Porphyrius (Isagoge). During the latter third of the 12th, mostly however at the beginning of the 13th century appeared translations partly from Arabian texts and commentaries, partly from the Greek originals. Finally, Aquinas had William of Moerbeke translate the whole work of Aristotle, who soon came to be known as the Philosopher. Scholastic Aristotelianism is, however, not a simple revival of the Peripatetic views; Thomas is said to have "Christianized" the Philosopher as Augustine had done with Plato. Aristotle was differently interpreted by Aquinas and by the Latin Averroists (q.v. Averroism), especially in regard to the "unity of intellect" and the eternity of the created world. -- R.A.
Ars Combinatoria: (Leibniz) An art or technique of deriving or inventing complex concepts by a combination of a relatively few simple ones taken as primitive. This technique was proposed as a valuable subject for study by Leibniz in De Arte Combinatoria (1666) but was never greatly developed by him. Leibniz's program for logic consisted of two main projects: (1) the development of a universal characteristic (characteristica universalis), and (2) the development of a universal mathematics (mathesis universalis (q.v.). The universal characteristic was to be a universal language for scientists and philosophers. With a relatively few basic symbols for the ultimately simple ideas, and a suitable technique for constructing compound ideas out of the simple ones, Leibniz thought that a language could be constructed which would be much more efficient for reasoning and for communication than the vague, complicated, and more or less parochial languages then available. This language would be completely universal in the sense that all scientific and philosophical concepts could be expressed in it, and also in that it would enable scholars m all countries to communicate over the barriers of their vernacular tongues. Leibniz's proposals in this matter, and what work he did on it, are the grand predecessors of a vast amount of research which has been done in the last hundred years on the techniques of language construction, and specifically on the invention of formal rules and procedures for introducing new terms into a language on the basis of terms already present, the general project of constructing a unified language for science and philosophy. L. Couturat, La Logique de Leibniz, Paris, 1901; C. I. Lewis, A Survey of Symbolic Logic, Berkeley, 1918. -- F.L.W.
Art, to dialectical materialism, is an activity of human beings which embodies a reflection of the reality surrounding them, a reflection which may be conscious, unconscious, reconstructive or deliberately fantastic, and which possesses positive aesthetic value in terms of rhythm, figure, color, image and the like. Art is good to the extent that it is a faithful and aesthetic reflection of the reality dealt with. Accordingly, proletarian or socialist realism (q.v.) is not photographic, static, but dialectical, conscious that any given period or subject is moving into its future, that class society is becoming classless society. This realism is optimistic, involving a "revolutionary romanticism". Marx, Engels, Lenin, Soviet philosophy, also, separate entries for detailed definitions of specific terms.
As against the faulty ethical procedures of the past and of his own day, therefore, Kant very early conceived and developed the more critical concept of "form," -- not in the sense of a "mould" into which content is to be poured (a notion which has falselv been taken over by Kant-students from his theoretical philosophy into his ethics), but -- as a method of rational (not ratiocinative, but inductive) reflection; a method undetermined by, although not irrespective of, empirical data or considerations. This methodologically formal conception constitutes Kant's major distinctive contribution to ethical theory. It is a process of rational reflection, creative construction, and transition, and as such is held by him to be the only method capable if coping with the exigencies of the facts of hunnn experience and with the needs of moral obligation. By this method of creative construction the reflective (inductive) reason is able to create, as each new need for a next reflectively chosen step arises, a new object of "pure" -- that is to say, empirically undetermined -- "practical reason." This makes possible the transition from a present no longer adequate ethical conception or attitude to an untried and as yet "indemonstrable" object. No other method can guarantee the individual and social conditions of progress without which the notion of morality loses all assignable meaning. The newly constructed object of "pure practical reason" is assumed, in the event, to provide a type of life and conduct which, just because it is of my own construction, will be likely to be accompanied by the feeling of self-sufficiency which is the basic pre-requisite of any worthy human happiness. It is this theory which constitutes Kant's ethical formalism. See also Autonomy, Categorical Imperative, Duty, End(s), Freedom, Happiness, Law, Moral, Practical Imperative, Will. -- P. A.S.
Asana: (Skr.) "Sitting"; posture, an accessory to the proper discipline of mind and thinking deemed important by the Yoga and other systems of Indian philosophy, according to psycho-physical presuppositions. -- K.F.L.
(a) Speculative philosophy is commonly considered to embrace metaphysics (see Metaphysics) and epistemology as its two coordinate branches or if the term metaphysics be extended to embrace the whole of speculative philosophy, then epistemology and ontology become the two main subdivisions of metaphysics in the wide sense. Whichever usage is adopted, epistemology as the philosophical theory of knowledge is one of the two main branches of philosophy. The question of the relative priority of epistemology and metaphysics (or ontology) has occasioned considerable controversy: the dominant view fostered by Descartes, Locke and Kant is that epistemology is the prior philosophical science, the investigation of the possibility and limits of knowledge being a necessary and indispensible preliminary to any metaphysical speculations regarding the nature of ultimate reality. On the other hand, strongly metaphysical thinkers like Spinoza and Hegel, and more recently S. Alexander and A. N. Whitehead, have first attacked the metaphvsical problems and adopted the view of knowledge consonant with their metaphysics. Between these two extremes is the view that epistemology and metaphysics are logically interdependent and that a metaphysically presuppositionless epistemology is as unattainable as an epistemologically presuppositionless metaphysics.
asrama (Ashram) ::: 1. the house or houses of a Teacher or Master of spiritual philosophy in which he receives and lodges those who come to him for the teaching and practice. ::: 2. the four asramas: the four successive stages or periods of the developing human life: the period of the student, the period of the householder, the period of the recluse or forest-dweller, the period of the free super-social man.
Astikaya: (Skr.) Bodily or extended substance. In Jaina philosophy only time is not (anasti, the negation of asti) like a body (kaya), hence non-extended. -- K.F.L.
Atman: (Skr.) Self, soul, ego, or I. Variously conceived in Indian philosophy, atomistically (cf. anu); monadically, etherially, as the hypothetical carrier of karma (q.v.), identical with the divine (cf. ayam atma brahma; tat tvam asi) or different from yet dependent on it, or as a metaphysical entity to be dissolved at death and reunited with the world ground. As the latter it is defined as "smaller than the small" (anor aniyan) or "greater than the great" (mahato mahiyan), i.e., magnitudeless as well as infinitely great. -- K.F.L.
atomically ::: adv. --> In an atomic manner; in accordance with the atomic philosophy.
atom ::: “In the very atom there is a subconscious will and desire which must also be present in all atomic aggregates because they are present in the Force which constitutes the atom.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
Atomism: As contrasted with synechism, the view that there are discrete irreducible elements of finite spatial or temporal span. E.g., the atomic doctrine of Democritus that the real world consists of qualitatively similar atoms of diverse shapes. Lucretius, De Natura Rerurn. See Epicurus. Cf. K. Lasswitz, Gesch. d. Atomismus. As contrasted with the view that certain elements are necessarily connected, or even related at all, the doctrine that some entities are only contingently related or are completely independent. In Russell (Scientific Method in Philosophy), Logical Atomism is the view that relations are external and that some true propositions are without simpler constituents in a given system, such propositions are "basic" with respect to that system. In political philosophy, atomism is syn. of particularism. As contrasted with the view that certain entities are analyzable, the doctrine that some entitles are ultimately simple. E.g., Russell's doctrine that there are certain simple, unanalyzable atomic propositions of which other propositions are constituted by compounding or generalization. -- C.A.B.
atomism ::: n. --> The doctrine of atoms. See Atomic philosophy, under Atomic.
atomist ::: n. --> One who holds to the atomic philosophy or theory.
Aufklärung: In general, this German word and its English equivalent Enlightenment denote the self-emancipation of man from mere authority, prejudice, convention and tradition, with an insistence on freer thinking about problems uncritically referred to these other agencies. According to Kant's famous definition "Enlightenment is the liberation of man from his self-caused state of minority, which is the incapacity of using one's understanding without the direction of another. This state of minority is caused when its source lies not in the lack of understanding, but in the lack of determination and courage to use it without the assistance of another" (Was ist Aufklärung? 1784). In its historical perspective, the Aufklärung refers to the cultural atmosphere and contrlbutions of the 18th century, especially in Germany, France and England [which affected also American thought with B. Franklin, T. Paine and the leaders of the Revolution]. It crystallized tendencies emphasized by the Renaissance, and quickened by modern scepticism and empiricism, and by the great scientific discoveries of the 17th century. This movement, which was represented by men of varying tendencies, gave an impetus to general learning, a more popular philosophy, empirical science, scriptural criticism, social and political thought. More especially, the word Aufklärung is applied to the German contributions to 18th century culture. In philosophy, its principal representatives are G. E. Lessing (1729-81) who believed in free speech and in a methodical criticism of religion, without being a free-thinker; H. S. Reimarus (1694-1768) who expounded a naturalistic philosophy and denied the supernatural origin of Christianity; Moses Mendelssohn (1729-86) who endeavoured to mitigate prejudices and developed a popular common-sense philosophy; Chr. Wolff (1679-1754), J. A. Eberhard (1739-1809) who followed the Leibnizian rationalism and criticized unsuccessfully Kant and Fichte; and J. G. Herder (1744-1803) who was best as an interpreter of others, but whose intuitional suggestions have borne fruit in the organic correlation of the sciences, and in questions of language in relation to human nature and to national character. The works of Kant and Goethe mark the culmination of the German Enlightenment. Cf. J. G. Hibben, Philosophy of the Enlightenment, 1910. --T.G. Augustinianism: The thought of St. Augustine of Hippo, and of his followers. Born in 354 at Tagaste in N. Africa, A. studied rhetoric in Carthage, taught that subject there and in Rome and Milan. Attracted successively to Manicheanism, Scepticism, and Neo-Platontsm, A. eventually found intellectual and moral peace with his conversion to Christianity in his thirty-fourth year. Returning to Africa, he established numerous monasteries, became a priest in 391, Bishop of Hippo in 395. Augustine wrote much: On Free Choice, Confessions, Literal Commentary on Genesis, On the Trinity, and City of God, are his most noted works. He died in 430. St. Augustine's characteristic method, an inward empiricism which has little in common with later variants, starts from things without, proceeds within to the self, and moves upwards to God. These three poles of the Augustinian dialectic are polarized by his doctrine of moderate illuminism. An ontological illumination is required to explain the metaphysical structure of things. The truth of judgment demands a noetic illumination. A moral illumination is necessary in the order of willing; and so, too, an lllumination of art in the aesthetic order. Other illuminations which transcend the natural order do not come within the scope of philosophy; they provide the wisdoms of theology and mysticism. Every being is illuminated ontologically by number, form, unity and its derivatives, and order. A thing is what it is, in so far as it is more or less flooded by the light of these ontological constituents. Sensation is necessary in order to know material substances. There is certainly an action of the external object on the body and a corresponding passion of the body, but, as the soul is superior to the body and can suffer nothing from its inferior, sensation must be an action, not a passion, of the soul. Sensation takes place only when the observing soul, dynamically on guard throughout the body, is vitally attentive to the changes suffered by the body. However, an adequate basis for the knowledge of intellectual truth is not found in sensation alone. In order to know, for example, that a body is multiple, the idea of unity must be present already, otherwise its multiplicity could not be recognized. If numbers are not drawn in by the bodily senses which perceive only the contingent and passing, is the mind the source of the unchanging and necessary truth of numbers? The mind of man is also contingent and mutable, and cannot give what it does not possess. As ideas are not innate, nor remembered from a previous existence of the soul, they can be accounted for only by an immutable source higher than the soul. In so far as man is endowed with an intellect, he is a being naturally illuminated by God, Who may be compared to an intelligible sun. The human intellect does not create the laws of thought; it finds them and submits to them. The immediate intuition of these normative rules does not carry any content, thus any trace of ontologism is avoided. Things have forms because they have numbers, and they have being in so far as they possess form. The sufficient explanation of all formable, and hence changeable, things is an immutable and eternal form which is unrestricted in time and space. The forms or ideas of all things actually existing in the world are in the things themselves (as rationes seminales) and in the Divine Mind (as rationes aeternae). Nothing could exist without unity, for to be is no other than to be one. There is a unity proper to each level of being, a unity of the material individual and species, of the soul, and of that union of souls in the love of the same good, which union constitutes the city. Order, also, is ontologically imbibed by all beings. To tend to being is to tend to order; order secures being, disorder leads to non-being. Order is the distribution which allots things equal and unequal each to its own place and integrates an ensemble of parts in accordance with an end. Hence, peace is defined as the tranquillity of order. Just as things have their being from their forms, the order of parts, and their numerical relations, so too their beauty is not something superadded, but the shining out of all their intelligible co-ingredients. S. Aurelii Augustini, Opera Omnia, Migne, PL 32-47; (a critical edition of some works will be found in the Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum, Vienna). Gilson, E., Introd. a l'etude de s. Augustin, (Paris, 1931) contains very good bibliography up to 1927, pp. 309-331. Pope, H., St. Augustine of Hippo, (London, 1937). Chapman, E., St. Augustine's Philos. of Beauty, (N. Y., 1939). Figgis, J. N., The Political Aspects of St. Augustine's "City of God", (London, 1921). --E.C. Authenticity: In a general sense, genuineness, truth according to its title. It involves sometimes a direct and personal characteristic (Whitehead speaks of "authentic feelings"). This word also refers to problems of fundamental criticism involving title, tradition, authorship and evidence. These problems are vital in theology, and basic in scholarship with regard to the interpretation of texts and doctrines. --T.G. Authoritarianism: That theory of knowledge which maintains that the truth of any proposition is determined by the fact of its having been asserted by a certain esteemed individual or group of individuals. Cf. H. Newman, Grammar of Assent; C. S. Peirce, "Fixation of Belief," in Chance, Love and Logic, ed. M. R. Cohen. --A.C.B. Autistic thinking: Absorption in fanciful or wishful thinking without proper control by objective or factual material; day dreaming; undisciplined imagination. --A.C.B. Automaton Theory: Theory that a living organism may be considered a mere machine. See Automatism. Automatism: (Gr. automatos, self-moving) (a) In metaphysics: Theory that animal and human organisms are automata, that is to say, are machines governed by the laws of physics and mechanics. Automatism, as propounded by Descartes, considered the lower animals to be pure automata (Letter to Henry More, 1649) and man a machine controlled by a rational soul (Treatise on Man). Pure automatism for man as well as animals is advocated by La Mettrie (Man, a Machine, 1748). During the Nineteenth century, automatism, combined with epiphenomenalism, was advanced by Hodgson, Huxley and Clifford. (Cf. W. James, The Principles of Psychology, Vol. I, ch. V.) Behaviorism, of the extreme sort, is the most recent version of automatism (See Behaviorism). (b) In psychology: Psychological automatism is the performance of apparently purposeful actions, like automatic writing without the superintendence of the conscious mind. L. C. Rosenfield, From Beast Machine to Man Machine, N. Y., 1941. --L.W. Automatism, Conscious: The automatism of Hodgson, Huxley, and Clifford which considers man a machine to which mind or consciousness is superadded; the mind of man is, however, causally ineffectual. See Automatism; Epiphenomenalism. --L.W. Autonomy: (Gr. autonomia, independence) Freedom consisting in self-determination and independence of all external constraint. See Freedom. Kant defines autonomy of the will as subjection of the will to its own law, the categorical imperative, in contrast to heteronomy, its subjection to a law or end outside the rational will. (Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysics of Morals, § 2.) --L.W. Autonomy of ethics: A doctrine, usually propounded by intuitionists, that ethics is not a part of, and cannot be derived from, either metaphysics or any of the natural or social sciences. See Intuitionism, Metaphysical ethics, Naturalistic ethics. --W.K.F. Autonomy of the will: (in Kant's ethics) The freedom of the rational will to legislate to itself, which constitutes the basis for the autonomy of the moral law. --P.A.S. Autonymy: In the terminology introduced by Carnap, a word (phrase, symbol, expression) is autonymous if it is used as a name for itself --for the geometric shape, sound, etc. which it exemplifies, or for the word as a historical and grammatical unit. Autonymy is thus the same as the Scholastic suppositio matertalis (q. v.), although the viewpoint is different. --A.C. Autotelic: (from Gr. autos, self, and telos, end) Said of any absorbing activity engaged in for its own sake (cf. German Selbstzweck), such as higher mathematics, chess, etc. In aesthetics, applied to creative art and play which lack any conscious reference to the accomplishment of something useful. In the view of some, it may constitute something beneficent in itself of which the person following his art impulse (q.v.) or playing is unaware, thus approaching a heterotelic (q.v.) conception. --K.F.L. Avenarius, Richard: (1843-1896) German philosopher who expressed his thought in an elaborate and novel terminology in the hope of constructing a symbolic language for philosophy, like that of mathematics --the consequence of his Spinoza studies. As the most influential apostle of pure experience, the posltivistic motive reaches in him an extreme position. Insisting on the biologic and economic function of thought, he thought the true method of science is to cure speculative excesses by a return to pure experience devoid of all assumptions. Philosophy is the scientific effort to exclude from knowledge all ideas not included in the given. Its task is to expel all extraneous elements in the given. His uncritical use of the category of the given and the nominalistic view that logical relations are created rather than discovered by thought, leads him to banish not only animism but also all of the categories, substance, causality, etc., as inventions of the mind. Explaining the evolution and devolution of the problematization and deproblematization of numerous ideas, and aiming to give the natural history of problems, Avenarius sought to show physiologically, psychologically and historically under what conditions they emerge, are challenged and are solved. He hypothesized a System C, a bodily and central nervous system upon which consciousness depends. R-values are the stimuli received from the world of objects. E-values are the statements of experience. The brain changes that continually oscillate about an ideal point of balance are termed Vitalerhaltungsmaximum. The E-values are differentiated into elements, to which the sense-perceptions or the content of experience belong, and characters, to which belongs everything which psychology describes as feelings and attitudes. Avenarius describes in symbolic form a series of states from balance to balance, termed vital series, all describing a series of changes in System C. Inequalities in the vital balance give rise to vital differences. According to his theory there are two vital series. It assumes a series of brain changes because parallel series of conscious states can be observed. The independent vital series are physical, and the dependent vital series are psychological. The two together are practically covariants. In the case of a process as a dependent vital series three stages can be noted: first, the appearance of the problem, expressed as strain, restlessness, desire, fear, doubt, pain, repentance, delusion; the second, the continued effort and struggle to solve the problem; and finally, the appearance of the solution, characterized by abating anxiety, a feeling of triumph and enjoyment. Corresponding to these three stages of the dependent series are three stages of the independent series: the appearance of the vital difference and a departure from balance in the System C, the continuance with an approximate vital difference, and lastly, the reduction of the vital difference to zero, the return to stability. By making room for dependent and independent experiences, he showed that physics regards experience as independent of the experiencing indlvidual, and psychology views experience as dependent upon the individual. He greatly influenced Mach and James (q.v.). See Avenarius, Empirio-criticism, Experience, pure. Main works: Kritik der reinen Erfahrung; Der menschliche Weltbegriff. --H.H. Averroes: (Mohammed ibn Roshd) Known to the Scholastics as The Commentator, and mentioned as the author of il gran commento by Dante (Inf. IV. 68) he was born 1126 at Cordova (Spain), studied theology, law, medicine, mathematics, and philosophy, became after having been judge in Sevilla and Cordova, physician to the khalifah Jaqub Jusuf, and charged with writing a commentary on the works of Aristotle. Al-mansur, Jusuf's successor, deprived him of his place because of accusations of unorthodoxy. He died 1198 in Morocco. Averroes is not so much an original philosopher as the author of a minute commentary on the whole works of Aristotle. His procedure was imitated later by Aquinas. In his interpretation of Aristotelian metaphysics Averroes teaches the coeternity of a universe created ex nihilo. This doctrine formed together with the notion of a numerical unity of the active intellect became one of the controversial points in the discussions between the followers of Albert-Thomas and the Latin Averroists. Averroes assumed that man possesses only a disposition for receiving the intellect coming from without; he identifies this disposition with the possible intellect which thus is not truly intellectual by nature. The notion of one intellect common to all men does away with the doctrine of personal immortality. Another doctrine which probably was emphasized more by the Latin Averroists (and by the adversaries among Averroes' contemporaries) is the famous statement about "two-fold truth", viz. that a proposition may be theologically true and philosophically false and vice versa. Averroes taught that religion expresses the (higher) philosophical truth by means of religious imagery; the "two-truth notion" came apparently into the Latin text through a misinterpretation on the part of the translators. The works of Averroes were one of the main sources of medieval Aristotelianlsm, before and even after the original texts had been translated. The interpretation the Latin Averroists found in their texts of the "Commentator" spread in spite of opposition and condemnation. See Averroism, Latin. Averroes, Opera, Venetiis, 1553. M. Horten, Die Metaphysik des Averroes, 1912. P. Mandonnet, Siger de Brabant et l'Averroisme Latin, 2d ed., Louvain, 1911. --R.A. Averroism, Latin: The commentaries on Aristotle written by Averroes (Ibn Roshd) in the 12th century became known to the Western scholars in translations by Michael Scottus, Hermannus Alemannus, and others at the beginning of the 13th century. Many works of Aristotle were also known first by such translations from Arabian texts, though there existed translations from the Greek originals at the same time (Grabmann). The Averroistic interpretation of Aristotle was held to be the true one by many; but already Albert the Great pointed out several notions which he felt to be incompatible with the principles of Christian philosophy, although he relied for the rest on the "Commentator" and apparently hardly used any other text. Aquinas, basing his studies mostly on a translation from the Greek texts, procured for him by William of Moerbecke, criticized the Averroistic interpretation in many points. But the teachings of the Commentator became the foundation for a whole school of philosophers, represented first by the Faculty of Arts at Paris. The most prominent of these scholars was Siger of Brabant. The philosophy of these men was condemned on March 7th, 1277 by Stephen Tempier, Bishop of Paris, after a first condemnation of Aristotelianism in 1210 had gradually come to be neglected. The 219 theses condemned in 1277, however, contain also some of Aquinas which later were generally recognized an orthodox. The Averroistic propositions which aroused the criticism of the ecclesiastic authorities and which had been opposed with great energy by Albert and Thomas refer mostly to the following points: The co-eternity of the created word; the numerical identity of the intellect in all men, the so-called two-fold-truth theory stating that a proposition may be philosophically true although theologically false. Regarding the first point Thomas argued that there is no philosophical proof, either for the co-eternity or against it; creation is an article of faith. The unity of intellect was rejected as incompatible with the true notion of person and with personal immortality. It is doubtful whether Averroes himself held the two-truths theory; it was, however, taught by the Latin Averroists who, notwithstanding the opposition of the Church and the Thomistic philosophers, gained a great influence and soon dominated many universities, especially in Italy. Thomas and his followers were convinced that they interpreted Aristotle correctly and that the Averroists were wrong; one has, however, to admit that certain passages in Aristotle allow for the Averroistic interpretation, especially in regard to the theory of intellect. Lit.: P. Mandonnet, Siger de Brabant et l'Averroisme Latin au XIIIe Siecle, 2d. ed. Louvain, 1911; M. Grabmann, Forschungen über die lateinischen Aristotelesübersetzungen des XIII. Jahrhunderts, Münster 1916 (Beitr. z. Gesch. Phil. d. MA. Vol. 17, H. 5-6). --R.A. Avesta: See Zendavesta. Avicehron: (or Avencebrol, Salomon ibn Gabirol) The first Jewish philosopher in Spain, born in Malaga 1020, died about 1070, poet, philosopher, and moralist. His main work, Fons vitae, became influential and was much quoted by the Scholastics. It has been preserved only in the Latin translation by Gundissalinus. His doctrine of a spiritual substance individualizing also the pure spirits or separate forms was opposed by Aquinas already in his first treatise De ente, but found favor with the medieval Augustinians also later in the 13th century. He also teaches the necessity of a mediator between God and the created world; such a mediator he finds in the Divine Will proceeding from God and creating, conserving, and moving the world. His cosmogony shows a definitely Neo-Platonic shade and assumes a series of emanations. Cl. Baeumker, Avencebrolis Fons vitae. Beitr. z. Gesch. d. Philos. d. MA. 1892-1895, Vol. I. Joh. Wittman, Die Stellung des hl. Thomas von Aquino zu Avencebrol, ibid. 1900. Vol. III. --R.A. Avicenna: (Abu Ali al Hosain ibn Abdallah ibn Sina) Born 980 in the country of Bocchara, began to write in young years, left more than 100 works, taught in Ispahan, was physician to several Persian princes, and died at Hamadan in 1037. His fame as physician survived his influence as philosopher in the Occident. His medical works were printed still in the 17th century. His philosophy is contained in 18 vols. of a comprehensive encyclopedia, following the tradition of Al Kindi and Al Farabi. Logic, Physics, Mathematics and Metaphysics form the parts of this work. His philosophy is Aristotelian with noticeable Neo-Platonic influences. His doctrine of the universal existing ante res in God, in rebus as the universal nature of the particulars, and post res in the human mind by way of abstraction became a fundamental thesis of medieval Aristotelianism. He sharply distinguished between the logical and the ontological universal, denying to the latter the true nature of form in the composite. The principle of individuation is matter, eternally existent. Latin translations attributed to Avicenna the notion that existence is an accident to essence (see e.g. Guilelmus Parisiensis, De Universo). The process adopted by Avicenna was one of paraphrasis of the Aristotelian texts with many original thoughts interspersed. His works were translated into Latin by Dominicus Gundissalinus (Gondisalvi) with the assistance of Avendeath ibn Daud. This translation started, when it became more generally known, the "revival of Aristotle" at the end of the 12th and the beginning of the 13th century. Albert the Great and Aquinas professed, notwithstanding their critical attitude, a great admiration for Avicenna whom the Arabs used to call the "third Aristotle". But in the Orient, Avicenna's influence declined soon, overcome by the opposition of the orthodox theologians. Avicenna, Opera, Venetiis, 1495; l508; 1546. M. Horten, Das Buch der Genesung der Seele, eine philosophische Enzyklopaedie Avicenna's; XIII. Teil: Die Metaphysik. Halle a. S. 1907-1909. R. de Vaux, Notes et textes sur l'Avicennisme Latin, Bibl. Thomiste XX, Paris, 1934. --R.A. Avidya: (Skr.) Nescience; ignorance; the state of mind unaware of true reality; an equivalent of maya (q.v.); also a condition of pure awareness prior to the universal process of evolution through gradual differentiation into the elements and factors of knowledge. --K.F.L. Avyakta: (Skr.) "Unmanifest", descriptive of or standing for brahman (q.v.) in one of its or "his" aspects, symbolizing the superabundance of the creative principle, or designating the condition of the universe not yet become phenomenal (aja, unborn). --K.F.L. Awareness: Consciousness considered in its aspect of act; an act of attentive awareness such as the sensing of a color patch or the feeling of pain is distinguished from the content attended to, the sensed color patch, the felt pain. The psychologlcal theory of intentional act was advanced by F. Brentano (Psychologie vom empirischen Standpunkte) and received its epistemological development by Meinong, Husserl, Moore, Laird and Broad. See Intentionalism. --L.W. Axiological: (Ger. axiologisch) In Husserl: Of or pertaining to value or theory of value (the latter term understood as including disvalue and value-indifference). --D.C. Axiological ethics: Any ethics which makes the theory of obligation entirely dependent on the theory of value, by making the determination of the rightness of an action wholly dependent on a consideration of the value or goodness of something, e.g. the action itself, its motive, or its consequences, actual or probable. Opposed to deontological ethics. See also teleological ethics. --W.K.F. Axiologic Realism: In metaphysics, theory that value as well as logic, qualities as well as relations, have their being and exist external to the mind and independently of it. Applicable to the philosophy of many though not all realists in the history of philosophy, from Plato to G. E. Moore, A. N. Whitehead, and N, Hartmann. --J.K.F. Axiology: (Gr. axios, of like value, worthy, and logos, account, reason, theory). Modern term for theory of value (the desired, preferred, good), investigation of its nature, criteria, and metaphysical status. Had its rise in Plato's theory of Forms or Ideas (Idea of the Good); was developed in Aristotle's Organon, Ethics, Poetics, and Metaphysics (Book Lambda). Stoics and Epicureans investigated the summum bonum. Christian philosophy (St. Thomas) built on Aristotle's identification of highest value with final cause in God as "a living being, eternal, most good." In modern thought, apart from scholasticism and the system of Spinoza (Ethica, 1677), in which values are metaphysically grounded, the various values were investigated in separate sciences, until Kant's Critiques, in which the relations of knowledge to moral, aesthetic, and religious values were examined. In Hegel's idealism, morality, art, religion, and philosophy were made the capstone of his dialectic. R. H. Lotze "sought in that which should be the ground of that which is" (Metaphysik, 1879). Nineteenth century evolutionary theory, anthropology, sociology, psychology, and economics subjected value experience to empirical analysis, and stress was again laid on the diversity and relativity of value phenomena rather than on their unity and metaphysical nature. F. Nietzsche's Also Sprach Zarathustra (1883-1885) and Zur Genealogie der Moral (1887) aroused new interest in the nature of value. F. Brentano, Vom Ursprung sittlicher Erkenntnis (1889), identified value with love. In the twentieth century the term axiology was apparently first applied by Paul Lapie (Logique de la volonte, 1902) and E. von Hartmann (Grundriss der Axiologie, 1908). Stimulated by Ehrenfels (System der Werttheorie, 1897), Meinong (Psychologisch-ethische Untersuchungen zur Werttheorie, 1894-1899), and Simmel (Philosophie des Geldes, 1900). W. M. Urban wrote the first systematic treatment of axiology in English (Valuation, 1909), phenomenological in method under J. M. Baldwin's influence. Meanwhile H. Münsterberg wrote a neo-Fichtean system of values (The Eternal Values, 1909). Among important recent contributions are: B. Bosanquet, The Principle of Individuality and Value (1912), a free reinterpretation of Hegelianism; W. R. Sorley, Moral Values and the Idea of God (1918, 1921), defending a metaphysical theism; S. Alexander, Space, Time, and Deity (1920), realistic and naturalistic; N. Hartmann, Ethik (1926), detailed analysis of types and laws of value; R. B. Perry's magnum opus, General Theory of Value (1926), "its meaning and basic principles construed in terms of interest"; and J. Laird, The Idea of Value (1929), noteworthy for historical exposition. A naturalistic theory has been developed by J. Dewey (Theory of Valuation, 1939), for which "not only is science itself a value . . . but it is the supreme means of the valid determination of all valuations." A. J. Ayer, Language, Truth and Logic (1936) expounds the view of logical positivism that value is "nonsense." J. Hessen, Wertphilosophie (1937), provides an account of recent German axiology from a neo-scholastic standpoint. The problems of axiology fall into four main groups, namely, those concerning (1) the nature of value, (2) the types of value, (3) the criterion of value, and (4) the metaphysical status of value. (1) The nature of value experience. Is valuation fulfillment of desire (voluntarism: Spinoza, Ehrenfels), pleasure (hedonism: Epicurus, Bentham, Meinong), interest (Perry), preference (Martineau), pure rational will (formalism: Stoics, Kant, Royce), apprehension of tertiary qualities (Santayana), synoptic experience of the unity of personality (personalism: T. H. Green, Bowne), any experience that contributes to enhanced life (evolutionism: Nietzsche), or "the relation of things as means to the end or consequence actually reached" (pragmatism, instrumentalism: Dewey). (2) The types of value. Most axiologists distinguish between intrinsic (consummatory) values (ends), prized for their own sake, and instrumental (contributory) values (means), which are causes (whether as economic goods or as natural events) of intrinsic values. Most intrinsic values are also instrumental to further value experience; some instrumental values are neutral or even disvaluable intrinsically. Commonly recognized as intrinsic values are the (morally) good, the true, the beautiful, and the holy. Values of play, of work, of association, and of bodily well-being are also acknowledged. Some (with Montague) question whether the true is properly to be regarded as a value, since some truth is disvaluable, some neutral; but love of truth, regardless of consequences, seems to establish the value of truth. There is disagreement about whether the holy (religious value) is a unique type (Schleiermacher, Otto), or an attitude toward other values (Kant, Höffding), or a combination of the two (Hocking). There is also disagreement about whether the variety of values is irreducible (pluralism) or whether all values are rationally related in a hierarchy or system (Plato, Hegel, Sorley), in which values interpenetrate or coalesce into a total experience. (3) The criterion of value. The standard for testing values is influenced by both psychological and logical theory. Hedonists find the standard in the quantity of pleasure derived by the individual (Aristippus) or society (Bentham). Intuitionists appeal to an ultimate insight into preference (Martineau, Brentano). Some idealists recognize an objective system of rational norms or ideals as criterion (Plato, Windelband), while others lay more stress on rational wholeness and coherence (Hegel, Bosanquet, Paton) or inclusiveness (T. H. Green). Naturalists find biological survival or adjustment (Dewey) to be the standard. Despite differences, there is much in common in the results of the application of these criteria. (4) The metaphysical status of value. What is the relation of values to the facts investigated by natural science (Koehler), of Sein to Sollen (Lotze, Rickert), of human experience of value to reality independent of man (Hegel, Pringle-Pattlson, Spaulding)? There are three main answers: subjectivism (value is entirely dependent on and relative to human experience of it: so most hedonists, naturalists, positivists); logical objectivism (values are logical essences or subsistences, independent of their being known, yet with no existential status or action in reality); metaphysical objectivism (values --or norms or ideals --are integral, objective, and active constituents of the metaphysically real: so theists, absolutists, and certain realists and naturalists like S. Alexander and Wieman). --E.S.B. Axiom: See Mathematics. Axiomatic method: That method of constructing a deductive system consisting of deducing by specified rules all statements of the system save a given few from those given few, which are regarded as axioms or postulates of the system. See Mathematics. --C.A.B. Ayam atma brahma: (Skr.) "This self is brahman", famous quotation from Brhadaranyaka Upanishad 2.5.19, one of many alluding to the central theme of the Upanishads, i.e., the identity of the human and divine or cosmic. --K.F.L.
baconian ::: a. --> Of or pertaining to Lord Bacon, or to his system of philosophy.
Bahya, ben Joseph Ibn Padudah: (c. 1050) Philosopher and ethicist. The title of his work, The Duties of the Heart (Heb. Hobot ha-Leba-bot), indicates its purpose, i.e., to teach ethical conduct. First part demonstrates pure conception of God, unity and attributes. His basic principle of ethics is thankfulness to God, for His creating the wonderful world; the goal of religious ethical conduct is love of God. A second work ascribed to him is the Torot ha-Nefesh, i.e., Doctrines of the Soul, which deals primarily with the soul, but also with other subjects and evinces a strong neo-Platonic strain. See Jewish Philosophy -- M.W.
Baumgarten, Alexander Gottlieb: (1714-1762) A German thinker of the pre-Kantian period and disciple of Christian Wolff whose encyclopaedic work he tried to continue. Among his works the best known is Aesthetica in which he analyzes the problem of beauty regarded by him as recognition of perfection by means of the senses. The name of aesthetics, as the philosophy of beauty and art, was introduced by him for the first time. -- R.B.W.
Being: In early Greek philosophy is opposed either to change, or Becoming, or to Non-Being. According to Parmenides and his disciples of the Eleatic School, everything real belongs to the category of Being, as the only possible object of thought. Essentially the same reasoning applies also to material reality in which there is nothing but Being, one and continuous, all-inclusive and eternal. Consequently, he concluded, the coming into being and passing away constituting change are illusory, for that which is-not cannot be, and that which is cannot cease to be. In rejecting Eleitic monism, the materialists (Leukippus, Democritus) asserted that the very existence of things, their corporeal nature, insofar as it is subject to change and motion, necessarily presupposes the other than Being, that is, Non-Being, or Void. Thus, instead of regarding space as a continuum, they saw in it the very source of discontinuity and the foundation of the atomic structure of substance. Plato accepted the first part of Parmenides' argument. namely, that referring to thought as distinct from matter, and maintained that, though Becoming is indeed an apparent characteristic of everything sensory, the true and ultimate reality, that of Ideas, is changeless and of the nature of Being. Aristotle achieved a compromise among all these notions and contended that, though Being, as the essence of things, is eternal in itself, nevertheless it manifests itself only in change, insofar as "ideas" or "forms" have no existence independent of, or transcendent to, the reality of things and minds. The medieval thinkers never revived the controversy as a whole, though at times they emphasized Being, as in Neo-Platonism, at times Becoming, as in Aristotelianism. With the rise of new interest in nature, beginning with F. Bacon, Hobbes and Locke, the problem grew once more in importance, especially to the rationalists, opponents of empiricism. Spinoza regarded change as a characteristic of modal existence and assumed in this connection a position distantly similar to that of Pinto. Hegel formed a new answer to the problem in declaring that nature, striving to exclude contradictions, has to "negate" them: Being and Non-Being are "moments" of the same cosmic process which, at its foundation, arises out of Being containing Non-Being within itself and leading, factually and logically, to their synthetic union in Becoming. -- R.B.W.
Bentham, Jeremy: (1748-1832) Founder of the English Utilitarian School of Philosophy. In law, he is remembered for his criticism of Blackstone's views of the English constitution, for his examination of the legal fiction and for his treatment of the subject of evidence. In politics, he is most famous for his analysis of the principles of legislation and, in ethics, for his greatest happiness principle. See Hedonic Calculus; Utilitarianism. J. Bentham, Principles of Morals and Legislation, 1789; Outline of a New System of Logic, 1827; Deontology. -- L.E.D.
Berdyayev, Nikolai Alexandrovitch: (1874-1948) Is a contemporary Russian teacher and writer on the philosophy of religion. He was born in Kiev, exiled to Vologda when twenty-five; threatened with expulsion from the Russian Orthodox Church in 1917, he became professor of philosophy at the University of Moscow. In 1922, he was expelled from the Soviet Union and he went to Berlin, where he established his Academy of Religious Philosophy. He moved his school to Paris and established a Russian review called Putj (The Way). His thought resembles that of the Christian Gnostics (see Gnosticism), and it owes a good deal to German idealism and mysticism (Boehme). He is a trenchant critic of systems as diverse as Communism and Thomistic Scholasticism. His most noted works are: Smyisl Istorii (The Meaning of History), Berlin, 1923; Novoye Srednevyekovye (transl. as The End of Our Time, N.Y., 1933), Berlin, 1924; Freedom and the Spirit, N. Y., 1935. V. J. Bourke, "The Gnosticism of N. Berdyaev", Thought, XI (1936), 409-22. -- VJ.B.
berkeleian ::: a. --> Of or relating to Bishop Berkeley or his system of idealism; as, Berkeleian philosophy.
Berkeleianism: The idealistic system of philosophy of George Berkeley (1685-1753). He thought that the admission of an extramental world would lead to materialism and atheism. Hence he denied the existence of an independent world of bodies by teaching that their existence consists in perceptibility, esse is percipi. The cause of the ideas in our mind is not a material substance, but a spiritual being, God, who communicates them to us in a certain order which we call the laws of nature. Things cannot exist unless perceived by some mind. Berkeley acknowledged the existence of other spirits, or minds, besides that of God. -- J.J.R.
Bhagavad Gita: (Skr. the song, gita, of the Blessed One) A famed philosophic epic poem, widely respected in India and elsewhere, representing Krishna embodied as a charioteer imparting to the King Arjuna, who is unwilling to fight his kinsmen in battle, comprehension of the mysteries of existence, clearly indicating the relationship between morality and absolute ethical values in a Hindu philosophy of action. -- K.F.L.
Bhakti: (Skr. division, share) Fervent, loving devotion to the object of contemplation or the divine being itself, the almost universally recognized feeling approach to the highest reality, in contrast to vidya (s.v.) or jnana (s.v.), sanctioned by Indian philosophy and productive of a voluminous literature in which the names of Ramamanda, Vallabha, Nanak, Caitanya, and Tulsi Das are outstanding. It is distinguished as apara (lower) and para (higher) bhakti, the former theistic piety, the latter philosophic meditation on the unmanifest brahman (cf. avyakta). -- K.F.L.
Bhasya: (Skr. speaking) Commentary. Bheda: (Skr. different, distinct) Non-identity, particularly in reference to any philosophy of dualism which recognizes the existence of two opposed principles or admits of a difference between the essentially human and the Absolute. -- K.F.L.
Bhedabheda: (Skr. "different [yet] not different") A philosophy admitting the point of view of bheda (s.v.) as well as that of abheda (s.v.), depending on the mental and spiritual attainment of the person. -- K.F.L.
Blondel, Maurice: (1861-1939) A philosopher in the French "spiritualistic" tradition of Maine de Biran and Boutroux, who in his essays L'action (1893), and Le Proces de l'Intelligence (1922), defended an activistic psychology and metaphysics. "The Philosophy of Action" is a voluntaristic and idealistic philosophy which, as regards the relation of thought to action, seeks to compromise between the extremes of intellectualism and pragmatism. In his more recent book La Pensee (1934), Blondel retains his earlier activistic philosophy combined with a stronger theological emphasis. -- L.W.
Body: Here taken in the sense of the material organized substance of man contrasted with the mind, soul or spirit, thus leading to the problem of the relation between body and mind, one of the most persistent problems of philosophy. Of course, any theory which identifies body and mind, or does not adequately distinguish the psychical from the physical, regarding both as aspects of the same reality, eludes some of the difficulties presented by the problem. Both materialism and idealism may be considered as forms of psycho-physical monism. Materialism by denying the real existence of spiritual beings and reducing mind to a function of matter, and spiritualism, or that species called idealism, which regards bodies simply as contents of consciousness, really evade the main issue. All those, however, who frankly acknowledge the empirically given duality of mind and organism, are obliged to struggle with the problem of the relation between them. The two most noted rival theories attempting an answer are interactionism and parallelism. The first considers both body and mind as substantial beings, influencing each other, hence causally related. The second holds that physical processes and mental processes accompany each other without any interaction or interference whatsoever, consequently they cannot be causally related. The Scholastics advance the doctrine of the human composite consisting of body and soul united into one substance and nature, constituting the human person or self, to whom all actions of which man is capable must be ascribed. There can be no interaction, since there is but one agent, formed of two component elements. This theory, like interactionism, makes provision for survival, even immortality, while parallelism definitely precludes it. No known theory can meet all objections and prove entirely satisfactory; the problem still persists. See Descartes, Spinoza, Mind. -- J.J.R.
Bolzano, Bernard: (1781-1848) Austrian philosopher and mathematician. Professor of the philosophy of religion at Prague, 1805-1820, he was compelled to resign in the latter year because of his rationalistic tendencies in theology and afterwards held no academic position. His Wissenschaftslehre of 1837, while it is to be classed as a work on traditional logic, contains significant anticipations of many ideas which have since become important in symbolic logic and mathematics. In his posthumously published Paradoxien des Unendlitchen (1851) he appears as a forerunner in some respects of Cantor's theory of transfinite numbers. -- A.C.
Bonaventure, St.: (1221 -1274) Was born at Bagnorea, near Viterbo, and his name originally was John of Fidanza. He joined the Franciscans in 1238, studied at the Univ. of Paris under Alexander of Hales, and took his licentiate in 1248. He taught theology in Paris for seven years and received his doctorate in 1257. In this year he was made Superior-General of his Order and he taught no more. His chief works are Commentaria in IV L. Sententiarum, Itinerarium mentis in Deum, Quaestiones Disputatae (Opera Omnia, ed crit., 10 vol. Quaracchi, 1882-1902). His philosophy is Augustinian, with some Aristotelian modifications in his theory of intellection and matter and form. But his Divine Exemplarism, Illumination theory, and tendency to stress the psychological importance of the human will, derive from St Augustine. E. Gilson, La philosophie de S. Bonaventure (Paris, 1924-). -- V.J.B.
Boodin, John Elof: American philosopher born in Sweden in 1869 who emigrated in 1886 to the United States. Studied at the Universities of Colorado, Minnesota, Brown and especially Harvard under Royce with whom he kept a life-long friendship though he was opposed to his idealism. His works (Time and Reality, 1904 -- Truth and Reality, 1912 -- A Realistic Universe, 1916 -- Cosmic Evolution, 1925 -- Three Interpretations of the Universe, 1934 -- God, 1935 -- The Social Mind, 1940) form practically a complete system. His philosophy takes the form of a cosmic idealism, though he was interested for a time in certain aspects of pragmatism. It grew gradually from his early studies when he developed a new concept of a real and non-serial time. The structure of the cosmos is that of a hierarchy of fields, as exemplified in physics, in organisms, in consciousness and in society. The interpenetration of the mental fields makes possible human knowledge and social intercourse. Reality as such possesses five attributes: being (the dynamic stuff of all complexes, the active energy), time (the ground of change and transformation), space (which accounts for extension), consciousness (active awareness which lights up reality in spots; it becomes the self when conative tendencies cooperate as one active group), and form (the ground of organization and structure which conditions selective direction). God is the spirit of the whole. -- T.G.J Boole, George: (1815-1864) English mathematician. Professor of mathematics at Queen's College, Cork, 1849-1864. While he made contributions to other branches of mathematics, he is now remembered primarily as the founder of the Nineteenth Century algebra of logic and through it of modern symbolic logic. His Mathematical Analysis of Logic appeared in 1847 and the fuller Laws of Thought in 1854. -- A.C.
Boutroux, E.: (1845-1921) Teacher of Bergson and M. Blondel, is best known for his defense of radical contingency and indeterminacy in metaphysics. Influenced by French "spiritualism" stemming from Maine de Biran, Boutroux was critical of the current psychological and sociological treatment of religious experience. Main works: Contingency of the Laws of Nature (tr. 1920); Philosophy and War (tr. 1916); Science et religion, 1908. -- L.W.
Bowne, Borden Parker: (1847-1910) His influence was not merely confined to the theological world of his religious communion as a teacher of philosophy at Boston University. His philosophy was conspicuous for the combination of theism with an idealistic view which he termed "Personalism" (q.v.). He mainly discussed issues of philosophy which had a bearing on religion, ethics, and epistemology. Main works: Metaphysics, 1882; Philosophy of Theism, 1887; Theory of Thought and Knowledge, 1897; Personalism, 1908; Kant and Spencer, 1912. -- H.H.
Philosophy ::: All philosophy is concerned with the relations between two things, the fundamental truth of existence and the forms in which existence presents itself to our experience.
Ref: CWSA Vol. 13, Page: 106
Philosophy is only a way of formulating to ourselves intellectually in their essential significance the psychological and physical facts of existence and their relation to any ultimate reality that may exist.
Ref: CWSA Vol. 19, Page: 253
(b) Physics: In Greek philosophy, the ultimate principles of nature and change were contraries: e.g. love-strife; motion-rest; potentiality-actuality. All motion is between contraries. See Heraclitus, Empedodes, Aristotle. -- L.M.H.
Bradley, Francis Herbert: (1846-1924) Dialectician extraordinary of British philosophy, Bradley sought to purge contemporary thought of the extremely sensationalistic and utilitarian elements embodied in the tradition of empiricism. Though owing much to Hegel, he early repudiated the Hegelian system as such, and his own variety of Absolute Idealism bases itself upon no scheme of categories. His brilliant attack upon the inadequate assumptions of hedonistic ethics (Ethical Studies, 1877) was followed in 1883 by The Principles of Logic in which his dialectic analysis was applied to the problems of inference and judgment. It was, however, his Appearance and Reality (1893) with its famous theory of "the degrees of truth" which first disturbed the somnambulism of modern metaphysics, and led Caird to remark upon "the greatest thing since Kant". In later years Bradley's growing realization of ultimate difficulties in his version of the coherence theory led him to modify his doctrines in the direction of a Platonic mysticism. See Essays on Truth and Reality, the second edition of the Logic Collected Essays, etc. -- W.S.W.
Brahmasutra (Brahma Sutras) ::: [a well-known aphoristic work treating of the brahman; it is one of the main texts of the vedanta philosophy; also called Vedanta-sutra].
brahma sutras. ::: a treatise by Vyasa on vedanta philosophy in the form of aphorisms
Brahmasutras: (Skr.) An aphoristic compilation of Badarayana's, systematizing the philosophy of the Upanishads (q.v.). -- K.F.L.
brahmavada ::: [the gospel of the brahman], the Vedantic philosophy [as opposed to the vedavada].
Brain: According to Aristotle, it is a cooling organ of the body. Early in the history of philosophy, it was regarded as closely connected with consciousness and with activities of the soul. Descartes contended that mind-body relations are centered in the pineal gland located between the two hemispheres of the brain. Cabanis, a sensualistic materialist, believed that the brain produces consciousness in a manner similar to that in which the liver produces the bile. Many have sought to identify it with the seat of the soul. Today consciousness is recognized to be a much more complex phenomenon controlled by the entire nervous system, rather than by any part of the brain, and influenced by the bodily metabolism in general. -- R.B.W.
Brouwer, Luitzen Egbertus Jan: (1881-) Dutch mathematician. Professor of mathematics at the University of Amsterdam, 1912-. Besides his work in topology, he is known for important contributions to the philosophy and foundations of mathematics. See Mathematics and Intuitionism (mathematical)). -- A.C.
Bruno, Giordano: (1548-1600) A Dominican monk, eventually burned at the stake because of his opinions, he was converted from Christianity to a naturalistic and mystical pantheism by the Renaissance and particularly by the new Copernican astronomy. For him God and the universe were two names for one and the same Reality considered now as the creative essence of all things, now as the manifold of realized possibilities in which that essence manifests itself. As God, natura naturans, the Real is the whole, the one transcendent and ineffable. As the Real is the infinity of worlds and objects and events into which the whole divides itself and in which the one displays the infinite potentialities latent within it. The world-process is an ever-lasting going forth from itself and return into itself of the divine nature. The culmination of the outgoing creative activity is reached in the human mind, whose rational, philosophic search for the one in the many, simplicity in variety, and the changeless and eternal in the changing and temporal, marks also the reverse movement of the divine nature re-entering itself and regaining its primordial unity, homogeneity, and changelessness. The human soul, being as it were a kind of boomerang partaking of the ingrowing as well as the outgrowing process, may hope at death, not to be dissolved with the body, which is borne wholly upon the outgoing stream, but to return to God whence it came and to be reabsorbed in him. Cf. Rand, Modern Classical Philosophers, selection from Bruno's On Cause, The Principle and the One. G. Bruno: De l'infinito, universo e mundo, 1584; Spaccio della bestia trionfante, 1584; La cena delta ceneri, 1584; Deglieroici furori, 1585; De Monade, 1591. Cf. R. Honigswald, Giordano Bruno; G. Gentile, Bruno nella storia della cultura, 1907. -- B.A.G.F. Brunschvicg, Leon: (1869-) Professor of Philosophy at the Ecole Normale in Paris. Dismissed by the Nazis (1941). His philosophy is an idealistic synthesis of Spinoza, Kant and Schelling with special stress on the creative role of thought in cultural history as well as in sciences. Main works: Les etapes de la philosophie mathematique, 1913; L'experience humaine et la causalite physique, 1921; De la connaissance de soi, 1931. Buddhism: The multifarious forms, philosophic, religious, ethical and sociological, which the teachings of Gautama Buddha (q.v.) have produced. They centre around the main doctrine of the catvari arya-satyani(q.v.), the four noble truths, the last of which enables one in eight stages to reach nirvana (q.v.): Right views, right resolve, right speech, right conduct, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration. In the absence of contemporary records of Buddha and Buddhistic teachings, much value was formerly attached to the palm leaf manuscripts in Pali, a Sanskrit dialect; but recently a good deal of weight has been given also the Buddhist tradition in Sanskrit, Tibetan, and Chinese. Buddhism split into Mahayanism and Hinayanism (q.v.), each of which, but particularly the former, blossomed into a variety of teachings and practices. The main philosophic schools are the Madhyamaka or Sunyavada, Yogacara, Sautrantika, and Vaibhasika (q.v.). The basic assumptions in philosophy are a causal nexus in nature and man, of which the law of karma (q.v.) is but a specific application; the impermanence of things, and the illusory notion of substance and soul. Man is viewed realistically as a conglomeration of bodily forms (rupa), sensations (vedana), ideas (sanjna), latent karma (sanskaras), and consciousness (vijnana). The basic assumptions in ethics are the universality of suffering and the belief in a remedy. There is no god; each one may become a Buddha, an enlightened one. Also in art and esthetics Buddhism has contributed much throughout the Far East. -- K.F.L.
B. Russell, Introduction to Mathematical Philosophy, London, 1919.
B. Russell, Scientific Method in Philosophy, 1914.
B. Russell, The Problems of Philosophy, 1912.
"But the role of subliminal forces cannot be said to be small, since from there come all the greater aspirations, ideals, strivings towards a better self and better humanity without which man would be only a thinking animal — as also most of the art, poetry, philosophy, thirst for knowledge which relieve, if they do not yet dispel, the ignorance.” Letters on Yoga*
“But the role of subliminal forces cannot be said to be small, since from there come all the greater aspirations, ideals, strivings towards a better self and better humanity without which man would be only a thinking animal—as also most of the art, poetry, philosophy, thirst for knowledge which relieve, if they do not yet dispel, the ignorance.” Letters on Yoga
"But the Titan will have nothing of all this; it is too great and subtle for his comprehension. His instincts call for a visible, tangible mastery and a sensational domination. How shall he feel sure of his empire unless he can feel something writhing helpless under his heel, — if in agony, so much the better? What is exploitation to him, unless it diminishes the exploited? To be able to coerce, exact, slay, overtly, irresistibly, — it is this that fills him with the sense of glory and dominion. For he is the son of division and the strong flowering of the Ego. To feel the comparative limitation of others is necessary to him that he may imagine himself immeasurable; for he has not the real, self-existent sense of infinity which no outward circumstance can abrogate. Contrast, division, negation of the wills and lives of others are essential to his self-development and self-assertion. The Titan would unify by devouring, not by harmonising; he must conquer and trample what is not himself either out of existence or into subservience so that his own image may stand out stamped upon all things and dominating all his environment.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
Calkins, Mary Whiton: (1863-1930) Professor of Philosophy at Wellesley College with which institution she was associated from 1891. She advanced an objective idealism of the Roycean character, styling her views as absolutistic personalism. She endeavored to find psychological justification for her views in the gestalt theory. Her works were in both fields of her interest: An Introduction to Psychology, The Persistent Problems of Philosophy, The Good Man and the Good, among others. -- L.E.D.
call ::: “All Yoga is in its nature a new birth; it is a birth out of the ordinary, the mentalised material life of man into a higher spiritual consciousness and a greater and diviner being. No Yoga can be successfully undertaken and followed unless there is a strong awakening to the necessity of that larger spiritual existence. The soul that is called to this deep and vast inward change, may arrive in different ways to the initial departure. It may come to it by its own natural development which has been leading it unconsciously towards the awakening; it may reach it through the influence of a religion or the attraction of a philosophy; it may approach it by a slow illumination or leap to it by a sudden touch or shock; it may be pushed or led to it by the pressure of outward circumstances or by an inward necessity, by a single word that breaks the seals of the mind or by long reflection, by the distant example of one who has trod the path or by contact and daily influence. According to the nature and the circumstances the call will come.” The Synthesis of Yoga
call ::: Sri Aurobindo: "All Yoga is in its nature a new birth; it is a birth out of the ordinary, the mentalised material life of man into a higher spiritual consciousness and a greater and diviner being. No Yoga can be successfully undertaken and followed unless there is a strong awakening to the necessity of that larger spiritual existence. The soul that is called to this deep and vast inward change, may arrive in different ways to the initial departure. It may come to it by its own natural development which has been leading it unconsciously towards the awakening; it may reach it through the influence of a religion or the attraction of a philosophy; it may approach it by a slow illumination or leap to it by a sudden touch or shock; it may be pushed or led to it by the pressure of outward circumstances or by an inward necessity, by a single word that breaks the seals of the mind or by long reflection, by the distant example of one who has trod the path or by contact and daily influence. According to the nature and the circumstances the call will come.” *The Synthesis of Yoga
CALL. ::: The soul may arrive in different ways to the initial departure. It may come to it by its own natural development which has been leading it unconsciously towards the awaken- ing ; it may reach it through (he influence of a religion or the attraction of a philosophy ; it may approach it by a slow illumi- nation or leap to it by the pressure of outward circumstances or by an inward necessity, by a single word that breaks the seals of the mind or by long reflection, by the distant example of one who has trod the path or by contact and daily influence.
Cambridge School: A term loosely applied to English philosophers who have been influenced by the teachings of Professor G. E. Moore (mainly in unpublished lectures delivered at the Cambridge University, 1911-1939). In earlier years Moore stressed the need to accept the judgments of "common sense" on such matters as the existence of other persons, of an "external world", etc. The business of the analytical philosopher was not to criticise such judgments but to display the structure of the facts to which they referred. (Cf. "A defense of common-sense in philosophy," Contemporary British Philosophy, 2 (1925) -- Moore's only discussion of the method.) Such analysis would be directional, terminating in basic or atomic facts, all of whose constituents might be known by acquaintance. The examples discussed were taken largely from the field of epistemology, turning often about the problem of the relation of material objects to sense-data, and of indirect to direct knowledge. In this earlier period problems were often suggested by Russell's discussion of descriptions and logical constructions. The inconclusiveness of such specific discussions and an increasingly critical awareness of the functions of language in philosophical analysis has in later years tended to favor more flexible interpretations of the nature of analysis. (Cf. M. Black, "Relations Between Logical Positivism and the Cambridge School of Analysis", Journal of Unified Science (Erkenntnis), 8, 24-35 for a bibliography and list of philosophers who have been most influenced by emphasis on directional analysis.) -- M.B.
Capacity:Any ability, potentiality, power or talent possessed by anything, either to act or to suffer. It may be innate or acquired, dormant or active. The topic of capacity figures, in the main, in two branches of philosophy: (a) in metaphysics, as in Aristotle's discussion of potentiality and actuality, (b) in ethics, where an agent's capacities are usually regarded as having some bearing on the question as to what his duties are. -- W.K.F.
Carlyle, Thomas: (1795-1881) Vigorous Scotch historian and essayist, apostle of work. He was a deep student of the German idealists and did much to bring them before English readers. His forceful style showed marked German characteristics. He was not in any sense a systematic philosopher but his keen mind gave wide influence to the ideas he advanced in ethics, politics and economics. His whimsical Sartor Resartus or philosophy of clothes and his searching Heroes and Hero-worship, remain his most popular works along with his French Revolution and Past and Present. He was among the Victorians who displayed some measure of distrust for democracy. -- L.E.D.
Carnap, Rudolf: (1891-) successively Privatdozent at the University of Vienna, Professor of Philosophy at the German University of Prague, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Chicago (since 1936); one of the leading representatives of the positivism of the Vienna Circle and subsequently of Scientific Empiricism (q.v.); co-editor of The Journal of Unified Science (previously: Erkenntnis).
Carnap's work has been devoted especially to formal logic and its applications to problems of epistemology and the philosophy of science. His writings in formal logic include a textbook of mathematical logic and a comprehensive monograph devoted to logical syntax, a new branch of logical research to whose development Carnap has greatly contributed.
Carneades: (c. 215-125 B.C.) The most prominent head of the Middle Academy and opponent of the Stoics. His most noteworthy contribution to philosophy consisted in the doctrine of logical probabilism as a basis of scepticism. -- R.B.W.
cartesian ::: a. --> Of or pertaining to the French philosopher Rene Descartes, or his philosophy. ::: n. --> An adherent of Descartes.
cartesianism ::: n. --> The philosophy of Descartes.
Cartesianism: The philosophy of the French thinker, Rene Descartes (Cartesius) 1596-1650. After completing his formal education at the Jesuit College at La Fleche, he spent the years 1612-1621 in travel and military service. The reminder of his life was devoted to study and writing. He died in Sweden, where he had gone in 1649 to tutor Queen Christina. His principal works are: Discours de la methode, (preface to his Geometric, Meteores, Dieptrique) Meditationes de prima philosophia, Principia philosophiae, Passions de l'ame, Regulae ad directionem ingenii, Le monde. Descartes is justly regarded as one of the founders of modern epistemology. Dissatisfied with the lack of agreement among philosophers, he decided that philosophy needed a new method, that of mathematics. He began by resolving to doubt everything which could not pass the test of his criterion of truth, viz. the clearness and distinctness of ideas. Anything which could pass this test was to be readmitted as self-evident. From self-evident truths, he deduced other truths which logically follow from them. Three kinds of ideas were distinguished: innate, by which he seems to mean little more than the mental power to think things or thoughts; adventitious, which come to him from without; factitious, produced within his own mind. He found most difficulty with the second type of ideas. The first reality discovered through his method is the thinking self. Though he might doubt nearly all else, Descartes could not reasonably doubt that he, who was thinking, existed as a res cogitans. This is the intuition enunciated in the famous aphorism: I think, therefore I am, Cogito ergo sum. This is not offered by Descartes as a compressed syllogism, but as an immediate intuition of his own thinking mind. Another reality, whose existence was obvious to Descartes, was God, the Supreme Being. Though he offered several proofs of the Divine Existence, he was convinced that he knew this also by an innate idea, and so, clearly and distinctly. But he did not find any clear ideas of an extra-mental, bodily world. He suspected its existence, but logical demonstration was needed to establish this truth. His adventitious ideas carry the vague suggestion that they are caused by bodies in an external world. By arguing that God would be a deceiver, in allowing him to think that bodies exist if they do not, he eventually convinced himself of the reality of bodies, his own and others. There are, then, three kinds of substance according to Descartes: Created spirits, i.e. the finite soul-substance of each man: these are immaterial agencies capable of performing spiritual operations, loosely united with bodies, but not extended since thought is their very essence. Uncreated Spirit, i.e. God, confined neither to space nor time, All-Good and All-Powerful, though his Existence can be known clearly, his Nature cannot be known adequately by men on earth, He is the God of Christianity, Creator, Providence and Final Cause of the universe. Bodies, i.e. created, physical substances existing independently of human thought and having as their chief attribute, extension. Cartesian physics regards bodies as the result of the introduction of "vortices", i.e. whorls of motion, into extension. Divisibility, figurability and mobility, are the notes of extension, which appears to be little more thin what Descartes' Scholastic teachers called geometrical space. God is the First Cause of all motion in the physical universe, which is conceived as a mechanical system operated by its Maker. Even the bodies of animals are automata. Sensation is the critical problem in Cartesian psychology; it is viewed by Descartes as a function of the soul, but he was never able to find a satisfactory explanation of the apparent fact that the soul is moved by the body when sensation occurs. The theory of animal spirits provided Descartes with a sort of bridge between mind and matter, since these spirits are supposed to be very subtle matter, halfway, as it were, between thought and extension in their nature. However, this theory of sensation is the weakest link in the Cartesian explanation of cognition. Intellectual error is accounted for by Descartes in his theory of assent, which makes judgment an act of free will. Where the will over-reaches the intellect, judgment may be false. That the will is absolutely free in man, capable even of choosing what is presented by the intellect as the less desirable of two alternatives, is probably a vestige of Scotism retained from his college course in Scholasticism. Common-sense and moderation are the keynotes of Descartes' famous rules for the regulation of his own conduct during his nine years of methodic doubt, and this ethical attitude continued throughout his life. He believed that man is responsible ultimately to God for the courses of action that he may choose. He admitted that conflicts may occur between human passions and human reason. A virtuous life is made possible by the knowledge of what is right and the consequent control of the lower tendencies of human nature. Six primary passions are described by Descartes wonder, love, hatred, desire, joy and sorrow. These are passive states of consciousness, partly caused by the body, acting through the animal spirits, and partly caused by the soul. Under rational control, they enable the soul to will what is good for the body. Descartes' terminology suggests that there are psychological faculties, but he insists that these powers are not really distinct from the soul itself, which is man's sole psychic agency. Descartes was a practical Catholic all his life and he tried to develop proofs of the existence of God, an explanation of the Eucharist, of the nature of religious faith, and of the operation of Divine Providence, using his philosophy as the basis for a new theology. This attempted theology has not found favor with Catholic theologians in general.
Cassirer, Ernst: (1874-) Has been chiefly interested in developing the position of the neo-Kantian Philosophy of the Marburg School as it relates to scientific knowledge. Looking at the history of modern philosophy as a progressive formulation of this position, he has sought to extend it by detailed analyses of contemporary scientific developments. Of note are Cassirer's investigations in mathematics, his early consideration of chemical knowledge, and his treatment of Einstein's relativity theory. Main works: Das Erkenntntsprobleme, 3 vols. (1906); Substanz-u-Funktionsbegriff, 1910 (tr. Substance and Function); Philosophie der Symbolischen Forme (1923); Phanom. der Erkenntnis, 1929; Descartes; Leibniz. -- C.K.D.
Cause: (Lat. causa) Anything responsible for change, motion or action. In the history of philosophy numerous interpretations were given to the term. Aristotle distinguished among the material cause, or that out of which something arises, the formal cause, that is, the pattern or essence determining the creation of a thing, the efficient cause, or the force or agent producing an effect; and the final cause, or purpose. Many thinkers spoke also of the first cause, usually conceived as God. During the Renaissance, with the development of scientific interest in nature, cause was usually conceived as an object. Today, it is generally interpteted as energy or action, whether or not connected with matter. According to Newton, "to the same natural effects we must, as far as possible, assign the same causes." But J. S. Mill contended, in his doctrine of the plurality of causes, that an effect, or a kind of effect (e.g. heat or death) may be produced by various causes. The first clear formulation of the principle was given by Leukippus "Nothing happens without a ground but everything through a cause and of necessity." -- R.B.W.
"Certainly, ideals are not the ultimate Reality, for that is too high and vast for any ideal to envisage; they are aspects of it thrown out in the world-consciousness as a basis for the workings of the world-power. But they are primary, the actual workings secondary. They are nearer to the Reality and therefore always more real, forcible and complete than the facts which are their partial reflection.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
“Certainly, ideals are not the ultimate Reality, for that is too high and vast for any ideal to envisage; they are aspects of it thrown out in the world-consciousness as a basis for the workings of the world-power. But they are primary, the actual workings secondary. They are nearer to the Reality and therefore always more real, forcible and complete than the facts which are their partial reflection.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
Cf. B. Russell, Scientific Method in Philosophy; Lewis Carroll, "Achilles and the Tortoise," Mind.
Change, Philosophy of: (a) Any philosophical doctrine dealing with the subject of change, e.g., Aristotle's philosophy of change, (b) any philosophy which makes change an essential or pervasive character of reality, e.g., the philosophies of Heraclitus and Bergson. -- W.K.F.
Ch'ang sheng: (a) Everlasting existence, such as that of Heaven and Earth, because of their "not existing for themselves." (Lao Tzu). (b) Long life, as a result of the nourishment of the soul and rich accumulation of virtue. (Taoist philosophy), (c) Immortality, to be achieved through internal alchemy and external alchemy (lien tan). (Taoist religion). -- W.T.C.
Ch'an wei: Prognostics in 300 B.C.-400 A.D., a system represented by a group of prophetic writings called ch'an and a group of apocryphal "complements" or "woofs" to the Confucian classics, called wei, in an attempt to interpret the classics in terms of medieval Chinese theology, the theory of correspondence between man and the universe, and the Yin Yang philosophy. (Tung Chung-shu, 177-104 B.C., etc.). -- W.T.C.
Chinese Philosophy: Confucianism and Taoism have been the dual basis of Chinese thought, with Buddhism presenting a strong challenge in medieval times. The former two, the priority of either of which is still controversial, rivaled each other from the very beginning to the present day. Taoism (tao chia) opposed nature to man, glorifying Tao or the Way, spontaneity (tzu jan), "inaction" (wu wei) in the sense of non-artificiality or following nature, simplicity (p'u), "emptiness," tranquillity and enlightenment, all dedicated to the search for "long life and lasting vision" (in the case of Lao Tzu, 570 B.C.?), for "preserving life and keeping the essence of our being intact" (in the case of Yang Chu, c. 440-360 B.C.), and for "companionship with nature" (in the case of Chuang Tzu, between 399 and 295 B.C.). The notes of the "equality of things and opinions" (ch'i wu) and the "spontaneous and unceasing transformation of things" (tzu hua) were particularly stressed in Chuang Tzu.
Ch'ing (dynasty) philosophy: See li hsueh and Chinese philosophy. -- W.T.C Ching shen: The spirit and soul of man, or "the vital force (ch'i) and the keeper of life of man," which is endowed by Heaven as against the physical form which is endowed by Earth. (Huai-nan Tzu, d. 122 B.C.) -- W.T.C.
Chin: Metal, one of the Five Agents or Elements. And fourth centuries B.C. where scholars (including Shen Tao, Tsou Yen) gathered under official patronage to write on and to freely discuss philosophy and politics. Seat of learning and freedom of thought at the time, which was called Ch'i Hsueh. -- W.T.C Chin: Metal, one of the Five Agents or Elements. See wu hsing. -- W.T.C.
Chiu: Duration, or "what reaches to different times," or "what unites past and present, morning and evening." (Neo-Mohism.) -- W.T.C Chiu ch'ou: The Nine Categories of the Grand Norm (hung fan) of ancient Confucian philosophy, consisting of the Five Elements (wu hsing), the reverent practice of the five functions (of personal appearance, speech, vision, hearing, and thought), the intensive application of the eight governmental measures, the harmonious use of the five regulations of time, the establishment of the royal standard, the orderly practice of the three virtues, the intelligent practice of divination, the thoughtful following of various indications, and the rewarding with five kinds of good and punishment with six forms of evil. -- W.T.C.
Chu Hsi: (Chu Hui-an, Chu Yiian-hui, Chu Chung-hui, 1130-1200) Early distinguished himself as a patriot-scholar, having repeatedly petitioned the emperor to practice the principles of "investigation of things" and "extension of knowledge" and not to make peace with the invading enemy. But he preferred a life of peace and poverty, accepted a number of government appointments with a great deal of reluctance. His lectures at the White Deer Grotto attracted all prominent scholars of the time. The works of this leader of Neo-Confucianism (li hsueh) include the Chu Tzu Ch'uan-shu ("Complete Works," really Selected Works, partial English transl. by J. P. Bruce: The Philosophy of Human Nature by Chu Hsi) of 66 Chinese chuans in 25 volumes and the Yu Lei (Sayings Arranged by Topics) of 140 chuans in 40 volumes. -- W.T.C.
Cicero: (Marcus Tullius, 106-43 B.C.) Famous for his eclectic exposition of general scientific knowledge and philosophy, by which he aimed to arouse an appreciation of Greek culture in the minds of his countrymen, the Romans. -- M.F.
Citta: (Skr.) In the philosophy of the Yogasutras (q.v.) the phenomenal form of mind as the first creation of prakrti (q.v.) which is differentiated into mental states (vrttis), such as true and false knowledge, imagination, memory, sleep. These states being of the active, need restraining (citta-vrtti nirodha; cf. Yoga) in order to have the true and abiding nature of self (purusa) come into its own. -- K.F.L.
Class struggle: Fundamental in Marxian social thought, this term signifies the conflict between classes (q.v.) which, according to the theory of historical materialism (see the entry, Dialectical materialism) may and usually does take place in all aspects of social life, and which has existed ever since the passing of primitive communism (q.v.). The class struggle is considered basic to the dynamics of history in the sense that a widespread change in technics, or a fuller utilization of them, which necessitates changes in economic relations and, in turn, in the social superstructure, is championed and carried through by classes which stand to gain from the change. The economic aspects of the class struggle under capitalism manifest themselves most directly, Marx held, in disputes over amount of wages, rate of profits, rate of interest, amount of rent, length of working day, conditions of work and like matters. The Marxist position is that the class struggle enters into philosophy, politics, law, morals, art, religion and other cultural institutions and fields in various ways, either directly or indirectly, and, in respect to the people involved, consciously or unconsciously, willingly or unwillingly. In any case the specific content of any such field or institution at a given time it held to have a certain effect upon a given class in its conflicts with other classes, weakening or aiding it. Marxists believe that certain kinds of literature or art may inspire people with a lively sense of the need and possibility of a radical change in social relations, or, on the contrary, with a sense of lethargy or complacency, and that various moral, religious or philosophical doctrines may operate to persuade a given class that it should accept its lot without complaint or its privileges without qualms, or may operate to persuade it of the contrary. The Marxist view is that every field or institution has a history, an evolution, and that this evolution is the result of the play of conflicting forces entering into the field, which forces are connected, in one way or another, with class conflicts. While it is thus held that the class struggle involves all cultural fields, it is not held that any cultural production or phenomenon, selected or delimited at random, can be correlated in a one-to-one fashion with an equally delimited class interest. -- J.M.S.
Cohen, Morris Raphael: (1880-) Emeritus Professor of Philosophy of the College of the City of New York. His contributions have been many in the fields of social, political and legal philosophy. He describes his view in general as realistic rationalism, a view that emphasizes the importance of intellect or reason as applied to what is, rather than in vacuo. He has found the principle of polarity a fruitful means of resolving antinomies. His best known works are Reason and Nature and Law and the Social Order. -- L.E.D.
coherency ::: n. --> A sticking or cleaving together; union of parts of the same body; cohesion.
Connection or dependence, proceeding from the subordination of the parts of a thing to one principle or purpose, as in the parts of a discourse, or of a system of philosophy; consecutiveness.
Collective and Distributive Properties: A general term is taken in its collective sense when what is predicated of its applies to its designation as a whole, rather than to each of the individual members belonging to it; the distributive properties are those that apply only in the latter way. Colligation: (Lat. con + ligare, to bind) The assimilation of a number of separately observed facts to a unified conception or formula. The term was introduced by Whewcll who gives the eximple of the idea of an eliptical orbit which "unifies all observations made on the positions of a planet" (see Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences, I Aphorism 1). J. S. Mill appropriates the term and carefully differentiates it from induction: whereas colligation is a simple "description" of observed facts, induction is an extension to the unknown and to the future. See Logic, III, ii, § 4. -- L.W.
Compossibility: Those things are compossible in Leibniz's philosophy which are literally "co-possible," i.e., which may exist together, which belong to the same possible world. Since metaphysical possibility means for Leibniz simply the absence of contradiction, two or more things are compossible if, and only if, their joint ascription to a single world involves no contradiction. All possible worlds are held by Leibniz to have general laws analogous to those of our own actual world. Compossibility for any set of things, consequently, involves their capacity to be brought under one and the same general system of laws. That this last provision is important follows from the fact that Leibniz affirmed all simple predicates to be compatible. -- F.L.W.
comtism ::: n. --> Positivism; the positive philosophy. See Positivism.
Conatus: The drive, force, or urge possessed by a thing which is directed towards the preservation of its own being. Since, for Spinoza, all things are animated, the term is used by him in a broader meaning than that accorded it, for example, in the Stoic philosophy. Spinoza maintains that there is no conatus for self-destruction (Ethica, III, 4; see also IV, 20 Schol., etc.); rather, the conatus relates to a thing's "power of existence", and he thus speaks of it as a kind of amour propre (natuurlyke Liefde) which characterizes a specific thing. See Short Tr., App. H. -- W.S.W.
Conscientialism: (Lat. conscientia + al, pertaining to conscience) Originally denoting simple consciousness without ethical bearing, the term conscience came in modern times to mean in contrast to consciousness, viewed either as a purely intellectual function or as a generic term for mind, a function of distinguishing between right and wrong. With the rise of Christianity the term came to be described as an independent source of moral insight, and with the rise of modern philosophy it became an inner faculty, an innate, primeval thing. -- H.H.
consequence ::: “ Karma is nothing but the will of the Spirit in action, consequence nothing but the creation of will. What is in the will of being, expresses itself in karma and consequence. When the will is limited in mind, karma appears as a bondage and a limitation, consequence as a reaction or an imposition. But when the will of the being is infinite in the spirit, karma and consequence become instead the joy of the creative spirit, the construction of the eternal mechanist, the word and drama of the eternal poet, the harmony of the eternal musician, the play of the eternal child.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
Considers all human experience an historical experience, philosophy being the methodology of history.
corpuscularian ::: a. --> Corpuscular. ::: n. --> An adherent of the corpuscular philosophy.
Cosmology: A branch of philosophy which treats of the origin and structure of the universe. It is to be contrasted with ontology or metaphysics, the study of the most general features of reality, natural and supernatural, and with the philosophy of nature, which investigates the basic laws, processes and divisions of the objects in nature. It is perhaps impossible to draw or maintain a sharp distinction between these different subjects, and treatises which profess to deal with one of them usually contain considerable material on the others. Encyclopedia, section 35), are the contingency, necessity, eternity, limitations and formal laws of the world, the freedom of man and the origin of evil. Most philosophers would add to the foregoing the question of the nature and interrelationship of space and time, and would perhaps exclude the question of the nature of freedom and the origin of evil as outside the province of cosmology. The method of investigation has usually been to accept the principles of science or the results of metaphysics and develop the consequences. The test of a cosmology most often used is perhaps that of exhibiting the degree of accordance it has with respect to both empirical fact and metaphysical truth. The value of a cosmology seems to consist primarily in its capacity to provide an ultimate frame for occurrences in nature, and to offer a demonstration of where the limits of the spatio-temporal world are, and how they might be transcended.
Cousin, Victor: (1792-1867) Was among those principally responsible for producing the shift in French philosophy away from sensationalism in the direction of "spiritualism"; in his own thinking, Cousin was first influenced by Locke and Condillac, and later turned to idealism under the influence of Maine de Biran and Schelling. His most characteristic philosophical insights are contained in Fragments Philosophiques (1826), in which he advocated as the basis of metaphysics a careful observation and analysis of the facts of the conscious life. He lectured at the Sorbonne from 1815 until 1820 when he was suspended for political reasons, but he was reinstated in 1827 and continued to lecture there until 1832. He exercised a great influence on his philosophical contemporaries and founded the spiritualistic or eclectic school in French Philosophy. The members of his school devoted themselves largely to historical studies for which Cousin had provided the example in his Introduction a l'Histoire General de la Philosophie, 7th ed. 1872. -- L.W.
Creative Theory of Perception: The creative theory, in opposition to the selective theory, asserts that the data of sense are created or constituted by the act of perception and do not exist except at the time and under the conditions of actual perception, (cf. C. D. Broad, The Mind and its Place in Nature, pp. 200 ff.) See Selective Theory of Perception. The theories of perception of Descartes, Locke, Leibniz and Berkeley are historical examples of creative theories, Russell (Problems of Philosophy, Ch. II and III) and the majority of the American critical realists defend creative theories. -- L.W.
Credo ut intelligam: Literally, I believe in order that I may understand. A principle which affirms that after an act of faith a philosophy begins, held by such thinkers as Augustine, Anselm, Duns Scotus and many others. -- V.F.
Creighton, James Edwin: (1861-1924) Professor of Logic and Metaphysics at Cornell University. He was one of the founders and a president of the American Philosophical Association, American editor of Kant-Studien and editor of The Philosophical Review. He was greatly influenced by Bosanquet. His Introductory Logic had long been a standard text. His basic ideas as expressed in articles published at various times were posthumously published in a volume entitled Studies in Speculative Philosophy, a term expressive of his intellectualistic form of objective idealism. -- L.E.D.
Crescas, Don Hasdai: (1340-1410) Jewish philosopher and theologian. He was the first European thinker to criticize Aristotelian cosmology and establish the probability of the existence of an infinite magnitude and of infinite space, thus paving the way for the modern conception of the universe. He also took exception to the entire trend of the philosophy of Maimonides, namely its extreme rationalism, and endeavored to inject the emotional element into religious contemplation, and make love an attribute of God and the source of His creative activity. He also expressed original views on the problems of freedom and creation. He undoubtedly exerted influence on Spinoza who quotes him by name in the formulation of some of his theories. See Jewish Philosophy. Cf. H. A. Wolfson, Crescas' Critique of Aristotle, 1929. -- M.W.
(c) The traditional problem of the origin of knowledge, viz. By what faculty or faculties of mind is knowledge attainable? It gave rise to the principal cleavage in modern epistemology between rationalism and empiricism (q.v.) though both occur in any thinker. The rationalists (Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz) rely primarily -- though not exclusively -- on reason as the source of genuine knowledge, and the empiricists (Locke, Berkeley and Hume) rely mainly on experience. A broadly conceived empiricism such as Locke's which acknowledges the authenticity of knowledge derived both from the inner sense (see Reflection; Introspection), and the outer senses, contrasts with that type of sensationalism (q.v.) which is empiricism restricted to the outer senses. Various attempts, the most notable of which is the critical philosophy of Kant, have been made to reconcile rationalism and empiricism by assigning to reason and experience their respective roles in the constitution of knowledge. Few historical or contemporary epistemologists would subscribe either to a rationalism or an empiricism of an exclusive and extreme sort.
Cusa. Nicholas of: (1401-1464) Born in Cusa (family name: Krebs), educated in the mystical school of Deventer, and at the Universities of Heidelberg, Padua and Cologne. He became a Cardinal in 1448, Bishop of Brixen in 1450, and died at Todi. He was interested in mathematics, astronomy, philosophy and ecclesiastical policy. His thought is Neo-Platonic and mystical, he is critical of Aristotelian Scholasticism. His theories of "learned ignorance" and the "concordance of contraries" have been historically influential. Chief works: De concordantia Catholica, De docta ignorantia, De conjecturis (Opera, Paris, 1514). E. Van Steenberghe, Le Card. N. de Cuse,l'action, la pensee (Paris, 1920). -- V.J.B.
Cynics: A school of Greek Philosophy, named after the gymnasium Cynosarges, founded by Antisthenes of Athens, friend of Socrates. Man's true happiness, the Cynics taught, lies in right and intelligent living, and this constitutes for them also the concept of the virtuous life. For the Cynics, this right and virtuous life consists in a course of conduct which is as much as possible independent of all events and factors external to man. This independence can be achieved through mastery over one's desires and wants. The Cynics attempted to free man from bondage to human custom, convention and institution by reducing man's desires and appetites to such only as are indispensable to life and by renouncing those whicn are imposed by civilization. In extreme cases, such as that of Diogenes, this philosophy expressed itself in a desire to live the natural life in the midst of the civilized Greek community. -- M.F.
Cyrenaics: A school of Greek Philosophy founded by Aristippus of Cyrene. The teachings of this school are known as the philosophy of Hedonism, or the doctrine of enjoyment for its own sake. For the Cyrenaics the virtuous or the good life is that which yields the greatest amount of contentment or pleasure derived from the satisfaction of desire. Education and intelligence are necessary so as to guide one to proper enjoyment, that is to such satisfaction of desire as yields most pleasure and is least likely to cause one pain. It also aids one in being master of pleasure and not its slave. -- M.F.
darsana (darshana; darshan) ::: vision; the subtle sense (sūks.ma indarsana driya) of sight, "a sight that is independent of the physical eye", one of the faculties of vis.ayadr.s.t.i, called darsana (as opposed to rūpadr.s.t.i) especially when it is a vision not of symbolic images but of the actual forms of supraphysical things; the perception of brahman in all things and beings: a spiritual seeing by which "the eye gets a new and transfigured vision of things and of the world around us" and "there comes through the physical sense to the total sense consciousness within and behind the vision a revelation of the soul of the thing seen and of the universal spirit that is expressing itself in this objective form of its own conscious being"; a similar perception of any impersonal or personal aspect (bhava) of brahman or isvara, as in Kr.s.n.adarsana, etc.; (as part of sahitya) philosophy.
darsana (Darshan, Darshana) ::: seeing; the self-revelation of the Deity to the devotee; [an occasion when a spiritual personality in India allows himself to be seen]; [the six darsanas: the six systems of orthodox Indian philosophy: purva-mimamsa, uttara-mimamsa (vedanta), nyaya, vaisesika, samkhya, yoga].
Darsana: (Skr. view) Philosophy, philosophical position, philosophical system. Six systems (saddarsana) are recognized as orthodox in Indian philosophy because they fall in line with Vedic tradition (cf. Indian Philosophy). -- K.F.L.
Datum: That which is given or presented. In logic: facts from which inferences may be drawn. In epistemology: an actual presented to the mind; the given of knowledge. In psychology: that which is given in sensation; the content of sensation. --J.K.F. Daud, Abraham Ibn: (of Toledo, 1110-1180) Jewish historian and philosopher with distinctly Aristotelian bent. His Emunah Ramah ( Al-Akida Al-Rafia), i.e., Exalted Faith, deals with the principles of both philosophy and religion and with ethics. He also enunciated six dogmas of Judaism to which every Jew must subscribe. -- M.W.
::: "Death is the question Nature puts continually to Life and her reminder to it that it has not yet found itself. If there were no siege of death, the creature would be bound for ever in the form of an imperfect living. Pursued by death he awakes to the idea of perfect life and seeks out its means and its possibility.” *Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
“Death is the question Nature puts continually to Life and her reminder to it that it has not yet found itself. If there were no siege of death, the creature would be bound for ever in the form of an imperfect living. Pursued by death he awakes to the idea of perfect life and seeks out its means and its possibility.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
::: "Delight is the secret. Learn of pure delight and thou shalt learn of God.” *Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
“Delight is the secret. Learn of pure delight and thou shalt learn of God.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
Demiurge: (Gr. demiourgos) Artisan, craftsman, the term used by Plato in the Timaeus to designate the intermediary maker of the world. -- G.R.M Democritus of Abdera: (c 460-360 B.C.) Developed the first important materialist philosophy of nature, unless we are to count that of Leukippus. His influence was transmitted by Lucretius' poem till the centuries of the Renaissance when scholars' attention began to turn toward the study of nature. He taught that all substance consists of atoms, that is, of indivisible and imperceptibly small particles. The variety of atomic forms corresponds to, and accounts for, the variety of material qualities) the finest, smoothest, and most agile atoms constitute the substance of mind. Human perception is explained by him as an emanation of tiny copies of sensible things (eidola). which, through their impact upon the atoms of mind, leave impressions responsible for facts of memory. Diels, Fragm der Vorsokr, 4a; F. A. Lange, Gesch. der Materialismus, bd. I. -- R.B.W.
Descartes is one of the fathers of modern philosophy; his general influence is too extensive to be detailed. Leibniz, Spinoza, Malebranche, Clauberg, De La Forge, Geulincx, Placentius, Chouet, Legrand, Corneio -- these and many others spread Cartesianism throughout Europe. (See Boutroux, "Descartes and Cartesianism," Camb. Mod. Hist., IV, ch. 27.) At present, German Phenomenology, French Spiritualism and Positivism, Bergsonism, and certain forms of Catholic thought represented by J. Geyser in Germany and M. Blondel in France, are offshoots of Cartesianism.
Descartes, Rene: See Cartesianism. Description, Knowledge by: (Lat. de + scribere, to write) Knowledge about things in contrast to direct acquaintance with things. See Acquaintance, Knowledge by. Description is opposed to exact definition in the Port Royal Logic (Part II, ch. XVI). Among the first to contrast description and acquaintance was G. Grote (Exploratio Philosophica, p. 60. See also W. James, Principles of Psychology, Vol. I, pp. 221 ff. and B. Russell, Problems of Philosophy, ch. V.) -- L.W.
Determination: (Lat. determinare, to limit) The limitation of a reality or thought to a narrower field than its original one. In a monistic philosophy the original, single principle must be considered as narrowed down to various genera and species, and eventually to individual existence if such be admitted, in order to introduce that differentiation of reality which is required in a multiple world. In Platonism, the Forms or Ideas are one for each type of thing but are "determined" to multiple existence by the addition of matter (Timaeus). Neo-Platonism is even more interested in real determination, since the One is the logical antecedent of the Many. Here determination is effected by the introduction of negations, or privations, into successive emanations of the One. With Boethius, mediaeval philosophy became concerned with the determination of being-in-general to an actual manifold of things. In Boethianism there is a fusion of the question of real determination with that of logical limitation of concepts. In modern thought, the problem is acute in Spinozism: universal substance (substantia, natura, Deus) must be reduced to an apparent manifold through attributes, modes to the individual. Determination is said to be by way of negation, according to Spinoza (Epist. 50), and this means that universal substance is in its perfect form indeterminate, but is thought to become determinate by a sort of logical loss of absolute perfection. The theory is brought to an almost absurd simplicity in the Ontology of Chr. Wolff, where being is pictured as successively determined to genera, species and individual. Determination is also an important factor in the developmental theories of Hegel and Bergson. -- V.J.B.
Deustua, Alejandro: Born in Huancayo, Junin (Peru), 1849. Professor of Philosophy at the University of San Marcos in Lima, Peru. According to Deustua, there are two kinds of freedom, the Static and the Dynamic. The former accounts for the cosmic order and harmony of phenomena. Dynamic liberty, however, is, above all, creativity and novelty. The world, not as it is ontologically, but as we experience it, that is, as it comes within the area of consciousness, results from a Hegelian contraposition of the two types of freedom. In this contraposition, the synthesis is always more of the nature of dynamic freedom than it is static. With these presuppositions, Deustua finally works up a kind of practical philosophy leading up to an axiology which he himself finds implied in his concept of freedom. The following are among Deustua's most important works: Las Ideas de Orden Libertad en la Historia del Pensamiento Humano; Historia de las Ideas Esteticas; Estetica General; Estetica Aplicada. -- J.A.F.
Dewey, John: (1859-) Leading American philosopher. The spirit of democracy and an abiding faith in the efficacy of human intelligence run through the many pages he has presented in the diverse fields of metaphysics, epistemology, logic, psychology, aesthetics, religion, ethics, politics and education, in all of which he has spoken with authority. Progressive education owes its impetus to his guidance and its tenets largely to his formulation. He is the chief exponent of that branch of pragmatism known as instrumentalism. Among his main works are Psychology, 1886; Outline of Ethics, 1891; Studies in Logical Theory, 1903; Ethics (Dewey and Tufts), 1908; How We Think, 1910; Influence of Darwin on German Philosophy, 1910; Democracy and Education, 1916; Essays in Experimental Logic, 1916; Reconstruction in Philosophy, 1920; Human Nature and Conduct, 1922; Experience and Nature, 1925; The Quest for Certainty, 1929; Art as Experience, 1933; Logic: The Theory of Inquiry, 1939. Cf. J. Ratner, The Philosophy of John Dewey, 1940, M. H. Thomas, A Bibliography of John Dewey, 1882-1939, The Philosophy of John Dewey, ed. P. A. Schilpp (Evanston, 1940). Dharma: (Skr.) Right, virtue, duty, usage, law, social as well as cosmic. -- K.F.L.
Dhyana ::: There are two words used in English to express the Indian idea of Dhyana, "meditation" and "contemplation". Meditation means properly the concentration of the mind on a single train of ideas which work out a single subject. Contemplation means regarding mentally a single object, image, idea so that the knowledge about the object, image or idea may arise naturally in the mind by force of the concentration. Both these things are forms of dhyana; for the principle of dhyana is mental concentration whether in thought, vision or knowledge. There are other forms of dhyana. There is a passage in which Vivekananda advises you to stand back from your thoughts, let them occur in your mind as they will and simply observe them & see what they are. This may be called concentration in self-observation. This form leads to another, the emptying of all thought out of the mind so as to leave it a sort of pure vigilant blank on which the divine knowledge may come and imprint itself, undisturbed by the inferior thoughts of the ordinary human mind and with the clearness of a writing in white chalk on a blackboard. You will find that the Gita speaks of this rejection of all mental thought as one of the methods of Yoga and even the method it seems to prefer. This may be called the dhyana of liberation, as it frees the mind from slavery to the mechanical process of thinking and allows it to think or not think as it pleases and when it pleases, or to choose its own thoughts or else to go beyond thought to the pure perception of Truth called in our philosophy Vijnana. Meditation is the easiest process for the human mind, but the narrowest in its results; contemplation more difficult, but greater; self-observation and liberation from the chains of Thought the most difficult of all, but the widest and greatest in its fruits. One can choose any of them according to one’s bent and capacity. The perfect method is to use them all, each in its own place and for its own object.
Ref: CWSA Vol. 36, Page: 293-294
diacoustics ::: n. --> That branch of natural philosophy which treats of the properties of sound as affected by passing through different mediums; -- called also diaphonics. See the Note under Acoustics.
Dialectical materialism: The school of philosophy founded by Marx and Engels and developed by many subsequent thinker.
Dialectic: (Gr. dia + legein, discourse) The beginning of dialectic Aristotle is said to have attributed to Zeno of Elea. But as the art of debate by question and answer, its beginning is usually associated with the Socrates of the Platonic dialogues. As conceived by Plato himself, dialectic is the science of first principles which differs from other sciences by dispensing with hypotheses and is, consequently, "the copingstone of the sciences" -- the highest, because the clearest and hence the ultimate, sort of knowledge. Aristotle distinguishes between dialectical reasoning, which proceeds syllogistically from opinions generally accepted, and demonstrative reasoning, which begins with primary and true premises; but he holds that dialectical reasoning, in contrast with eristic, is "a process of criticism wherein lies the path to the principles of all inquiries." In modern philosophy, dialectic has two special meanings. Kant uses it as the name of that part of his Kritik der reinen Vernunft which deals critically with the special difficulties (antinomies, paralogisms and Ideas) arising out of the futile attempt (transcendental illusion) to apply the categories of the Understanding beyond the only realm to which they can apply, namely, the realm of objects in space and time (Phenomena). For Hegel, dialectic is primarily the distinguishing characteristic of speculative thought -- thought, that is, which exhibits the structure of its subject-matter (the universal, system) through the construction of synthetic categories (synthesis) which resolve (sublate) the opposition between other conflicting categories (theses and antitheses) of the same subject-matter. -- G.W.C.
Diogenes Laertius: (also B.C.) A late biographical doxographer, to whom is owed most of the biographical and source material of Pre-Socratic philosophy. Cf. R. Hope, Diog. Laertius -- E.H.
division ::: “God and Man, World and Beyond-world become one when they know each other. Their division is the cause of ignorance as ignorance is the cause of suffering.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
doctor ::: n. --> A teacher; one skilled in a profession, or branch of knowledge learned man.
An academical title, originally meaning a men so well versed in his department as to be qualified to teach it. Hence: One who has taken the highest degree conferred by a university or college, or has received a diploma of the highest degree; as, a doctor of divinity, of law, of medicine, of music, or of philosophy. Such diplomas may confer an honorary title only.
Driesch, Hans Adolf Eduard: (1867-1940) An experimental biologist turned philosopher, he as a rationalist became the most prominent defender of a renovated vitalism. He excludes the physical-chemical level of reality from his vitalism. He asserts that every organism has its own entelechy. For what he terms phylogenetic development, a more inclusive vitalism of the whole evolutionary process, he postulates a super-personal phylogenetic entelechy. He offers an a priori justification of his vitalistic theory, and treats incisively the logic of the psychological. Main works: Philosophy of the Organism; Ordnungslehre, 1912; Wirklichkeitslehre, 1917; Alltagsrätsel des Seelenlebens, 1938; "Kausalität und Vitalismus" in Jahrbuch der Schopenhauer Gesellschaft, XVI, 1939.
druidism ::: n. --> The system of religion, philosophy, and instruction, received and taught by the Druids; the rites and ceremonies of the Druids.
Dyadic Relation: A two-termed relation (q.v.). Dynamic Vitalism: See Vitalism. Dynamis: (Gr. dynamis) In Aristotle's philosophy (1) a source of change or power to effect change; faculty; (2) more generally the capacity a thing has of passing to a different state; potentiality. See Aristotelianism; Energeia. -- G.R.M.
Dynamism: (Gr. dynamis, power) A term applied to a philosophical system which, in contrast to philosophy of mechanism (q.v.), adopts force rather than mass or motion as its basic explanatory concept. In this sense the Leibnizian philosophy is dynamism in contrast to the mechanism of Descartes' physics. -- L.W.
Eclecticism: The principle, tendency, or practice of combining, or drawing upon, various philosophical or theological doctrines. In its passive form, it is found in many thinkers of no great originality. In its more active form, as a deliberate attempt to create unity among discordant schools of philosophy, eclecticism was practised by the Alexandrien School (q.v.), where the Oriental and Occidental thought mingled, and, more recently, by V. Cousin (q.V.). -- R.B.W.
Economy: An aspect of the scientific methodology of Ernst Mach (Die Analyse der Empfindungen, 5th ed., Jena, 1906); science and philosophy utilize ideas and laws which are not reproductive of sense data as such, but are simplified expressions of the functional relations discovered in the manifold of sense perceptions. -- V.J.B.
Ego-centric Predicament: (Lat. ego, self, Gr. kentrikon, center) The epistemological predicament of a knowing mind which, confined to the circle of its own ideas, finds it difficult, if not impossible, to escape to a knowledge of an external world (cf. R. B. Perry, Present Philosophical Tendencies, pp. 129-30). Descartes is largely responsible for having confronted modern philosophy with the ego-centric predicament. See Cogito Argument, The. -- L.W.
Either sort of enquiry involves an investigation into the meaning of ethical statements, their truth and falsity, their objectivity and subjectivity, and the possibility of systematizing them under one or more first principles. In neither case is ethics concerned with our conduct or our ethical judgments simply as a matter of historical or anthropological record. It is, however, often said that the first kind of enquiry is not ethics but psychology. In both cases it may be said that the aim of ethics, as a part of philosophy, is theory not practice, cognition not action, even though it be added at once that its theory is for the sake of practice and its cognition a cognition of how to live. But some mornlists who take the second approach do deny that ethics is a cognitive discipline or science, namely those who hold that ethical first principles are resolutions or preferences, not propositions which may be true or false, e.g., Nietzsche, Santayana, Russell.
Elijah, Aaron ben: Karaite exegete and philosopher (1300-1369). The Ez Hayyim, i.e. Tree of Size, his philosophical work, deals with all problems of philosophy and displays the influence of both Maimonides and of the teachings of the Mutazilites. -- M.W.
endeictic ::: a. --> Serving to show or exhibit; as, an endeictic dialogue, in the Platonic philosophy, is one which exhibits a specimen of skill.
Energeia: (Gr. energeia, actuality) In Aristotle's philosophy (1) the mode of existence of that which possesses to the full its specific essence; actuality; entelechy; -- opposed to dynamis, or potentiality; (2) the activity that transforms potentiality into actuality. -- G-R.M.
Engels, Frederick: Co-founder of the doctrines of Marxism (see Dialectical materialism) Engels was the life-long friend and collaborator of Karl Marx (q.v.). He was born at Barmen, Germanv, in 1820, the son of a manufacturer. Like Marx, he became interested in communism early in life, developing and applying its doctrines until his death, August 5, 1895. Beside his collaboration with Marx on Die Heilige Familie, Die Deutsche Ideologie, Manifesto of the Communist Party, Anti-Dühring and articles for the "New York Tribune" (a selection from which constitutes "Germany: revolution and counter-revolution"), and his editing of Volumes II and III of Capital, published after Marx's death, Engels wrote extensively on various subjects, from "Condition of the Working Class in England (1844)" to military problems, in which field he had received technical training. On the philosophical side of Marxism, Engels speculated on fundamental questions of scientific methodology and dialectical logic in such books as Dialectics of Nature and Anti-Dühring. Works like Ludwig Feuerbach and the Outcome of Classical German Philosophy and Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State are likewise regarded as basic texts. The most extensive collection of Engels' works will be found in Marx-Engels "Gesamtausgabe", to which there is still much unpublished material to be added. -- J.M.S.
Engels, Friedrich: Anti-Dühring. Dialectics of Nature. Ludwig Feuerback and the Outcome of Classical German Philosophy. Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State.
Enlightenment: When Kant, carried by the cultural enthusiasm of his time, explained "enlightenment" as man's coming of age from the state of infancy which rendered him incapable of using his reason without the aid of others, he gave only the subjective meaning of the term. Objectively, enlightenment is a cultural period distinguished by the fervent efforts of leading personalities to make reason the absolute ruler of human life, and to shed the light of knowledge upon the mind and conscience of any individual. Such attempts are not confined to a particular time, or nation, as history teaches; but the term is generally applied to the European enlightenment stretching from the early 17th to the beginning of the 19th century, especially fostered by English, Dutch, French, and German philosophers. It took its start in England from the empiricism of F. Bacon, Th. Hobbes, J. Locke, it found a religious version in the naturalism of Edw. H. Cherbury, J. Toland, M. Tindal, H. Bolingbroke, and the host of "freethinkers", while the Earl of Shaftesbury imparted to it a moral on the "light of reason". Not so constructive but radical in their sarcastic criticism of the past were the French enlighteners, showing that their philosophy got its momentum from the moral corruption at the royal court and abuse of kinglv power in France. Descartes' doctrine of the "clear and perspicuous ideas," Spinoza's critical attitude towards religion, and Leibniz-Wolff's "reasonable thinking" prepared the philosophy of P. Bayle, Ch. Montesquieu, F. M. Voltaire, and J. J. Rousseau. The French positive contribution to the subject was the "Encyclopedie ou Dictionaire raisonne des sciences, arts et metiers", 1751-72, in 28 volumes, edited by Diderot, D'Alembert, Helvetius, Holbach, J. L. Lagrane, etc. What, in England and France, remained on the stage of mere ideas and utopic dreams became reality in the new commonwealth of the U.S.A. The "fathers of the constitution" were enlightened, outstanding among them B. Franklin, Th. Jefferson, J. Adams, A. Hamilton, and Th. Paine their foremost literary propagandist.
Entelechy: (Gr. entelecheia) In Aristotle's philosophy (1) the mode of being of a thing whose essence is completely realized; actuality; energeia; -- opposed to dynamis, or potentiality; (2) the form or essence. -- G.R.M.
epicurean ::: a. --> Pertaining to Epicurus, or following his philosophy.
Given to luxury; adapted to luxurious tastes; luxurious; pertaining to good eating. ::: n. --> A follower or Epicurus.
One given to epicurean indulgence.
Epistemology: (Gr. episteme, knowledge + logos, theory) The branch of philosophy which investigates the origin, structure, methods and validity of knowledge. The term "epistemology" appears to have been used for the first time by J. F. Ferrier, Institutes of Metaphysics (1854) who distinguished two branches of philosophy -- epistemology and ontology. The German equivalent of epistemology, Erkenntnistheorie, was used by the Kantian, K. L. Reinhold, Versuch einer Neuen Theorie des menschlichen Vorstellungsvermögens (1789); Das Fundament des philosophischen Wissens (1791), but the term did not gain currency until after its adoption by E. Zeller, Ueber Aufgabe und Bedeutung der Erkenntnisstheorie (1862). The term theory of knowledge is a common English equivalent of epistemology and translation of Erkenntnistheorie; the term Gnosiology has also been suggested but has gained few adherents.
Eros: (Gr.) 1. Possessive desire or love, commonly erotic. 2. In Platonic thought, the driving force of life aspiring to the absolute Good; hence the motive underlying education, fine art, and philosophy. The connotation of aesthetic fascination, impersonality, and intense desire is retained in Plato's use of the term. Hence Eros is to be distinguished from the Indian Bhakti (selfless devotion), the Buddhist Metta (disinterested benevolence), the Confucian Jen (humanity, charity), and Ai (personal love), and the Christian Agapao (sacrificial, protective brotherly love), and Phileo (personal affection or fondness). -- W.L.
Essence: (Lat. essentia, fr. essens, participle of esse, to be) The being or power of a thing; necessary internal relation or function. The Greek philosophers identified essence and substance in the term, ousia. In classic Latin essence was the idea or law of a thing. But in scholastic philosophy the distinction between essence and substance became important. Essence began to be identified, as in its root meaning, with being, or power. For Locke, the being whereby a thing is what it is. For Kant, the primary internal principle of all that belongs to the being of a thing. For Peirce, the intelligible element of the possibility of being. (a) In logic: definition or the elements of a thing; the genus and differentia. See Definition. (b) In epistemology: that intelligible character which defines what an indefinite predicate asserts. The universal possibility of a thing. Opposite of existence. Syn. with being, possibility. See Santayana's use of the term in Realm of Essence, as a hybrid of intuited datum and scholastic essence (q.v.). See Eternal object. -- J.K.F.
esthetics ::: n. --> The theory or philosophy of taste; the science of the beautiful in nature and art; esp. that which treats of the expression and embodiment of beauty by art.
Same as Aesthete, Aesthetic, Aesthetical, Aesthetics, etc.
Eternal"s. Sri Aurobindo: ". . . that which is, cannot perish; it can only lose itself. All is eternal in the eternal spirit.” *Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
Eternal ::: “… that which is, cannot perish; it can only lose itself. All is eternal in the eternal spirit.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
(e) The problem of the A PRIORI, though the especial concern of the rationalist, confronts the empiricist also since few epistemologists are prepared to exclude the a priori entirely from their accounts of knowledge. The problem is that of isolating the a priori or non-empirical elements in knowledge and accounting for them in terms of the human reason. Three principal theories of the a priori have been advanced: the theory of the intrinsic A PRIORI which asserts that the basic principles of logic, mathematics, natural sciences and philosophy are self-evident truths recognizable by such intrinsic traits as clarity and distinctness of ideas. The intrinsic theory received its definitive modern expression in the theory of "innate ideas" (q.v.) of Herbert of Cherbury, Descartes, and 17th century rationalism. The presuppositional theory of the a priori which validates a priori truths by demonstrating that they are presupposed either by their attempted denial (Leibniz) or by the very possibility of experience (Kant). The postulational theory of the A PRIORI elaborated under the influence of recent postulational techniques in mathematics, interprets a priori principles as rules or postulates arbitrarily posited in the construction of formal deductive systems. See Postulate; Posit. (f) The problem of differentiating the principal kinds of knowledge is an essential task especially for an empirical epistemology. Perhaps the most elementary epistemological distinction is between non-inferential apprehension of objects by perception, memory, etc. (see Knowledge by Acquaintance), and inferential knowledge of things with which the knowing subject has no direct apprehension. See Knowledge by Description. Acquaintance in turn assumes two principal forms: perception or acquaintance with external objects (see Perception), and introspection or the subject's acquaintance with the "self" and its cognitive, volitional and affective states. See Introspection; Reflection. Inferential knowledge includes knowledge of other selves (this is not to deny that knowledge of other minds may at times be immediate and non-inferential), historical knowledge, including not only history in the narrower sense but also astronomical, biological, anthropological and archaeological and even cosmological reconstructions of the past and finally scientific knowledge in so far as it involves inference and construction from observational data.
ethical ::: a. --> Of, or belonging to, morals; treating of the moral feelings or duties; containing percepts of morality; moral; as, ethic discourses or epistles; an ethical system; ethical philosophy.
Ethical formalism: (Kantian) Despite the historical over-shadowing of Kant's ethical position by the influence of The Critique of Pure Reason upon the philosophy of the past century and a half, Kant's own (declared) major interest, almost from the very beginning, was in moral philosophy. Even the Critique of Pure Reason itself was written only in order to clear the ground for dealing adequately with the field of ethics in the Grundlegung zur Metapkysik der Sttten (1785), in the Kritik der Praktischen Vernunft (1788), and in the Metaphysik der Sitten (1797). By the end of the seventeen-sixties Kant was ready to discard every prior ethical theory, from the earlv Greeks to Baumgarten, Rousseau, and the British moralists, finding, all of them, despite the wide divergencies among them, equally dogmatic and unacceptable. Each of the older theories he found covertly to rely upon some dogmatic criterion or other, be it a substantive "principle," an intuition, or an equally substantive "sense." Every such ethical theory fails to deal with ethical issues as genuinely problematic, since it is amenable to some "demonstrative" preconceived criterion.
Ethical rule: See Rule. Ethics: (Gr. ta ethika, from ethos) Ethics (also referred to as moral philosophy) is that study or discipline which concerns itself with judgments of approval and disapproval, judgments as to the rightness or wrongness, goodness or badness, virtue or vice, desirability or wisdom of actions, dispositions, ends, objects, or states of affairs. There are two main directions which this study may take. It may concern itself with a psychological or sociological analysis and explanation of our ethical judgments, showing what our approvals and disapprovals consist in and why we approve or disapprove what we do. Or it may concern itself with establishing or recommending certain courses of action, ends, or ways of life as to be taken or pursued, either as right or as good or as virtuous or as wise, as over against others which are wrong, bad, vicious, or foolish. Here the interest is more in action than in approval, and more in the guidance of action than in its explanation, the purpose being to find or set up some ideal or standard of conduct or character, some good or end or summum bonum, some ethical criterion or first principle. In many philosophers these two approaches are combined. The first is dominant or nearly so in the ethics of Hume, Schopenhauer, the evolutionists, Westermarck, and of M. Schlick and other recent positivists, while the latter is dominant in the ethics of most other moralists.
ethics ::: 1. A system of moral principles. 2. The branch of philosophy dealing with values relating to human conduct, with respect to the rightness and wrongness of certain actions and to the goodness and badness of the motives and ends of such actions. **ethics".
Eucken, Rudolf: (1846-1926) Being a writer of wide popularity, winner of the Nobel Prize for literature in 1908, Eucken defends a spiritualistic-idealistic metaphysics against materialistic naturalism, positivism and mechanism. Spiritual life, not being an oppositionless experience, is a struggle, a self-asserting action by resistance, a matter of great alternatives, either-ors between the natural and the spiritual, a matter of vital choice. Thus all significant oppositions are, within spiritual life itself, at once created and overcome. Immanence and transcendence, personalism and absolutism are the two native spiritual oppositions that agitate Eucken's system. Reconciliation between the vital dualities therefore depends not on mere intellectual insight, but on personal effort, courageous, heroic, militant and devoted action. He handles the basic oppositions of experience in harmony with the activist tenor of liberal Protestantism. Eucken sought to replace the prevailing intellectualistic idealism by an activistic idealism, founded on a comprehensive and historical consideration of culture at large. He sought to interpret the spiritual content of historical movements. He conceived of historical facts as being so many systematized wholes of life, for which he coined the term syntagma. His distinctive historical method consists of the reductive and the noological aspects. The former considers the parts directly in relation to an inward whole. The latter is an inner dialectic and immanent criticism of the inward principles of great minds, embracing the cosmologicnl and psychological ways of philosophical construction and transcending by the concept of spiritual life the opposition of the world and the individual soul. Preaching the need of a cultural renewal, not a few of his popularized ideas found their more articulated form in the philosophical sociology of his most eminent pupil, Max Scheler, in the cultural psychology of both Spranger and Spengler. His philosophy is essentially a call to arms against the deadening influences of modern life. -- H.H.
eudaemonics ::: n. --> That part of moral philosophy which treats of happiness; the science of happiness; -- contrasted with aretaics.
“Evolution, as we see it in this world, is a slow and difficult process and, indeed, needs usually ages to reach abiding results; but this is because it is in its nature an emergence from inconscient beginnings, a start from nescience and a working in the ignorance of natural beings by what seems to be an unconscious force. There can be, on the contrary, an evolution in the light and no longer in the darkness, in which the evolving being is a conscious participant and cooperator, and this is precisely what must take place here.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
"Evolution is an inverse action of the involution: what is an ultimate and last derivation in the involution is the first to appear in the evolution; what was original and primal in the involution is in the evolution the last and supreme emergence.” The Life Divine ::: "Evolution, as we see it in this world, is a slow and difficult process and, indeed, needs usually ages to reach abiding results; but this is because it is in its nature an emergence from inconscient beginnings, a start from nescience and a working in the ignorance of natural beings by what seems to be an unconscious force. There can be, on the contrary, an evolution in the light and no longer in the darkness, in which the evolving being is a conscious participant and cooperator, and this is precisely what must take place here.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
E. von Hartmann, Philos. des Unbewussten, 3 vol. 1869 (Eng. tr. Philosophy of the Unconscious, 1931); Die Religion des Geistes, 1882; Aesthetik, 1886; Kategorienlehre, 1897; Geschichte der Metaphysik, 1900; Das Problem des Lebens, 1906; System der Philosophie in Grundriss, 1906-10. -- K.F.L.
Existential Philosophy arose from disappointment with Kant's "thing-in-itself" and Hegel's metaphysicism whose failure was traced back to a fundamental misrepresentation in psychology. It is strictly non-metaphysical, anti-hypothetical, and contends to give only a simple description of existent psychological realities. "Existence" is therefore not identical with the metaphysical correlative of "essence". Consciousness is influenced by our nerveous system, nutrition, and environment; these account for our experiences. Such terms as being, equal, similar, perceived, represented, have no logical or truth-value; they are merely biological "characters", a distinction between physical and psychological is unwarranted. Here lies the greatest weakness of the Existential Philosophy, which, however, did not hinder its spreading in both continents.
Existential import: See Logic, formal, § 4. Existential Philosophy: Determines the worth of knowledge not in relation to truth but according to its biological value contained in the pure data of consciousness when unaffected by emotions, volitions, and social prejudices. Both the source and the elements of knowledge are sensations as they "exist" in our consciousness. There is no difference between the external and internal world, as there is no natural phenomenon which could not be examined psychologically, it all has its "existence" in states of the mind. See Kierkegaard, Heidegger, Jaspers.
Expressive Meaning: See Meaning, Kinds of, 4. Extension: (Lat. ex + tendere, to stretch) Physical space, considered as a single concrete, continuum as contrasted with the abstract conceptual space of mathematics. The distinction between extension and "space" in the abstract sense is clearly drawn by Descartes (1596-1650) in The Principles of Philosophy, part II, Princ. IV-XV. -- L.W.
externalism ::: n. --> The quality of being manifest to the senses; external acts or appearances; regard for externals.
That philosophy or doctrine which recognizes or deals only with externals, or objects of sense perception; positivism; phenomenalism.
Ezra, Abraham Ibn: Jewish exegete and philosopher (1093-1167). Born in Spain he wandered in many lands, sojourned for a time in Italy and Provence. His philosophy is expressed largely in his commentaries but also in several short treatises, such as the Yesod Mora, i.e. Foundation of the Knowledge of God, and the Shaar ha-Shamayyim, i.e., The Gate to Heaven. Main problems he deals with are that of the right conception of the universe and its becoming and that of knowledge. He was influenced by teachings of neo-Platonism and Gabirol. -- M.W.
fashionable ::: a. --> Conforming to the fashion or established mode; according with the prevailing form or style; as, a fashionable dress.
Established or favored by custom or use; current; prevailing at a particular time; as, the fashionable philosophy; fashionable opinions.
Observant of the fashion or customary mode; dressing or behaving according to the prevailing fashion; as, a fashionable man.
Genteel; well-bred; as, fashionable society.
Feuerbach. Ludwig Andreas: (1804-1872) Was one of the earliest thinkers manifesting the trend toward the German materialism of the 19th century. Like so many other thinkers of that period, he started with the acceptance of Hegel's objective idealism, but soon he attempted to resolve the opposition of spiritualism and materialism. His main contributions lay in the field of the philosophy of religion interpreted by him as "the dream of the human spirit" essentially an earthly dream. He publicly acknowledged his utter disbelief in immortality, which act did not fail to provoke the ire of the authorities and terminated his academic career.
Fictionism: An extreme form of pragmatism or instrumentalism according to which the basic concepts and principles of natural science, mathematics, philosophy, ethics, religion and jurisprudence are pure fictions which, though lacking objective truth, are useful instruments of action. The theory is advanced under the influence of Kant, by the German philosopher H. Vaihinger in his Philosophie des Als Ob, 1911. Philosophv of the "As If." English translation by C. K. Ogden.) See Fiction, Construction. -- L. W.
First Mover: See Prime Mover. First Philosophy: (Gr. prote philosophia) The name given by Aristotle (1) to the study of the principles, first causes and essential attributes of being as such; and (2) more particularly to the study of transcendent immutable i being; theology. -- G.R.M.
Fischer, Kuno: (1824-1907) Is one of the series of eminent German historians of philosophy, inspired by the impetus which Hegel gave to the study of history. He personally joined in the revival of Kantianism in opposition to rationalistic, speculative metaphysics and the progress of materialism.
Fiske, John: (1842-1901) Harvard librarian and philosopher. He is best known as an historian of the colonial period. He was a voluminous writer in many fields. His Outlines of Cosmic Philosophy is his best known work as a pioneer in America of the evolutionary theories. He claimed an original contribution to these speculations in his studies of the period of infancy. His works on God and on immortality were widely read in his day although he later expressed doubts about them. Nevertheless his constant emphasis on the theistic as opposed to the positivistic implications of evolution served to influence the current theories of creative and emergent evolution. See Evolutionism. -- L.E.D.
Florentine Academy: It was a loose and informal circle of scholars and educated persons which gathered in Florence around the Platonic philosopher Marsilio Ficino. Its activities consisted in regular lectures on Platonic philosophy as well as in informal discussions and parties. "Platonic" love or friendship was considered as the spiritual link between the members of the group which was organized and named after the model of Plato's Academy. The main documents describing it are Ficino's correspondence and a number of dialogues like Ficino's commentary on Plato's Symposion, Landino's Disputationes Camaldulenses , and Benedetto Colucci's Declamationes. Outstanding members or associates of the Academy were Cosimo, Piero, and Lorenzo de'Medici, Angelo Poliziano, and Giovanni Pico della Mirandola. The Academy which was first founded in 1462, dissolved after the revolution in Florence (1494) and after Ficino's death (1499), but the tradition of Platonic philosophy was continued in other private circles as well as at the universities of Florence and Pisa throughout the sixteenth century. -- P.O.K.
Following Locke, the phenomenon of association was investigated by G. Berkeley and D. Hume both of whom were especially concerned with the relations mediating association. Berkeley enumerates similarity, causality and coexistence or contiguity (Theory of Vision Vindicated (1733), § 39); Hume resemblance, contiguity in time or place and cause or effect (Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (1748), § 3; Treatise on Human Nature (1739), Bk. I, Pt. I, § 4). English associationism is further developed by D. Hartley, Observations on Man (1749), esp. Prop. XII; J. Mill, Analysis of the Phenomena of the Human Mind (1829), esp. Ch. 3; A. Bain, The Senses and the Intellect (1855); J. S. Mill, Examination of Sir William Hamilton's Philosophy (1865). Continental exponents of association psychology are E. B. de Condillac (Essai sur l'origines de connaissances humaines) (1746); Traite de sensations (1754); J. F. Herbart Lehrbuch der Psychologie (1816). -- L.W.
::: "For what we understand by law is a single immutably habitual movement or recurrence in Nature fruitful of a determined sequence of things and that sequence must be clear, precise, limited to its formula, invariable.” *Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
“For what we understand by law is a single immutably habitual movement or recurrence in Nature fruitful of a determined sequence of things and that sequence must be clear, precise, limited to its formula, invariable.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
Frank, Philipp: (b. 1884) A member of the "Vienna Circle," who has made his home in the U. S. He has been avowedly influenced by Mach. His major work lies on the borderline between philosophy and physics and he makes an effort "to employ only concepts which will not lose their usefulness outside of physics."
freedom ::: “Freedom is the law of being in its illimitable unity, secret master of all Nature: …” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
"Freedom is the law of being in its illimitable unity, secret master of all Nature: . . . .” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
“Freedom is the law of being in its illimitable unity, secret master of all Nature: …” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
Fries, Jakob Friedrich: (1773-1843) Eminent German philosopher. The contribution of Fries lies in the continuation of Kant's work as offered in New or Anthropological Criticism of Reason and by his system of philosophy as exact science.
From the subliminal come all the greater aspirations, ideals, strivings tow’ards a better self and better humanity without which man svould be only a thinking animal — as also most of the art, , philosophy, poetry, thirst for knowledge which relieve, if they do not yet dispel, the ignorance.
Fung Yu-lan, A History of Chinese Philosophy (ancient period), tr. by D. Bodde, Henri Vetch, Peiping, 1937;
Gabirol, Solomon Ibn: Known to scholastics as Avicebron (q.v.), but not identified as such until the discovery by the French scholar, Munk. See Jewish Philosophy. -- M.W.
Galenian Figure: See Figure, syllogistic. Garbha: (Skr. seed) The creative power that lies at the bottom of the world, hypostatized in or symbolized by the germ or seed. In cosmologico-metaphysical conception it is allied to such termini technici as hiranyagarbha (golden germ), bija (seed), retas (semen), yoni (womb), anda (egg, world-egg), jan (to give birth to), srj (to pour out), etc., descriptive of psycho-cosmogony from the earliest days of Indian philosophy (s.v.). -- K.F.L.
Gassendi, Pierre: (1592-1655) Was a leading opponent of Cartesianism and of Scholastic Aristotelianism in the field of the physical sciences. Though he was a Catholic priest, with orthodox views in theology, he revived the materialistic atomism of Epicurus and Lucretius. Born in Provence, and at one time Canon of Dijon, he became a distinguished professor of mathematics at the Royal College of Paris in 1645. He seems to have been sincerely convinced that the Logic, Physics and Ethics of Epicureanism were superior to any other type of classical or modern philosophy. His objections to Descartes' Meditationes, with the Cartesian responses, are printed with the works of Descartes. His other philosophical works are Commentarius de vita moribus et placitis Epicuri (Amsterdam, 1659). Syntagma philosophiae Epicuri (Amsterdam, 1684). -- V.J.B.
Gazali: Born 1059 in Tus, in the country of Chorasan, taught at Bagdad, lived for a time in Syria, died in his home town 1111. He started as a sceptic in philosophy and became a mystic and orthodox afterwards. Philosophy is meaningful only as introduction to theology. His attitude resembles Neo-Platonic mysticism and is anti-Aristotelian. He wrote a detailed report on the doctrines of Farabi and Avicenna only to subject them to a scathing criticism in Destructio philosophorum where he points out the self-contradictions of philosophers. His main works are theological. In his writings on logic he wants to ensure to theology a reliable method of procedure. His metaphysics also is mainly based on theology: creation of the world out of nothing, resurrection, and so forth. Cf. H. Bauer, Die Dogmatik Al-Ghazalis, 1912. -- R.A.
Gemara: ( Heb. completion) Is the larger and latter part of the Talmud (q.v.) discussing the Mishnah, and incorporating also vast materials not closely related to the Mishnah topics. The 1812 authorities of the gemara are known as Amoraim (speakers). Its contents bears on Halaeha (law) and Aggadah (tale), i.e. non-legal material like legends, history, science, ethics, philosophy, biography, etc. There are two gemaras better known as Talmuds: the Jerusalem (i.e. Palestinian) Talmud and the Babylonian Talmud. -- H.L.G.
Gentile, Giovanni: Born in Castelvetrano (Sicily) 1875. Professor of Philosophy and History of Philosophy at universities in Palermo, Pisa, and Rome. Minister of Public Education 1922-1924. Senator since 1922. Reformed the school system of Italy.
Gerson, Levi ben: (Gersonides) Bible commentator, astronomer, and philosopher (1288-1340). He invented an instrument for astronomical observation which is described in his Sefer ha-Ttkunah (Hebr.) Book on Astronomy. His philosophy embodied in the Milhamot Elohim i.e., The Wars of God, is distinguished by its thoroughgoing Aristotehanism and by its general free spirit. His theory of the soul teaches that the passive or material intellect is only a potentiality for developing pure thought which is accomplished through the influence of the Universal Active Intellect, and that it is that part of the soul which contains the sum total of the exalted thoughts which remains immortal, thus making intellectuality a condition of immortality. He also teaches that God knows things from their general aspect but does not know the particulars in their infinite ramifications. -- See Jewish Philosophy. -- M.W.
gnosticism ::: n. --> The system of philosophy taught by the Gnostics.
God: In metaphysical thinking a name for the highest, ultimate being, assumed by theology on the basis of authority, revelation, or the evidence of faith as absolutely necessary, but demonstrated as such by a number of philosophical systems, notably idealistic, monistic and dualistic ones. Proofs of the existence of God fall apart into those that are based on facts of experience (desire or need for perfection, dependence, love, salvation, etc.), facts of religious history (consensus gentium, etc.)), postulates of morality (belief in ultimate justice, instinct for an absolute good, conscience, the categorical imperative, sense of duty, need of an objective foundation of morality, etc.)), postulates of reason (cosmological, physico-theological, teleological, and ontological arguments), and the inconceivableness of the opposite. As to the nature of God, the great variety of opinions are best characterized by their several conceptions of the attributes of God which are either of a non-personal (pantheistic, etc.) or personal (theistic, etc.) kind, representing concepts known from experience raised to a superlative degree ("omniscient", "eternal", etc.). The reality, God, may be conceived as absolute or as relative to human values, as being an all-inclusive one, a duality, or a plurality. Concepts of God calling for unquestioning faith, belief in miracles, and worship or representing biographical and descriptive sketches of God and his creation, are rather theological than metaphysical, philosophers, on the whole, utilizing the idea of God or its linguistic equivalents in other languages, despite popular and church implications, in order not to lose the feeling-contact with the rather abstract world-ground. See Religion, Philosophy of. -- K.F.L.
"God is one but he is not bounded by his unity.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
“God is one but he is not bounded by his unity.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
gospel ::: v. --> Glad tidings; especially, the good news concerning Christ, the Kingdom of God, and salvation.
One of the four narratives of the life and death of Jesus Christ, written by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
A selection from one of the gospels, for use in a religious service; as, the gospel for the day.
Any system of religious doctrine; sometimes, any system of political doctrine or social philosophy; as, this political gospel.
Grabmann, Martin: (1875-) Is one of the most capable historians of medieval philosophy. Born in Wintershofen (Oberpfalz), he was ordained in 1898. He his taught philosophy and theology at Eichstätt (1906), Vienna (1913), and Munich (1918-). An acknowledged authority on the chronology and authenticity of the works of St. Thomas, he is equally capable in dealing with the thought of St. Augustine, or of many minor writers in philosophy and theology up to the Renaissance, Aus d. Geisteswelt d. Mittelalters (Festg. Grabmann) Münster i. W. 1935, lists more than 200 of his articles and books, published before 1934. Chief works Die Geschichte der scholastischen Methods (1909), Mittelalterliches Geistesleben (1926), Werke des hl. Thomas v. Aq. (1931). -- V.J.B.
(g) The problem of the structure of the knowledge-situation is to determine with respect to each of the major kinds of knowledge just enumerated -- but particularly with respect to perception -- the constituents of the knowledge-situation in their relation to one another. The structural problem stated in general but rather vague terms is: What is the relation between the subjective and objective components of the knowledge-situation? In contemporary epistemology, the structural problem has assumed a position of such preeminence as frequently to eclipse other issues of epistemology. The problem has even been incorporated by some into the definition of philosophy. (See A. Lalande, Vocabulaire de la Philosophie, art. Theorie de la Connaissance. I. and G.D. Hicks, Encycl. Brit. 5th ed. art. Theory of Knowledge.) The principal cleavage in epistemology, according to this formulation of its problem, is between a subjectivism which telescopes the object of knowledge into the knowing subject (see Subjectivism; Idealism, Epistemological) and pan-objectivism which ascribes to the object all qualities perceived or otherwise cognized. See Pan-obiectivism. A compromise between the extrernes of subjectivism and objectivism is achieved by the theory of representative perception, which, distinguishing between primary and secondary qualities, considers the former objective, the latter subjective. See Representative Perception, Theory of; Primary Qualities; Secondary Qualities.
Guna: (Skr. thread, cord) Quality, that which has substance (see dravya) as substratum. It is variously conceived in Indian philosophy and different enumerations are made. The Vaisesika, e.g., knows 24 kinds, along with subsidiary ones; the Sankhya, Trika, and others recognize three: sativa, rajas, tamas (q.v.). -- K.F.L.
Haeberlin, Paul: (1878-) A well known Swiss thinker whose major contributions until recent years were in the field of education. In his hands phenomenology has become existential philosophy. A transcendental-idealistic tone pervades his philosophy. He combines in theory the advantages of existential phenomenology with those of psychologism. -- H.H.
Ha-Levi, Judah: (b. ca. 1080, d. ca. 1140) Poet and philosopher. His Kuzari (Arabic Kitab Al-Khazari), written in dialogue form, has a double purpose. First, as its subtitle, A Book of Proofs and Arguments in Defense of the Humiliated Religion, indicates, it aims to prove the dignity and worth of Judaism. Secondly, he endeavors to show the insufficiency of philosophy and the superiority of the truths of revealed religion to those arrived at by logic. The admission of both Christianity and Islam that Judaism is their source proves the first. The exaltation of intuition as a means of certainty in matters of religion, and the claim that the prophet is the highest type of man rather than the philosopher purposes to substantiate the second. He endows the Jewish people with a special religio-ethical sense which is their share only and constitutes a quasi-biological quality. He assigns also a special importance to Palestine as a contributory factor in the spiritual development of his people, for only there can this religio-ethical sense come to full expression. -- M.W.
Hamann, Johann Georg: (1730-1788) Kant's extreme pietist friend, and, like him, a native of Königsberg, he saw in the critical philosophy of Kant an unsuccessful attempt to make reason independent of all tradition, belief and experience. -- H.H.
heads ::: poetry, prose and scholarship", with further subdivisions of each of these such as philosophy (darsana) under prose, and philology (nirukta) under scholarship; sahitya itself is sometimes listed separately from some of these divisions and subdivisions, seeming then to refer mainly to general prose writing.
Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich: Born at Stuttgart in 1770 and died at Berlin in 1831. He studied theology, philosophy and the classics at Tübingen, 1788-93, occupied the conventional position of tutor in Switzerland and Frankfort on the Main, 1794-1800, and went to Jena as Privatdocent in philosophy in 1801. He was promoted to a professorship at Jena in 1805, but was driven from the city the next year by the incursion of the French under Napoleon. He then went to Bamberg, where he remained two years as editor of a newspaper. The next eight years he spent as director of the Gymnasium at Nürnberg. In 1816 he accepted a professorship of philosophy at Heidelberg, from which position he was called two years later to succeed Fichte at the University of Berlin. While at Jena, he co-operated with Schelling in editing the Kritisches Journal der Philosophie, to which he contributed many articles. His more important volumes were published as follows: Phänomenologie des Geistes, 1807; Wissenschaft der Logik, 1812-16; Encyklopädie der philosophischen Wissenschaften im Grundrisse, 1817; Grundlinien der Philosophie des Rechts, 1820. Shortly after his death his lectures on the philosophy of religion, the history of philosophy, the philosophy of history, and aesthetics were published from the collated lecture-notes of his students. His collected works in nineteen volumes were published 1832-40 by a group of his students. -- G.W.C.
Hegelianism: As expounded in the writings of Hegel, Hegelianism is both a doctrine and a method. The two are held to be logically inseparable: the method is precisely the formulation of the doctrine, and the doctrine is precisely the detailed expression of the method. This integration of the two aspects of the philosophy presents a formidable obstacle to interpretation and to summary presentation of Hegelianism as conceived by its founder.
hegelism ::: n. --> The system of logic and philosophy set forth by Hegel, a German writer (1770-1831).
Heidegger, Martin: (1889-) Trained in Husserl's radical structural analysis of pure consciousness, Heidegger shares with phenomenology the effort to methodically analyze and describe the conceptual meanings of single phenomena. He aimed at a phenomenological analysis of human existence in respect to its temporal and historical character. Concentrating on the Greek tradition, and endeavoring to open a totally different approach from that of the Greek thinkers to the problem of being, he seeks to find his way back to an inner independence of philosophy from the special sciences. Before a start can be made in the radical analysis of human existence, the road has to be cleared of the objections of philosophical tradition, science, logic and common sense. As the moderns have forgotten the truths the great thinkers discovered, have lost the ability to penetrate to the real origins, the recovery of the hard-won, original, uncorrupted insights of man into metaphysical reality, is only possible through a "destructive" analysis of the traditional philosophies. By this recovery of the hidden sources, Heidegger aims to revive the genuine philosophizing which, not withstanding appearances, has vanished from us in the Western world because of autonomous science serious disputing of the position of philosophy. As human reality is so structured that it discloses itself immediately, he writes really an idealistic philosophy of homo faber. But instead of being a rationalistic idealist reading reason into the structure of the really real, he takes a more avowedly emotional phenomenon as the center of a new solution of the Seinsfrage.
Helvetius, Claude Adrien: (1715-1771) A French philosopher, he developed on the basis of Condillac's sensationalism his superficial materialistic philosophy. His theories of the original mental equality of individuals, of the egoism or self-interest as the sole motive of human action, and of the omnipotence of education, stress the basic determining influence of circumstances.
Herbartianism: The philosophical, but particularly the psychological and pedagogical doctrines of Johann Friedrich Herbart (q.v.) as expounded in modified and developed form by his disciples, notably M. Lazarus and H. Steinthal in psychology, T. Zillcr and W. Rein in pedagogy, M. Drobisch in religious philosophy and ethics. In America, the movement was vigorous and influential, but shortlived (about 1890-1910) and confined mainly to education (Charles De-Garmo and Charles A. McMurry). Like Herbart, his disciples strove for a clarification of concepts with special emphasis on scientific method, the doctrine of apperception, and the efficacy of a mathematical approach even in their psychology which was dominated by associational thinking; yet they discarded more or less the master's doctrine of reals. -- K.F.L.
Herbart, Johann Friedrich: (1776-1841) Best known as the "father" of scientific pedagogy centrally based upon psychology, a general tenet that still has weight today, Herbart occupies as educational philosophical theorist a position strikingly similar to that of John Dewey, the nestor of American philosophy.
heresy ::: n. --> An opinion held in opposition to the established or commonly received doctrine, and tending to promote a division or party, as in politics, literature, philosophy, etc.; -- usually, but not necessarily, said in reproach.
Religious opinion opposed to the authorized doctrinal standards of any particular church, especially when tending to promote schism or separation; lack of orthodox or sound belief; rejection of, or erroneous belief in regard to, some fundamental religious doctrine
hermetical ::: a. --> Of, pertaining to, or taught by, Hermes Trismegistus; as, hermetic philosophy. Hence: Alchemical; chemic.
Of or pertaining to the system which explains the causes of diseases and the operations of medicine on the principles of the hermetic philosophy, and which made much use, as a remedy, of an alkali and an acid; as, hermetic medicine.
Made perfectly close or air-tight by fusion, so that no gas or spirit can enter or escape; as, an hermetic seal. See Note under
Heuristic: (Gr. heuriskein, to discover) Serving to find out, helping to show how the qualities and relations of objects are to be sought. In Kant's philosophy, applying to ideas of God, freedom and immortality, as being undemonstrable but useful in the interpretation of things and events in time and space. In methodology, aiding in the discovery of truth. The heuristic method is the analytical method. Opposite of: ostensive. -- J.K.F.
Hexis: (Gr. hexis) In Aristotle's philosophy a state or condition of a thing; particularly an acquired disposition or habit, not easily changed, and affecting the welfare of its possessor, such as the moral virtues and the intellectual skills. -- G.R.M.
Hierarchy of types: See Logic, formal, § 6. Hilbert, David, 1862-, German mathematician. Professor of mathematics at the University of Göttingen, 1895-. A major contributor to many branches of mathematics, he is regarded by many as the greatest mathematician of his generation. His work on the foundations of Euclidean geometry is contained in his Grundlagen der Geometrie (1st edn., 1899, 7th edn., 1930). Concerning his contributions to mathematical logic and mathematical philosophy, see the articles mathematics, and proof theory. -- A. C.
Hindu Ethics: See Indian Ethics. Hindu Aesthetics: See Indian Aesthetics. Hindu Philosophy: See Indian Philosophy. Historical materialism: The social philosophy of dialectical materialism. The application of the general principles of dialectical materialism to the specific field of human history, the development of human society. One of the chief problems Marx dealt with was that of the basic causal agent in the movement of human history. He states his thesis as follows:
hippocratism ::: n. --> The medical philosophy or system of Hippocrates.
hiranyagarbha. ::: "golden womb" or "golden egg"; the Source of the creation of the universe or the manifested cosmos in Indian philosophy; the soul of the universe; creative intelligence
His aesthetics defines art as an expression of sentiment, as a language. His logic emphasizes the distinction of categories, reducing opposition to a derivative of distinction. According to his ethics, economics is an autonomous and absolute moment of spirit. His theory of history regards all history as contemporaneous. His philosophy is one of the greatest attempts at elaboration of pure concepts entirely appropriate to historical experience.
Historicism: The view that the history of anything is a sufficient explanation of it, that the values of anything can be accounted for through the discovery of its origins, that the nature of anything is entirely comprehended in its development, as for example, that the properties of the oak tree are entirely accounted for by an exhaustive description of its development from the acorn. The doctrine which discounts the fallaciousness of the historical fallacy. Applied by some critics to the philosophy of Hegel and Karl Marx. -- J.K.F.
History, Philosophy of: History investigates the theories concerning the development of man as a social being within the limits of psychophysical causality. Owing to this double puipose the philosophy of history has to study the principles of historiography, and, first of all, their background, their causes and underlying laws, their meaning and motivation. This can be called the metaphysics of history. Secondly, it concerns itself with the cognitive part, i.e. with historic understanding, and then it is called the logic of history. While in earlier times the philosophy of history was predominantly metaphysics, it has turned more and more to the methodology or logic of history. A complete philosophy of history, however, ought to consider the metaphysical as well as the logical problems involved.
Hobbes, Thomas: (1588-1679) Considering knowledge empirical in origin and results, and philosophy inference of causes from effects and vice versa, regarded matter and motion as the least common denominators of all our percepts, and bodies and their movements as the only subject matter of philosophy. Consciousness in its sensitive and cognitive aspects is a jarring of the nervous system; in its affectional and volitional, motor aspects, a kick-back to the jar. Four subdivisions of philosophy cover all physical and psychological events: geometry describing the spatial movements of bodies; physics, the effects of moving bodies upon one another; ethics, the movements of nervous systems; politics, the effects of nervous systems upon one another. The first law of motion appears in every organic body in its tendency, which in man becomes a natural right, to self-preservation and self-assertion. Hence the primary condition of all organic as of all inorganic bodies is one of collision, conflict, and war. The second law of motion, in its organic application, impels men to relinquish a portion of their natural right to self-assertion in return for a similar relinquishment on the part of their fellows. Thus a component of the antagonistic forces of clashing individual rights and wills is established, embodied in a social contract, or treaty of peace, which is the basis of the state. To enforce this social covenant entered into, pursuant to the second law of motion, by individuals naturally at war in obedience to the first, sovereignty must be set up and exercised through government. Government is most efficient when sovereignty, which has in any case to be delegated in a community of any size, is delegated to one man -- an absolute monarch -- rather than to a group of men, or a parliament.
Hocking, William Ernest: (1873) Professor in the Department of Philosophy at Harvard. Has endeavored to blend idealism vvith pragmatism while making some concessions to realism, even is in current theory he strives for a reconciliation between laissez faire liberalism and collectivism through a midground found in the worth of the individual in a "commotive union in the coagent state," a notion comparable to the "conjunct self" of George Herbert Palmer only with a more individualistic emphasis and a current flavor. Among his works are: The Meaning of God in Human Experience, Man and the State, Types of Philosophy, Lasting Elements of Individualism and Living Religions and a World Faith. -- L.E.D.
Hodgson, Shadworth: (1852-1913) English writer who had no profession and who held no public office. He displayed throughout a long life a keen devotion to philosophy. He was among the founders of the Aristotelian Society and served as its president for fourteen years. His earlier work was reshaped in a monumental four volume treatise called The Metaphysic of Experience. He viewed himself as correcting and completing the Kantian position in his comparatively materialistic approach to reality with a recognition of the unseen world prompted by a practical, moral compulsion rather than speculative conviction. -- L.E.D.
H. Vaihinger, The Philosophy of "As If", Eng. trans., 1924.
ideal ::: a. --> Existing in idea or thought; conceptional; intellectual; mental; as, ideal knowledge.
Reaching an imaginary standard of excellence; fit for a model; faultless; as, ideal beauty.
Existing in fancy or imagination only; visionary; unreal.
Teaching the doctrine of idealism; as, the ideal theory or philosophy.
Imaginary.
"Ideals are truths that have not yet effected themselves for man, the realities of a higher plane of existence which have yet to fulfil themselves on this lower plane of life and matter, our present field of operation.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
“Ideals are truths that have not yet effected themselves for man, the realities of a higher plane of existence which have yet to fulfil themselves on this lower plane of life and matter, our present field of operation.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
ignorance ::: the state or fact of being ignorant; lack of knowledge, learning, information. Ignorance, ignorance"s, Ignorance"s, ignorance", world-ignorance, World-Ignorance.
Sri Aurobindo: "Ignorance is the absence of the divine eye of perception which gives us the sight of the supramental Truth; it is the non-perceiving principle in our consciousness as opposed to the truth-perceiving conscious vision and knowledge.” *The Life Divine
"Ignorance is the consciousness of being in the successions of Time, divided in its knowledge by dwelling in the moment, divided in its conception of self-being by dwelling in the divisions of Space and the relations of circumstance, self-prisoned in the multiple working of the unity. It is called the Ignorance because it has put behind it the knowledge of unity and by that very fact is unable to know truly or completely either itself or the world, either the transcendent or the universal reality.” The Life Divine
"Ignorance means Avidya, the separative consciousness and the egoistic mind and life that flow from it and all that is natural to the separative consciousness and the egoistic mind and life. This Ignorance is the result of a movement by which the cosmic Intelligence separated itself from the light of the Supermind (the divine Gnosis) and lost the Truth, — truth of being, truth of divine consciousness, truth of force and action, truth of Ananda. As a result, instead of a world of integral truth and divine harmony created in the light of the divine Gnosis, we have a world founded on the part truths of an inferior cosmic Intelligence in which all is half-truth, half-error. . . . All in the consciousness of this creation is either limited or else perverted by separation from the integral Light; even the Truth it perceives is only a half-knowledge. Therefore it is called the Ignorance.” The Mother
". . . all ignorance is a penumbra which environs an orb of knowledge . . . .”The Life Divine
"This world is not really created by a blind force of Nature: even in the Inconscient the presence of the supreme Truth is at work; there is a seeing Power behind it which acts infallibly and the steps of the Ignorance itself are guided even when they seem to stumble; for what we call the Ignorance is a cloaked Knowledge, a Knowledge at work in a body not its own but moving towards its own supreme self-discovery.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
"Knowledge is no doubt the knowledge of the One, the realisation of the Being; Ignorance is a self-oblivion of Being, the experience of separateness in the multiplicity and a dwelling or circling in the ill-understood maze of becomings: . . . .” The Life Divine*
iht pure perception of tnilb called in our philosophy Viffiana.
II. Metaphysics of History: The metaphysical interpretations of the meaning of history are either supra-mundane or intra-mundane (secular). The oldest extra-mundane, or theological, interpretation has been given by St. Augustine (Civitas Dei), Dante (Divma Commedia) and J. Milton (Paradise Lost and Regained). All historic events are seen as having a bearing upon the redemption of mankind through Christ which will find its completion at the end of this world. Owing to the secularistic tendencies of modern times the Enlightenment Period considered the final end of human history as the achievement of public welfare through the power of reason. Even the ideal of "humanity" of the classic humanists, advocated by Schiller, Goethe, Fichte, Rousseau, Lord Byron, is only a variety of the philosophy of the Enlightenment, and in the same line of thought we find A. Comte, H. Spencer ("human moral"), Engels and K. Marx. The German Idealism of Kant and Hegel saw in history the materialization of the "moral reign of freedom" which achieves its perfection in the "objective spirit of the State". As in the earlier systems of historical logic man lost his individuality before the forces of natural laws, so, according to Hegel, he is nothing but an instrument of the "idea" which develops itself through the three dialectic stages of thesis, antithesis, and synthesis. (Example. Absolutism, Democracy, Constitutional Monarchy.) Even the great historian L. v. Ranke could not break the captivating power of the Hegelian mechanism. Ranke places every historical epoch into a relation to God and attributes to it a purpose and end for itself. Lotze and Troeltsch followed in his footsteps. Lately, the evolutionistic interpretation of H. Bergson is much discussed and disputed. His "vital impetus" accounts for the progressiveness of life, but fails to interpret the obvious setbacks and decadent civilizations. According to Kierkegaard and Spranger, merely human ideals prove to be too narrow a basis for the tendencies, accomplishments, norms, and defeats of historic life. It all points to a supra-mundane intelligence which unfolds itself in history. That does not make superfluous a natural interpretation, both views can be combined to understand history as an endless struggle between God's will and human will, or non-willing, for that matter. -- S.V.F.
inconscient ::: Sri Aurobindo: "The Inconscient and the Ignorance may be mere empty abstractions and can be dismissed as irrelevant jargon if one has not come in collision with them or plunged into their dark and bottomless reality. But to me they are realities, concrete powers whose resistance is present everywhere and at all times in its tremendous and boundless mass.” *Letters on Savitri
". . . in its actual cosmic manifestation the Supreme, being the Infinite and not bound by any limitation, can manifest in Itself, in its consciousness of innumerable possibilities, something that seems to be the opposite of itself, something in which there can be Darkness, Inconscience, Inertia, Insensibility, Disharmony and Disintegration. It is this that we see at the basis of the material world and speak of nowadays as the Inconscient — the Inconscient Ocean of the Rigveda in which the One was hidden and arose in the form of this universe — or, as it is sometimes called, the non-being, Asat.” Letters on Yoga
"The Inconscient itself is only an involved state of consciousness which like the Tao or Shunya, though in a different way, contains all things suppressed within it so that under a pressure from above or within all can evolve out of it — ‘an inert Soul with a somnambulist Force".” Letters on Yoga
"The Inconscient is the last resort of the Ignorance.” Letters on Yoga
"The body, we have said, is a creation of the Inconscient and itself inconscient or at least subconscient in parts of itself and much of its hidden action; but what we call the Inconscient is an appearance, a dwelling place, an instrument of a secret Consciousness or a Superconscient which has created the miracle we call the universe.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga :::
"The Inconscient is a sleep or a prison, the conscient a round of strivings without ultimate issue or the wanderings of a dream: we must wake into the superconscious where all darkness of night and half-lights cease in the self-luminous bliss of the Eternal.” The Life Divine
"Men have not learnt yet to recognise the Inconscient on which the whole material world they see is built, or the Ignorance of which their whole nature including their knowledge is built; they think that these words are only abstract metaphysical jargon flung about by the philosophers in their clouds or laboured out in long and wearisome books like The Life Divine. Letters on Savitri :::
"Is it really a fact that even the ordinary reader would not be able to see any difference between the Inconscient and Ignorance unless the difference is expressly explained to him? This is not a matter of philosophical terminology but of common sense and the understood meaning of English words. One would say ‘even the inconscient stone" but one would not say, as one might of a child, ‘the ignorant stone". One must first be conscious before one can be ignorant. What is true is that the ordinary reader might not be familiar with the philosophical content of the word Inconscient and might not be familiar with the Vedantic idea of the Ignorance as the power behind the manifested world. But I don"t see how I can acquaint him with these things in a single line, even with the most. illuminating image or symbol. He might wonder, if he were Johnsonianly minded, how an Inconscient could be teased or how it could wake Ignorance. I am afraid, in the absence of a miracle of inspired poetical exegesis flashing through my mind, he will have to be left wondering.” Letters on Savitri
**inconscient, Inconscient"s.**
"Indian devotion has especially seized upon the most intimate human relations and made them stepping-stones to the supra-human. God the Guru, God the Master, God the Friend, God the Mother, God the Child, God the Self, each of these experiences — for to us they are more than merely ideas, — it has carried to its extreme possibilities.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
“Indian devotion has especially seized upon the most intimate human relations and made them stepping-stones to the supra-human. God the Guru, God the Master, God the Friend, God the Mother, God the Child, God the Self, each of these experiences—for to us they are more than merely ideas,—it has carried to its extreme possibilities.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
indifferentism ::: n. --> State of indifference; want of interest or earnestness; especially, a systematic apathy regarding what is true or false in religion or philosophy; agnosticism.
Same as Identism.
A heresy consisting in an unconcern for any particular creed, provided the morals be right and good.
In genera, Anglo-Catholic philosophy has been an incarnational or sacramental one, finding God in the Biblical revelation culminating in Christ, but unwilling to limit his self-disclosure to that series of events. Incarnationalism provides, it is said, the setting for the historic Incarnation; general revelation is on sacramental lines, giving meaning to the particular sacraments. For Anglo-Catholic philosophical theology, in its central stream, the key to dogma is the cumulative experience of Christian people, tested by the Biblical revelation as source and standard of that experience and hence "classical" in its value. Revelation is the ultimate authority; the Church possesses a trustworthiness about her central beliefs, but statement of these may change from age to age. Sometimes this main tendency of Anglo-Catholic thought has been sharply criticized by thinkers, themselves Anglicans (cf. Tennant's Philosophical Theology); but these have, in general, served as useful warnings rather than as normal expressions of the Anglican mind.
In Germany, the movement was initiated by G. W. Leibniz whose writings reveal another motive for the cult of pure reason, i.e. the deep disappointment with the Reformation and the bloody religious wars among Christians who were accused of having forfeited the confidence of man in revealed religion. Hence the outstanding part played by the philosophers of ''natural law", Grotius, S. Pufendorf, and Chr. Thomasius, their theme being advanced by the contributions to a "natural religion" and tolerance by Chr. Wolff, G. E. Lessing, G. Herder, and the Prussian king Frederik II. Fr. v. Schiller's lyric and dramas served as a powerful commendation of ideal freedom, liberty, justice, and humanity. A group of educators (philanthropists) designed new methods and curricula for the advancement of public education, many of them, eg. Pestalozzi, Basedow, Cooper, A. H. Francke, and Fr. A. Wolf, the father of classic humanism, having achieved international recognition. Although in general agreement with th philosophical axioms of foreign enlighteners, the German philosophy decidedly opposed the English sensism (Hume) and French scepticism, and reached its height in Kant's Critiques. The radical rationalism, however, combined with its animosity against religion, brought about strong philosophical, theological, and literal opposition (Hamann, Jacobi, Lavater) which eventually led to its defeat. The ideals of the enlightenment period, the impassioned zeal for the materialization of the ideal man in an ideal society show clearly that it was basically related to the Renaissance and its continuation. See Aufklärung. Cf. J. G. Hibben, The Philosophy of the Enlightenment, 1910. -- S.v.F.
In its nature and law the Overmind is a delegate of the Supermind Consciousness, its delegate to the Ignorance. Or we might speak of it as a protective double, a screen of dissimilar similarity through which Supermind can act indirectly on an Ignorance whose darkness could not bear or receive the direct impact of a supreme Light. Even, it is by the projection of this luminous Overmind corona that the diffusion of a diminished light in the Ignorance and the throwing of that contrary shadow which swallows up in itself all light, the Inconscience, became at all possible. For Supermind transmits to Overmind all its realities, but leaves it to formulate them in a movement and according to an awareness of things which is still a vision of Truth and yet at the same time a first parent of the Ignorance. A line divides Supermind and Overmind which permits a free transmission, allows the lower Power to derive from the higher Power all it holds or sees, but automatically compels a transitional change in the passage. The integrality of the Supermind keeps always the essential truth of things, the total truth and the truth of its individual self-determinations clearly knit together; it maintains in them an inseparable unity and between them a close interpenetration and a free and full consciousness of each other: but in Overmind this integrality is no longer there. And yet the Overmind is well aware of the essential Truth of things; it embraces the totality; it uses the individual self-determinations without being limited by them: but although it knows their oneness, can realise it in a spiritual cognition, yet its dynamic movement, even while relying on that for its security, is not directly determined by it. Overmind Energy proceeds through an illimitable capacity of separation and combination of the powers and aspects of the integral and indivisible all-comprehending Unity. It takes each Aspect or Power and gives to it an independent action in which it acquires a full separate importance and is able to work out, we might say, its own world of creation. Purusha and Prakriti, Conscious Soul and executive Force of Nature, are in the supramental harmony a two-aspected single truth, being and dynamis of the Reality; there can be no disequilibrium or predominance of one over the other. In Overmind we have the origin of the cleavage, the trenchant distinction made by the philosophy of the Sankhyas in which they appear as two independent entities, Prakriti able to dominate Purusha and cloud its freedom and power, reducing it to a witness and recipient of her forms and actions, Purusha able to return to its separate existence and abide in a free self-sovereignty by rejection of her original overclouding material principle. So with the other aspects or powers of the Divine Reality, One and Many, Divine Personality and Divine Impersonality, and the rest; each is still an aspect and power of the one Reality, but each is empowered to act as an independent entity in the whole, arrive at the fullness of the possibilities of its separate expression and develop the dynamic consequences of that separateness. At the same time in Overmind this separateness is still founded on the basis of an implicit underlying unity; all possibilities of combination and relation between the separated Powers and Aspects, all interchanges and mutualities of their energies are freely organised and their actuality always possible.
::: "Inner mind is that which lies behind the surface mind (our ordinary mentality) and can only be directly experienced (apart from its vrttis in the surface mind such as philosophy, poetry, idealism, etc.) by sadhana, by breaking down the habit of being on the surface and by going deeper within.” *Letters on Yoga
"Inner mind is that which lies behind the surface mind (our ordinary mentality) and can only be directly experienced (apart from its vrttis in the surface mind such as philosophy, poetry, idealism, etc.) by sadhana, by breaking down the habit of being on the surface and by going deeper within.” Letters on Yoga
“Inner mind is that which lies behind the surface mind (our ordinary mentality) and can only be directly experienced (apart from its vrttis in the surface mind such as philosophy, poetry, idealism, etc.) by sadhana, by breaking down the habit of being on the surface and by going deeper within.” Letters on Yoga
In philosophy, a proposition opposed to a given thesis expressing a fact or a positive statement. With Kant, it is the negative member of the antinomies of reason. With Hegel, it is the second phase of the dialectical process, which denies the first moment or thesis, and which contributes to the emergence of the synthesis blending the partial truths of the thesis and the antithesis, and transcending them both.
in political and legal philosophy and theology, doctrines based on the theory that there are certain unchanging laws which pertain to man"s nature, which can be discovered by reason, and therefore ethically binding in human society, and to which man-made laws should conform.
In the meantime, Taoism degenerated and identified itself with the lowest forms of religious worship. Its naturalistic philosophy was carried to the point of fatalistic mechanism in Lieh Tzu (c. 300 A.D.) and was made the theoretical basis for alchemy and the search for longevity in Ko Hung (c. 268-c. 334 A.D.). In Kuo Hsiang (c. 312 A.D.), however, the true spirit of Taoism revived. He restored and developed the Taoist doctrines of naturalism and spontaneous transformation to a position of dignity.
It is an error to see Bergson's philosophy as being exclusively an intuitive critique of knowledge. Such a mode of exposition constructs of his thought a mere "ism", a species of intuitionalism. Bergson was the first to try to give the term intuition a scientific basis. He transformed and regrounded the static pattern of the older forms of intuitionism by giving it a biogenetic and psychologically dynamic justification. Intuitive knowledge is not limited to the favored few, is not a private, purely solipsistic affair, but is a general property of all thinking minds. Bergson's conception of intuition represents a fusion of scientific objectivity and artistic directness.
::: "Kali, the Mother of all and destroyer of all, is the Shakti that works in secret in the heart of humanity. . . .” *Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
“Kali, the Mother of all and destroyer of all, is the Shakti that works in secret in the heart of humanity….” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
kalpa. ::: cosmic cycle; an aeon; the longest age in hindu philosophy lasting several billion years &
kantism ::: n. --> The doctrine or theory of Kant; the Kantian philosophy.
Kapila ::: [an ancient sage, the traditional founder of the samkhya system of philosophy].
Karmic ::: “If we believe that the soul is repeatedly reborn in the body, we must believe also that there is some link between the lives that preceded and the lives that follow and that the past of the soul has an effect on its future; and that is the spiritual essence of the law of Karma.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
K. Gödel, The Consistency of the Axiom of Choice and of the Generalized Continuum Hypothesis with the Axioms of Set Theory. Princeton, N.J., 1940. Chou Tun-i: (Chou Lien-hsi, Chou Mao-shu, 1017-1073) Was active in government and was a renowned judge. He was the pioneer of Neo-Confucianism (li hsueh), anticipating the Ch'eng brothers. He wrote the T'ung-shu (explanation of the Book of Changes) and the T'aichi T'u-shu (explanation of the diagram of the Great Ultimate), fundamental texts of Neo-Confucian philosophy. -- W.T.C.
laputan ::: a. --> Of or pertaining to Laputa, an imaginary flying island described in Gulliver&
::: "Law is nothing but a mode or rule of action; it is called in our philosophy not Law but Dharma, holding together, it is that by which the action of the universe, the action of its parts, the action of the individual is held together.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
“Law is nothing but a mode or rule of action; it is called in our philosophy not Law but Dharma, holding together, it is that by which the action of the universe, the action of its parts, the action of the individual is held together.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
::: " . . . liberation is self-possession. . . .” *Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
“… liberation is self-possession….” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
lyceum ::: n. --> A place of exercise with covered walks, in the suburbs of Athens, where Aristotle taught philosophy.
A house or apartment appropriated to instruction by lectures or disquisitions.
A higher school, in Europe, which prepares youths for the university.
An association for debate and literary improvement.
Madhav: “This is another key idea in Sri Aurobindo’s philosophy, that Nature, what is called Prakriti in Indian philosophy, is not different, not alien to the Purusha. Nature is not foreign to the soul, to God. It is a conscious front of God. Scratch Nature, look behind the exterior of Nature and you will find God. The apparent difference, distinction between Nature and God is only a superficial appearance. Nature is really a power of God. It is devatma shakti, the self-power of God—svagunair nigudham lost in its qualitative workings. She is not separate; conscious, not something unconscious. Nature is aware that it is only a front of God behind.” The Book of the Divine Mother
magister ::: n. --> Master; sir; -- a title of the Middle Ages, given to a person in authority, or to one having a license from a university to teach philosophy and the liberal arts.
mahat ::: [in samkhya philosophy]: vast cosmic principle of Force; the idea-being of the Spirit; the essential and original matrix of consciousness (involved not evolved) in prakrti out of which individuality and formation come. ::: mahan [nominative]
"Man is God hiding himself from Nature so that he may possess her by struggle, insistence, violence and surprise. God is universal and transcendent Man hiding himself from his own individuality in the human being.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
“Man is God hiding himself from Nature so that he may possess her by struggle, insistence, violence and surprise. God is universal and transcendent Man hiding himself from his own individuality in the human being.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
::: "Matter is only so much mobile energy vibrating intensely into form.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
“Matter is only so much mobile energy vibrating intensely into form.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
Medieval Chinese philosophy was essentially a story of the synthesis of indigenous philosophies and the development of Buddhism. In the second century B.C., the Yin Yang movement identified itself with the common and powerful movement under the names of the Yellow Emperor and Lao Tzu (Huang Lao). This, in turn, became interfused with Confucianism and produced the mixture which was the Eclectic Sinisticism lasting till the tenth century A.D. In both Huai-nan Tzu (d. 122 B.C.), the semi-Taoist, and Tung Chung-shu (177-104- B.C.), the Confucian, Taoist metaphysics and Confucian ethics mingled with each other, with yin and yang as the connecting links. As the cosmic order results from the harmony of yin and yang in nature, namely, Heaven and Earth, so the moral order results from the harmony of yang and yin in man, such as husband and wife, human nature and passions, and love and hate. The Five Agents (wu hsing), through which the yin yang principles operate, have direct correspondence not only with the five directions, the five metals, etc., in nature, but also with the five Constant Virtues, the five senses, etc., in man, thus binding nature and man in a neat macrocosm-microcosm relationship. Ultimately this led to superstition, which Wang Ch'ung (27-c. 100 A.D.) vigorously attacked. He reinstated naturalism on a rational ground by accepting only reason and experience, and thus promoted the critical spirit to such an extent that it gave rise to a strong movement of textual criticism and an equally strong movement of free political thought in the few centuries after him.
Metaphysical philosophy is an attempt to fix the fundamental realities and principles of being as distinct from its processes and the phenomena which result from those processes. But it is on the fundamental realities that the processes depend: our own process of life, its aim and method, should be in accordance with the truth of being that we see; otherwise our metaphysical truth can be only a play of the intellect without any dynamic importance.
Ref: CWSA Vol. 21-22, Page: 693
Metaphysics and psychology are not distinct in Herbert's view. In his day psychology was also philosophy. It was still a metaphysical science in the sense that it is differentiated from physical science. It was only later that psychology repudiated philosophy. Accepting Kant's challenge to make psychology a mathematical science, he developed an elaborate system of mathematical constructions that proved the least fruitful phase of his system. As a mathematical science psychology can use only calculation, not experiment. As the mind or soul is unitary, indivisible. science, including philosophy, is neither analytical nor experimental. Bv denying analysis to psychology, Herbart combatted the division of mind into separate faculties. Psychology is not the mere description of the mind, but the working out of its mathematical laws.
metaphysics ::: Traditionally, metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that deals with issues of ontology (what is being or reality?) and epistemology (how do we know it?). In Integral Theory, any assertion without injunctions is considered metaphysics, or a meaningless assertion (i.e., postulating a referent for which there is no means of verification). The term is also used in its traditional sense given the lack of alternatives.
mimamsa. ::: "investigation"; an orthodox school of hindu philosophy whose primary enquiry is into the nature of dharma based on close hermeneutics of the Vedas &
mimamsaka (Mimansaka) ::: [a follower of the purva-mimamsa philosophy].
mind of light ::: Sri Aurobindo: "The Mind of Light is a subordinate action of Supermind, dependent upon it even when not apparently springing direct from it, . . . .” *Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
“Mind therefore is held by the Hindus to be a species of subtle matter in which ideas are waves or ripples, and it is not limited by the physical body which it uses as an instrument.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
monological ::: A descriptor of any approach where an individual conducts a “monologue” with an object and apprehends their immediate experience of that object, usually without acknowledging or recognizing cultural embeddedness and intersubjectivity. Monological approaches, in themselves, are sometimes referred to as subscribing to the “myth of the given,” “the philosophy of the subject,” “the philosophy of consciousness,” or what Integral Theory would describe as the belief that the contents of the Upper-Left quadrant are given without being intertwined in the remaining three quadrants. Monological approaches are typically associated with phenomenology, empiricism, meditation, all experiential exercises and therapies, etc.
More recently the term has been extended to mean also (a) the All or totality of the real, however understood, and (b) the World Ground, whether conceived idealistically or materialistically, whether pantheistically, theistically, or dualistically. It thus stands for a variety of metaphysical conceptions that have appeared widely and under various names in the history of philosophy.
Much of this Medieval usage is carried over and expanded in modern philosophy. Absolute and Absolutely signify perfection, completeness, universality, non-relativity, exemption from limitation or qualification, unconditionality; hence also the ineffable, unthinkable, indeterminable; strictly, literally, without reservation, not symbolically or metaphorically. E.g. "Absolute truth," "absolute space," "absolute Ego," "absolutely unconditioned," "absolutely true." -- W.L.
naturalism ::: n. --> A state of nature; conformity to nature.
The doctrine of those who deny a supernatural agency in the miracles and revelations recorded in the Bible, and in spiritual influences; also, any system of philosophy which refers the phenomena of nature to a blind force or forces acting necessarily or according to fixed laws, excluding origination or direction by one intelligent will.
Necessity ::: “… Necessity is the child of the spirit’s free self-determination. What affects us as Necessity, is a Will which works in sequence and not a blind Force driven by its own mechanism.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
necessity ::: Sri Aurobindo: ". . . Necessity is the child of the spirit"s free self-determination. What affects us as Necessity, is a Will which works in sequence and not a blind Force driven by its own mechanism.” *Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
neoplatonism ::: n. --> A pantheistic eclectic school of philosophy, of which Plotinus was the chief (A. D. 205-270), and which sought to reconcile the Platonic and Aristotelian systems with Oriental theosophy. It tended to mysticism and theurgy, and was the last product of Greek philosophy.
nominalism ::: n. --> The principles or philosophy of the Nominalists.
"Nothing can be more remarkable and suggestive than the extent to which modern Science confirms in the domain of Matter the conceptions and even the very formulae of language which were arrived at, by a very different method, in the Vedanta, — the original Vedanta, not of the schools of metaphysical philosophy, but of the Upanishads. And these, on the other hand, often reveal their full significance, their richer contents only when they are viewed in the new light shed by the discoveries of modern Science, — for instance, that Vedantic expression which describes things in the Cosmos as one seed arranged by the universal Energy in multitudinous forms.(1) Significant, especially, is the drive of Science towards a Monism which is consistent with multiplicity, towards the Vedic idea of the one essence with its many becomings.” The Life Divine
“Nothing can be more remarkable and suggestive than the extent to which modern Science confirms in the domain of Matter the conceptions and even the very formulae of language which were arrived at, by a very different method, in the Vedanta,—the original Vedanta, not of the schools of metaphysical philosophy, but of the Upanishads. And these, on the other hand, often reveal their full significance, their richer contents only when they are viewed in the new light shed by the discoveries of modern Science,—for instance, that Vedantic expression which describes things in the Cosmos as one seed arranged by the universal Energy in multitudinous forms.(1) Significant, especially, is the drive of Science towards a Monism which is consistent with multiplicity, towards the Vedic idea of the one essence with its many becomings.” The Life Divine
noumenon ::: n. --> The of itself unknown and unknowable rational object, or thing in itself, which is distinguished from the phenomenon through which it is apprehended by the senses, and by which it is interpreted and understood; -- so used in the philosophy of Kant and his followers.
“ Now, that a conscious Infinite is there in physical Nature, we are assured by every sign, though it is a consciousness not made or limited like ours. All her constructions and motions are those of an illimitable intuitive wisdom too great and spontaneous and mysteriously self-effective to be described as an intelligence, of a Power and Will working for Time in eternity with an inevitable and forecasting movement in each of its steps, even in those steps that in their outward or superficial impetus seem to us inconscient. And as there is in her this greater consciousness and greater power, so too there is an illimitable spirit of harmony and beauty in her constructions that never fails her, though its works are not limited by our aesthetic canons. An infinite hedonism too is there, an illimitable spirit of delight, of which we become aware when we enter into impersonal unity with her; and even as that in her which is terrible is a part of her beauty, that in her which is dangerous, cruel, destructive is a part of her delight, her universal Ananda. Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
Objecting to Fichte, his master's method of deducing everything from a single, all-embracing principle, he obstinately adhered to the axiom that everything is what it is, the principle of identity. He also departed from him in the principle of idealism and freedom. As nnn is not free in the sense of possessing a principle independent of the environment, he reverted to the Kantian doctrine that behind and underlying the world of appearance there is a plurality of real things in themselves that are independent of the operations of mind upon them. Deserving credit for having developed the realism that was latent in Kant's philosophy, he conceived the ''reals" so as to do away with the contradictions in the concepts of experience. The necessity for assuming a plurality of "reals" arises as a result of removing the contradictions in our experiences of change and of things possessing several qualities. Herbart calls the method he applies to the resolution of the contradictions existing between the empirically derived concepts, the method of relations, that is the accidental relation between the different "reals" is a question of thought only, and inessential for the "reals" themselves. It is the changes in these relations that form the process of change in the world of experience. Nothing can be ultimately real of which two contradictory predicates can be asserted. To predicate unity and multiplicity of an object is to predicate contradictions. Hence ultimate reality must be absolutely unitary and also without change. The metaphysically interpreted abstract law of contradiction was therefore central in his system. Incapability of knowing the proper nature of these "reals" equals the inability of knowing whether they are spiritual or material. Although he conceived in his system that the "reals" are analogous with our own inner states, yet his view of the "reals" accords better with materialistic atomism. The "reals" are simple and unchangeable in nature.
objectist ::: n. --> One who adheres to, or is skilled in, the objective philosophy.
"Pain and grief are Nature"s reminder to the soul that the pleasure it enjoys is only a feeble hint of the real delight of existence. In each pain and torture of our being is the secret of a flame of rapture compared with which our greatest pleasures are only as dim flickerings.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga*
“Pain and grief are Nature’s reminder to the soul that the pleasure it enjoys is only a feeble hint of the real delight of existence. In each pain and torture of our being is the secret of a flame of rapture compared with which our greatest pleasures are only as dim flickerings.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
Parallel with these developments was the growth of Buddhism in China, a story too long to relate here. Many Buddhist doctrines, latent in India, were developed in China. The nihilism of Madhyamika (Sun-lan, c. 450-c. 1000) to the effect that reality is Void in the sense of being "devoid" of any specific character, was brought to fullness, while the idealism of Vijnaptimatravada (Yogacara, Fahsiang, 563-c. 1000), which claimed that reality in its imaginary, dependent and absolute aspects is "representation-only," was pushed to the extreme. But these philosophies failed because their extreme positions were not consonant with the Chinese Ideal of the golden mean. In the meantime, China developed her own Buddhist philosophy consistent with her general philosophical outlook. We need only mention the Hua-yen school (Avatamisaka, 508) which offered a totalistic philosophy of "all in one" and "one in all," the T'ien-t'ai school (c. 550) which believes in the identity of the Void, Transitoriness, and the Mean, and in the "immanence of 3,000 worlds in one moment of thought," and the Chin-t'u school (Pure Land, c. 500) which bases its doctrine of salvation by faith and salvation for all on the philosophy of the universality of Buddha-nature. These schools have persisted because they accepted both noumenon and phenomenon, both ens and non-ens, and this "both-and" spirit is predominantly characteristic of Chinese philosophy.
"Patience is our first great necessary lesson, but not the dull slowness to move of the timid, the sceptical, the weary, the slothful, the unambitious or the weakling; a patience full of a calm and gathering strength which watches and prepares itself for the hour of swift great strokes, few but enough to change destiny.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
“Patience is our first great necessary lesson, but not the dull slowness to move of the timid, the sceptical, the weary, the slothful, the unambitious or the weakling; a patience full of a calm and gathering strength which watches and prepares itself for the hour of swift great strokes, few but enough to change destiny.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
peripatetic ::: a. --> Walking about; itinerant.
Of or pertaining to the philosophy taught by Aristotle (who gave his instructions while walking in the Lyceum at Athens), or to his followers. ::: n. --> One who walks about; a pedestrian; an itinerant.
Ph. Frank, Between Physics and Philosophy (Harvard, 1941). -- R.B.W.
philo- ::: --> A combining form from Gr. fi`los loving, fond of, attached to; as, philosophy, philotechnic.
philosophaster ::: n. --> A pretender to philosophy.
philosopher ::: n. --> One who philosophizes; one versed in, or devoted to, philosophy.
One who reduces the principles of philosophy to practice in the conduct of life; one who lives according to the rules of practical wisdom; one who meets or regards all vicissitudes with calmness.
An alchemist.
philosophical ::: a. --> Of or pertaining to philosophy; versed in, or imbued with, the principles of philosophy; hence, characterizing a philosopher; rational; wise; temperate; calm; cool.
philosophies ::: pl. --> of Philosophy
philosophism ::: n. --> Spurious philosophy; the love or practice of sophistry.
philosophist ::: n. --> A pretender in philosophy.
philosophy ::: “All philosophy is concerned with the relations between two things, the fundamental truth of existence and the forms in which existence presents itself to our experience.” The Hour of God
PHILOSOPHY. ::: Intellectual expression of the Truth ; a means of expressing this greater discovery and as much of its contents as can at all be expressed in mentality to those who still live in the mental intelligence.
::: ". . . philosophy is only a way of formulating to ourselves intellectually in their essential significance the psychological and physical facts of existence and their relation to any ultimate reality that may exist,. . . .” Essays on the Gita
“… philosophy is only a way of formulating to ourselves intellectually in their essential significance the psychological and physical facts of existence and their relation to any ultimate reality that may exist,….” Essays on the Gita
philosophy ::: n. --> Literally, the love of, including the search after, wisdom; in actual usage, the knowledge of phenomena as explained by, and resolved into, causes and reasons, powers and laws.
A particular philosophical system or theory; the hypothesis by which particular phenomena are explained.
Practical wisdom; calmness of temper and judgment; equanimity; fortitude; stoicism; as, to meet misfortune with philosophy.
philosophy
phrenics ::: n. --> That branch of science which relates to the mind; mental philosophy.
physianthropy ::: n. --> The philosophy of human life, or the doctrine of the constitution and diseases of man, and their remedies.
physical ::: a. --> Of or pertaining to nature (as including all created existences); in accordance with the laws of nature; also, of or relating to natural or material things, or to the bodily structure, as opposed to things mental, moral, spiritual, or imaginary; material; natural; as, armies and navies are the physical force of a nation; the body is the physical part of man.
Of or pertaining to physics, or natural philosophy; treating of, or relating to, the causes and connections of natural
physicism ::: n. --> The tendency of the mind toward, or its preoccupation with, physical phenomena; materialism in philosophy and religion.
physico-philosophy ::: n. --> The philosophy of nature.
physico-theology ::: n. --> Theology or divinity illustrated or enforced by physics or natural philosophy.
physics ::: n. --> The science of nature, or of natural objects; that branch of science which treats of the laws and properties of matter, and the forces acting upon it; especially, that department of natural science which treats of the causes (as gravitation, heat, light, magnetism, electricity, etc.) that modify the general properties of bodies; natural philosophy.
platonical ::: a. --> Of or pertaining to Plato, or his philosophy, school, or opinions.
Pure, passionless; nonsexual; philosophical.
platonism ::: n. --> The doctrines or philosophy by Plato or of his followers.
An elevated rational and ethical conception of the laws and forces of the universe; sometimes, imaginative or fantastic philosophical notions.
platonist ::: n. --> One who adheres to the philosophy of Plato; a follower of Plato.
platonize ::: v. i. --> To adopt the opinion of Plato or his followers. ::: v. t. --> To explain by, or accomodate to, the Platonic philosophy.
popularize ::: v. t. --> To make popular; to make suitable or acceptable to the common people; to make generally known; as, to popularize philosophy.
positivism ::: n. --> A system of philosophy originated by M. Auguste Comte, which deals only with positives. It excludes from philosophy everything but the natural phenomena or properties of knowable things, together with their invariable relations of coexistence and succession, as occurring in time and space. Such relations are denominated laws, which are to be discovered by observation, experiment, and comparison. This philosophy holds all inquiry into causes, both efficient and final, to be useless and unprofitable.
::: "Possession in oneness and not loss in oneness is the secret. God and Man, World and Beyond-world become one when they know each other. Their division is the cause of ignorance as ignorance is the cause of suffering.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
“Possession in oneness and not loss in oneness is the secret. God and Man, World and Beyond-world become one when they know each other. Their division is the cause of ignorance as ignorance is the cause of suffering.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
pradhana ::: [in samkhya philosophy]: basis; first substance, first state or arrangement of matter and its essential principle.
pradhana ::: (in the Sankhya philosophy) the original, unevolved state of Matter.
pradhana. ::: the potential but unmanifest ingredients of the material world; prakriti; the chief; the root base of all elements; undifferentiated matter; the material cause of the world in the Sankhya philosophy, corresponding to maya in vedanta &
::: "Progress is the very heart of the significance of human life, for it means our evolution into greater and richer being; . . . .” *Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
“Progress is the very heart of the significance of human life, for it means our evolution into greater and richer being; …” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
promoter ::: n. --> One who, or that which, forwards, advances, or promotes; an encourager; as, a promoter of charity or philosophy.
Specifically, one who sets on foot, and takes the preliminary steps in, a scheme for the organization of a corporation, a joint-stock company, or the like.
One who excites; as, a promoter of sedition.
An informer; a makebate.
psilosopher ::: n. --> A superficial or narrow pretender to philosophy; a sham philosopher.
purva-mimamsa (Purva Mimansa) ::: [a system of philosophy (one of the six darsanas), the enquiry into the first or mantra portion of the Veda; it is concerned chiefly with Vedic ritual]; the vedavada.
Raja yoga ::: This is the first step only. Afterwards, the ordinary activities of the mind and sense must be entirely quieted in order that the soul may be free to ascend to higher states of consciousness and acquire the foundation for a perfect freedom and self-mastery. But Rajayoga does not forget that the disabilities of the ordinary mind proceed largely from its subjection to the reactions of the nervous system and the body. It adopts th
refore from the Hathayogic system its devices of asana and pranayama, but reduces their multiple and elaborate forms in each case to one simplest and most directly effective process sufficient for its own immediate object. Thus it gets rid of the Hathayogic complexity and cumbrousness while it utilises the swift and powerful efficacy of its methods for the control of the body and the vital functions and for the awakening of that internal dynamism, full of a latent supernormal faculty, typified in Yogic terminology by the kundalinı, the coiled and sleeping serpent of Energy within. This done, the system proceeds to the perfect quieting of the restless mind and its elevation to a higher plane through concentration of mental force by the successive stages which lead to the utmost inner concentration or ingathered state of the consciousness which is called Samadhi. By Samadhi, in which the mind acquires the capacity of withdrawing from its limited waking activities into freer and higher states of consciousness, Rajayoga serves a double purpose. It compasses a pure mental action liberated from the confusions of the outer consciousness and passes thence to the higher supra-mental planes on which the individual soul enters into its true spiritual existence. But also it acquires the capacity of that free and concentrated energising of consciousness on its object which our philosophy asserts as the primary cosmic energy and the method of divine action upon the world. By this capacity the Yogin, already possessed of the highest supracosmic knowledge and experience in the state of trance, is able in the waking state to acquire directly whatever knowledge and exercise whatever mastery may be useful or necessary to his activities in the objective world. For the ancient system of Rajayoga aimed not only at Swarajya, self-rule or subjective empire, the entire control by the subjective consciousness of all the states and activities proper to its own domain, but included Samrajya as well, outward empire, the control by the subjective consciousness of its outer activities and environment.
Ref: CWSA Vol. 23-24, Page: 36-37
ramist ::: n. --> A follower of Pierre Rame, better known as Ramus, a celebrated French scholar, who was professor of rhetoric and philosophy at Paris in the reign of Henry II., and opposed the Aristotelians.
Realistic Advaita ::: There is possible a realistic as well as an illusionist Adwaita. The philosophy of The Life Divine is such a realistic Adwaita. The world is a manifestation of the Real and th
refore is itself real. The reality is the infinite and eternal Divine, infinite and eternal Being, Consciousness-Force and Bliss. This Divine by his power has created the world or rather manifested it in his own infinite Being. But here in the material world or at its basis he has hidden himself in what seem to be his opposites, Non-Being, Inconscience and Insentience. This is what we nowadays call the Inconscient which seems to have created the material universe by its inconscient Energy; but this is only an appearance, for we find in the end that all the dispositions of theworld can only have been arranged by the working of a supreme secret intelligence. The Being which is hidden in what seems to be an inconscient void emerges in the world first in Matter, then in Life, then in Mind and finally as the Spirit. The apparently inconscient Energy which creates is in fact the Consciousness-Force of the Divine and its aspect of consciousness, secret in Matter, begins to emerge in Life, finds something more of itself in Mind and finds its true self in a spiritual consciousness and finally a supramental consciousness through which we become aware of the Reality, enter into it and unite ourselves with it. This is what we call evolution which is an evolution of consciousness and an evolution of the Spirit in things and only outwardly an evolution of species. Thus also, the delight of existence emerges from the original insentience first in the contrary forms of pleasure and pain and then has to find itself in the bliss of the Spirit or as it is called in the Upanishads, the bliss of the Brahman.
Ref: CWSA Vol. 35, Page: 91-92
REALISTIC ADVAITA, There is possible a realistic as well as an Ulusionistic Advaita. The philosophy of the Life
sankhya ::: n. --> A Hindoo system of philosophy which refers all things to soul and a rootless germ called prakriti, consisting of three elements, goodness, passion, and darkness.
sankhya &
scepsis ::: n. --> Skepticism; skeptical philosophy.
scholastic ::: a. --> Pertaining to, or suiting, a scholar, a school, or schools; scholarlike; as, scholastic manners or pride; scholastic learning.
Of or pertaining to the schoolmen and divines of the Middle Ages (see Schoolman); as, scholastic divinity or theology; scholastic philosophy.
Hence, characterized by excessive subtilty, or needlessly minute subdivisions; pedantic; formal.
scholasticism ::: n. --> The method or subtilties of the schools of philosophy; scholastic formality; scholastic doctrines or philosophy.
"Science is a right knowledge, in the end only of processes, but still the knowledge of processes too is part of a total wisdom and essential to a wide and a clear approach towards the deeper Truth behind.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
“Science is a right knowledge, in the end only of processes, but still the knowledge of processes too is part of a total wisdom and essential to a wide and a clear approach towards the deeper Truth behind.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
scotist ::: n. --> A follower of (Joannes) Duns Scotus, the Franciscan scholastic (d. 1308), who maintained certain doctrines in philosophy and theology, in opposition to the Thomists, or followers of Thomas Aquinas, the Dominican scholastic.
sectary ::: n. --> A sectarian; a member or adherent of a sect; a follower or disciple of some particular teacher in philosophy or religion; one who separates from an established church; a dissenter.
sect ::: n. --> A cutting; a scion.
Those following a particular leader or authority, or attached to a certain opinion; a company or set having a common belief or allegiance distinct from others; in religion, the believers in a particular creed, or upholders of a particular practice; especially, in modern times, a party dissenting from an established church; a denomination; in philosophy, the disciples of a particular master; a school; in society and the state, an order, rank, class, or party.
sensist ::: n. --> One who, in philosophy, holds to sensism.
&
sociology ::: n. --> That branch of philosophy which treats of the constitution, phenomena, and development of human society; social science.
socratism ::: n. --> The philosophy or the method of Socrates.
sophist ::: n. --> One of a class of men who taught eloquence, philosophy, and politics in ancient Greece; especially, one of those who, by their fallacious but plausible reasoning, puzzled inquirers after truth, weakened the faith of the people, and drew upon themselves general hatred and contempt.
Hence, an impostor in argument; a captious or fallacious reasoner.
spirit of Delight ::: Sri Aurobindo: " Now, that a conscious Infinite is there in physical Nature, we are assured by every sign, though it is a consciousness not made or limited like ours. All her constructions and motions are those of an illimitable intuitive wisdom too great and spontaneous and mysteriously self-effective to be described as an intelligence, of a Power and Will working for Time in eternity with an inevitable and forecasting movement in each of its steps, even in those steps that in their outward or superficial impetus seem to us inconscient. And as there is in her this greater consciousness and greater power, so too there is an illimitable spirit of harmony and beauty in her constructions that never fails her, though its works are not limited by our aesthetic canons. An infinite hedonism too is there, an illimitable spirit of delight, of which we become aware when we enter into impersonal unity with her; and even as that in her which is terrible is a part of her beauty, that in her which is dangerous, cruel, destructive is a part of her delight, her universal Ananda. Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
Sri Aurobindo: "All philosophy is concerned with the relations between two things, the fundamental truth of existence and the forms in which existence presents itself to our experience.” *The Hour of God
Sri Aurobindo: "Freedom is the law of being in its illimitable unity, secret master of all Nature: . . . .” *Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
Sri Aurobindo: "God and Man, World and Beyond-world become one when they know each other. Their division is the cause of ignorance as ignorance is the cause of suffering.” *Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
Sri Aurobindo: "His [the Titan"s] instincts call for a visible, tangible mastery and a sensational domination. How shall he feel sure of his empire unless he can feel something writhing helpless under his heel, — if in agony, so much the better? What is exploitation to him, unless it diminishes the exploited? To be able to coerce, exact, slay, overtly, irresistibly, — it is this that fills him with the sense of glory and dominion. For he is the son of division and the strong flowering of the Ego. To feel the comparative limitation of others is necessary to him that he may imagine himself immeasurable; for he has not the real, self-existent sense of infinity which no outward circumstance can abrogate. Contrast, division, negation of the wills and lives of others are essential to his self-development and self-assertion. The Titan would unify by devouring, not by harmonising; he must conquer and trample what is not himself either out of existence or into subservience so that his own image may stand out stamped upon all things and dominating all his environment.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
Sri Aurobindo: “His [the Titan’s] instincts call for a visible, tangible mastery and a sensational domination. How shall he feel sure of his empire unless he can feel something writhing helpless under his heel,—if in agony, so much the better? What is exploitation to him, unless it diminishes the exploited? To be able to coerce, exact, slay, overtly, irresistibly,—it is this that fills him with the sense of glory and dominion. For he is the son of division and the strong flowering of the Ego. To feel the comparative limitation of others is necessary to him that he may imagine himself immeasurable; for he has not the real, self-existent sense of infinity which no outward circumstance can abrogate. Contrast, division, negation of the wills and lives of others are essential to his self-development and self-assertion. The Titan would unify by devouring, not by harmonising; he must conquer and trample what is not himself either out of existence or into subservience so that his own image may stand out stamped upon all things and dominating all his environment.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
Sri Aurobindo: "If we believe that the soul is repeatedly reborn in the body, we must believe also that there is some link between the lives that preceded and the lives that follow and that the past of the soul has an effect on its future; and that is the spiritual essence of the law of Karma.” *Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
Sri Aurobindo: “If we believe that the soul is repeatedly reborn in the body, we must believe also that there is some link between the lives that preceded and the lives that follow and that the past of the soul has an effect on its future; and that is the spiritual essence of the law of Karma.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
Sri Aurobindo: "In the very atom there is a subconscious will and desire which must also be present in all atomic aggregates because they are present in the Force which constitutes the atom.” *Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
Sri Aurobindo: " Karma is nothing but the will of the Spirit in action, consequence nothing but the creation of will. What is in the will of being, expresses itself in karma and consequence. When the will is limited in mind, karma appears as a bondage and a limitation, consequence as a reaction or an imposition. But when the will of the being is infinite in the spirit, karma and consequence become instead the joy of the creative spirit, the construction of the eternal mechanist, the word and drama of the eternal poet, the harmony of the eternal musician, the play of the eternal child.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
Sri Aurobindo: "This idea of universality, of oneness not only with God or the eternal Self in me, but with all humanity and other beings, is growing to be the most prominent strain in our minds and it has to be taken more largely into account in any future idea or computation of the significance of rebirth and karma.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
Sri Aurobindo: "This truth of Karma has been always recognised in the East in one form or else in another; but to the Buddhists belongs the credit of having given to it the clearest and fullest universal enunciation and the most insistent importance. In the West too the idea has constantly recurred, but in external, in fragmentary glimpses, as the recognition of a pragmatic truth of experience, and mostly as an ordered ethical law or fatality set over against the self-will and strength of man: but it was clouded over by other ideas inconsistent with any reign of law, vague ideas of some superior caprice or of some divine jealousy, — that was a notion of the Greeks, — a blind Fate or inscrutable Necessity, Ananke, or, later, the mysterious ways of an arbitrary, though no doubt an all-wise Providence.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga *Ananke"s.
Sri Aurobindo: “This truth of Karma has been always recognised in the East in one form or else in another; but to the Buddhists belongs the credit of having given to it the clearest and fullest universal enunciation and the most insistent importance. In the West too the idea has constantly recurred, but in external, in fragmentary glimpses, as the recognition of a pragmatic truth of experience, and mostly as an ordered ethical law or fatality set over against the self-will and strength of man: but it was clouded over by other ideas inconsistent with any reign of law, vague ideas of some superior caprice or of some divine jealousy,—that was a notion of the Greeks,—a blind Fate or inscrutable Necessity, Ananke, or, later, the mysterious ways of an arbitrary, though no doubt an all-wise Providence.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
Sri Aurobindo: "Weakness puts the same test and question to the strengths and energies and greatnesses in which we glory. Power is the play of life, shows its degree, finds the value of its expression; weakness is the play of death pursuing life in its movement and stressing the limit of its acquired energy.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
Sri Aurobindo: "What is God after all? An eternal child playing an eternal game in an eternal garden.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
stoic ::: adj. 1. Of or pertaining to the school of philosophy founded by Zeno, who taught that people should be free from passion, unmoved by joy or grief, and submit without complaint to unavoidable necessity. n. 2. A member or adherent of the Stoic school of philosophy. Stoic"s.
subtle Matter ::: Sri Aurobindo: "Much more than half our thoughts and feelings are not our own in the sense that they take form out of ourselves; of hardly anything can it be said that it is truly original to our nature. A large part comes to us from others or from the environment, whether as raw material or as manufactured imports; but still more largely they come from universal Nature here or from other worlds and planes and their beings and powers and influences; for we are overtopped and environed by other planes of consciousness, mind planes, life planes, subtle matter planes, from which our life and action here are fed, or fed on, pressed, dominated, made use of for the manifestation of their forms and forces.” *The Synthesis of Yoga
"Mind therefore is held by the Hindus to be a species of subtle matter in which ideas are waves or ripples, and it is not limited by the physical body which it uses as an instrument.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
"All that manifested from the Eternal has already been arranged in worlds or planes of its own nature, planes of subtle Matter, planes of Life, planes of Mind, planes of Supermind, planes of the triune luminous Infinite. But these worlds or planes are not evolutionary but typal. A typal world is one in which some ruling principle manifests itself in its free and full capacity and energy and form are plastic and subservient to its purpose. Its expressions are therefore automatic and satisfying and do not need to evolve; they stand so long as need be and do not need to be born, develop, decline and disintegrate.” Essays Divine and Human*
"Supermind is the grade of existence beyond mind, life and Matter and, as mind, life and Matter have manifested on the earth, so too must Supermind in the inevitable course of things manifest in this world of Matter. In fact, a supermind is already here but it is involved, concealed behind this manifest mind, life and Matter and not yet acting overtly or in its own power: if it acts, it is through these inferior powers and modified by their characters and so not yet recognisable. It is only by the approach and arrival of the descending Supermind that it can be liberated upon earth and reveal itself in the action of our material, vital and mental parts so that these lower powers can become portions of a total divinised activity of our whole being: it is that that will bring to us a completely realised divinity or the divine life.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
“Supermind is the grade of existence beyond mind, life and Matter and, as mind, life and Matter have manifested on the earth, so too must Supermind in the inevitable course of things manifest in this world of Matter. In fact, a supermind is already here but it is involved, concealed behind this manifest mind, life and Matter and not yet acting overtly or in its own power: if it acts, it is through these inferior powers and modified by their characters and so not yet recognisable. It is only by the approach and arrival of the descending Supermind that it can be liberated upon earth and reveal itself in the action of our material, vital and mental parts so that these lower powers can become portions of a total divinised activity of our whole being: it is that that will bring to us a completely realised divinity or the divine life.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
tantrika (Tantric, Tantrik) ::: [relating to tantra; a follower of the tantra system of philosophy and yoga].
tejas ::: fiery brilliance; mental light and energy; the energy of temperament that manifests itself in each element of the fourfold personality (brahmatejas, etc.); a term in the first general formula of the sakti catus.t.aya; "a strong and ardent force and intensity", an element of cittasakti; one of the seven kinds of akashic material; rūpa or lipi . composed of this material; fire, the principle of light and heat, one of "the five elements of ancient philosophy or rather elementary conditions of Nature, pañca bhūta, which constitute objects by their various combination", also called agni1; the virile energy carried to the head by udana.
“The body, we have said, is a creation of the Inconscient and itself inconscient or at least subconscient in parts of itself and much of its hidden action; but what we call the Inconscient is an appearance, a dwelling place, an instrument of a secret Consciousness or a Superconscient which has created the miracle we call the universe.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
The early Greek notion of the universe as ordered by destiny or fate was gradually refined until the time of Plato and Aristotle who conceived the world as ordered by an intelligent principle (nous) of divine justice or harmony; Plato, Philebus, 30: ". . . there is in the universe a cause of no mean power, which orders and arranges . . ."; and Aristotle, Physics, 252a-12: "nature is everywhere the cause of order". This cosmic view was an essential element of the Stoic metaphysics, and was later incorporated into medieval philosophy and theology as the divine governance or ordering of creation, i.e. providence.
"The essential character of Supermind is a Truth-consciousness which knows by its own inherent right of nature, by its own light: it has not to arrive at knowledge but possesses it.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
“The essential character of Supermind is a Truth-consciousness which knows by its own inherent right of nature, by its own light: it has not to arrive at knowledge but possesses it.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
"The force is Prakriti or Shakti, the female principle in Nature which is at the root of all action.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
“The force is Prakriti or Shakti, the female principle in Nature which is at the root of all action.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
"The form is the manifestation or appearance, the idea is the truth. The form is phenomenon, the idea is reality.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
“The form is the manifestation or appearance, the idea is the truth. The form is phenomenon, the idea is reality.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
"The gradual self-liberation from bondage to Nature is the true progress of humanity.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
“The gradual self-liberation from bondage to Nature is the true progress of humanity.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
::: "The greater the destruction, the freer the chances of creation; but the destruction is often long, slow and oppressive, the creation tardy in its coming or interrupted in its triumph. The night returns again and again and the day lingers or seems even to have been a false dawning. Despair not therefore, but watch and work. Those who hope violently, despair swiftly: neither hope nor fear, but be sure of God"s purpose and thy will to accomplish.” *Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
“The greater the destruction, the freer the chances of creation; but the destruction is often long, slow and oppressive, the creation tardy in its coming or interrupted in its triumph. The night returns again and again and the day lingers or seems even to have been a false dawning. Despair not therefore, but watch and work. Those who hope violently, despair swiftly: neither hope nor fear, but be sure of God’s purpose and thy will to accomplish.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
The historical antecedents of experimental psychology are various. From British empiricism and the psychological philosophy of Locke, Berkeley and Hume came associationism (see Associationism), the psychological implications of which were more fully developed by Herbart and Bain. Associationism provided the conceptual framework and largely colored the procedures of early experimental psychology. Physics and physiology gave impetus to experiments on sensory phenomena while physiology and neurology fostered studies of the nervous system and reflex action. The names of Helmholtz, Johannes Müller, E. H. Weber and Fechner are closely linked with this phase of the development of experimental psychology. The English biologist Galton developed the statistical methods of Quetelet for the analysis of data on human variation and opened the way for the mental testing movement; the Russian physiologist Pavlov, with his researches on "conditioned reflexes," contributed an experimental technique which has proved of paramount importance for the psychologist. Even astronomy made its contribution; variations in reaction time of different observers having long been recognized by astronomers as an important source of error in their observations.
The importance of Arab philosophy has to be evaluated both in regard to the Oriental and the Western world. The latter was influenced, naturally, not by the originals but by the translations which do not always render exactly the spirit of the authors. In the East, theology remained victorious, but incorporated in its own teachings much of the philosophies it condemned. M. Horten, in Ueberweg-Heinze, Geschichte der Philosophie, 3d ed., Berlin, 1928, pp. 287-342. Geschichte der Arabischen Litteratur, Vol. I, II, Weimar, 1898-1902, Vol. III-VI, Leiden, 1936-1941. The Encyclopedia of Islam, Leiden, 1913-1918. -- R.A.
“The Mind of Light is a subordinate action of Supermind, dependent upon it even when not apparently springing direct from it, …” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
The Mother: "For me poetry is beyond all philosophy and beyond all explanation.” On Education, MCW Vol. 12.
The Mother: “For me poetry is beyond all philosophy and beyond all explanation.” On Education, MCW Vol. 12.
theodicy ::: n. --> A vindication of the justice of God in ordaining or permitting natural and moral evil.
That department of philosophy which treats of the being, perfections, and government of God, and the immortality of the soul.
theophilosophic ::: a. --> Combining theism and philosophy, or pertaining to the combination of theism and philosophy.
theosophy ::: n. --> Any system of philosophy or mysticism which proposes to attain intercourse with God and superior spirits, and consequent superhuman knowledge, by physical processes, as by the theurgic operations of some ancient Platonists, or by the chemical processes of the German fire philosophers; also, a direct, as distinguished from a revealed, knowledge of God, supposed to be attained by extraordinary illumination; especially, a direct insight into the processes of the divine mind, and the interior relations of the divine nature.
The philosophy of Aristotle was continued after his death by other members of the Peripatetic school, the most important of whom were Theophrastus, Eudemus of Rhodes, and Strato of Lampsacus. In the Alexandrian Age, particularly after the editing of Aristotle's works by Andronicus of Rhodes (about 50 B.C.), Aristotelianism was the subject of numerous expositions and commentaries, such as those of Alexander of Aphrodisias, Themistius, John Philoponus, and Simplicius. With the closing of the philosophical schools in the sixth century the knowledge of Aristotle, except for fragments of the logical doctrine, almost disappeared in the west. It was preserved, however, by Arabian and Syrian scholars; from whom, with the revival of learning in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, it passed again to western Europe and became in Thomas Aquinas the philosophical basis of Christian theology. For the next few centuries the prestige of Aristotle was immense; he was "the philosopher," "the master of those who know." With the rise of modern science his authority has greatly declined. Yet Aristotelianism is still a force in modern thought: in Neo-Scholasticism; in recent psychology, whose behavioristic tendencies are in part a revival of Aristotelian modes of thought; in the various forms of vitalism in contemporary biology; in the dynamism of such thinkers as Bergson; and in the more catholic naturalism which has succeeded the mechanistic materialism of the last century, and which, whether by appeal to a doctrine of levels or by emphasis on immanent teleology, seems to be striving along Aristotelian lines for a conception of nature broad enough to include the religious, moral and artistic consciousness. Finally, a very large part of our technical vocabulary, both in science and in philosophy, is but the translation into modern tongues of the terms used by Aristotle, and carries with it, for better or worse, the distinctions worked out in his subtle mind. -- G.R.M.
"There are, according to the Sankhya philosophy accepted in this respect by the Gita, three essential qualities or modes of the world-energy and therefore also of human nature, sattva, the mode of poise, knowledge and satisfaction, rajas, the mode of passion, action and struggling emotion, tamas, the mode of ignorance and inertia.” Essays on the Gita
“There are, according to the Sankhya philosophy accepted in this respect by the Gita, three essential qualities or modes of the world-energy and therefore also of human nature, sattva, the mode of poise, knowledge and satisfaction, rajas, the mode of passion, action and struggling emotion, tamas, the mode of ignorance and inertia.” Essays on the Gita
These notes were written apropos of Bergson"s ‘philosophy of change", ‘you" would refer to a proponent of this philosophy.
These notes were written apropos of Bergson’s ‘philosophy of change’, ‘you’ would refer to a proponent of this philosophy.
::: "The shoreless stream of idea and thought, imagination and experience, name and form, sensation and vibration sweeps onward for ever, without beginning, without end, rising into view, sinking out of sight; through it the one Intelligence with its million self-expressions pours itself abroad, an ocean with innumerable waves. One particular self-expression may disappear into its source and continent, but that does not and cannot abolish the phenomenal universe. The One is for ever, and the Many are for ever because the One is for ever. So long as there is a sea, there will be waves.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
“The shoreless stream of idea and thought, imagination and experience, name and form, sensation and vibration sweeps onward for ever, without beginning, without end, rising into view, sinking out of sight; through it the one Intelligence with its million self-expressions pours itself abroad, an ocean with innumerable waves. One particular self-expression may disappear into its source and continent, but that does not and cannot abolish the phenomenal universe. The One is for ever, and the Many are for ever because the One is for ever. So long as there is a sea, there will be waves.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
"The Spirit is the truth of our being; mind and life and body in their imperfection are its masks, but in their perfection should be its moulds.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
“The Spirit is the truth of our being; mind and life and body in their imperfection are its masks, but in their perfection should be its moulds.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
::: "The spiritual law of Karma is that the nature of each being can be only the result of his past energies; . . . .” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
“The spiritual law of Karma is that the nature of each being can be only the result of his past energies; …” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
"The world is a great game of hide and seek in which the real hides behind the apparent, spirit behind matter.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
“The world is a great game of hide and seek in which the real hides behind the apparent, spirit behind matter.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
"The world knows three kinds of revolution. The material has strong results, the moral and intellectual are infinitely larger in their scope and richer in their fruits, but the spiritual are the great sowings.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga*
“The world knows three kinds of revolution. The material has strong results, the moral and intellectual are infinitely larger in their scope and richer in their fruits, but the spiritual are the great sowings.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
"This is the great truth now dawning on the world, that Will is the thing which moves the world and that Fate is merely a process by which Will fulfils itself.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
“This is the great truth now dawning on the world, that Will is the thing which moves the world and that Fate is merely a process by which Will fulfils itself.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
This rebuilding of the notion of creature permits St. Thomas also to analyze the problems that Averroism was making more and more prominent. Philosophical truth was discovered by the Greeks and the Arabians neither completely nor adequately nor without error. What the Christian thinker must do in their presence is not to divide his allegiance between them and Christianity, but to discover the meaning of reason and the conditions of true thinking. That discovery will enable him to learn from the Greeks without also learning their errors; and it would thus show him the possibility of the harmony between reason and revelation. He must learn to be a philosopher, to discover the philosopher within the Christian man, in order to meet philosophers. In exploring the meaning of a creature, St. Thomas was building a philosophy which permitted his contemporaries (at least, if they listened to him) to free themselves from the old eternalistic and rigid world of the Greeks and to free their thinking, therefore, from the antinomies which this world could raise up for them. In the harmony of faith and reason which St. Thomas defended against Averroism, we must see the culminating point of his activity. For such a harmony meant ultimately not only a judicious and synthetic diagnosis of Greek philosophy, as well as a synthetic incorporation of Greek ideas in Christian thought, it meant also the final vindication of the humanism and the naturalism of Thomistic philosophy. The expression and the defense of this Christian humanism constitute one of St. Thomas' most enduring contributions to European thought. -- A.C.P.
“This world is not really created by a blind force of Nature: even in the Inconscient the presence of the supreme Truth is at work; there is a seeing Power behind it which acts infallibly and the steps of the Ignorance itself are guided even when they seem to stumble; for what we call the Ignorance is a cloaked Knowledge, a Knowledge at work in a body not its own but moving towards its own supreme self-discovery.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
thoth ::: n. --> The god of eloquence and letters among the ancient Egyptians, and supposed to be the inventor of writing and philosophy. He corresponded to the Mercury of the Romans, and was usually represented as a human figure with the head of an ibis or a lamb.
The Egyptian sacred baboon.
"Thought is not essential to existence nor its cause, but it is an instrument for becoming; I become what I see in myself. All that thought suggests to me, I can do; all that thought reveals in me, I can become. This should be man"s unshakable faith in himself, because God dwells in him.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
“Thought is not essential to existence nor its cause, but it is an instrument for becoming; I become what I see in myself. All that thought suggests to me, I can do; all that thought reveals in me, I can become. This should be man’s unshakable faith in himself, because God dwells in him.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
Titan ::: : “His [the Titan’s] instincts call for a visible, tangible mastery and a sensational domination. How shall he feel sure of his empire unless he can feel something writhing helpless under his heel,—if in agony, so much the better? What is exploitation to him, unless it diminishes the exploited? To be able to coerce, exact, slay, overtly, irresistibly,—it is this that fills him with the sense of glory and dominion. For he is the son of division and the strong flowering of the Ego. To feel the comparative limitation of others is necessary to him that he may imagine himself immeasurable; for he has not the real, self-existent sense of infinity which no outward circumstance can abrogate. Contrast, division, negation of the wills and lives of others are essential to his self-development and self-assertion. The Titan would unify by devouring, not by harmonising; he must conquer and trample what is not himself either out of existence or into subservience so that his own image may stand out stamped upon all things and dominating all his environment.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
"Unconsciousness is only an intermediate swoon of the conscious or its obscure sleep; . . . .” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga*
“Unconsciousness is only an intermediate swoon of the conscious or its obscure sleep; …” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
universality ::: “This idea of universality, of oneness not only with God or the eternal Self in me, but with all humanity and other beings, is growing to be the most prominent strain in our minds and it has to be taken more largely into account in any future idea or computation of the significance of rebirth and karma.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
upadhi. ::: "limited by"; limitation; external imposition; a term used in vedanta philosophy for any superimposition that gives a limited view of the true Reality and makes It appear as the relative, like the body of a man or animal is the upadhi of its spirit; one of many conditions of body and mind obscuring the true Self which needs to be removed for the attainment of liberation
upanisad (Upanishad) ::: inner knowledge, the secret teaching which enters into the final truth and settles in it, [one of a class of Hindu sacred writings, regarded as the source of the Vedanta-philosophy].
uttara-mimamsa ::: [a system of philosophy (one of the six darsanas) : the enquiry into the latter portion of the Veda (i.e. the Upanisads ) ; it is usually called vedanta]; the brahmavada.
vaidika dharma. ::: a diverse body of religion, philosophy, and cultural practice native to and predominant in India, characterised by a belief in reincarnation and a supreme being of many forms and natures, by the view that opposing theories are aspects of one eternal Truth, and by a desire for liberation from earthly evils
vaisesika (Vaisheshika) ::: [a system of philosophy, one of the six darsanas; its characteristic doctrine is the eternally distinct nature of the nine substances (air, fire, water, earth, mind, ether, time, space and soul), of which the first five, including mind, are held to be atomic].
vedanta ::: n. --> A system of philosophy among the Hindus, founded on scattered texts of the Vedas, and thence termed the "Anta," or end or substance.
vedanta. ::: "the end of the Vedas"; the philosophy based primarily on the
vedanta ::: the "end or culmination of the Veda", the Upanisads (which occur at the end of the Veda) ; a system of philosophy based on the Upanisads teaching the culminating knowledge of the Absolute, considered (sometimes under the name uttara-mimamsa) to be one of the six darsanas].
vikara ::: corruption, distortion, deformation; [in the samkhya philosophy: a production or derivative from prakrti.]
Wang Yang-ming considered desire as an obstacle to the mind. The Neo-Confucians of the Ch'ing period, especially Tai Tung-yuan (1723-1777), however, argued that since desire is part of our nature, it has its rightful place, just as the vital force has its rightful place beside Reason. The main problem then would be to attain the harmony of human passion (ch'ing) and the originally good human nature (hsing). Thus Neo-Confucianism reasserted the principle of central harmony (chung yung), and central harmony is the Moral Law (tao). This Law finds expression in constant and orderly transformation, the realization of which is Reason. It will be seen that Neo-Confucianism is essentially compatible with western philosophy and science. It is to be expected, therefore, that both Neo-Confucianism and western thought will play a great role in any future philosophy in China. -- W.T.C
weakness ::: “Weakness puts the same test and question to the strengths and energies and greatnesses in which we glory. Power is the play of life, shows its degree, finds the value of its expression; weakness is the play of death pursuing life in its movement and stressing the limit of its acquired energy.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
"We are ignorant also of the superconscient, that which we ordinarily call spirit or oversoul; yet this we find to be our highest and widest self, Sachchidananda creating and governing all that we are and become by His divine Maya.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga*
“We are ignorant also of the superconscient, that which we ordinarily call spirit or oversoul; yet this we find to be our highest and widest self, Sachchidananda creating and governing all that we are and become by His divine Maya.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
::: "We have to face the future"s offer of death as well as its offer of life, and it need not alarm us, for it is by constant death to our old names and forms that we shall live most vitally in greater and newer forms and names.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
“We have to face the future’s offer of death as well as its offer of life, and it need not alarm us, for it is by constant death to our old names and forms that we shall live most vitally in greater and newer forms and names.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
"What is God after all? An eternal child playing an eternal game in an eternal garden.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga*
“What is God after all? An eternal child playing an eternal game in an eternal garden.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
"What we have called specifically the Mind of Light is indeed the last of a series of descending planes of consciousness in which the Supermind veils itself by a self-chosen limitation or modification of its self-manifesting activities, but its essential character remains the same: there is in it an action of light, of truth, of knowledge in which inconscience, ignorance and error claim no place.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga*
“What we have called specifically the Mind of Light is indeed the last of a series of descending planes of consciousness in which the Supermind veils itself by a self-chosen limitation or modification of its self-manifesting activities, but its essential character remains the same: there is in it an action of light, of truth, of knowledge in which inconscience, ignorance and error claim no place.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
::: "Wherever thou seest a great end, be sure of a great beginning. Where a monstrous and painful destruction appals thy mind, console it with the certainty of a large and great creation. God is there not only in the still small voice, but in the fire and in the whirlwind.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
“Wherever thou seest a great end, be sure of a great beginning. Where a monstrous and painful destruction appals thy mind, console it with the certainty of a large and great creation. God is there not only in the still small voice, but in the fire and in the whirlwind.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
"Whether we take the modern scientific or the ancient Hindu standpoint the progress of humanity is a fact. The wheel of Brahma rotates for ever but it does not turn in the same place; its rotations carry it forward.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
“Whether we take the modern scientific or the ancient Hindu standpoint the progress of humanity is a fact. The wheel of Brahma rotates for ever but it does not turn in the same place; its rotations carry it forward.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
While not abandoning its interest in beauty, artistic value, and other normative concepts, recent aesthetics has tended to lay increasing emphasis on a descriptive, factual approach to the phenomena of art and aesthetic experience. It differs from art history, archeology, and cultural history in stressing a theoretical organization of materials in terms of recurrent types and tendencies, rather than a chronological or genetic one. It differs from general psychology in focusing upon certain selected phases in psycho-physical activity, and on their application to certain types of objects and situations, especially those of art. It investigates the forms and characteristics of art, which psychology does not do. It differs from art criticism in seeking a more general, theoretical understanding of the arts than is usual in that subject, and in attempting a more consistently objective, impersonal attitude. It maintains a philosophic breadth, in comparing examples of all the arts, and in assembling data and hypotheses from many sources, including philosophy, psychology, cultural history, and the social sciences. But it is departing from traditional conceptions of philosophy in that writing labelled "aesthetics" now often includes much detailed, empirical study of particular phenomena, instead of restricting itself as formerly to abstract discussion of the meaning of beauty, the sublime, and other categories, their objective or subjective nature, their relation to pleasure and moral goodness, the purpose of art, the nature of aesthetic value, etc. There has been controversy over whether such empirical studies deserve to be called "aesthetics", or whether that name should be reserved for the traditional, dialectic or speculative approach; but usage favors the extension in cases where the inquiry aims at fairly broad generalizations.
With these principles of matter and form, and the parallel distinction between potential and actual existence, Aristotle claims to have solved the difficulties that earlier thinkers had found in the fact of change. The changes in nature are to be interpreted not as the passage from non-being to being, which would make them unintelligible, but as the process by which what is merely potential being passes over, through form, into actual being, or entelechy. The philosophy of nature which results from these basic concepts views nature as a dynamic realm in which change is real, spontaneous, continuous, and in the main directed. Matter, though indeed capable of form, possesses a residual inertia which on occasion produces accidental effects; so that alongside the teological causation of the forms Aristotle recognizes what he calls "necessity" in nature; but the products of the latter, since they are aberrations from form, cannot be made the object of scientific knowledge. Furthermore, the system of nature as developed by Aristotle is a graded series of existences, in which the simpler beings, though in themselves formed matter, function also as matter for higher forms. At the base of the series is prime matter, which as wholly unformed is mere potentiality, not actual being. The simplest formed matter is the so-called primary bodies -- earth, water, air and fire. From these as matter arise by the intervention of successively more complex forms the composite inorganic bodies, organic tissues, and the world of organisms, characterized by varying degrees of complexity in structure and function. In this realization of form in matter Aristotle distinguishes three sorts of change: qualitative change, or alteration; quantitative change, or growth and diminution; and change, of place, or locomotion, the last being primary, since it is presupposed in all the others. But Aristotle is far from suggesting a mechanical explanation of change, for not even locomotion can be explained by impact alone. The motion of the primary bodies is due to the fact that each has its natural place to which it moves when not opposed; earth to the center, then water, air, and fire to successive spheres about the center. The ceaseless motion of these primary bodies results from their ceaseless transformation into one another through the interaction of the forms of hot and cold, wet and dry. Thus qualitative differences of form underlie even the most elemental changes in the world of nature.
Yoga Darshana, it is the basis of the yoga philosophy which is based on the philosophical system known as Sankhya
yoga ::: joining, union; the union of the soul with the immortal being and consciousness and delight of the Divine; a methodised effort towards self-perfection by the expression of the potentialities latent in the being and union of the human individual with the universal and transcendent existence; [as opposed to Samkhya]: the concrete and synthetical realisation of truth in our experience; [a system of philosophy systematised by Patanjali, one of the six darsanas].
yogi ::: n. --> A follower of the yoga philosophy; an ascetic.
KEYS (10k)
126 Sri Aurobindo
8 Bertrand Russell
7 Saint Thomas Aquinas
5 Simone Weil
4 Terence James Stannus Gray
3 Ken Wilber
3 Francis Bacon
3 Alfred Korzybski
3 Sri Ramana Maharshi
2 Sergius Bulgakov
2 Mortimer J Adler
2 Maurice Merleau-Ponty
2 Ludwig Wittgenstein
2 Giordano Bruno
2 Georg C Lichtenberg
2 Eliphas Levi
2 Epictetus
2 ?
1 Yahya Suhaward
1 William James
1 Vivekananda
1 Tom Butler-Bowdon
1 The Dalai Lama
1 Swami Sivananda
1 SWAMI RAMA
1 Swami Paramananda
1 Sun Bear
1 Sir D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson
1 Seth Bernadette
1 S. Bulgakov
1 Robert Sokolowski
1 Robert Anton Wilson
1 Rene Guenon
1 reading :::
50 Philosophy Classics: List of Books Covered:
1. Hannah Arendt - The Human Condition (1958)
2. Aristotle - Nicomachean Ethics (4th century BC)
3. AJ Ayer - Language
1 Porphyry
1 Philo of Alexandria
1 Pavel Florensky
1 Paul Ricoeur
1 Parmenides
1 Nolini Kanta Gupta
1 Noam Chomsky
1 Martin Buber
1 Mark Jordan
1 Manly P. Hall (Horizon August 1941 p. 4)
1 Manly P. Hall
1 Manly P Hall
1 M Alan Kazlev
1 Mage the Ascension
1 Linus Torvalds
1 Leonard Susskind
1 King Solomon
1 Joseph Campbell
1 Jonathan Swift
1 John Scottus Eriugena
1 John Adams
1 J.K.F.
1 Israel Regardie
1 H P Blavatsky
1 Hegel
1 Harold Abelson
1 G. W. F. Hegel
1 G Santayana
1 Giovanni Pico Della Mirandola
1 Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
1 Eugene Thacker
1 Étienne Gilson
1 Etienne Gilson
1 Eriugena
1 Epictetus
1 Eleanor Roosevelt
1 Edmund Husserl
1 Editors of Discovery Magazine
1 David Hume
1 Dante
1 Dalai Lama
1 Daily Evolver
1 Confucius "Ta-hio" I
1 Clement of Alexandria
1 Christos Yannaras
1 Charles M. Schulz in "Peanuts
1 Carl Jung
1 Boethius
1 Baruch Spinoza
1 Arthur Koestler
1 Apollonius of Tyana
1 A. N. Whitehead
1 Alfred North Whitehead
1 Alexander von Humboldt to Schelling
1 Alastair MacIntyre
1 The Mother
1 Swami Vivekananda
1 Sri Ramakrishna
1 Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
1 Leonardo da Vinci
1 Aleister Crowley
1 Agrippa
NEW FULL DB (2.4M)
48 Sri Aurobindo
20 Ludwig Wittgenstein
20 Bertrand Russell
19 Will Durant
17 Plato
13 Seneca
13 Jim Rohn
12 Anonymous
11 Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel
11 Aristotle
11 Alfred North Whitehead
10 Victor Hugo
10 Friedrich Nietzsche
9 William Shakespeare
9 Novalis
9 J K Rowling
9 George Santayana
9 Epictetus
9 David Hume
8 Seneca the Younger
1:Don't explain your philosophy. Embody it.
~ Epictetus,#KEYS
2:Truth in philosophy means that concept and external reality correspond. ~ Hegel, #KEYS
3:Socrates had no philosophy, he was it. ~ Etienne Gilson, Being and Some Philosophers, #KEYS
4:All philosophy lies in two words, sustain and abstain. ~ Epictetus, #KEYS
5:The love of God is the root and foundation of Plato's philosophy. ~ Simone Weil, 'God in Plato', #KEYS
6:I do not know how to teach philosophy without becoming a disturber of the peace. ~ Baruch Spinoza, #KEYS
7:Where philosophy ends spirituality begins. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
8:There is no other philosophical enquiry apart from metaphysics. ~ Simone Weil, Lectures on Philosophy, #KEYS
9:The philosophy of laughter will never have anything in common with the religion of tears.
~ Eliphas Levi,#KEYS
10:True philosophy entails learning to see the world anew. ~ Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Phenomenology of Perception, #KEYS
11:Knowledge without the idea of the good is just a matter of vanity and curiosity. ~ Simone Weil, Lectures on Philosophy, #KEYS
12:Man is fortunately inconsistent. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, Materialism, #KEYS
13:The search for something permanent is one of the deepest of the instincts leading men to philosophy.
~ Bertrand Russell,#KEYS
14:The Linux philosophy is 'Laugh in the face of danger'. Oops. Wrong One. 'Do it yourself'. Yes, that's it. ~ Linus Torvalds, #KEYS
15:I have a new philosophy. I'm only going to dread one day at a time." ~ Charles M. Schulz in "Peanuts,", (American comic strip), #KEYS
16:True philosophy is beyond all the attacks of things. ~ Apollonius of Tyana, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
17:The perfect man is a divine child! ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, Heraclitus - VII, #KEYS
18:The mind pre-eminently is man; ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, Perfection of the Body, #KEYS
19:Liberation is self-possession, ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, Involution and Evolution, #KEYS
20:A little philosophy inclineth mans mind to atheism; but depth in philosophy bringeth mans minds about to religion.
~ Francis Bacon,#KEYS
21:Everything is a poise of contrary energies. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, Heraclitus - IV, #KEYS
22:Philosophy begins in wonder. And, at the end, when philosophic thought has done its best, the wonder remains.
~ Alfred North Whitehead,#KEYS
23:Hegel's philosophy is so odd that one would not have expected him to be able to get some men to accept it, but he did." ~ Bertrand Russell, #KEYS
24:To know and to will are two operations of the human mind.
~ Leonardo da Vinci, Notebooks, Philosophy, 1146,#KEYS
25:A little philosophy inclineth man's mind to atheism; but depth in philosophy bringeth men's minds about to religion. ~ Francis Bacon, Atheism, #KEYS
26:True philosophy is true religion and conversely true religion is true philosophy. ~ John Scottus Eriugena, Treatise on Divine Predestination 1, #KEYS
27:All Nature is a display and a play of God, ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, Involution and Evolution, #KEYS
28:Everything becomes, nothing is made. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, The Stress of the Hidden Spirit, #KEYS
29:It is only through life that one can reach to immortality. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, Karmayoga, #KEYS
30:All is eternal in the eternal spirit. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, The Stress of the Hidden Spirit, #KEYS
31:If an angel were to tell us about his philosophy, I believe many of his statements might well sound like '2 x 2= 13'. ~ Georg C Lichtenberg, [T5], #KEYS
32:All sentience is ultimately self-sentience. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Kena and Other Upanishads, The Philosophy of the Upanishads, #KEYS
33:The body has an unexpressed knowledge of its own. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, Supermind and Humanity, #KEYS
34:The universe is a self-creative process of a supreme Reality. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Philosophy of Rebirth, #KEYS
35:Nothing can exist which is not substance and power of Brahman. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Philosophy of Rebirth, #KEYS
36:There is no need for temples; no need for complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; the philosophy is kindness." ~ Dalai Lama, #KEYS
37:The form is phenomenon, the idea is reality. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, The Stress of the Hidden Spirit, #KEYS
38:The purpose of philosophy is to turn you inward. If you know your Self, no evil can come to you. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
39:All variations resolve themselves into an unity. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Kena and Other Upanishads, The Philosophy of the Upanishads, #KEYS
40:Energy distributes itself, but never really dissipates itself. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, Heraclitus - V, #KEYS
41:Apparent evil is often the shortest way to the good. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, The Strength of Stillness, #KEYS
42:No human law is the absolute expression of the divine justice, ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, Heraclitus - VI, #KEYS
43:What we call the Ignorance is a cloaked Knowledge. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, Supermind and Mind of Light, #KEYS
44:Where there is no limitation, there can be no pain. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Kena and Other Upanishads, The Philosophy of the Upanishads, #KEYS
45:Necessity is the child of the spirit's free self-determination. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, Karma and Freedom, #KEYS
46:The complete soul possesses all its self and all Nature. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, Involution and Evolution, #KEYS
47:All this infinite becoming is a birth of the Spirit into form. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, The Ascending Unity, #KEYS
48:All the terrestrial past of the world is there summarised in man. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, The Ascending Unity, #KEYS
49:There is no body without soul, no body that is not itself a form of soul. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Philosophy of Rebirth, #KEYS
50:From exchange we can rise to the highest possible idea of interchange. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, Heraclitus - VII, #KEYS
51:But first philosophy considers what is universally true of things ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (Commentary on Metaphysics 2, lect. 1)., #KEYS
52:Those who think that Aristotle disagrees with Plato disagree with me, who make a concordant philosophy of both. ~ Giovanni Pico Della Mirandola, On Being and the One, #KEYS
53:Science and Philosophy are never entirely dispassionate and disinterested. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Human Cycle, The Reason as Governor of Life, #KEYS
54:Transform reason into ordered intuition; let all thyself be light. This is thy goal.
~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays In Philosophy And Yoga, [T5],#KEYS
55:A divine life in a divine body is the formula of the ideal that we envisage. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, The Divine Body, #KEYS
56:All things are there as the spirit's powers and means and forms of manifestation. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Philosophy of Rebirth, #KEYS
57:The Study of philosophy is not that we may know what men have thought, but what the truth of things is. ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, #KEYS
58:All birth is a progressive self-finding, a means of self-realisation. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, Involution and Evolution, #KEYS
59:The Spirit manifest as Intelligence is the basis of the world. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, The Stress of the Hidden Spirit, #KEYS
60:Birth is the first spiritual mystery of the physical universe, death is the second. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Philosophy of Rebirth, #KEYS
61:Quotations from a Friar, Theologian, Priest, Common Doctor, and Saint ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (1225-74). #KEYS
62:The cosmos is eternally one and many and does not by becoming cease to be one. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, Heraclitus - III, #KEYS
63:Philosophy and religion are the soul of Indian culture. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Renaissance in India, A Rationalistic Critic on Indian Culture - II, #KEYS
64:There is nothing which is exclusively spirit or exclusively matter. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Kena and Other Upanishads, The Philosophy of the Upanishads, #KEYS
65:It is to make the yoga the ideal of human life that India rises today. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, The Ideal of the Karmayogin, #KEYS
66:Freedom may be illusory and our apparent freedom may be a real and iron bondage. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, Fate and Free-Will, #KEYS
67:Matter is only so much mobile energy vibrating intensely into form. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, The Stress of the Hidden Spirit, #KEYS
68:The form is the manifestation or appearance, the idea is the truth. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, The Stress of the Hidden Spirit, #KEYS
69:Our humanity is the conscious meeting place of the finite and the infinite. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, Involution and Evolution, #KEYS
70:Adwaita is true, because the Many are only manifestations of the One. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, The Stress of the Hidden Spirit, #KEYS
71:Being is an eternal becoming and yet the Becoming resolves itself into eternal being. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, Heraclitus - II, #KEYS
72:I don't want to hear of any philosophy unless it grows corn." ~ Sun Bear, (1929-1992), Ojibwe descent, author of "At Home in the Wilderness", (1973), "The Path of Power", (1983), #KEYS
73:Limitation by ignorance and error is the fundamental defect of an untransformed mind, ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, The Divine Body, #KEYS
74:Order is not inconsistent with liberty but rather the condition for the right use of liberty. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, Message, #KEYS
75:All cannot, indeed, reach in a single life the highest in this path, but all can go forward. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, Karmayoga, #KEYS
76:Everything is put out from latency, nothing is brought into existence. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, The Stress of the Hidden Spirit, #KEYS
77:The ascent of Life is in its nature the ascent of the divine Delight in things. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, The Double Soul in Man, #KEYS
78:The one reward of the works of right Knowledge is to grow perpetually into the infinite Light. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, Rebirth, #KEYS
79:The rejection of any source of evidence is always treason to that ultimate rationalism which urges forward science and philosophy alike. ~ A. N. Whitehead, The Function of Reason, #KEYS
80:All things circle back to the eternal unity and in their beginning and end are the same. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, Heraclitus - VI, #KEYS
81:Change and unalterable conservation of energy in the change are the law, not destruction. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, Heraclitus - V, #KEYS
82:Science, philosophy and religion are bound to converge as they draw nearer to the whole. ~ Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, The Phenomenon Of Man, #KEYS
83:The infinite variety of particular objects constitutes one sole and identical Being. To know that unity is the aim of all philosophy and of all knowledge of Nature. ~ Giordano Bruno, #KEYS
84:l that the seeker can find is his own absence." ~ Terence James Stannus Gray, (1895 - 1986), under the pen name "Wei Wu Wei", he published eight books on Taoist philosophy, Wikipedia., #KEYS
85:Philosophy is of course a creation of the mind but its defect is not that it is false. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - IV, The Place of Study in Sadhana, #KEYS
86:The greatness of individuals is the greatness of the eternal Energy within. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, The Greatness of the Individual, #KEYS
87:Body and mind are not the creators of the spirit, the spirit is the creator of the mind and body. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Philosophy of Rebirth, #KEYS
88:Kali when she enters into a man cares nothing for rationality and possibility. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, The Greatness of the Individual, #KEYS
89:The dance of Brindaban is not complete without the death-dance of Kurukshetra; ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, The Greatness of the Individual, #KEYS
90:As the essence of Matter is Gravity, so, on the other hand, we may affirm that the substance, the essence of Spirit is Freedom
~ Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, The Philosophy of History,#KEYS
91:Philosophy is free thought applied to the conditions of possibility of politics and history, as we have known it since Plato's Republic and Aristotle's Ethics and Politics. ~ Paul Ricoeur, #KEYS
92:Recover the source of all strength in yourselves and all else will be added to you. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, The Ideal of the Karmayogin, #KEYS
93:The creative truth of things works and can work infallibly even in the Inconscient: ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, Supermind and Mind of Light, #KEYS
94:Philosophy must not take itself for granted, where it may have said true things; it is an ever-renewed experience of its own beginning. ~ Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Phenomenology of Perception, #KEYS
95:An ounce of practice is better than tons of theory. Practice Yoga, Religion and Philosophy in daily life and attain Self-realization. ~ Swami Sivananda, Light Power and Wisdom, Introduction, #KEYS
96:There is an identity in things, in all existences, sarvabhūtāni, as well as a constant changing. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, Heraclitus - III, #KEYS
97:What is God after all?
An eternal child
playing an eternal game
in an eternal garden.
~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays In Philosophy And Yoga, Thoughts And Glimpses,#KEYS
98:It is only the Indian who can believe everything, dare everything, sacrifice everything. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, The Ideal of the Karmayogin, #KEYS
99:Man may help or man may resist, but the Zeitgeist works, shapes, overbears, insists. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, The Greatness of the Individual, #KEYS
100:Physical science may give clues of process, but cannot lay hold on the reality of things. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, Rebirth and Soul Evolution, #KEYS
101:Our spiritual orientation, the magnetism that draws the soul, is to eternal Being and not to eternal Non-Being. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, Karma, #KEYS
102:I don't like religion much, and I am glad that in the Bible the word is not to be found." ~ Martin Buber, (1878 - 1965) Austrian philosopher best known for his philosophy of dialogue, Wikipedia., #KEYS
103:Indian religion is Indian spiritual philosophy put into action and experience. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Renaissance in India, A Rationalistic Critic on Indian Culture - IV, #KEYS
104:Philosophy is a doctrine of building character, not of nourishing weakness. Strength of character comes from contact with life and not from running away. ~ Manly P. Hall (Horizon August 1941 p. 4) #KEYS
105:The philosophy of the common man is an old wife that gives him no pleasure, yet he cannot live without her, and resents any aspersions that strangers may cast on her character. (461) ~ G Santayana, #KEYS
106:This is my simple religion. There is no need for temples; no need for complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; the philosophy is love." ~ The Dalai Lama, 14th, (b. 1935)., #KEYS
107:Man epitomises in his being not only the animal existence below him, but the obscurer subanimal being. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, The Ascending Unity, #KEYS
108:There is a law, a one truth of being, a guiding and fulfilling purpose of the world-existence. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, Supermind and Mind of Light, #KEYS
109:The depths are linked to the heights and the Law of the one Truth creates and works everywhere. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, Supermind and Mind of Light, #KEYS
110:Brahman is willing to be called Vishnu, and yet he is not willing, because he is also Brahma and Maheshwara. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, Heraclitus - VI, #KEYS
111:The wisdom of Plato is not a philosophy, a search for God by means of human reason.... The wisdom of Plato is nothing other than an orientation of the soul towards grace. ~ Simone Weil, 'God in Plato', #KEYS
112:To teach how to live without certainty, and yet without being paralyzed by hesitation, is perhaps the chief thing that philosophy, in our age, can still do for those who study it.
~ Bertrand Russell,#KEYS
113:The consciousness is there throughout in our occult parts of being, the development is in the manifesting Nature. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Philosophy of Rebirth, #KEYS
114:In the philosophy of Bertrand Russell, genius entails that an individual possesses unique qualities and talents that make the genius especially valuable to the society in which he or she operates.
~ ?,#KEYS
115:Human thought in the generality of men is no more than a rough and crude acceptance of unexamined ideas. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, The Reincarnating Soul, #KEYS
116:Dharma means every ideal which we can propose to ourselves and the law of its working out and its action. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, Perfection of the Body, #KEYS
117:Humanity is not the highest godhead; God is more than humanity; but in humanity too we have to find and to serve him. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, Materialism, #KEYS
118:The life of the individual must have the same rhythm of significance, the same law of progression as the cosmic life. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Philosophy of Rebirth, #KEYS
119:Fortunate is the man who does not lose himself in the labyrinths of philosophy, but goes straight to the Source from which they all rise. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, Guru Ramana, #KEYS
120:Just as sacred doctrine is founded on the light of faith, so things in philosophy are founded on the light of natural reason ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (On the Trinity, 2.3)., #KEYS
121:The Divine Truth is greater than any religion or creed or scripture or idea or philosophy. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Himself and the Ashram, Passages from The Synthesis of Yoga, #KEYS
122:Progress is the very heart of the significance of human life, for it means our evolution into greater and richer being. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, Materialism, #KEYS
123:Man insists continually on making God in his own image instead of seeking to make himself more and more in the image of God, ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, Rebirth, #KEYS
124:Jnanam is more than philosophy, it is the inspired and direct knowledge which comes of what our ancients called drishti, spiritual sight. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Karmayogin, In Either Case, #KEYS
125:The harmony of the world is made manifest in form and number, and the heart and soul and all the poetry of natural philosophy are embodied in the concept of mathematical beauty. ~ Sir D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson, #KEYS
126:Philosophy properly speaking begins in the ninth century with John Scottus Erigena. ~ G. W. F. Hegel, Lectures on the History of Philosophy: The Lectures of 1825-1826. Volume III: Medieval and Modern Philosophy, #KEYS
127:Philosophy dealing with the principles of things must come to perceive the Principle of all these principles. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Higher and the Lower Knowledge, #KEYS
128:It not seldom happens that in the purposeless rovings and wanderings of the imagination we hunt down such game as can be put to use by our purposeful philosophy in its well-ordered household. ~ Georg C Lichtenberg, #KEYS
129:The emergence and growth of consciousness is the central motive of the evolution and the key to its secret purpose. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, Perfection of the Body, #KEYS
130:We can reach a point where our way of life again has the dignities and the values which make living important. ~ Manly P. Hall, Lecture #KEYS
131:The meeting of man and God must always mean a penetration and entry of the divine into the human and a self-immergence of man in the Divinity. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays In Philosophy And Yoga, #KEYS
132:It is rebirth that gives to the birth of an incomplete being in a body its promise of completeness and its spiritual significance. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Philosophy of Rebirth, #KEYS
133:The Divine is already there immanent within us, ourselves are that in our inmost reality and it is this reality. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, Supermind and the Life Divine, #KEYS
134:The One is for ever, and the Many are for ever because the One is for ever. So long as there is a sea, there will be waves. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, The Three Purushas, #KEYS
135:All philosophy is concerned with the relations between two things, the fundamental truth of existence and the forms in which existence presents itself to our experience. ~ Sri Aurobindo, #KEYS
136:Philosophy is to be studied, not for the sake of any definite answers to its questions since no definite answers can, as a rule, be known to be true, but rather for the sake of the questions themselves. ~ Bertrand Russell, #KEYS
137:In all forms in the world there is a force at work, unconsciously active or oppressed by inertia in its lower formulations. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, Perfection of the Body, #KEYS
138:The end of a stage of evolution is usually marked by a powerful recrudescence of all that has to go out of the evolution. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, The Process of Evolution, #KEYS
139:The overcoming of the sex instinct and impulse is indeed binding on all who would attain to self-mastery and lead the spiritual life. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, The Divine Body, #KEYS
140:In philosophy it is always good to put a question instead of an answer to a question. For an answer to the philosophical question may easily be unfair; disposing of it by means of another question is not. ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein, #KEYS
141:You are the architect of your life. You build your own philosophy and construct your own attitudes. Without right attitudes, the entire architecture remains shaky. Once you realize this fact, you will look within. ~ SWAMI RAMA, #KEYS
142:Ratio, scientific or theoretical reason, emerges from the ruins of the sophic; it becomes the lantern with which we seek the Logos in the nocturnal darkness. ~ Sergius Bulgakov, The Philosophy of Economy: The World as Household, #KEYS
143:Suicide is merely a frenzied revolt against limitation, a revolt not the less significant because it is without knowledge. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Kena and Other Upanishads, The Philosophy of the Upanishads, #KEYS
144:Because philosophy arises from awe, a philosopher is bound in his way to be a lover of myths and poetic fables. Poets and philosophers are alike in being big with wonder. ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, #KEYS
145:An involution of spirit in matter is the beginning, but a spiritual assumption of divine birth is the fullness of the evolution. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, Involution and Evolution, #KEYS
146:The resolution of every duality is nameless… For no non-duality can be a thing or an object." ~ Terence James Stannus Gray, (1895 - 1986), under the pen name "Wei Wu Wei", he published eight books on Taoist philosophy, Wikipedia., #KEYS
147:However much their systems of philosophy and religion may differ, all mankind stand in reverence and awe before the man who is ready to sacrifice himself for others. ~ Swami Vivekananda, (C.W. I. 86), #KEYS
148:A little philosophy inclineth man's mind to atheism, but depth in philosophy bringeth men's minds about to religion." ~ Francis Bacon, (1561-1626), an English philosopher, statesman, scientist, jurist, orator, and author, Wikipedia., #KEYS
149:The infinite variety of particular objects constitutes one sole and identical Being. To know that unity is the aim of all philosophy and of all knowledge of Nature. ~ Giordano Bruno, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
150:A divine life in a material world implies necessarily a union of the two ends of existence, the spiritual summit and the material base. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, Perfection of the Body, #KEYS
151:The manifestation of a supramental truth-consciousness is therefore the capital reality that will make the divine life possible. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, Supermind and the Life Divine, #KEYS
152:A great thing would be done if all these God-visions could embrace and cast themselves into each other; but intellectual dogma and cult egoism stand in the way. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays In Philosophy And Yoga, #KEYS
153:If a man knows himself, he shall know God." ~ Clement of Alexandria, (c. 150 - c. 215), Christian theologian. A convert to Christianity, he was an educated man who was familiar with classical Greek philosophy and literature, Wikipedia., #KEYS
154:Philosophy comprehends the apparent manifold of things and the single truth of their meaning.... There is a coincidence in philosophy and only in philosophy of the understanding of all human things with the human good. ~ Seth Bernadette, #KEYS
155:Even in the most purely mental activities the fitness, readiness or perfect training of the bodily instrument is a condition indispensable. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, Perfection of the Body, #KEYS
156:Liberation is liberation from the idea of liberation. There is no one to be bound, no one to be free." ~ Terence James Stannus Gray, (1895 - 1986), under the pen name "Wei Wu Wei", he published eight books on Taoist philosophy, Wikipedia., #KEYS
157:It is simply wrong to say without further ado that metaphysics is essentially limited to the knowledge of being and that it must go beyond that to reach being. Philosophy invents itself; the history of philosophy informs." ~ Étienne Gilson, #KEYS
158:The law of the grand study or practical philosophy consists in developing and bringing into light the luminous principle of reason which we have received from heaven. ~ Confucius "Ta-hio" I, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
159:What good is there in reading a whole lot of scriptures? What good is there in the study of philosophy? What is the use of talking big? At the beginning one should concentrate on God with form. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
160:Since philosophy arises out of wonder, it is clear that the philosopher is some kind of philo-myth, a lover of fables, which is proper to poets ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (Commentary on Metaphysics 1, lect. 3)., #KEYS
161:Perfection is the true aim of all culture, the spiritual and psychic, the mental, the vital and it must be the aim of our physical culture also. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, Perfection of the Body, #KEYS
162:All would change if man could once consent to be spiritualised; but his nature mental and vital and physical is rebellious to the higher law. He loves his imperfections. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays In Philosophy And Yoga, #KEYS
163:Thou wouldst exhort men to good ? but hast thou exhorted thyself ? Thou wouldst be useful to them ? Show by thy own example what men philosophy can make and do not prate uselessly. ~ Epictetus, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
164:Philosophy can never prove a hindrance to the advance of empirical science. On the contrary, she traces every new discovery back to fundamental principles, and that lays the foundation for fresh discoveries. ~ Alexander von Humboldt to Schelling, #KEYS
165:It is precisely behind the obvious that the hardest problems lie hidden.... This is so much so, in fact, that philosophy may be paradoxically, but not unprofoundly, called the science of the trivial. ~ Edmund Husserl, Logical Investigations II:76, #KEYS
166:Remember always that you too are Brahman and the divine Shakti is working in you; reach out always to the realisation of God's omnipotence and his delight in the Lila. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays In Philosophy And Yoga, [T5], #KEYS
167:The soul is not bound by the formula of mental humanity: it did not begin with that and will not end with it; it had a prehuman past, it has a superhuman future. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Philosophy of Rebirth, #KEYS
168:Angels transcend every religion, every philosophy, every creed. In fact Angels have no religion as we know it... Their existence precedes every religious system that has ever existed on Earth. ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, #KEYS
169:Chance, that vague shadow of an infinite possibility, must be banished from the dictionary of our perceptions; for of chance we can make nothing, because it is nothing. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, Karma, #KEYS
170:A life in which the supernatural truths would be read in every kind of work, in every active labour, in all festivals, and all hierarchical and social relations, in all art, in all science, in all philosophy. ~ Simone Weil, First and Last Notebooks 173, #KEYS
171:Philosophy is only a way of formulating to ourselves intellectually in their essential significance the psychological and physical facts of existence and their relation to any ultimate reality that may exist. ~ Sri Aurobindo, #KEYS
172:My chief reason for choosing Christianity was because the mysteries were incomprehensible. What's the point of revelation if we could figure it out ourselves? If it were wholly comprehensible, then it would just be another philosophy. ~ Mortimer J Adler, #KEYS
173:Generally speaking, the errors in religion are dangerous; those in philosophy only ridiculous." ~ David Hume, (1711 - 1776) Scottish philosopher, best known for his highly influential system of philosophical empiricism, skepticism, and naturalism." Wikipedia., #KEYS
174:Work without ideals is a false gospel.
The world is a great game of hide and seek in which the real hides behind the apparent, spirit behind matter. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, The Stress of the Hidden Spirit,#KEYS
175:The purpose of economic activity is to defend and to spread the seeds of life, to resurrect nature. This is the action of Sophia on the universe in an effort to restore it to being in Truth. ~ Sergius Bulgakov, The Philosophy of Economy: The World as Household, #KEYS
176:Show me a sane man and I will cure him for you." ~ Carl Jung, (1875 - 1961) Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who founded analytical psychology, influential in the fields of psychiatry, anthropology, archaeology, literature, philosophy, and religious studies, #KEYS
177:God is the Being in Whom being anything means being everything." ~ Parmenides, (late sixth or early fifth century BC) was a pre-Socratic Greek, considered the founder of metaphysics or ontology and has influenced the whole history of Western philosophy, Wikipedia., #KEYS
178:What sort of ground is required to support an adequate human knowledge of natural things? For Thomas, as the doctrine of Ideas makes clear, philosophy may know nature adequately without being able to reach the ground of natural intelligibility at all. ~ Mark Jordan, #KEYS
179:For us, philosophy has become something like an intellectual exercise; for the Greeks it was not an external decoration of life but the inner beauty of the latter and an elucidation of it psychophysical and social structure. ~ Pavel Florensky, The Meaning of Idealism, #KEYS
180:There are higher levels of the mind than any we now conceive and to these we must one day reach and rise beyond them to the heights of a greater, a spiritual existence. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, Perfection of the Body, #KEYS
181:You are the traveler; you are the path; you are the destination. Be careful never to lose the way to yourself." ~ Yahya Suhaward, (1154-1191) Persian philosopher and founder of the Iranian school of Illuminationism, an important school in Islamic philosophy, Wikipedia., #KEYS
182:Let empiricism once become associated with religion, as hitherto, through some strange misunderstanding, it has been associated with irreligion, and I believe that a new era of religion as well as philosophy will be ready to begin. ~ William James, A Pluralistic Universe, #KEYS
183:One's philosophy is not best expressed in words; it is expressed in the choices one makes. In the long run, we shape our lives and we shape ourselves. The process never ends until we die. And, the choices we make are ultimately our own responsibility. ~ Eleanor Roosevelt, #KEYS
184:When a man who has carried out a great work is destroyed, it is for the egoism by which he has misused the force within that the force itself breaks him to pieces. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, The Greatness of the Individual, #KEYS
185:It is well known... that beside the extent of the heavens, the circumference of the earth has the size of a point; that is to say, compared with the magnitude of the celestial sphere, it may be thought as having no extent at all. ~ Boethius, Consolation of Philosophy II.7, #KEYS
186:I become what I see in myself. All that thought suggests to me, I can do; all that thought reveals in me, I can become. This should be man's unshakable faith in himself, because God dwells in him.
~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays In Philosophy And Yoga,#KEYS
187:When you kick a man when he is down — do you realize that you are kicking yourself? Give him another kick — if you think you deserve it." ~ Terence James Stannus Gray, (1895 - 1986), under the pen name "Wei Wu Wei", he published eight books on Taoist philosophy, Wikipedia., #KEYS
188:Consistency is usually a rigid or narrow-minded inability to see more than one side of the truth or more than their own narrow personal view or experience of things. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Himself and the Ashram, On His Philosophy in General, #KEYS
189:Philosophy explains by distinguishing... [I]t works with distinctions, it brings them out and dwells on them, dwells with them, showing how and why the things that it has distinguished must be distinguished one from the other. ~ Robert Sokolowski, 'The Method of Philosophy', #KEYS
190:Here is the secret of happiness. Forget yourself and think of others." ~ Swami Paramananda, (1884-1940), an early Indian teacher who went to the United States to spread the Vedanta philosophy. He was a mystic, a poet and an innovator in spiritual community living, Wikipedia., #KEYS
191:The body is the chariot and the senses are the horses of the driving and it is through the bloodstained and mire-sunk ways of the world that Sri Krishna pilots the soul of man to Vaicuntha. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, Karmayoga, #KEYS
192:What is important about philosophy is the way in which a life informed by... philosophical inquiry and guided by its conclusions will be significantly different from the life of someone in other respects like the philosopher, but untouched by philosophy. ~ Alastair MacIntyre, #KEYS
193:What we call the Inconscient is an appearance, a dwelling place, an instrument of a secret Consciousness or a Superconscient which has created the miracle we call the universe. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, Perfection of the Body, #KEYS
194:Every reader should ask himself periodically 'Toward what end, toward what end?' -- but do not ask it too often lest you pass up the fun of programming for the constipation of bittersweet philosophy.
~ Harold Abelson, Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs,#KEYS
195:[T]he archaic understanding of the presuppositions of life… are the order and harmony of beauty. The cosmos exists not because it represents an objective something but because it constitutes a how, a mode of harmony and decorum. ~ Christos Yannaras, The Schism in Philosophy, 5, #KEYS
196:Feasting on sights displayed [in the heavens], his soul was insatiate in beholding. It went on to to ask: What is the essence of these visible objects and the method of their movement? It was out of the investigation of these problems that philosophy grew… ~ Philo of Alexandria, #KEYS
197:The philosopher cannot fly; he must ascend into the ether; but his wings inevitably melt in the heat of the sun, and he falls and breaks into fragments. On this flight, however, he sees something, and his philosophy speaks of this vision. ~ S. Bulgakov, The Tragedy of Philosophy, #KEYS
198:Philosophy is simply friendship with wisdom... thus in a certain sense we can call everyone a philosopher in accordance with the natural love that generates in everyone the desire to know. W/o love or without devotion one cannot be called a philosopher. ~ Dante, Convivio III.xi.6, #KEYS
199:Philosophy, the study of wisdom, is not one thing & religion another... What is the exercise of philosophy but the exposition of the rules of true religion by which the supreme & principal cause of all things, God, is worshipped with humility & rationally searched for? ~ Eriugena, #KEYS
200:In the totality of the change we have to achieve, human means and forces too have to be taken up, not dropped but used and magnified to their utmost possibility as part of the new life. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, Perfection of the Body, #KEYS
201:Philosophy not only purifies the reason and predisposes it to the contact of the universal and the infinite, but tends to stabilise the nature and create the tranquillity of the sage. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Higher and the Lower Knowledge, #KEYS
202:It is in our inner spiritual experiences that we shall find the proof and source of the world's Scriptures, the law of knowledge, love and conduct, the basis and inspiration of Karmayoga. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, The Ideal of the Karmayogin, #KEYS
203:If then we wish to give ourselves to the study of philosophy, let us apply ourselves to self-knowledge and we shall arrive at a right philosophy by elevating ourselves from the conception of ourselves to the contemplation of the universe. ~ Porphyry, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
204:God cannot cease from leaning towards Nature, nor man from aspiring towards the Godhead. It is the eternal relation of the finite to the infinite. When they seem to turn from each other, it is to recoil for a more intimate meeting.
~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays In Philosophy And Yoga,#KEYS
205:The world is not prepared yet to understand the philosophy of Occult Sciences - let them assure themselves first of all that there are beings in an invisible world, whether 'Spirits' of the dead or Elementals; and that there are hidden powers in man, which are capable of making a God of him on earth. ~ H P Blavatsky, #KEYS
206:My desire and wish is that the things I start with should be so obvious that you wonder why I spend my time stating them. This is what I aim at because the point of philosophy is to start with something so simple as not to seem worth stating, and to end with something so paradoxical that no one will believe it. ~ Bertrand Russell, #KEYS
207:The sex-vampire eats up the other's vital and gives nothing or very little. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - IV: Interactions with Others and the Practice of Yoga
Sec-Vampire
In myself is the seed of all my creation. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, Karma,#KEYS
208:Philosophy hasn't made any progress? - If somebody scratches the spot where he has an itch, do we have to see some progress? Isn't genuine scratching otherwise, or genuine itching itching? And can't this reaction to an irritation continue in the same way for a long time before a cure for the itching is discovered? ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein, #KEYS
209:Integral theory is a school of philosophy that seeks to integrate all of human wisdom into a new, emergent worldview that is able to accommodate the gifts of all previous worldviews, including those which have been historically at odds: science and religion, Eastern and Western schools of thought, and pre-modern, modern and post-modern worldviews. ~ Daily Evolver, #KEYS
210:The essence of my work is; God, or the absolute Spirit, exists-and can be proven-and there is a ladder that reaches to that summit, a ladder that you can be shown how to climb, a ladder that leads from time to eternity, and from death to immortality. And all philosophy and psychology swings into a remarkable synthesis around that ladder. ~ Ken Wilber, The Great Chain of Being, 1987 (unpublished manuscript), #KEYS
211:There is a meaning in each curve and line.
It is an architecture high and grand
By many named and nameless masons built
In which unseeing hands obey the Unseen, ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Way of Fate and the Problem of Pain
Meaning of this World
Our means must be as great as our ends. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, The Ideal of the Karmayogin,#KEYS
212:The soul of each man contains the potential divinity. Our aim must be to make apparent this divinity within us by subduing our inner and outer nature. Attain to him by works or by adoration, by physical mastery, by philosophy, by one, by several or by all of these methods and be free. That is the whole of religion. Doctrines, dogmas, rituals, books, temples, forms are only secondary details. ~ Vivekananda, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
213:The Copenhagen Interpretation is sometimes called 'model agnosticism' and holds that any grid we use to organize our experience of the world is a model of the world and should not be confused with the world itself. Alfred Korzybski, the semanticist, tried to popularize this outside physics with the slogan, 'The map is not the territory.' Alan Watts, a talented exegete of Oriental philosophy, restated it more vividly as 'The menu is not the meal.'
~ Robert Anton Wilson, Cosmic Trigger,#KEYS
214:There is a philosophy that says that if something is unobservable -- unobservable in principle -- it is not part of science. If there is no way to falsify or confirm a hypothesis, it belongs to the realm of metaphysical speculation, together with astrology and spiritualism. By that standard, most of the universe has no scientific reality -- it's just a figment of our imaginations. ~ Leonard Susskind, The Black Hole War: My Battle with Stephen Hawking to Make the World Safe for Quantum Mechanics, #KEYS
215:We have to entertain the possibility that there is no reason for something existing; or that the split between subject and object is only our name for something equally accidental we call knowledge; or, an even more difficult thought, that while there may be some order to the self and the cosmos, to the microcosm and macrocosm, it is an order that is absolutely indifferent to our existence, and of which we can have only a negative awareness.
~ Eugene Thacker, In the Dust of This Planet: Horror Of Philosophy vol. 1,#KEYS
216:MAGIC is the Highest, most Absolute, and most Divine Knowledge of Natural Philosophy, advanced in its works and wonderful operations by a right understanding of the inward and occult virtue of things; so that true Agents 2 being applied to proper Patients, 3 strange and admirable effects will thereby be produced. Whence magicians are profound and diligent searchers into Nature; they, because of their skill, know how to anticipate an effort, 4 the which to the vulgar shall seem to be a miracle.
~ King Solomon, Lesser Key Of The Goetia,#KEYS
217:There are not many, those who have no secret garden of the mind. For this garden alone can give refreshment when life is barren of peace or sustenance or satisfactory answer. Such sanctuaries may be reached by a certain philosophy or faith, by the guidance of a beloved author or an understanding friend, by way of the temples of music and art, or by groping after truth through the vast kingdoms of knowledge. They encompass almost always truth and beauty, and are radiant with the light that never was on sea or land. - Clare Cameron, Green Fields of England ~ Israel Regardie, A Garden Of Pomegranates, #KEYS
218:The other day I happened to be reading a careful, interesting account of the state of British higher education. The government is a kind of market-oriented government and they came out with an official paper, a 'White Paper' saying that it is not the responsibility of the state to support any institution that can't survive in the market. So, if Oxford is teaching philosophy, the arts, Greek history, medieval history, and so on, and they can't sell it on the market, why should they be supported? Because life consists only of what you can sell in the market and get back, nothing else. That is a real pathology. ~ Noam Chomsky, #KEYS
219:The science of government it is my duty to study, more than all other sciences; the arts of legislation and administration and negotiation ought to take the place of, indeed exclude, in a manner, all other arts. I must study politics and war, that our sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. Our sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history and naval architecture, navigation, commerce and agriculture in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry and porcelain. ~ John Adams, Letters of John Adams, Addressed to His Wife, #KEYS
220:Essentially, Yoga is a generic name for the processes and the result of processes by which we transcend or shred off our present modes of being and rise to a new, a higher, a wider mode of consciousness which is not that of the ordinary animal and intellectual man. Yoga is the exchange of an egoistic for a universal or cosmic consciousness lifted towards or informed by the supra-cosmic, transcendent Unnameable who is the source and support of all things. Yoga is the passage of the human thinking animal towards the God-consciousness from which he has descended. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, #KEYS
221:The poet-philosopher or the philosopher-poet, whichever way we may put it, is a new formation of the human consciousness that is coming upon us. A wide and rationalising (not rationalistic) intelligence deploying and marshalling out a deep intuitive and direct Knowledge that is the pattern of human mind developing in the new age. Bergson's was a harbinger, a definite landmark on the way. Sri Aurobindo's The Life Divine arrives and opens the very portals of the marvellous temple city of a dynamic integral knowledge. ~ Nolini Kanta Gupta, Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, The Philosopher as an Artist and Philosophy as an Art, #KEYS
222:Indeed, some of the problems commonly engaging the attention of philosophical thought appear to be deprived, not only of all importance, but of any meaning as well; a host of problems arise resting solely upon some ambiguity or upon a confusion of points of view, problems that only exist in fact because they are badly expressed, and that normally should not arise at all. In most cases therefore, it would in itself be sufficient to set these problems forth correctly in order to cause them to disappear, were it not that philosophy has an interest in keeping them alive, since it thrives largely upon ambiguities. ~ Rene Guenon, Introduction to the Study of the Hindu Doctrines, #KEYS
223:The agony of breaking through personal limitations is the agony of spiritual growth. Art, literature, myth and cult, philosophy, and ascetic disciplines are instruments to help the individual past his limiting horizons into spheres of ever-expanding realization. As he crosses threshold after threshold, conquering dragon after dragon, the stature of the divinity that he summons to his highest wish increases, until it subsumes the cosmos. Finally, the mind breaks the bounding sphere of the cosmos to a realization transcending all experiences of form-all symbolizations, all divinities: a realization of the ineluctable void. ~ Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, The Ultimate Boon, #KEYS
224:Hermetic philosophy is complex and many-layered. At the heart, the Hermetics profess the drive to perfection. This drive manifests through trials, tests, self-discovery, and the rejoining of fragmented patterns like disparate languages or mathematical conundrums. Ideally, each individual has a Word, a divine imperative that drives the figure's revelations. By exploring the boundaries of that Word and all of its meanings, the individual rises to his inner nature, then beyond. Each step in the process is a challenge that requires a leap of perception but also opens the way to the next path. Eventually, the human passes far enough to become something cosmically divine. ~ Mage the Ascension, Order of Hermes, #KEYS
225:To take the last issue, the difficult issue, first. The first great Dharma systems, East and West, all arose, without exception, in the so-called "axial period" (Karl Jaspers), that rather extraordinary period beginning around the 6th century B.C. (plus or minus several centuries), a period that saw the birth of Gautama Buddha, Lao Tzu, Confucius, Moses, Plato, Patanjali—a period that would soon give way, over the next few centuries, to include Ashvaghosa, Nagarjuna, Plotinus, Jesus, Philo, Valentinus…. Virtually all of the major tenets of the perennial philosophy were first laid down during this amazing era (in Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, Judaism, Christianity….) ~ Ken Wilber, Integral Life, right-bucks, #KEYS
226: But we now come to speak of the holy and sacred Pentacles and Sigils. Now these pentacles, are as it were certain holy signes preserving us from evil chances and events, and helping and assisting us to binde, exterminate, and drive away evil spirits, and alluring the good spirits, and reconciling them unto us. And these pentacles do consist either of Characters of the good spirits of the superiour order, or of sacred pictures of holy letters or revelations, with apt and fit versicles, which are composed either of Geometrical figures and holy names of God, according to the course and maner of many of them; or they are compounded of all of them, or very many of them mixt. ~ Agrippa, A Fourth Book of Occult Philosophy, #KEYS
227:The most general science. Pythagoras is said to have called himself a lover of wisdom. But philosophy has been both the seeking of wisdom and the wisdom sought. Originally, the rational explanation of anything, the general principles under which all facts could be explained; in this sense, indistinguishable from science. Later, the science of the first principles of being; the presuppositions of ultimate reality. Now, popularly, private wisdom or consolation; technically, the science of sciences, the criticism and systematization or organization of all knowledge, drawn from empirical science, rational learning, common experience, or whatever. Philosophy includes metaphysics, or ontology and epistemology, logic, ethics, aesthetics, etc. (all of which see). ~ J.K.F., Dagoberts Dictionary of Philosophy, #KEYS
228:Only, in all he sees God, sees the supreme reality, and his motive of work is to help mankind towards the knowledge of God and the possession of the supreme reality. He sees God through the data of science, God through the conclusions of philosophy, God through the forms of Beauty and the forms of Good, God in all the activities of life, God in the past of the world and its effects, in the present and its tendencies, in the future and its great progression. Into any or all of these he can bring his illumined vision and his liberated power of the spirit. The lower knowledge has been the step from which he has risen to the higher; the higher illumines for him the lower and makes it part of itself, even if only its lower fringe and most external radiation.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Higher and the Lower Knowledge,#KEYS
229: The purpose of creation, is lila. The concept of lila escapes all the traditional difficulties in assigning purpose to the creator. Lila is a purpose-less purpose, a natural outflow, a spontaneous self-manifestation of the Divine. The concept of lila, again, emphasizes the role of delight in creation. The concept of Prakriti and Maya fail to explain the bliss aspect of Divine. If the world is manifestation of the Force of Satcitananda, the deployment of its existence and consciousness, its purpose can be nothing but delight. This is the meaning of delight. Lila, the play, the child's joy, the poet's joy, the actor's joy, the mechanician's joy of the soul of things eternally young, perpetually inexhaustible, creating and recreating Himself in Himself for the sheer bliss of that self-creation, of that self-representation, Himself the play, Himself the player, Himself the playground ~ Sri Aurobindo, Philosophy of Social Development, pp-39-40 #KEYS
230:reading :::
50 Philosophy Classics: List of Books Covered:
1. Hannah Arendt - The Human Condition (1958)
2. Aristotle - Nicomachean Ethics (4th century BC)
3. AJ Ayer - Language, Truth and Logic (1936)
4. Julian Baggini - The Ego Trick (2011)
5. Jean Baudrillard - Simulacra and Simulation (1981)
6. Simone de Beauvoir - The Second Sex (1952)
7. Jeremy Bentham - Principles of Morals and Legislation (1789)
8. Henri Bergson - Creative Evolution (1911)
9. David Bohm - Wholeness and the Implicate Order (1980)
10. Noam Chomsky - Understanding Power (2002)
11. Cicero - On Duties (44 BC)
12. Confucius - Analects (5th century BC)
13. Rene Descartes - Meditations (1641)
14. Ralph Waldo Emerson - Fate (1860)
15. Epicurus - Letters (3rd century BC)
16. Michel Foucault - The Order of Things (1966)
17. Harry Frankfurt - On Bullshit (2005)
18. Sam Harris - Free Will (2012)
19. GWF Hegel - Phenomenology of Spirit (1803)
20. Martin Heidegger - Being and Time (1927)
21. Heraclitus - Fragments#KEYS
231:This last figure, the White Magician, symbolizes the self-transcending element in the scientist's motivational drive and emotional make-up; his humble immersion into the mysteries of nature, his quest for the harmony of the spheres, the origin of life, the equations of a unified field theory. The conquistadorial urge is derived from a sense of power, the participatory urge from a sense of oceanic wonder. 'Men were first led to the study of natural philosophy', wrote Aristotle, 'as indeed they are today, by wonder.' Maxwell's earliest memory was 'lying on the grass, looking at the sun, and wondering'. Einstein struck the same chord when he wrote that whoever is devoid of the capacity to wonder, 'whoever remains unmoved, whoever cannot contemplate or know the deep shudder of the soul in enchantment, might just as well be dead for he has already closed his eyes upon life'.
This oceanic feeling of wonder is the common source of religious mysticism, of pure science and art for art's sake; it is their common denominator and emotional bond. ~ Arthur Koestler,#KEYS
232:ALL YOGA is in its nature a new birth; it is a birth out of the ordinary, the mentalised material life of man into a higher spiritual consciousness and a greater and diviner being. No Yoga can be successfully undertaken and followed unless there is a strong awakening to the necessity of that larger spiritual existence. The soul that is called to this deep and vast inward change, may arrive in different ways to the initial departure. It may come to it by its own natural development which has been leading it unconsciously towards the awakening; it may reach it through the influence of a religion or the attraction of a philosophy; it may approach it by a slow illumination or leap to it by a sudden touch or shock; it may be pushed or led to it by the pressure of outward circumstances or by an inward necessity, by a single word that breaks the seals of the mind or by long reflection, by the distant example of one who has trod the path or by contact and daily influence. According to the nature and the circumstances the call will come.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, Self-Consecration,#KEYS
233:Here I want to make it very clear that mathematics is not what many people think it is; it is not a system of mere formulas and theorems; but as beautifully defined by Professor Cassius J. Keyser, in his book The Human Worth of Rigorous Thinking (Columbia University Press, 1916), mathematics is the science of "Exact thought or rigorous thinking," and one of its distinctive characteristics is "precision, sharpness, completeness of definitions." This quality alone is sufficient to explain why people generally do not like mathematics and why even some scientists bluntly refuse to have anything to do with problems wherein mathematical reasoning is involved. In the meantime, mathematical philosophy has very little, if anything, to do with mere calculations or with numbers as such or with formulas; it is a philosophy wherein precise, sharp and rigorous thinking is essential. Those who deliberately refuse to think "rigorously"-that is mathematically-in connections where such thinking is possible, commit the sin of preferring the worse to the better; they deliberately violate the supreme law of intellectual rectitude. ~ Alfred Korzybski, Manhood of Humanity, #KEYS
234:
An Informal Integral Canon: Selected books on Integral Science, Philosophy and the Integral Transformation
Sri Aurobindo - The Life Divine
Sri Aurobindo - The Synthesis of Yoga
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin - The Phenomenon of Man
Jean Gebser - The Ever-Present Origin
Edward Haskell - Full Circle - The Moral Force of Unified Science
Oliver L. Reiser - Cosmic Humanism and World Unity
Christopher Hills - Nuclear Evolution: Discovery of the Rainbow Body
The Mother - Mother's Agenda
Erich Jantsch - The Self-Organizing Universe - Scientific and Human Implications of the Emerging Paradigm of Evolution
T. R. Thulasiram - Arut Perum Jyothi and Deathless Body
Kees Zoeteman - Gaiasophy
Ken Wilber - Sex Ecology Spirituality: The Spirit of Evolution
Don Edward Beck - Spiral Dynamics: Mastering Values, Leadership, and Change
Kundan Singh - The Evolution of Integral Yoga: Sri Aurobindo, Sri Ramakrishna, and Swami Vivekananda
Sean Esbjorn-Hargens - Integral Ecology: Uniting Multiple Perspectives on the Natural World
~ M Alan Kazlev, Kheper,#KEYS
235:...the present terms are there not as an unprofitable recurrence, but in active pregnant gestation of all that is yet to be unfolded by the spirit, no irrational decimal recurrence helplessly repeating for ever its figures, but an expanding series of powers of the Infinite. What is in front of us is the greater potentialities, the steps yet unclimbed, the intended mightier manifestations. Why we are here is to be this means of the spirit's upward self-unfolding. What we have to do with ourselves and our significances is to grow and open them to greater significances of divine being, divine consciousness, divine power, divine delight and multiplied unity, and what we have to do with our environment is to use it consciously for increasing spiritual purposes and make it more and more a mould for the ideal unfolding of the perfect nature and self-conception of the Divine in the cosmos. This is surely the Will in things which moves, great and deliberate, unhasting, unresting, through whatever cycles, towards a greater and greater informing of its own finite figures with its own infinite Reality.
~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays In Philosophy And Yoga,#KEYS
236:The key one and threefold, even as universal science. The division of the work is sevenfold, and through these sections are distributed the seven degrees of initiation into is transcendental philosophy.
The text is a mystical commentary on the oracles of Solomon, ^ and the work ends with a series of synoptic schedules which are the synthesis of Magic and the occult Kabalah so far as concerns that which can be made public in writing. The rest, being the esoteric and inexpressible part of the science, is formulated in magnificent pantacles carefully designed and engraved. These are nine in number, as follows
(1) The dogma of Hermes;
(2) Magical realisation;
(3) The path of wisdom and the initial procedure in the work
(4) The Gate of the Sanctuary enlightened by seven mystic rays;
(5) A Rose of Light, in the centre of which a human figure is extending its arms in the form of a cross;
(6) The magical laboratory of Khunrath, demonstrating the necessary union of prayer and work
(7) The absolute synthesis of science;
(8) Universal equilibrium ;
(9) A summary of Khunrath's personal embodying an energetic protest against all his detractors. ~ Eliphas Levi, The History Of Magic,#KEYS
237:Philosophy, as defined by Fichte, is the "science of sciences." Its aim was to solve the problems of the world. In the past, when all exact sciences were in their infancy, philosophy had to be purely speculative, with little or no regard to realities. But if we regard philosophy as a Mother science, divided into many branches, we find that those branches have grown so large and various, that the Mother science looks like a hen with her little ducklings paddling in a pond, far beyond her reach; she is unable to follow her growing hatchlings. In the meantime, the progress of life and science goes on, irrespective of the cackling of metaphysics. Philosophy does not fulfill her initial aim to bring the results of experimental and exact sciences together and to solve world problems. Through endless, scientific specialization scientific branches multiply, and for want of coordination the great world-problems suffer. This failure of philosophy to fulfill her boasted mission of scientific coordination is responsible for the chaos in the world of general thought. The world has no collective or organized higher ideals and aims, nor even fixed general purposes. Life is an accidental game of private or collective ambitions and greeds. ~ Alfred Korzybski, Manhood of Humanity, #KEYS
238:I have been accused of a habit of changing my opinions. I am not myself in any degree ashamed of having changed my opinions. What physicist who was already active in 1900 would dream of boasting that his opinions had not changed during the last half century? In science men change their opinions when new knowledge becomes available; but philosophy in the minds of many is assimilated rather to theology than to science. The kind of philosophy that I value and have endeavoured to pursue is scientific, in the sense that there is some definite knowledge to be obtained and that new discoveries can make the admission of former error inevitable to any candid mind. For what I have said, whether early or late, I do not claim the kind of truth which theologians claim for their creeds. I claim only, at best, that the opinion expressed was a sensible one to hold at the time when it was expressed. I should be much surprised if subsequent research did not show that it needed to be modified. I hope, therefore, that whoever uses this dictionary will not suppose the remarks which it quotes to be intended as pontifical pronouncements, but only as the best I could do at the time towards the promotion of clear and accurate thinking. Clarity, above all, has been my aim.
~ Bertrand Russell,#KEYS
239:Therefore the age of intuitive knowledge, represented by the early Vedantic thinking of the Upanishads, had to give place to the age of rational knowledge; inspired Scripture made room for metaphysical philosophy, even as afterwards metaphysical philosophy had to give place to experimental Science.
Intuitive thought which is a messenger from the superconscient and therefore our highest faculty, was supplanted by the pure reason which is only a sort of deputy and belongs to the middle heights of our being; pure reason in its turn was supplanted for a time by the mixed action of the reason which lives on our plains and lower elevations and does not in its view exceed the horizon of the experience that the physical mind and senses or such aids as we can invent for them can bring to us.
And this process which seems to be a descent, is really a circle of progress.
For in each case the lower faculty is compelled to take up as much as it can assimilate of what the higher had already given and to attempt to re-establish it by its own methods.
By the attempt it is itself enlarged in its scope and arrives eventually at a more supple and a more ample selfaccommodation to the higher faculties. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, 1.08-13,#KEYS
240:on cultivating equality :::
For it is certain that so great a result cannot be arrived at immediately and without any previous stages. At first we have to learn to bear the shocks of the world with the central part of our being untouched and silent, even when the surface mind, heart, life are strongly shaken; unmoved there on the bedrock of our life, we must separate the soul watching behind or immune deep within from these outer workings of our nature. Afterwards, extending this calm and steadfastness of the detached soul to its instruments, it will become slowly possible to radiate peace from the luminous centre to the darker peripheries. In this process we may take the passing help of many minor phases; a certain stoicism, a certain calm philosophy, a certain religious exaltation may help us towards some nearness to our aim, or we may call in even less strong and exalted but still useful powers of our mental nature. In the end we must either discard or transform them and arrive instead at an entire equality, a perfect self-existent peace within and even, if we can, a total unassailable, self-poised and spontaneous delight in all our members.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Yoga of Divine Works, Self-Surrender in Works - The Way of the Gita, [103-104],#KEYS
241:But even when the desire to know exists in the requisite strength, the mental vision by which abstract truth is recognised is hard to distinguish from vivid imaginability and consonance with mental habits. It is necessary to practise methodological doubt, like Descartes, in order to loosen the hold of mental habits; and it is necessary to cultivate logical imagination, in order to have a number of hypotheses at command, and not to be the slave of the one which common sense has rendered easy to imagine. These two processes, of doubting the familiar and imagining the unfamiliar, are correlative, and form the chief part of the mental training required for a philosopher.
The naïve beliefs which we find in ourselves when we first begin the process of philosophic reflection may turn out, in the end, to be almost all capable of a true interpretation; but they ought all, before being admitted into philosophy, to undergo the ordeal of sceptical criticism. Until they have gone through this ordeal, they are mere blind habits, ways of behaving rather than intellectual convictions. And although it may be that a majority will pass the test, we may be pretty sure that some will not, and that a serious readjustment of our outlook ought to result. In order to break the dominion of habit, we must do our best to doubt the senses, reason, morals, everything in short. In some directions, doubt will be found possible; in others, it will be checked by that direct vision of abstract truth upon which the possibility of philosophical knowledge depends. ~ Bertrand Russell, Our Knowledge of the External World,#KEYS
242:... Every one knew how laborious the usual method is of attaining to arts and sciences; whereas, by his contrivance, the most ignorant person, at a reasonable charge, and with a little bodily labour, might write books in philosophy, poetry, politics, laws, mathematics, and theology, without the least assistance from genius or study." He then led me to the frame, about the sides, whereof all his pupils stood in ranks. It was twenty feet square, placed in the middle of the room. The superfices was composed of several bits of wood, about the bigness of a die, but some larger than others. They were all linked together by slender wires. These bits of wood were covered, on every square, with paper pasted on them; and on these papers were written all the words of their language, in their several moods, tenses, and declensions; but without any order. The professor then desired me "to observe; for he was going to set his engine at work." The pupils, at his command, took each of them hold of an iron handle, whereof there were forty fixed round the edges of the frame; and giving them a sudden turn, the whole disposition of the words was entirely changed. He then commanded six-and-thirty of the lads, to read the several lines softly, as they appeared upon the frame; and where they found three or four words together that might make part of a sentence, they dictated to the four remaining boys, who were scribes. This work was repeated three or four times, and at every turn, the engine was so contrived, that the words shifted into new places, as the square bits of wood moved upside down. ~ Jonathan Swift, Gullivers Travels, #KEYS
243:In the Judeo-Christian tradition, it is called 'the resurrection body ' and 'the glorified body.' The prophet Isaiah said, 'The dead shall live, their bodies shall rise' (Isa. 26:19). St. Paul called it 'the celestial body' or 'spiritual body ' (soma pneumatikon) (I Corinthians 15:40). In Sufism it is called 'the most sacred body ' (wujud al-aqdas) and 'supracelestial body ' (jism asli haqiqi). In Taoism, it is called 'the diamond body,' and those who have attained it are called 'the immortals' and 'the cloudwalkers.' In Tibetan Buddhism it is called 'the light body.' In Tantrism and some schools of yoga, it is called 'the vajra body,' 'the adamantine body,' and 'the divine body.' In Kriya yoga it is called 'the body of bliss.' In Vedanta it is called 'the superconductive body.' In Gnosticism and Neoplatonism, it is called 'the radiant body.' In the alchemical tradition, the Emerald Tablet calls it 'the Glory of the Whole Universe' and 'the golden body.' The alchemist Paracelsus called it 'the astral body.' In the Hermetic Corpus, it is called 'the immortal body ' (soma athanaton). In some mystery schools, it is called 'the solar body.' In Rosicrucianism, it is called 'the diamond body of the temple of God.' In ancient Egypt it was called 'the luminous body or being' (akh). In Old Persia it was called 'the indwelling divine potential' (fravashi or fravarti). In the Mithraic liturgy it was called 'the perfect body ' (soma teilion). In the philosophy of Sri Aurobindo, it is called 'the divine body,' composed of supramental substance. In the philosophy of Teilhard de Chardin, it is called 'the ultrahuman'.
~ ?, http://herebedragons.weebly.com/homo-lumen.html,#KEYS
244:Philosophy, like all other studies, aims primarily at knowledge. The knowledge it aims at is the kind of knowledge which gives unity and system to the body of the sciences, and the kind which results from a critical examination of the grounds of our convictions, prejudices, and beliefs. But it cannot be maintained that philosophy has had any very great measure of success in its attempts to provide definite answers to its questions. If you ask a mathematician, a mineralogist, a historian, or any other man of learning, what definite body of truths has been ascertained by his science, his answer will last as long as you are willing to listen. But if you put the same question to a philosopher, he will, if he is candid, have to confess that his study has not achieved positive results such as have been achieved by other sciences. It is true that this is partly accounted for by the fact that, as soon as definite knowledge concerning any subject becomes possible, this subject ceases to be called philosophy, and becomes a separate science. The whole study of the heavens, which now belongs to astronomy, was once included in philosophy; Newton's great work was called 'the mathematical principles of natural philosophy'. Similarly, the study of the human mind, which was a part of philosophy, has now been separated from philosophy and has become the science of psychology. Thus, to a great extent, the uncertainty of philosophy is more apparent than real: those questions which are already capable of definite answers are placed in the sciences, while those only to which, at present, no definite answer can be given, remain to form the residue which is called philosophy.
~ Bertrand Russell,#KEYS
245:science reading list :::
1. and 2. The Voyage of the Beagle (1845) and The Origin of Species (1859) by Charles Darwin [tie
3. Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica (Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy) by Isaac Newton (1687)
4. Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems by Galileo Galilei (1632)
5. De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium (On the Revolutions of Heavenly Spheres) by Nicolaus Copernicus (1543)
6. Physica (Physics) by Aristotle (circa 330 B.C.)
7. De Humani Corporis Fabrica (On the Fabric of the Human Body) by Andreas Vesalius (1543)
8. Relativity: The Special and General Theory by Albert Einstein (1916)
9. The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins (1976)
10. One Two Three . . . Infinity by George Gamow (1947)
11. The Double Helix by James D. Watson (1968)
12. What Is Life? by Erwin Schrodinger (1944)
13. The Cosmic Connection by Carl Sagan (1973)
14. The Insect Societies by Edward O. Wilson (1971)
15. The First Three Minutes by Steven Weinberg (1977)
16. Silent Spring by Rachel Carson (1962)
17. The Mismeasure of Man by Stephen Jay Gould (1981)
18. The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales by Oliver Sacks (1985)
19. The Journals of Lewis and Clark by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark (1814)
20. The Feynman Lectures on Physics by Richard P Feynman, Robert B. Leighton, and Matthew Sands (1963)
21. Sexual Behavior in the Human Male by Alfred C. Kinsey et al. (1948)
22. Gorillas in the Mist by Dian Fossey (1983)
23. Under a Lucky Star by Roy Chapman Andrews (1943)
24. Micrographia by Robert Hooke (1665)
25. Gaia by James Lovelock (1979)
~ Editors of Discovery Magazine, Website,#KEYS
246:the omnipresent Trinity :::
In practice three conceptions are necessary before there can be any possibility of Yoga; there must be, as it were, three consenting parties to the effort,-God, Nature and the human soul or, in more abstract language, the Transcendental, the Universal and the Individual. If the individual and Nature are left to themselves, the one is bound to the other and unable to exceed appreciably her lingering march. Something transcendent is needed, free from her and greater, which will act upon us and her, attracting us upward to Itself and securing from her by good grace or by force her consent to the individual ascension. It is this truth which makes necessary to every philosophy of Yoga the conception of the Ishwara, Lord, supreme Soul or supreme Self, towards whom the effort is directed and who gives the illuminating touch and the strength to attain. Equally true is the complementary idea so often enforced by the Yoga of devotion that as the Transcendent is necessary to the individual and sought after by him, so also the individual is necessary in a sense to the Transcendent and sought after by It. If the Bhakta seeks and yearns after Bhagavan, Bhagavan also seeks and yearns after the Bhakta. There can be no Yoga of knowledge without a human seeker of the knowledge, the supreme subject of knowledge and the divine use by the individual of the universal faculties of knowledge; no Yoga of devotion without the human God-lover, the supreme object of love and delight and the divine use by the individual of the universal faculties of spiritual, emotional and aesthetic enjoyment; no Yoga of works without the human worker, the supreme Will, Master of all works and sacrifices, and the divine use by the individual of the universal faculties of power and action. However Monistic maybe our intellectual conception of the highest truth of things, in practice we are compelled to accept this omnipresent Trinity.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, Introduction - The Conditions of the Synthesis, The Systems of Yoga,#KEYS
247:This is the real sense and drive of what we see as evolution: the multiplication and variation of forms is only the means of its process. Each gradation contains the possibility and the certainty of the grades beyond it: the emergence of more and more developed forms and powers points to more perfected forms and greater powers beyond them, and each emergence of consciousness and the conscious beings proper to it enables the rise to a greater consciousness beyond and the greater order of beings up to the ultimate godheads of which Nature is striving and is destined to show herself capable. Matter developed its organised forms until it became capable of embodying living organisms; then life rose from the subconscience of the plant into conscious animal formations and through them to the thinking life of man. Mind founded in life developed intellect, developed its types of knowledge and ignorance, truth and error till it reached the spiritual perception and illumination and now can see as in a glass dimly the possibility of supermind and a truthconscious existence. In this inevitable ascent the mind of Light is a gradation, an inevitable stage. As an evolving principle it will mark a stage in the human ascent and evolve a new type of human being; this development must carry in it an ascending gradation of its own powers and types of an ascending humanity which will embody more and more the turn towards spirituality, capacity for Light, a climb towards a divinised manhood and the divine life.
In the birth of the mind of Light and its ascension into its own recognisable self and its true status and right province there must be, in the very nature of things as they are and very nature of the evolutionary process as it is at present, two stages. In the first, we can see the mind of Light gathering itself out of the Ignorance, assembling its constituent elements, building up its shapes and types, however imperfect at first, and pushing them towards perfection till it can cross the border of the Ignorance and appear in the Light, in its own Light. In the second stage we can see it developing itself in that greater natural light, taking its higher shapes and forms till it joins the supermind and lives as its subordinate portion or its delegate.
~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays In Philosophy And Yoga, Mind of Light, 587,#KEYS
248:There is one point in particular I would like to single out and stress, namely, the notion of evolution. It is common to assume that one of the doctrines of the perennial philosophy... is the idea of involution-evolution. That is, the manifest world was created as a "fall" or "breaking away" from the Absolute (involution), but that all things are now returning to the Absolute (via evolution). In fact, the doctrine of progressive temporal return to Source (evolution) does not appear anywhere, according to scholars as Joseph Campbell, until the axial period (i.e. a mere two thousand years ago). And even then, the idea was somewhat convoluted and backwards. The doctrine of the yugas, for example, sees the world as proceeding through various stages of development, but the direction is backward: yesterday was the Golden Age, and time ever since has been a devolutionary slide downhill, resulting in the present-day Kali-Yuga. Indeed, this notion of a historical fall from Eden was ubiquitous during the axial period; the idea that we are, at this moment, actually evolving toward Spirit was simply not conceived in any sort of influential fashion.
But sometime during the modern era-it is almost impossible to pinpoint exactly-the idea of history as devolution (or a fall from God) was slowly replaced by the idea of history as evolution (or a growth towards God). We see it explicitly in Schelling (1775-1854); Hegel (1770-1831) propounded the doctrine with a genius rarely equaled; Herbert Spencer (1820-1903) made evolution a universal law, and his friend Charles Darwin (1809-1882) applied it to biology. We find it next appearing in Aurobindo (1872-1950), who gave perhaps its most accurate and profound spiritual context, and Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955) who made it famous in the West.
But here is my point: we might say that the idea of evolution as return-to-Spirit is part of the perennial philosophy, but the idea itself, in any adequate form, is no more than a few hundred years old. It might be 'ancient' as timeless, but it is certainly not ancient as "old."...
This fundamental shift in the sense or form of the perennial philosophy-as represented in, say, Aurobindo, Hegel, Adi Da, Schelling, Teilhard de Chardin, Radhakrishnan, to name a few-I should like to call the "neoperennial philosophy." ~ Ken Wilber, The Eye Of Spirit,#KEYS
249:reading :::
Self-Help Reading List:
James Allen As a Man Thinketh (1904)
Marcus Aurelius Meditations (2nd Century)
The Bhagavad-Gita
The Bible
Robert Bly Iron John (1990)
Boethius The Consolation of Philosophy (6thC)
Alain de Botton How Proust Can Change Your Life (1997)
William Bridges Transitions: Making Sense of Life's Changes (1980)
David Brooks The Road to Character (2015)
Brené Brown Daring Greatly (2012)
David D Burns The New Mood Therapy (1980)
Joseph Campbell (with Bill Moyers) The Power of Myth (1988)
Richard Carlson Don't Sweat The Small Stuff (1997)
Dale Carnegie How to Win Friends and Influence People (1936)
Deepak Chopra The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success (1994)
Clayton Christensen How Will You Measure Your Life? (2012)
Paulo Coelho The Alchemist (1988)
Stephen Covey The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People (1989)
Mihaly Cziksentmihalyi Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience (1991)
The Dalai Lama & Howard Cutler The Art of Happiness (1999)
The Dhammapada (Buddha's teachings)
Charles Duhigg The Power of Habit (2011)
Wayne Dyer Real Magic (1992)
Ralph Waldo Emerson Self-Reliance (1841)
Clarissa Pinkola Estes Women Who Run With The Wolves (1996)
Viktor Frankl Man's Search For Meaning (1959)
Benjamin Franklin Autobiography (1790)
Shakti Gawain Creative Visualization (1982)
Daniel Goleman Emotional Intelligence (1995)
John Gray Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus (1992)
Louise Hay You Can Heal Your Life (1984)
James Hillman The Soul's Code: In Search of Character and Calling (1996)
Susan Jeffers Feel The Fear And Do It Anyway (1987)
Richard Koch The 80/20 Principle (1998)
Marie Kondo The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up (2014)
Ellen Langer Mindfulness: Choice and Control in Everyday Life (1989)
Lao-Tzu Tao-te Ching (The Way of Power)
Maxwell Maltz Psycho-Cybernetics (1960)
Abraham Maslow Motivation and Personality (1954)
Thomas Moore Care of the Soul (1992)
Joseph Murphy The Power of Your Subconscious Mind (1963)
Norman Vincent Peale The Power of Positive Thinking (1952)
M Scott Peck The Road Less Traveled (1990)
Anthony Robbins Awaken The Giant Within (1991)
Florence Scovell-Shinn The Game of Life and How To Play It (1923)
Martin Seligman Learned Optimism (1991)
Samuel Smiles Self-Help (1859)
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin The Phenomenon of Man (1955)
Henry David Thoreau Walden (1854)
Marianne Williamson A Return To Love (1993)
~ Tom Butler-Bowdon, 50 Self-Help,#KEYS
250:they are acting all the while in the spirit of rajasic ahaṅkara, persuade themselves that God is working through them and they have no part in the action. This is because they are satisfied with the mere intellectual assent to the idea without waiting for the whole system and life to be full of it. A continual remembrance of God in others and renunciation of individual eagerness (spr.ha) are needed and a careful watching of our inner activities until God by the full light of self-knowledge, jñanadı̄pena bhasvata, dispels all further chance of self-delusion. The danger of tamogun.a is twofold, first, when the Purusha thinks, identifying himself with the tamas in him, "I am weak, sinful, miserable, ignorant, good-for-nothing, inferior to this man and inferior to that man, adhama, what will God do through me?" - as if God were limited by the temporary capacities or incapacities of his instruments and it were not true that he can make the dumb to talk and the lame to cross the hills, mūkaṁ karoti vacalaṁ paṅguṁ laṅghayate girim, - and again when the sadhak tastes the relief, the tremendous relief of a negative santi and, feeling himself delivered from all troubles and in possession of peace, turns away from life and action and becomes attached to the peace and ease of inaction. Remember always that you too are Brahman and the divine Shakti is working in you; reach out always to the realisation of God's omnipotence and his delight in the Lila. He bids Arjuna work lokasaṅgraharthaya, for keeping the world together, for he does not wish the world to sink back into Prakriti, but insists on your acting as he acts, "These worlds would be overpowered by tamas and sink into Prakriti if I did not do actions." To be attached to inaction is to give up our action not to God but to our tamasic ahaṅkara. The danger of the sattvagun.a is when the sadhak becomes attached to any one-sided conclusion of his reason, to some particular kriya or movement of the sadhana, to the joy of any particular siddhi of the yoga, perhaps the sense of purity or the possession of some particular power or the Ananda of the contact with God or the sense of freedom and hungers after it, becomes attached to that only and would have nothing else. Remember that the yoga is not for yourself; for these things, though they are part of the siddhi, are not the object of the siddhi, for you have decided at the beginning to make no claim upon God but take what he gives you freely and, as for the Ananda, the selfless soul will even forego the joy of God's presence, ... ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays In Philosophy And Yoga, #KEYS
251:The preliminary movement of Rajayoga is careful self-discipline by which good habits of mind are substituted for the lawless movements that indulge the lower nervous being. By the practice of truth, by renunciation of all forms of egoistic seeking, by abstention from injury to others, by purity, by constant meditation and inclination to the divine Purusha who is the true lord of the mental kingdom, a pure, clear state of mind and heart is established.
This is the first step only. Afterwards, the ordinary activities of the mind and sense must be entirely quieted in order that the soul may be free to ascend to higher states of consciousness and acquire the foundation for a perfect freedom and self-mastery. But Rajayoga does not forget that the disabilities of the ordinary mind proceed largely from its subjection to the reactions of the nervous system and the body. It adopts therefore from the Hathayogic system its devices of asana and pranayama, but reduces their multiple and elaborate forms in each case to one simplest and most directly effective process sufficient for its own immediate object. Thus it gets rid of the Hathayogic complexity and cumbrousness while it utilises the swift and powerful efficacy of its methods for the control of the body and the vital functions and for the awakening of that internal dynamism, full of a latent supernormal faculty, typified in Yogic terminology by the kundalini, the coiled and sleeping serpent of Energy within. This done, the system proceeds to the perfect quieting of the restless mind and its elevation to a higher plane through concentration of mental force by the successive stages which lead to the utmost inner concentration or ingathered state of the consciousness which is called Samadhi.
By Samadhi, in which the mind acquires the capacity of withdrawing from its limited waking activities into freer and higher states of consciousness, Rajayoga serves a double purpose. It compasses a pure mental action liberated from the confusions of the outer consciousness and passes thence to the higher supra-mental planes on which the individual soul enters into its true spiritual existence. But also it acquires the capacity of that free and concentrated energising of consciousness on its object which our philosophy asserts as the primary cosmic energy and the method of divine action upon the world. By this capacity the Yogin, already possessed of the highest supracosmic knowledge and experience in the state of trance, is able in the waking state to acquire directly whatever knowledge and exercise whatever mastery may be useful or necessary to his activities in the objective world.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Conditions of the Synthesis, The Systems of Yoga, 36,#KEYS
252:(Novum Organum by Francis Bacon.)
34. "Four species of idols beset the human mind, to which (for distinction's sake) we have assigned names, calling the first Idols of the Tribe, the second Idols of the Den, the third Idols of the Market, the fourth Idols of the Theatre.
40. "The information of notions and axioms on the foundation of true induction is the only fitting remedy by which we can ward off and expel these idols. It is, however, of great service to point them out; for the doctrine of idols bears the same relation to the interpretation of nature as that of the confutation of sophisms does to common logic.
41. "The idols of the tribe are inherent in human nature and the very tribe or race of man; for man's sense is falsely asserted to be the standard of things; on the contrary, all the perceptions both of the senses and the mind bear reference to man and not to the Universe, and the human mind resembles these uneven mirrors which impart their own properties to different objects, from which rays are emitted and distort and disfigure them.
42. "The idols of the den are those of each individual; for everybody (in addition to the errors common to the race of man) has his own individual den or cavern, which intercepts and corrupts the light of nature, either from his own peculiar and singular disposition, or from his education and intercourse with others, or from his reading, and the authority acquired by those whom he reverences and admires, or from the different impressions produced on the mind, as it happens to be preoccupied and predisposed, or equable and tranquil, and the like; so that the spirit of man (according to its several dispositions), is variable, confused, and, as it were, actuated by chance; and Heraclitus said well that men search for knowledge in lesser worlds, and not in the greater or common world.
43. "There are also idols formed by the reciprocal intercourse and society of man with man, which we call idols of the market, from the commerce and association of men with each other; for men converse by means of language, but words are formed at the will of the generality, and there arises from a bad and unapt formation of words a wonderful obstruction to the mind. Nor can the definitions and explanations with which learned men are wont to guard and protect themselves in some instances afford a complete remedy-words still manifestly force the understanding, throw everything into confusion, and lead mankind into vain and innumerable controversies and fallacies.
44. "Lastly, there are idols which have crept into men's minds from the various dogmas of peculiar systems of philosophy, and also from the perverted rules of demonstration, and these we denominate idols of the theatre: for we regard all the systems of philosophy hitherto received or imagined, as so many plays brought out and performed, creating fictitious and theatrical worlds. Nor do we speak only of the present systems, or of the philosophy and sects of the ancients, since numerous other plays of a similar nature can be still composed and made to agree with each other, the causes of the most opposite errors being generally the same. Nor, again, do we allude merely to general systems, but also to many elements and axioms of sciences which have become inveterate by tradition, implicit credence, and neglect. ~ Alfred Korzybski, Manhood of Humanity,#KEYS
253:Reading list (1972 edition)[edit]
1. Homer - Iliad, Odyssey
2. The Old Testament
3. Aeschylus - Tragedies
4. Sophocles - Tragedies
5. Herodotus - Histories
6. Euripides - Tragedies
7. Thucydides - History of the Peloponnesian War
8. Hippocrates - Medical Writings
9. Aristophanes - Comedies
10. Plato - Dialogues
11. Aristotle - Works
12. Epicurus - Letter to Herodotus; Letter to Menoecus
13. Euclid - Elements
14.Archimedes - Works
15. Apollonius of Perga - Conic Sections
16. Cicero - Works
17. Lucretius - On the Nature of Things
18. Virgil - Works
19. Horace - Works
20. Livy - History of Rome
21. Ovid - Works
22. Plutarch - Parallel Lives; Moralia
23. Tacitus - Histories; Annals; Agricola Germania
24. Nicomachus of Gerasa - Introduction to Arithmetic
25. Epictetus - Discourses; Encheiridion
26. Ptolemy - Almagest
27. Lucian - Works
28. Marcus Aurelius - Meditations
29. Galen - On the Natural Faculties
30. The New Testament
31. Plotinus - The Enneads
32. St. Augustine - On the Teacher; Confessions; City of God; On Christian Doctrine
33. The Song of Roland
34. The Nibelungenlied
35. The Saga of Burnt Njal
36. St. Thomas Aquinas - Summa Theologica
37. Dante Alighieri - The Divine Comedy;The New Life; On Monarchy
38. Geoffrey Chaucer - Troilus and Criseyde; The Canterbury Tales
39. Leonardo da Vinci - Notebooks
40. Niccolò Machiavelli - The Prince; Discourses on the First Ten Books of Livy
41. Desiderius Erasmus - The Praise of Folly
42. Nicolaus Copernicus - On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres
43. Thomas More - Utopia
44. Martin Luther - Table Talk; Three Treatises
45. François Rabelais - Gargantua and Pantagruel
46. John Calvin - Institutes of the Christian Religion
47. Michel de Montaigne - Essays
48. William Gilbert - On the Loadstone and Magnetic Bodies
49. Miguel de Cervantes - Don Quixote
50. Edmund Spenser - Prothalamion; The Faerie Queene
51. Francis Bacon - Essays; Advancement of Learning; Novum Organum, New Atlantis
52. William Shakespeare - Poetry and Plays
53. Galileo Galilei - Starry Messenger; Dialogues Concerning Two New Sciences
54. Johannes Kepler - Epitome of Copernican Astronomy; Concerning the Harmonies of the World
55. William Harvey - On the Motion of the Heart and Blood in Animals; On the Circulation of the Blood; On the Generation of Animals
56. Thomas Hobbes - Leviathan
57. René Descartes - Rules for the Direction of the Mind; Discourse on the Method; Geometry; Meditations on First Philosophy
58. John Milton - Works
59. Molière - Comedies
60. Blaise Pascal - The Provincial Letters; Pensees; Scientific Treatises
61. Christiaan Huygens - Treatise on Light
62. Benedict de Spinoza - Ethics
63. John Locke - Letter Concerning Toleration; Of Civil Government; Essay Concerning Human Understanding;Thoughts Concerning Education
64. Jean Baptiste Racine - Tragedies
65. Isaac Newton - Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy; Optics
66. Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz - Discourse on Metaphysics; New Essays Concerning Human Understanding;Monadology
67.Daniel Defoe - Robinson Crusoe
68. Jonathan Swift - A Tale of a Tub; Journal to Stella; Gulliver's Travels; A Modest Proposal
69. William Congreve - The Way of the World
70. George Berkeley - Principles of Human Knowledge
71. Alexander Pope - Essay on Criticism; Rape of the Lock; Essay on Man
72. Charles de Secondat, baron de Montesquieu - Persian Letters; Spirit of Laws
73. Voltaire - Letters on the English; Candide; Philosophical Dictionary
74. Henry Fielding - Joseph Andrews; Tom Jones
75. Samuel Johnson - The Vanity of Human Wishes; Dictionary; Rasselas; The Lives of the Poets
~ Mortimer J Adler,#KEYS
254:Although a devout student of the Bible, Paracelsus instinctively adopted the broad patterns of essential learning, as these had been clarified by Pythagoras of Samos and Plato of Athens. Being by nature a mystic as well as a scientist, he also revealed a deep regard for the Neoplatonic philosophy as expounded by Plotinus, Iamblichus, and Proclus. Neoplatonism is therefore an invaluable aid to the interpretation of the Paracelsian doctrine.
Paracelsus held that true knowledge is attained in two ways, or rather that the pursuit of knowledge is advanced by a two-fold method, the elements of which are completely interdependent. In our present terminology, we can say that these two parts of method are intuition and experience. To Paracelsus, these could never be divided from each other.
The purpose of intuition is to reveal certain basic ideas which must then be tested and proven by experience. Experience, in turn, not only justifies intuition, but contributes certain additional knowledge by which the impulse to further growth is strengthened and developed. Paracelsus regarded the separation of intuition and experience to be a disaster, leading inevitably to greater error and further disaster. Intuition without experience allows the mind to fall into an abyss of speculation without adequate censorship by practical means. Experience without intuition could never be fruitful because fruitfulness comes not merely from the doing of things, but from the overtones which stimulate creative thought. Further, experience is meaningless unless there is within man the power capable of evaluating happenings and occurrences. The absence of this evaluating factor allows the individual to pass through many kinds of experiences, either misinterpreting them or not inter preting them at all. So Paracelsus attempted to explain intuition and how man is able to apprehend that which is not obvious or apparent. Is it possible to prove beyond doubt that the human being is capable of an inward realization of truths or facts without the assistance of the so-called rational faculty?
According to Paracelsus, intuition was possible because of the existence in nature of a mysterious substance or essence-a universal life force. He gave this many names, but for our purposes, the simplest term will be appropriate. He compared it to light, further reasoning that there are two kinds of light: a visible radiance, which he called brightness, and an invisible radiance, which he called darkness. There is no essential difference between light and darkness. There is a dark light, which appears luminous to the soul but cannot be sensed by the body. There is a visible radiance which seems bright to the senses, but may appear dark to the soul. We must recognize that Paracelsus considered light as pertaining to the nature of being, the total existence from which all separate existences arise. Light not only contains the energy needed to support visible creatures, and the whole broad expanse of creation, but the invisible part of light supports the secret powers and functions of man, particularly intuition. Intuition, therefore, relates to the capacity of the individual to become attuned to the hidden side of life. By light, then, Paracelsus implies much more than the radiance that comes from the sun, a lantern, or a candle. To him, light is the perfect symbol, emblem, or figure of total well-being. Light is the cause of health. Invisible light, no less real if unseen, is the cause of wisdom. As the light of the body gives strength and energy, sustaining growth and development, so the light of the soul bestows understanding, the light of the mind makes wisdom possible, and the light of the spirit confers truth. Therefore, truth, wisdom, understanding, and health are all manifesta tions or revelations ot one virtue or power. What health is to the body, morality is to the emotions, virtue to the soul, wisdom to the mind, and reality to the spirit. This total content of living values is contained in every ray of visible light. This ray is only a manifestation upon one level or plane of the total mystery of life. Therefore, when we look at a thing, we either see its objective, physical form, or we apprehend its inner light Everything that lives, lives in light; everything that has an existence, radiates light. All things derive their life from light, and this light, in its root, is life itself. This, indeed, is the light that lighteth every man who cometh into the world. ~ Manly P Hall, Paracelsus,#KEYS
255:It is natural from the point of view of the Yoga to divide into two categories the activities of the human mind in its pursuit of knowledge. There is the supreme supra-intellectual knowledge which concentrates itself on the discovery of the One and Infinite in its transcendence or tries to penetrate by intuition, contemplation, direct inner contact into the ultimate truths behind the appearances of Nature; there is the lower science which diffuses itself in an outward knowledge of phenomena, the disguises of the One and Infinite as it appears to us in or through the more exterior forms of the world-manifestation around us. These two, an upper and a lower hemisphere, in the form of them constructed or conceived by men within the mind's ignorant limits, have even there separated themselves, as they developed, with some sharpness.... Philosophy, sometimes spiritual or at least intuitive, sometimes abstract and intellectual, sometimes intellectualising spiritual experience or supporting with a logical apparatus the discoveries of the spirit, has claimed always to take the fixation of ultimate Truth as its province. But even when it did not separate itself on rarefied metaphysical heights from the knowledge that belongs to the practical world and the pursuit of ephemeral objects, intellectual Philosophy by its habit of abstraction has seldom been a power for life. It has been sometimes powerful for high speculation, pursuing mental Truth for its own sake without any ulterior utility or object, sometimes for a subtle gymnastic of the mind in a mistily bright cloud-land of words and ideas, but it has walked or acrobatised far from the more tangible realities of existence. Ancient Philosophy in Europe was more dynamic, but only for the few; in India in its more spiritualised forms, it strongly influenced but without transforming the life of the race.... Religion did not attempt, like Philosophy, to live alone on the heights; its aim was rather to take hold of man's parts of life even more than his parts of mind and draw them Godwards; it professed to build a bridge between spiritual Truth and the vital and material human existence; it strove to subordinate and reconcile the lower to the higher, make life serviceable to God, Earth obedient to Heaven. It has to be admitted that too often this necessary effort had the opposite result of making Heaven a sanction for Earth's desires; for, continually, the religious idea has been turned into an excuse for the worship and service of the human ego. Religion, leaving constantly its little shining core of spiritual experience, has lost itself in the obscure mass of its ever extending ambiguous compromises with life: in attempting to satisfy the thinking mind, it more often succeeded in oppressing or fettering it with a mass of theological dogmas; while seeking to net the human heart, it fell itself into pits of pietistic emotionalism and sensationalism; in the act of annexing the vital nature of man to dominate it, it grew itself vitiated and fell a prey to all the fanaticism, homicidal fury, savage or harsh turn for oppression, pullulating falsehood, obstinate attachment to ignorance to which that vital nature is prone; its desire to draw the physical in man towards God betrayed it into chaining itself to ecclesiastic mechanism, hollow ceremony and lifeless ritual. The corruption of the best produced the worst by that strange chemistry of the power of life which generates evil out of good even as it can also generate good out of evil. At the same time in a vain effort at self-defence against this downward gravitation, Religion was driven to cut existence into two by a division of knowledge, works, art, life itself into two opposite categories, the spiritual and the worldly, religious and mundane, sacred and profane; but this defensive distinction itself became conventional and artificial and aggravated rather than healed the disease.... On their side Science and Art and the knowledge of Life, although at first they served or lived in the shadow of Religion, ended by emancipating themselves, became estranged or hostile, or have even recoiled with indifference, contempt or scepticism from what seem to them the cold, barren and distant or unsubstantial and illusory heights of unreality to which metaphysical Philosophy and Religion aspire. For a time the divorce has been as complete as the one-sided intolerance of the human mind could make it and threatened even to end in a complete extinction of all attempt at a higher or a more spiritual knowledge. Yet even in the earthward life a higher knowledge is indeed the one thing that is throughout needful, and without it the lower sciences and pursuits, however fruitful, however rich, free, miraculous in the abundance of their results, become easily a sacrifice offered without due order and to false gods; corrupting, hardening in the end the heart of man, limiting his mind's horizons, they confine in a stony material imprisonment or lead to a final baffling incertitude and disillusionment. A sterile agnosticism awaits us above the brilliant phosphorescence of a half-knowledge that is still the Ignorance. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Ascent of the Sacrifice - 1, #KEYS
256:SECTION 1. Books for Serious Study
Liber CCXX. (Liber AL vel Legis.) The Book of the Law. This book is the foundation of the New Æon, and thus of the whole of our work.
The Equinox. The standard Work of Reference in all occult matters. The Encyclopaedia of Initiation.
Liber ABA (Book 4). A general account in elementary terms of magical and mystical powers. In four parts: (1) Mysticism (2) Magical (Elementary Theory) (3) Magick in Theory and Practice (this book) (4) The Law.
Liber II. The Message of the Master Therion. Explains the essence of the new Law in a very simple manner.
Liber DCCCXXXVIII. The Law of Liberty. A further explanation of The Book of the Law in reference to certain ethical problems.
Collected Works of A. Crowley. These works contain many mystical and magical secrets, both stated clearly in prose, and woven into the Robe of sublimest poesy.
The Yi King. (S. B. E. Series [vol. XVI], Oxford University Press.) The "Classic of Changes"; give the initiated Chinese system of Magick.
The Tao Teh King. (S. B. E. Series [vol. XXXIX].) Gives the initiated Chinese system of Mysticism.
Tannhäuser, by A. Crowley. An allegorical drama concerning the Progress of the Soul; the Tannhäuser story slightly remodelled.
The Upanishads. (S. B. E. Series [vols. I & XV.) The Classical Basis of Vedantism, the best-known form of Hindu Mysticism.
The Bhagavad-gita. A dialogue in which Krishna, the Hindu "Christ", expounds a system of Attainment.
The Voice of the Silence, by H.P. Blavatsky, with an elaborate commentary by Frater O.M. Frater O.M., 7°=48, is the most learned of all the Brethren of the Order; he has given eighteen years to the study of this masterpiece.
Raja-Yoga, by Swami Vivekananda. An excellent elementary study of Hindu mysticism. His Bhakti-Yoga is also good.
The Shiva Samhita. An account of various physical means of assisting the discipline of initiation. A famous Hindu treatise on certain physical practices.
The Hathayoga Pradipika. Similar to the Shiva Samhita.
The Aphorisms of Patanjali. A valuable collection of precepts pertaining to mystical attainment.
The Sword of Song. A study of Christian theology and ethics, with a statement and solution of the deepest philosophical problems. Also contains the best account extant of Buddhism, compared with modern science.
The Book of the Dead. A collection of Egyptian magical rituals.
Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie, by Eliphas Levi. The best general textbook of magical theory and practice for beginners. Written in an easy popular style.
The Book of the Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage. The best exoteric account of the Great Work, with careful instructions in procedure. This Book influenced and helped the Master Therion more than any other.
The Goetia. The most intelligible of all the mediæval rituals of Evocation. Contains also the favourite Invocation of the Master Therion.
Erdmann's History of Philosophy. A compendious account of philosophy from the earliest times. Most valuable as a general education of the mind.
The Spiritual Guide of [Miguel de] Molinos. A simple manual of Christian Mysticism.
The Star in the West. (Captain Fuller). An introduction to the study of the Works of Aleister Crowley.
The Dhammapada. (S. B. E. Series [vol. X], Oxford University Press). The best of the Buddhist classics.
The Questions of King Milinda. (S. B. E. Series [vols. XXXV & XXXVI].) Technical points of Buddhist dogma, illustrated bydialogues.
Liber 777 vel Prolegomena Symbolica Ad Systemam Sceptico-Mysticæ Viæ Explicandæ, Fundamentum Hieroglyphicam Sanctissimorum Scientiæ Summæ. A complete Dictionary of the Correspondences of all magical elements, reprinted with extensive additions, making it the only standard comprehensive book of reference ever published. It is to the language of Occultism what Webster or Murray is to the English language.
Varieties of Religious Experience (William James). Valuable as showing the uniformity of mystical attainment.
Kabbala Denudata, von Rosenroth: also The Kabbalah Unveiled, by S.L. Mathers. The text of the Qabalah, with commentary. A good elementary introduction to the subject.
Konx Om Pax [by Aleister Crowley]. Four invaluable treatises and a preface on Mysticism and Magick.
The Pistis Sophia [translated by G.R.S. Mead or Violet McDermot]. An admirable introduction to the study of Gnosticism.
The Oracles of Zoroaster [Chaldæan Oracles]. An invaluable collection of precepts mystical and magical.
The Dream of Scipio, by Cicero. Excellent for its Vision and its Philosophy.
The Golden Verses of Pythagoras, by Fabre d'Olivet. An interesting study of the exoteric doctrines of this Master.
The Divine Pymander, by Hermes Trismegistus. Invaluable as bearing on the Gnostic Philosophy.
The Secret Symbols of the Rosicrucians, reprint of Franz Hartmann. An invaluable compendium.
Scrutinium Chymicum [Atalanta Fugiens]¸ by Michael Maier. One of the best treatises on alchemy.
Science and the Infinite, by Sidney Klein. One of the best essays written in recent years.
Two Essays on the Worship of Priapus [A Discourse on the Worship of Priapus &c. &c. &c.], by Richard Payne Knight [and Thomas Wright]. Invaluable to all students.
The Golden Bough, by J.G. Frazer. The textbook of Folk Lore. Invaluable to all students.
The Age of Reason, by Thomas Paine. Excellent, though elementary, as a corrective to superstition.
Rivers of Life, by General Forlong. An invaluable textbook of old systems of initiation.
Three Dialogues, by Bishop Berkeley. The Classic of Subjective Idealism.
Essays of David Hume. The Classic of Academic Scepticism.
First Principles by Herbert Spencer. The Classic of Agnosticism.
Prolegomena [to any future Metaphysics], by Immanuel Kant. The best introduction to Metaphysics.
The Canon [by William Stirling]. The best textbook of Applied Qabalah.
The Fourth Dimension, by [Charles] H. Hinton. The best essay on the subject.
The Essays of Thomas Henry Huxley. Masterpieces of philosophy, as of prose.
~ Aleister Crowley, Liber ABA, Appendix I: Literature Recommended to Aspirants#KEYS
257:The Supermind [Supramental consciousness] is in its very essence a truth-consciousness, a consciousness always free from the Ignorance which is the foundation of our present natural or evolutionary existence and from which nature in us is trying to arrive at self-knowledge and world-knowledge and a right consciousness and the right use of our existence in the universe. The Supermind, because it is a truth-consciousness, has this knowledge inherent in it and this power of true existence; its course is straight and can go direct to its aim, its field is wide and can even be made illimitable. This is because its very nature is knowledge: it has not to acquire knowledge but possesses it in its own right; its steps are not from nescience or ignorance into some imperfect light, but from truth to greater truth, from right perception to deeper perception, from intuition to intuition, from illumination to utter and boundless luminousness, from growing widenesses to the utter vasts and to very infinitude. On its summits it possesses the divine omniscience and omnipotence, but even in an evolutionary movement of its own graded self-manifestation by which it would eventually reveal its own highest heights, it must be in its very nature essentially free from ignorance and error: it starts from truth and light and moves always in truth and light. As its knowledge is always true, so too its will is always true; it does not fumble in its handling of things or stumble in its paces. In the Supermind feeling and emotion do not depart from their truth, make no slips or mistakes, do not swerve from the right and the real, cannot misuse beauty and delight or twist away from a divine rectitude. In the Supermind sense cannot mislead or deviate into the grossnesses which are here its natural imperfections and the cause of reproach, distrust and misuse by our ignorance. Even an incomplete statement made by the Supermind is a truth leading to a further truth, its incomplete action a step towards completeness. All the life and action and leading of the Supermind is guarded in its very nature from the falsehoods and uncertainties that are our lot; it moves in safety towards its perfection. Once the truth-consciousness was established here on its own sure foundation, the evolution of divine life would be a progress in felicity, a march through light to Ananda. Supermind is an eternal reality of the divine Being and the divine Nature. In its own plane it already and always exists and possesses its own essential law of being; it has not to be created or to emerge or evolve into existence out of involution in Matter or out of non-existence, as it might seem to the view of mind which itself seems to its own view to have so emerged from life and Matter or to have evolved out of an involution in life and Matter. The nature of Supermind is always the same, a being of knowledge, proceeding from truth to truth, creating or rather manifesting what has to be manifested by the power of a pre-existent knowledge, not by hazard but by a self-existent destiny in the being itself, a necessity of the thing in itself and therefore inevitable. Its -manifestation of the divine life will also be inevitable; its own life on its own plane is divine and, if Supermind descends upon the earth, it will bring necessarily the divine life with it and establish it here. Supermind is the grade of existence beyond mind, life and Matter and, as mind, life and Matter have manifested on the earth, so too must Supermind in the inevitable course of things manifest in this world of Matter. In fact, a supermind is already here but it is involved, concealed behind this manifest mind, life and Matter and not yet acting overtly or in its own power: if it acts, it is through these inferior powers and modified by their characters and so not yet recognisable. It is only by the approach and arrival of the descending Supermind that it can be liberated upon earth and reveal itself in the action of our material, vital and mental parts so that these lower powers can become portions of a total divinised activity of our whole being: it is that that will bring to us a completely realised divinity or the divine life. It is indeed so that life and mind involved in Matter have realised themselves here; for only what is involved can evolve, otherwise there could be no emergence. The manifestation of a supramental truth-consciousness is therefore the capital reality that will make the divine life possible. It is when all the movements of thought, impulse and action are governed and directed by a self-existent and luminously automatic truth-consciousness and our whole nature comes to be constituted by it and made of its stuff that the life divine will be complete and absolute. Even as it is, in reality though not in the appearance of things, it is a secret self-existent knowledge and truth that is working to manifest itself in the creation here. The Divine is already there immanent within us, ourselves are that in our inmost reality and it is this reality that we have to manifest; it is that which constitutes the urge towards the divine living and makes necessary the creation of the life divine even in this material existence. A manifestation of the Supermind and its truth-consciousness is then inevitable; it must happen in this world sooner or lateR But it has two aspects, a descent from above, an ascent from below, a self-revelation of the Spirit, an evolution in Nature. The ascent is necessarily an effort, a working of Nature, an urge or nisus on her side to raise her lower parts by an evolutionary or revolutionary change, conversion or transformation into the divine reality and it may happen by a process and progress or by a rapid miracle. The descent or self-revelation of the Spirit is an act of the supreme Reality from above which makes the realisation possible and it can appear either as the divine aid which brings about the fulfilment of the progress and process or as the sanction of the miracle. Evolution, as we see it in this world, is a slow and difficult process and, indeed, needs usually ages to reach abiding results; but this is because it is in its nature an emergence from inconscient beginnings, a start from nescience and a working in the ignorance of natural beings by what seems to be an unconscious force. There can be, on the contrary, an evolution in the light and no longer in the darkness, in which the evolving being is a conscious participant and cooperator, and this is precisely what must take place here. Even in the effort and progress from the Ignorance to Knowledge this must be in part if not wholly the endeavour to be made on the heights of the nature, and it must be wholly that in the final movement towards the spiritual change, realisation, transformation. It must be still more so when there is a transition across the dividing line between the Ignorance and the Knowledge and the evolution is from knowledge to greater knowledge, from consciousness to greater consciousness, from being to greater being. There is then no longer any necessity for the slow pace of the ordinary evolution; there can be rapid conversion, quick transformation after transformation, what would seem to our normal present mind a succession of miracles. An evolution on the supramental levels could well be of that nature; it could be equally, if the being so chose, a more leisurely passage of one supramental state or condition of things to something beyond but still supramental, from level to divine level, a building up of divine gradations, a free growth to the supreme Supermind or beyond it to yet undreamed levels of being, consciousness and Ananda.
~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays In Philosophy And Yoga, 558,#KEYS
258:It does not matter if you do not understand it - Savitri, read it always. You will see that every time you read it, something new will be revealed to you. Each time you will get a new glimpse, each time a new experience; things which were not there, things you did not understand arise and suddenly become clear. Always an unexpected vision comes up through the words and lines. Every time you try to read and understand, you will see that something is added, something which was hidden behind is revealed clearly and vividly. I tell you the very verses you have read once before, will appear to you in a different light each time you re-read them. This is what happens invariably. Always your experience is enriched, it is a revelation at each step.
But you must not read it as you read other books or newspapers. You must read with an empty head, a blank and vacant mind, without there being any other thought; you must concentrate much, remain empty, calm and open; then the words, rhythms, vibrations will penetrate directly to this white page, will put their stamp upon the brain, will explain themselves without your making any effort.
Savitri alone is sufficient to make you climb to the highest peaks. If truly one knows how to meditate on Savitri, one will receive all the help one needs. For him who wishes to follow this path, it is a concrete help as though the Lord himself were taking you by the hand and leading you to the destined goal. And then, every question, however personal it may be, has its answer here, every difficulty finds its solution herein; indeed there is everything that is necessary for doing the Yoga.
*He has crammed the whole universe in a single book.* It is a marvellous work, magnificent and of an incomparable perfection.
You know, before writing Savitri Sri Aurobindo said to me, *I am impelled to launch on a new adventure; I was hesitant in the beginning, but now I am decided. Still, I do not know how far I shall succeed. I pray for help.* And you know what it was? It was - before beginning, I warn you in advance - it was His way of speaking, so full of divine humility and modesty. He never... *asserted Himself*. And the day He actually began it, He told me: *I have launched myself in a rudderless boat upon the vastness of the Infinite.* And once having started, He wrote page after page without intermission, as though it were a thing already complete up there and He had only to transcribe it in ink down here on these pages.
In truth, the entire form of Savitri has descended "en masse" from the highest region and Sri Aurobindo with His genius only arranged the lines - in a superb and magnificent style. Sometimes entire lines were revealed and He has left them intact; He worked hard, untiringly, so that the inspiration could come from the highest possible summit. And what a work He has created! Yes, it is a true creation in itself. It is an unequalled work. Everything is there, and it is put in such a simple, such a clear form; verses perfectly harmonious, limpid and eternally true. My child, I have read so many things, but I have never come across anything which could be compared with Savitri. I have studied the best works in Greek, Latin, English and of course French literature, also in German and all the great creations of the West and the East, including the great epics; but I repeat it, I have not found anywhere anything comparable with Savitri. All these literary works seems to me empty, flat, hollow, without any deep reality - apart from a few rare exceptions, and these too represent only a small fraction of what Savitri is. What grandeur, what amplitude, what reality: it is something immortal and eternal He has created. I tell you once again there is nothing like in it the whole world. Even if one puts aside the vision of the reality, that is, the essential substance which is the heart of the inspiration, and considers only the lines in themselves, one will find them unique, of the highest classical kind. What He has created is something man cannot imagine. For, everything is there, everything.
It may then be said that Savitri is a revelation, it is a meditation, it is a quest of the Infinite, the Eternal. If it is read with this aspiration for Immortality, the reading itself will serve as a guide to Immortality. To read Savitri is indeed to practice Yoga, spiritual concentration; one can find there all that is needed to realise the Divine. Each step of Yoga is noted here, including the secret of all other Yogas. Surely, if one sincerely follows what is revealed here in each line one will reach finally the transformation of the Supramental Yoga. It is truly the infallible guide who never abandons you; its support is always there for him who wants to follow the path. Each verse of Savitri is like a revealed Mantra which surpasses all that man possessed by way of knowledge, and I repeat this, the words are expressed and arranged in such a way that the sonority of the rhythm leads you to the origin of sound, which is OM.
My child, yes, everything is there: mysticism, occultism, philosophy, the history of evolution, the history of man, of the gods, of creation, of Nature. How the universe was created, why, for what purpose, what destiny - all is there. You can find all the answers to all your questions there. Everything is explained, even the future of man and of the evolution, all that nobody yet knows. He has described it all in beautiful and clear words so that spiritual adventurers who wish to solve the mysteries of the world may understand it more easily. But this mystery is well hidden behind the words and lines and one must rise to the required level of true consciousness to discover it. All prophesies, all that is going to come is presented with the precise and wonderful clarity. Sri Aurobindo gives you here the key to find the Truth, to discover the Consciousness, to solve the problem of what the universe is. He has also indicated how to open the door of the Inconscience so that the light may penetrate there and transform it. He has shown the path, the way to liberate oneself from the ignorance and climb up to the superconscience; each stage, each plane of consciousness, how they can be scaled, how one can cross even the barrier of death and attain immortality. You will find the whole journey in detail, and as you go forward you can discover things altogether unknown to man. That is Savitri and much more yet. It is a real experience - reading Savitri. All the secrets that man possessed, He has revealed, - as well as all that awaits him in the future; all this is found in the depth of Savitri. But one must have the knowledge to discover it all, the experience of the planes of consciousness, the experience of the Supermind, even the experience of the conquest of Death. He has noted all the stages, marked each step in order to advance integrally in the integral Yoga.
All this is His own experience, and what is most surprising is that it is my own experience also. It is my sadhana which He has worked out. Each object, each event, each realisation, all the descriptions, even the colours are exactly what I saw and the words, phrases are also exactly what I heard. And all this before having read the book. I read Savitri many times afterwards, but earlier, when He was writing He used to read it to me. Every morning I used to hear Him read Savitri. During the night He would write and in the morning read it to me. And I observed something curious, that day after day the experiences He read out to me in the morning were those I had had the previous night, word by word. Yes, all the descriptions, the colours, the pictures I had seen, the words I had heard, all, all, I heard it all, put by Him into poetry, into miraculous poetry. Yes, they were exactly my experiences of the previous night which He read out to me the following morning. And it was not just one day by chance, but for days and days together. And every time I used to compare what He said with my previous experiences and they were always the same. I repeat, it was not that I had told Him my experiences and that He had noted them down afterwards, no, He knew already what I had seen. It is my experiences He has presented at length and they were His experiences also. It is, moreover, the picture of Our joint adventure into the unknown or rather into the Supermind.
These are experiences lived by Him, realities, supracosmic truths. He experienced all these as one experiences joy or sorrow, physically. He walked in the darkness of inconscience, even in the neighborhood of death, endured the sufferings of perdition, and emerged from the mud, the world-misery to breathe the sovereign plenitude and enter the supreme Ananda. He crossed all these realms, went through the consequences, suffered and endured physically what one cannot imagine. Nobody till today has suffered like Him. He accepted suffering to transform suffering into the joy of union with the Supreme. It is something unique and incomparable in the history of the world. It is something that has never happened before, He is the first to have traced the path in the Unknown, so that we may be able to walk with certitude towards the Supermind. He has made the work easy for us. Savitri is His whole Yoga of transformation, and this Yoga appears now for the first time in the earth-consciousness.
And I think that man is not yet ready to receive it. It is too high and too vast for him. He cannot understand it, grasp it, for it is not by the mind that one can understand Savitri. One needs spiritual experiences in order to understand and assimilate it. The farther one advances on the path of Yoga, the more does one assimilate and the better. No, it is something which will be appreciated only in the future, it is the poetry of tomorrow of which He has spoken in The Future Poetry. It is too subtle, too refined, - it is not in the mind or through the mind, it is in meditation that Savitri is revealed.
And men have the audacity to compare it with the work of Virgil or Homer and to find it inferior. They do not understand, they cannot understand. What do they know? Nothing at all. And it is useless to try to make them understand. Men will know what it is, but in a distant future. It is only the new race with a new consciousness which will be able to understand. I assure you there is nothing under the blue sky to compare with Savitri. It is the mystery of mysteries. It is a *super-epic,* it is super-literature, super-poetry, super-vision, it is a super-work even if one considers the number of lines He has written. No, these human words are not adequate to describe Savitri. Yes, one needs superlatives, hyperboles to describe it. It is a hyper-epic. No, words express nothing of what Savitri is, at least I do not find them. It is of immense value - spiritual value and all other values; it is eternal in its subject, and infinite in its appeal, miraculous in its mode and power of execution; it is a unique thing, the more you come into contact with it, the higher will you be uplifted. Ah, truly it is something! It is the most beautiful thing He has left for man, the highest possible. What is it? When will man know it? When is he going to lead a life of truth? When is he going to accept this in his life? This yet remains to be seen.
My child, every day you are going to read Savitri; read properly, with the right attitude, concentrating a little before opening the pages and trying to keep the mind as empty as possible, absolutely without a thought. The direct road is through the heart. I tell you, if you try to really concentrate with this aspiration you can light the flame, the psychic flame, the flame of purification in a very short time, perhaps in a few days. What you cannot do normally, you can do with the help of Savitri. Try and you will see how very different it is, how new, if you read with this attitude, with this something at the back of your consciousness; as though it were an offering to Sri Aurobindo. You know it is charged, fully charged with consciousness; as if Savitri were a being, a real guide. I tell you, whoever, wanting to practice Yoga, tries sincerely and feels the necessity for it, will be able to climb with the help of Savitri to the highest rung of the ladder of Yoga, will be able to find the secret that Savitri represents. And this without the help of a Guru. And he will be able to practice it anywhere. For him Savitri alone will be the guide, for all that he needs he will find Savitri. If he remains very quiet when before a difficulty, or when he does not know where to turn to go forward and how to overcome obstacles, for all these hesitations and incertitudes which overwhelm us at every moment, he will have the necessary indications, and the necessary concrete help. If he remains very calm, open, if he aspires sincerely, always he will be as if lead by the hand. If he has faith, the will to give himself and essential sincerity he will reach the final goal.
Indeed, Savitri is something concrete, living, it is all replete, packed with consciousness, it is the supreme knowledge above all human philosophies and religions. It is the spiritual path, it is Yoga, Tapasya, Sadhana, in its single body. Savitri has an extraordinary power, it gives out vibrations for him who can receive them, the true vibrations of each stage of consciousness. It is incomparable, it is truth in its plenitude, the Truth Sri Aurobindo brought down on the earth. My child, one must try to find the secret that Savitri represents, the prophetic message Sri Aurobindo reveals there for us. This is the work before you, it is hard but it is worth the trouble. - 5 November 1967
~ The Mother, Sweet Mother, The Mother to Mona Sarkar, [T0],#KEYS
*** WISDOM TROVE ***
1:Philosophy begins in wonder. ~ plato, @wisdomtrove 2:Philosophy is an act of living. ~ plutarch, @wisdomtrove 3:Philosophy is the art of living. ~ plutarch, @wisdomtrove 4:All work is an act of philosophy. ~ ayn-rand, @wisdomtrove 5:History should be written as philosophy. ~ voltaire, @wisdomtrove 6:Inspirational, Philosophy, Philosophical ~ zhuangzi, @wisdomtrove 7:Philosophy will clip an angel's wings. ~ john-keats, @wisdomtrove 8:That's why I love philosophy: no one wins. ~ d-t-suzuki, @wisdomtrove 9:Philosophy: a purple bullfinch in a lilac tree. ~ t-s-eliot, @wisdomtrove 10:Philosophy is the science which considers truth. ~ aristotle, @wisdomtrove 11:To scorn philosophy is truly to philosophize. ~ blaise-pascal, @wisdomtrove 12:History is philosophy teaching by experience. ~ thomas-carlyle, @wisdomtrove 13:Poetry and philosophy will become friends. ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove 14:To ridicule philosophy is truly philosophical. ~ blaise-pascal, @wisdomtrove 15:God ‚ the John Doe of philosophy and religion. ~ elbert-hubbard, @wisdomtrove 16:All philosophy in two words - sustain and abstain. ~ epictetus, @wisdomtrove 17:To ridicule philosophy is really to philosophize. ~ blaise-pascal, @wisdomtrove 18:Making fun of philosophy is really philosophising. ~ blaise-pascal, @wisdomtrove 19:Poetry contains philosophy as the soul contains reason. ~ victor-hugo, @wisdomtrove 20:A novel is never anything, but a philosophy put into images. ~ jim-rohn, @wisdomtrove 21:Philosophy is the history of philosophy. ~ georg-wilhelm-friedrich-hegel, @wisdomtrove 22:My philosophy is that everything starts with a great product. ~ steve-jobs, @wisdomtrove 23:What is philosophy but a continual battle against custom? ~ thomas-carlyle, @wisdomtrove 24:Be a philosopher but, amid all your philosophy be still a man. ~ david-hume, @wisdomtrove 25:To have no time for philosophy is to be a true philosopher. ~ blaise-pascal, @wisdomtrove 26:A philosophy of life: I'm an adventurer, looking for treasure. ~ paulo-coelho, @wisdomtrove 27:Yoga is a way of life; it is an art, a science, a philosophy. ~ b-k-s-iyengar, @wisdomtrove 28:All good moral philosophy is ... but the handmaid to religion. ~ francis-bacon, @wisdomtrove 29:Science is what you know, philosophy is what you don't know. ~ bertrand-russell, @wisdomtrove 30:Your income is directly related to your philosophy, NOT the economy. ~ jim-rohn, @wisdomtrove 31:Even if I am but a pretender to wisdom, that in itself is philosophy. ~ diogenes, @wisdomtrove 32:If you would enjoy real freedom, you must be the slave of Philosophy. ~ epicurus, @wisdomtrove 33:Income is primarily determined by your philosophy, not by the economy ~ jim-rohn, @wisdomtrove 34:Skepticism is a virtue in history as well as in philosophy. ~ napoleon-bonaparte, @wisdomtrove 35:But then of course a philosophy is not the same thing as a style. ~ gertrude-stein, @wisdomtrove 36:Composition is a way of living out your philosophy and calling it art. ~ brian-eno, @wisdomtrove 37:The philosophy of one century is the common sense of the next. ~ henry-ward-beecher, @wisdomtrove 38:The hunger for facile wisdom is the root of all false philosophy. ~ george-santayana, @wisdomtrove 39:Economic disaster begins with a philosophy of doing less and wanting more. ~ jim-rohn, @wisdomtrove 40:Philosophy, n. A route of many roads leading from nowhere to nothing. ~ ambrose-bierce, @wisdomtrove 41:God loves only one philosophy, And that is the Do-it-here-now philosophy. ~ sri-chinmoy, @wisdomtrove 42:Hinduism the perennial philosophy that is at the core of all religions. ~ aldous-huxley, @wisdomtrove 43:Reason in my philosophy is only a harmony among irrational impulses. ~ george-santayana, @wisdomtrove 44:Identify the dominant philosophy of a society and you can predict its future. ~ ayn-rand, @wisdomtrove 45:If you want to amend your errors, you must begin by amending your philosophy. ~ jim-rohn, @wisdomtrove 46:It strains a man's philosophy the worst kind to laugh when he gets beat. ~ josh-billings, @wisdomtrove 47:Initial response illustrates a great deal about someone's personal philosophy. ~ jim-rohn, @wisdomtrove 48:Let no one delay the study of philosophy while young nor weary of it when old. ~ epicurus, @wisdomtrove 49:The love of all-inclusiveness is as dangerous in philosophy as in art. ~ george-santayana, @wisdomtrove 50:For axioms in philosophy are not axioms until they are proved upon our pulses. ~ john-keats, @wisdomtrove 51:Her philosophy is carpe diem for herself and laissez faire for others. ~ f-scott-fitzgerald, @wisdomtrove 52:Philosophy, as the modern world knows it, is only intellectual club-swinging. ~ h-l-mencken, @wisdomtrove 53:It has been my philosophy of life that difficulties vanish when faced boldly. ~ isaac-asimov, @wisdomtrove 54:Philosophy is the sum total of all that you know and what you decide is valuable. ~ jim-rohn, @wisdomtrove 55:My philosophy in life is that you only live once. Live life to its fullest. ~ richard-branson, @wisdomtrove 56:Only a philosophy of eternity, in the world today, could justify non-violence. ~ albert-camus, @wisdomtrove 57:A little philosophy makes a man an Atheist: a great deal converts him to religion ~ david-hume, @wisdomtrove 58:I take happiness very seriously. It is a creed, a philosophy and an objective. ~ hellen-keller, @wisdomtrove 59:The gems of philosophy are not less precious because they are not understood. ~ giordano-bruno, @wisdomtrove 60:All that philosophy can teach is to be stubborn or sullen under misfortunes. ~ oliver-goldsmith, @wisdomtrove 61:It is a great advantage for a system of philosophy to be substantially true. ~ george-santayana, @wisdomtrove 62:Philosophy would render us entirely Pyrrhonian, were not nature too strong for it. ~ david-hume, @wisdomtrove 63:I'm a philosophy major. That means I can think deep thoughts about being unemployed. ~ bruce-lee, @wisdomtrove 64:“Philosophy is at once the most sublime and the most trivial of human pursuits.” ~ william-james, @wisdomtrove 65:Philosophy is life's dry-nurse, who can take care of us - but not suckle us. ~ soren-kierkegaard, @wisdomtrove 66:Philosophy insists that there is a joy which is absolute, which never changes. ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove 67:the power of philosophy floats through my head.. light like a feather, heavy as lead. ~ bob-marley, @wisdomtrove 68:Your personal philosophy is the greatest determining factor in how your life works out. ~ jim-rohn, @wisdomtrove 69:During a wise man's whole life, his destiny holds his philosophy in a state of siege. ~ victor-hugo, @wisdomtrove 70:The basically simple things are best, whether it's automobiles or diets or philosophy. ~ henry-ford, @wisdomtrove 71:We are not called to proclaim philosophy and metaphysics, but the simple gospel. ~ charles-spurgeon, @wisdomtrove 72:What we learn from experience depends on the kind of philosophy we bring to experience. ~ c-s-lewis, @wisdomtrove 73:Small amounts of philosophy lead to atheism, but larger amounts bring us back to God. ~ francis-bacon, @wisdomtrove 74:Your philosophy determines whether you will go for the disciplines or continue the errors. ~ jim-rohn, @wisdomtrove 75:Only human beings can reorder their lives any day they choose by refining their philosophy. ~ jim-rohn, @wisdomtrove 76:Philosophy first constructs a scheme of happiness and then tries to fit the world to it. ~ h-l-mencken, @wisdomtrove 77:This same philosophy is a good horse in the stable, but an arrant jade on a journey. ~ oliver-goldsmith, @wisdomtrove 78:Truth in philosophy means that concept and external reality correspond. ~ georg-wilhelm-friedrich-hegel, @wisdomtrove 79:The intricacies of spiritual philosophy and theologies are just a thought within Emptiness. ~ adyashanti, @wisdomtrove 80:Materialism is the philosophy of the subject who forgets to take account of himself. ~ arthur-schopenhauer, @wisdomtrove 81:Practice the philosophy of continuous improvement. Get a little bit better every single day. ~ brian-tracy, @wisdomtrove 82:The Divine Truth is greater than any religion or creed or scripture or idea or philosophy. ~ sri-aurobindo, @wisdomtrove 83:My philosophy of defense is to keep the pressure on an opponent until you get to his emotions ~ john-wooden, @wisdomtrove 84:Good philosophy must exist, if for no other reason, because bad philosophy needs to be answered. ~ c-s-lewis, @wisdomtrove 85:Everything you have is to give. Thou art a phenomenon of philosophy and an unfortunate man. ~ ernest-hemingway, @wisdomtrove 86:Philosophy when superficially studied, excites doubt, when thoroughly explored, it dispels it. ~ francis-bacon, @wisdomtrove 87:Science must not impose any philosophy, any more than the telephone must tell us what to say. ~ g-k-chesterton, @wisdomtrove 88:Don't borrow someone else's plan. Develop your own philosophy and it will lead you to unique places. ~ jim-rohn, @wisdomtrove 89:According to Zen philosophy each human being has two minds, a finite mind and an infinite mind. ~ frederick-lenz, @wisdomtrove 90:Philosophy may describe unreasoning, as it may describe force; it cannot hope to refute them. ~ george-santayana, @wisdomtrove 91:The difference between gossip and philosophy lies only in one's way of taking a fact. ~ oliver-wendell-holmes-jr, @wisdomtrove 92:The more one is absorbed in so-called philosophy, the greater one's delusion and blindness. ~ emanuel-swedenborg, @wisdomtrove 93:You must learn some of my philosophy. Think only of the past as its remembrance gives you pleasure. ~ jane-austen, @wisdomtrove 94:All other love is extinguished by self-love; beneficence, humanity, justice, philosophy, sink under it. ~ epicurus, @wisdomtrove 95:Philosophy is the microscope of thought. Everything desires to flee from it, but nothing escapes it. ~ victor-hugo, @wisdomtrove 96:A History of Western Philosophy. Book by Bertrand Russell, Book Three, Part I, Chapter 17. Hume, 1945. ~ david-hume, @wisdomtrove 97:Laughter without a tinge of philosophy is but a sneeze of humor. Genuine humor is replete with wisdom. ~ mark-twain, @wisdomtrove 98:Naturally, the Zen Master Rama philosophy is to have a high state of awareness and material success. ~ frederick-lenz, @wisdomtrove 99:Tell me what gives a man or woman their greatest pleasure and I'll tell you their philosophy of life. ~ dale-carnegie, @wisdomtrove 100:I have no personal system of philosophy. I never attempt to do that. I am merely a man of letters. ~ jorge-luis-borges, @wisdomtrove 101:Man, therefore, according to the Vedanta philosophy, is the greatest being that is in the universe. ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove 102:My philosophy is that if I have any money I invest it in new ventures and not have it sitting around. ~ richard-branson, @wisdomtrove 103:The business of philosophy is not to give rules, but to analyze the private judgments of common reason. ~ immanuel-kant, @wisdomtrove 104:The Study of philosophy is not that we may know what men have thought, but what the truth of things is. ~ denis-diderot, @wisdomtrove 105:The trouble begins with a design philosophy that equates & 106:Science and knowledge, especially that of philosophy, came from the Arabs into the West. ~ georg-wilhelm-friedrich-hegel, @wisdomtrove 107:She - philosophy is equally helpful to the rich and poor: neglect her, and she equally harms the young and old. ~ horace, @wisdomtrove 108:Theology sits rouged at the window and courts philosophy's favor, offering to sell her charms to it. ~ soren-kierkegaard, @wisdomtrove 109:The Study of philosophy is not that we may know what men have thought, but what the truth of things is. ~ thomas-aquinas, @wisdomtrove 110:All laws and philosophy merely tell us what should be done, but they do not provide the strength to do it. ~ martin-luther, @wisdomtrove 111:The key factor that will determine your financial future is not the economy; the key factor is your philosophy. ~ jim-rohn, @wisdomtrove 112:All our philosophy is as dry as dust if it is not immediately translated into some act of living service. ~ mahatma-gandhi, @wisdomtrove 113:I have gained this from philosophy: that I do without being commanded what others do only from fear of the law. ~ aristotle, @wisdomtrove 114:There are three traps that strangle philosophy: The church, the marriage bed, and the professor's chair. ~ george-santayana, @wisdomtrove 115:The reason I can't follow the old eye-for-an-eye philosophy is that it ends up leaving everyone blind. ~ martin-luther-king, @wisdomtrove 116:Any genuine philosophy leads to action and from action back again to wonder, to the enduring fact of mystery. ~ henry-miller, @wisdomtrove 117:In their different ways, art and philosophy help us, in Schopenhauer's words, to turn pain into knowledge. ~ alain-de-botton, @wisdomtrove 118:That was it! The whole Redwood City philosophy was based on a willingness to try harder than anyone else. ~ malcolm-gladwell, @wisdomtrove 119:Any religion or philosophy which is not based on a respect for life is not a true religion or philosophy. ~ albert-schweitzer, @wisdomtrove 120:It's clear to me that there is no good reason for many philosophy books to sound as complicated as they do. ~ alain-de-botton, @wisdomtrove 121:Nobody can have the consolations of religion or philosophy unless he has first experienced their desolations. ~ aldous-huxley, @wisdomtrove 122:Philosophy is called upon to compensate for the frustrations of politics and, more generally, of life itself. ~ hannah-arendt, @wisdomtrove 123:The discovery of what is true and the practice of that which is good are the two most important aims of philosophy. ~ voltaire, @wisdomtrove 124:You will attract to yourself people who harmonize with your own philosophy of life, whether you wish it or not. ~ napoleon-hill, @wisdomtrove 125:If I gained one thing from philosophy is that at the very least, I am well prepared to confront any change in fortune. ~ diogenes, @wisdomtrove 126:The decisions of the courts on economic and social questions depend on their economic and social philosophy. ~ theodore-roosevelt, @wisdomtrove 127:The philosophy of reasoning, to be complete, ought to comprise the theory of bad as well as of good reasoning. ~ john-stuart-mill, @wisdomtrove 128:In the hands of a genius, engineering turns to magic, philosophy becomes poetry, and science pure imagination. ~ benjamin-disraeli, @wisdomtrove 129:My scholarly expectation is then that I may succeed in becoming clever in philosophy in spite of my stupidity. ~ soren-kierkegaard, @wisdomtrove 130:Philosophy which does not help to illuminate the process of the liberation of the oppressed should be rejected. ~ jean-paul-sartre, @wisdomtrove 131:A little philosophy inclineth man's mind to atheism, but depth in philosophy bringeth men's minds about to religion. ~ francis-bacon, @wisdomtrove 132:Philosophy consists mostly of kicking up a lot of dust and then complaining that you can't see anything. ~ gottfried-wilhelm-leibniz, @wisdomtrove 133:We do not escape into philosophy, psychology, and art& 134:We have had enough, once and for all, of Hedonism& 135:Any person can achieve greatness if they understand the philosophy of success and the steps required to achieve it. ~ andrew-carnegie, @wisdomtrove 136:College totally changed my life. It changed what I believe and what I think about everything. I majored in philosophy. ~ steve-martin, @wisdomtrove 137:Philosophy rests on a proposition that whatever is is right. Preaching begins by assuming that whatever is is wrong. ~ elbert-hubbard, @wisdomtrove 138:Religion and philosophy have their value, but in the end all we can do is open to mystery and live a path with heart ~ jack-kornfield, @wisdomtrove 139:Life is not logic, life is not philosophy. Life is a dance, a song, a celebration! It is more like love and less like logic. ~ rajneesh, @wisdomtrove 140:The value given to the testimony of any feeling must depend on our whole philosophy, not our whole philosophy on a feeling. ~ c-s-lewis, @wisdomtrove 141:Philosophy ... should not pretend to increase our present stock, but make us economists of what we are possessed of. ~ oliver-goldsmith, @wisdomtrove 142:The philosophy of this world may be founded on facts, but its business is run on spiritual impressions and atmospheres. ~ g-k-chesterton, @wisdomtrove 143:Contemporary science is based on the philosophy of materialism, which claims that all reality is material or physical. ~ rupert-sheldrake, @wisdomtrove 144:Investment philosophy is the clear understanding that by owning shares of stocks he owns businesses, not pieces of paper. ~ warren-buffet, @wisdomtrove 145:When the soul wants to depend upon nothing, not even upon life, that is the height of philosophy, the height of manhood. ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove 146:A sound philosophy of life, I think, may be the most valuable asset for a psychiatrist to have when he is treating a patient. ~ viktor-frankl, @wisdomtrove 147:As a writer of philosophy, it's good to ask oneself, & 148:Always laugh when you can; it is cheap medicine. Merriment is a philosophy not well understood. It is the sunny side of existence. ~ lord-byron, @wisdomtrove 149:The Darwinian concept of the survival of the fittest has been substituted by a philosophy of the survival of the slickest. ~ martin-luther-king, @wisdomtrove 150:It is certain that the easy and obvious philosophy will always, with the generality of mankind, have preference above the accurate. ~ david-hume, @wisdomtrove 151:Talking high philosophy often confuses people, but a look from an egoless person can lift the clouds of pain and despair. ~ mata-amritanandamayi, @wisdomtrove 152:A fool's brain digests philosophy into folly, science into superstition, and art into pedantry. Hence University education. ~ george-bernard-shaw, @wisdomtrove 153:I have a friend who lives by a three-word philosophy: Seize the Moment. Just possibly, she may be the wisest woman on this planet. ~ erma-bombeck, @wisdomtrove 154:Philosophy stands in need of a science which shall determine the possibility, principles, and extent of human knowledge à priori. ~ immanuel-kant, @wisdomtrove 155:We need energy, commitment, and courage not to run from our life nor to cover it over with any philosophy‚îmaterial or spiritual. ~ jack-kornfield, @wisdomtrove 156:Philosophy is by its nature something esoteric, neither made for the mob nor capable of being prepared for the mob. ~ georg-wilhelm-friedrich-hegel, @wisdomtrove 157:Philosophy must indeed recognize the possibility that the people rise to it, but must not lower itself to the people. ~ georg-wilhelm-friedrich-hegel, @wisdomtrove 158:The God to whom depth in philosophy bring back men's minds is far from being the same from whom a little philosophy estranges them ~ george-santayana, @wisdomtrove 159:The marvel of the Bhagavad-Gita is its truly beautiful revelation of life's wisdom which enables philosophy to blossom into religion. ~ hermann-hesse, @wisdomtrove 160:There is no need for temples, no need for complicated philosophies. My brain and my heart are my temples; my philosophy is kindness. ~ dalai-lama, @wisdomtrove 161:I think everybody should study ants. They have an amazing four-part philosophy. Never give up, look ahead, stay positive and do all you can. ~ jim-rohn, @wisdomtrove 162:Philosophy is man‚Äôs expression of curiosity about everything and his attempt to make sense of the world primarily through his intellect. ~ alan-watts, @wisdomtrove 163:Philosophy will clip an angel's wings, Conquer all mysteries by rule and line, Empty the haunted air, and gnomed mine - Unweave a rainbow. ~ john-keats, @wisdomtrove 164:I enjoy poetry where I can talk as bizarre as I please, but theology or philosophy, I always respect the truth by taking it a step further. ~ criss-jami, @wisdomtrove 165:Keep me away from the wisdom which does not cry, the philosophy which does not laugh and the greatness which does not bow before children. ~ kahlil-gibran, @wisdomtrove 166:Self-taught poverty is a help toward philosophy, for the things which philosophy attempts to teach by reasoning, poverty forces us to practice. ~ diogenes, @wisdomtrove 167:Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art... It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things that give value to survival. ~ c-s-lewis, @wisdomtrove 168:Before philosophy can teach by Experience, the Philosophy has to be in readiness, the Experience must be gathered and intelligibly recorded. ~ thomas-carlyle, @wisdomtrove 169:I have no perfect panacea for human ills. And even if I had I would not attempt to present a system of philosophy between the soup and fish. ~ elbert-hubbard, @wisdomtrove 170:I like to think that someone will trace how the deepest thinking of India made its way to Greece and from there to the philosophy of our times ~ john-wheeler, @wisdomtrove 171:Mere philosophy will not satisfy us. We cannot reach the goal by mere words alone. Without practice, nothing can be achieved. ~ swami-satchidananda-saraswati, @wisdomtrove 172:Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery. ~ winston-churchill, @wisdomtrove 173:There comes an hour when protest no longer suffices; after philosophy there must be action; the strong hand finishes what the idea has sketched. ~ victor-hugo, @wisdomtrove 174:A work of great importance to deep thinkers as its last chapter offers an updated philosophy - to explain the issues of our new millennium. ~ emanuel-swedenborg, @wisdomtrove 175:My philosophy is that not only are you responsible for your life, but doing the best at this moment puts you I the best place for the next moment. ~ oprah-winfrey, @wisdomtrove 176:The sensual experiences in life are not to be avoided. This is the philosophy of Tantric Buddhism - nor are they particularly to be sought after. ~ frederick-lenz, @wisdomtrove 177:We must be concerned not merely about who murdered them, but about the system, the way of life, the philosophy which produced the murderers . ~ martin-luther-king, @wisdomtrove 178:Whatever has a tendency to promote the civil intercourse of nations by an exchange of benefits is a subject as worthy of philosophy as of politics. ~ thomas-paine, @wisdomtrove 179:I remain convinced that obstinate addiction to ordinary language in our private thoughts is one of the main obstacles to progress in philosophy. ~ bertrand-russell, @wisdomtrove 180:Religions do a useful thing: they narrow God to the limits of man. Philosophy replies by doing a necessary thing: it elevates man to the plane of God. ~ victor-hugo, @wisdomtrove 181:A new philosophy, a new way of life, is not given for nothing. It has to be paid dearly for and only acquired with much patience and great effort ~ fyodor-dostoevsky, @wisdomtrove 182:Jokes of the proper kind, properly told, can do more to enlighten questions of politics, philosophy, and literature than any number of dull arguments. ~ isaac-asimov, @wisdomtrove 183:Some kind of philosophy is a necessity to all but the most thoughtless, and in the absence of knowledge it is almost sure to be a silly philosophy. ~ bertrand-russell, @wisdomtrove 184:What is at issue is the conversion of the mind from the twilight of error to the truth, that climb up into the real world which we shall call true philosophy. ~ plato, @wisdomtrove 185:With a philosophy education, one can infuriate his peers, intimidate his date, think of obscure, unreliable ways to make money, and never regret a thing. ~ criss-jami, @wisdomtrove 186:In philosophy, or religion, or ethics, or politics, two and two might make five, but when one was designing a gun or an aeroplane they had to make four. ~ george-orwell, @wisdomtrove 187:The great critic ‚Ķ must be a philosopher, for from philosophy he will learn serenity, impartiality, and the transitoriness of human things. ~ william-somerset-maugham, @wisdomtrove 188:Experience has shown, and a true philosophy will always show, that a vast, perhaps the larger portion of the truth arises from the seemingly irrelevant. ~ edgar-allan-poe, @wisdomtrove 189:The lies we tell about our duty and our purposes, the meaningless words of science and philosophy, are walls that topple before a bewildered little why'. ~ john-steinbeck, @wisdomtrove 190:The observation of human blindness and weakness is the result of all philosophy, and meets us at every turn, in spite of our endeavours to elude or avoid it. ~ david-hume, @wisdomtrove 191:The thing that will make the biggest difference to your business, your bank account, your health and your relationships in the next 12 months is your philosophy ~ jim-rohn, @wisdomtrove 192:Here's the thing with me and the religious thing. This is the flat-out truth: I find the religiosity and philosophy in the music. I don't find it anywhere else. ~ bob-dylan, @wisdomtrove 193:One's philosophy is not best expressed in words; it is expressed in the choices one makes... and the choices we make are ultimately our responsibility. ~ eleanor-roosevelt, @wisdomtrove 194:Life is really about a spiritual unfolding that is personal and enchanting - an unfolding that no science or philosophy or religion has yet fully clarified. ~ james-redfield, @wisdomtrove 195:Philosophy always requires something more, requires the eternal, the true, in contrast to which even the fullest existence as such is but a happy moment. ~ soren-kierkegaard, @wisdomtrove 196:Auguries of innocence "The emmet's inch and eagle's mile Make lame philosophy to smile. He who doubts from what he sees Will ne'er believe, do what you please. ~ william-blake, @wisdomtrove 197:I think we ought always to entertain our opinions with some measure of doubt. I shouldn't wish people dogmatically to believe any philosophy, not even mine. ~ bertrand-russell, @wisdomtrove 198:Let no young man delay the study of philosophy, and let no old man become weary of it; for it is never too early nor too late to care for the well-being of the soul. ~ epicurus, @wisdomtrove 199:My philosophy of life is that if we make up our mind what we are going to make of our lives, then work hard toward that goal, we never lose - somehow we win out. ~ ronald-reagan, @wisdomtrove 200:Our system of philosophy is itself on trial; it must stand or fall according as it is broad enough to find room for this experience as an element of life. ~ sir-arthur-eddington, @wisdomtrove 201:Philosophy had supplied Socrates with convictions in which he had been able to have rational, as opposed to hysterical, confidence when faced with disapproval. ~ alain-de-botton, @wisdomtrove 202:The stability of modern governments above the ancient, and the accuracy of modern philosophy, have improved, and probably will still improve, by similar gradations. ~ david-hume, @wisdomtrove 203:Sexually progressive cultures gave us literature, philosophy, civilization and the rest, while sexually restrictive cultures gave us the Dark Ages and the Holocaust. ~ alan-moore, @wisdomtrove 204:There was an awful rainbow once in heaven: We know her woof, her texture; she is given In the dull catalogue of common things. Philosophy will clip an angel's wings. ~ john-keats, @wisdomtrove 205:According to this philosophy, each man consists of three parts - the body, the internal organ or the mind, and behind that, what is called the Atman, the Self. ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove 206:The point of philosophy is to start with something so simple as not to seem worth stating, and to end with something so paradoxical that no one will believe it. ~ bertrand-russell, @wisdomtrove 207:There are a few dogmas and double standards and really regrettable exports from philosophy that have confounded the thinking of scientists on the subject of morality. ~ sam-harris, @wisdomtrove 208:It is our philosophical set of the sail that determines the course of our lives. To change our current Direction, we have to change our philosophy, not our circumstances. ~ jim-rohn, @wisdomtrove 209:Irreverence is a most necessary ingredient of religion. Not to speak of its importance in philosophy. Irreverence is the only way left to us for testing our universe. ~ frank-herbert, @wisdomtrove 210:Since philosophy is the art which teaches us how to live, and since children need to learn it as much as we do at other ages, why do we not instruct them in it? ~ michel-de-montaigne, @wisdomtrove 211:My parents brought me up with this philosophy. You must do things. You mustn't watch what other people are doing. You must not listen to what other people are doing. ~ richard-branson, @wisdomtrove 212:My teaching - of what is perceived to be a complex and foreign sounding religious philosophy - has become the target for people's prejudice and religious intolerance. ~ frederick-lenz, @wisdomtrove 213:True philosophy must start from the most immediate and comprehensive fact of consciousness: "I am life that wants to live, in the midst of life that wants to live." ~ albert-schweitzer, @wisdomtrove 214:As a human being it is just my nature to enjoy and share philosophy. I do this in the same way that some birds are eagles and some doves, some flowers lilies and some roses. ~ alan-watts, @wisdomtrove 215:Because philosophy arises from awe, a philosopher is bound in his way to be a lover of myths and poetic fables. Poets and philosophers are alike in being big with wonder. ~ denis-diderot, @wisdomtrove 216:The chief benefit, which results from philosophy, arises in an indirect manner, and proceeds more from its secret, insensible influence, than from its immediate application. ~ david-hume, @wisdomtrove 217:Because philosophy arises from awe, a philosopher is bound in his way to be a lover of myths and poetic fables. Poets and philosophers are alike in being big with wonder. ~ thomas-aquinas, @wisdomtrove 218:I firmly believe that the Gandhian philosophy of nonviolent resistance is the only logical and moral approach to the solution of the race problem in the United States. ~ martin-luther-king, @wisdomtrove 219:The Darwinian movement has made no difference to mankind, except that, instead of talking unphilosophically about philosophy, they now talk unscientifically about science. ~ g-k-chesterton, @wisdomtrove 220:The principle itself of dogmatic religion, dogmatic morality, dogmatic philosophy, is what requires to be booted out; not any particular manifestation of that principle. ~ john-stuart-mill, @wisdomtrove 221:We are questioning more than the philosophy behind our dependence upon limited and limiting systems. We question the power structures that have grown up around such systems. ~ frank-herbert, @wisdomtrove 222:What does mysticism really mean? It means the way to attain knowledge. It's close to philosophy, except in philosophy you go horizontally while in mysticism you go vertically. ~ elie-wiesel, @wisdomtrove 223:He who says either that the time for philosophy has not yet come or that it has passed is like someone who says that the time for happiness has not yet come or that it has passed. ~ epicurus, @wisdomtrove 224:To teach how to live without certainty and yet without being paralysed by hesitation is perhaps the chief thing that philosophy, in our age, can do for those who study it. ~ bertrand-russell, @wisdomtrove 225:Wonder was the motive that led people to philosophy ... wonder is a kind of desire in knowledge. It is the cause of delight because it carries with it the hope of discovery. ~ denis-diderot, @wisdomtrove 226:I am not here to merely argue about the perplexities regarding theism or philosophy, but to be a light to the world and to reach out to those who long to be a part of that light. ~ criss-jami, @wisdomtrove 227:Wonder was the motive that led people to philosophy ... wonder is a kind of desire in knowledge. It is the cause of delight because it carries with it the hope of discovery. ~ thomas-aquinas, @wisdomtrove 228:Repression is the only lasting philosophy. The dark deference of fear and slavery, my friend, will keep the dogs obedient to the whip, as long as this roof shuts out the sky. ~ charles-dickens, @wisdomtrove 229:& 230:Taoist philosophy is essentially monistic. Matter and energy, Yang and Yin, heaven and earth, are conceived of as essentially one or as two coexistent poles of one indivisible whole. ~ bruce-lee, @wisdomtrove 231:Ordinary people seem not to realize that those who really apply themselves in the right way to philosophy are directly and of their own accord preparing themselves for dying and death. ~ socrates, @wisdomtrove 232:Philosophy consists very largely of one philosopher arguing that all others are jackasses. He usually proves it, and I should add that he also usually proves that he is one himself. ~ h-l-mencken, @wisdomtrove 233:The philosophy of the common man is an old wife that gives him no pleasure, yet he cannot live without her, and resents any aspersions that strangers may cast on her character. ~ george-santayana, @wisdomtrove 234:Isn't it strange that ... people build walls to keep an enemy out, and there's only one part of the world and one philosophy where they have to build walls to keep their people in ~ ronald-reagan, @wisdomtrove 235:If you're studying Geology, which is all facts, as soon as you get out of school you forget it all, but Philosophy you remember just enough to screw you up for the rest of your life. ~ steve-martin, @wisdomtrove 236:Tell me what a person finds sexually attractive and I will tell you their entire philosophy of life. Show me the person they sleep with and I will tell you their valuation of themselves. ~ ayn-rand, @wisdomtrove 237:We want today that bright sun of intellectuality joined with the heart of Buddha, the wonderful infinite heart of love and mercy. This union will give us the highest philosophy. ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove 238:The theoretical understanding of the world, which is the aim of philosophy, is not a matter of great practical importance to animals, or to savages, or even to most civilised men. ~ bertrand-russell, @wisdomtrove 239:It is possible to be a master in false philosophy, easier, in fact, than to be a master in the truth, because a false philosophy can be made as simple and consistent as one pleases. ~ george-santayana, @wisdomtrove 240:“Good-humor is a philosophic state of mind; it seems to say to Nature that we take her no more seriously than she takes us. I maintain that one should always talk of philosophy with a smile.” ~ william-james, @wisdomtrove 241:Nietzsche was personally more philosophical than his philosophy. His talk about power, harshness, and superb immorality was the hobby of a harmless young scholar and constitutional invalid. ~ george-santayana, @wisdomtrove 242:Angels transcend every religion, every philosophy, every creed. In fact Angels have no religion as we know it... Their existence precedes every religious system that has ever existed on Earth. ~ denis-diderot, @wisdomtrove 243:Much of the philosophy of religious education has been based upon a false premise, and perhaps many have missed the essence of Christian experience, having had religious training take its place. ~ billy-graham, @wisdomtrove 244:Angels transcend every religion, every philosophy, every creed. In fact Angels have no religion as we know it... Their existence precedes every religious system that has ever existed on Earth. ~ thomas-aquinas, @wisdomtrove 245:The arrogance that says analysing the relationship between reasons and causes is more important than writing a philosophy of shyness or sadness or friendship drives me nuts. I can't accept that. ~ alain-de-botton, @wisdomtrove 246:Yoga is an art, a science and a philosophy. It touches the life of man at every level, physical, mental, and spiritual. It is a practical method for making one's life purposeful, useful and noble. ~ b-k-s-iyengar, @wisdomtrove 247:Neither one should hesitate about dedicating oneself to philosophy when young, nor should get tired of doing it when one's old, because no one is ever too young or too old to reach one's soul's healthy. ~ epicurus, @wisdomtrove 248:When Philosophy with its abstractions paints grey in grey, the freshness and life of youth has gone, the reconciliation is not a reconciliation in the actual, but in the ideal world. ~ georg-wilhelm-friedrich-hegel, @wisdomtrove 249:The test of all beliefs is their practical effect in life. If it be true that optimism compels the world forward, and pessimism retards it, then it is dangerous to propagate a pessimistic philosophy. ~ hellen-keller, @wisdomtrove 250:Atheism is not a philosophy; it is not even a view of the world; it is simply a refusal to deny the obvious. Unfortunately, we live in a world in which the obvious is overlooked as a matter of principle. ~ sam-harris, @wisdomtrove 251:The self-styled practical man of affairs who pooh-poohs philosophy as a lot of windy notions is himself a pragmatist or a positivist, and a bad one at that, since he has given no thought to his position. ~ alan-watts, @wisdomtrove 252:I would not think that philosophy and reason themselves will be man's guide in the foreseeable future; however, they will remain the most beautiful sanctuary they have always been for the select few. ~ albert-einstein, @wisdomtrove 253:I don't think there's an interesting boundary between philosophy and science. Science is totally beholden to philosophy. There are philosophical assumptions in science and there's no way to get around that. ~ sam-harris, @wisdomtrove 254:Nietzsche said that the earth has been a madhouse long enough. Without contradicting him we might perhaps soften the expression, and say that philosophy has been long enough an asylum for enthusiasts. ~ george-santayana, @wisdomtrove 255:Philosophy is a slow process of logic and logical discourse: A bringing B bringing C and so forth. In mysticism you can jump from A to Z. But the ultimate objective is the same. It's knowledge. It's truth. ~ elie-wiesel, @wisdomtrove 256:My philosophy, in essence, is the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute. ~ ayn-rand, @wisdomtrove 257:If a philosophy is to bring happiness it should be inspired by kindly feelings. Marx pretended that he wanted the happiness of the proletariat; what he really wanted was the unhappiness of the bourgeois. ~ bertrand-russell, @wisdomtrove 258:It surprises me how disinterested we are today about things like physics, space, the universe and philosophy of our existence, our purpose, our final destination. It's a crazy world out there. Be curious. ~ stephen-hawking, @wisdomtrove 259:The defects of human nature afford us opportunities of exercising our philosophy, the best employment of our virtues. If all men were righteous, all hearts true and frank and loyal, what use would our virtues be? ~ moliere, @wisdomtrove 260:Dogmatism and skepticism are both, in a sense, absolute philosophies; one is certain of knowing, the other of not knowing. What philosophy should dissipate is certainty, whether of knowledge or ignorance. ~ bertrand-russell, @wisdomtrove 261:I'd rather speak as a student of philosophy. Philosophically it makes no sense, absolutely makes no sense. Why should people inherit evil things when their memories could contain and should invoke good things? ~ elie-wiesel, @wisdomtrove 262:What makes philosophy so tedious is not the profundity of philosophers, but their lack of art; they are like physicians who soughtto cure a slight hyperacidity by prescribing a carload of burned oyster-shells. ~ h-l-mencken, @wisdomtrove 263:Honor your seeing... digest your seeing... otherw ise it becomes just another thing you file away in the mind's department of philosophy... yo u're here for much more than knowledge... you are here for Self-discovery. ~ mooji, @wisdomtrove 264:The greatest threat to mankind and civilization is the spread of the totalitarian philosophy. Its best ally is not the devotion of its followers but the confusion of its enemies. To fight it, we must understand it. ~ ayn-rand, @wisdomtrove 265:Those sciences which govern the morals of mankind, such as Theology and Philosophy, make everything their concern: no activity is so private or so secret as to escape their attention or their jurisdiction. ~ michel-de-montaigne, @wisdomtrove 266:Philosophy is a more intense sort of experience than common life is, just as pure and subtle music, heard in retirement, is something keener and more intense than the howling of storms or the rumble of cities. ~ george-santayana, @wisdomtrove 267:I cannot forgive Descartes. In all his philosophy he would have been quite willing to dispense with God. But he had to make Him give a fillip to set the world in motion; beyond this, he has no further need of God. ~ blaise-pascal, @wisdomtrove 268:I plan to stand by nonviolence, because I have found it to be a philosophy of life that regulates not only my dealings in the struggle for racial justice, but also my dealings with people, and with my own self. ~ martin-luther-king, @wisdomtrove 269:It might be plausibly maintained, that in almost every one of the leading controversies, past or present, in social philosophy, both sides were in the right in what they affirmed, though wrong in what they denied. ~ john-stuart-mill, @wisdomtrove 270:So I say, “Live and let live.” That’s my motto. “Live and let live.” And anyone who can’t go along with that, take him outside and shoot the motherfucker. It’s a simple philosophy, but it’s always worked in our family. ~ george-carlin, @wisdomtrove 271:He (Jesus) knew that the old eye-for-eye philosophy would leave everyone blind. He did not seek to overcome evil with evil. He overcame evil with good. Although crucified by hate, he responded with aggressive love. ~ martin-luther-king, @wisdomtrove 272:The dairy man had a Ph.D. in mathematics, and he must have had some training in philosophy. He liked what he was doing and he didn't want to be somewhere else - one of the few contented people I met in my whole journey. ~ john-steinbeck, @wisdomtrove 273:The life of theoretical philosophy is the best and happiest a man can lead. Few men are capable of it and then only intermittently. For the rest, there is a second-best way of life, that of moral virtue and practical wisdom. ~ aristotle, @wisdomtrove 274:I am so stupid that I cannot understand philosophy; the antithesis of this is that philosophy is so clever that it cannot comprehend my stupidity. These antitheses are mediated in a higher unity; in our common stupidity. ~ soren-kierkegaard, @wisdomtrove 275:It is because artists do not practise, patrons do not patronize, crowds do not assemble to reverently worship the great work of Doing Nothing, that the world has lost its philosophy and even failed to invent a new religion. ~ g-k-chesterton, @wisdomtrove 276:Luxurious food and drinks, in no way protect you from harm. Wealth beyond what is natural, is no more use than an overflowing container. Real value is not generated by theaters, and baths, perfumes or ointments, but by philosophy. ~ epicurus, @wisdomtrove 277:Proselytism is tolerated by Hinduism. Any man, whether he be a Shudra or Chandala, can expound philosophy even to a Brahmin. The truth can be learnt from the lowest individual, no matter to what caste or creed he belongs. ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove 278:One believes things because one has been conditioned to believe them. Finding bad reasons for what one believes for other bad reasons-that's philosophy. People believe in God because they've been conditioned to believe in God. ~ aldous-huxley, @wisdomtrove 279:To argue with a man who has renounced the use and authority of reason, and whose philosophy consists in holding humanity in contempt, is like administering medicine to the dead, or endeavoring to convert an atheist by scripture. ~ thomas-paine, @wisdomtrove 280:If I am happy in spite of my deprivations, if my happiness is so deep that it is a faith, so thoughtful that it becomes a philosophy of life. If, in short, I am an optimist, my testimony to the creed of optimism is worth hearing. ~ hellen-keller, @wisdomtrove 281:I set forth a humble and inglorious life; that does not matter. You can tie up all moral philosophy with a common and private life just as well as with a life of richer stuff. Each man bears the entire form of man's estate. ~ michel-de-montaigne, @wisdomtrove 282:The purpose of a work of fiction is to appeal to the lingering after-effects in the reader's mind as differing from, say, the purpose of oratory or philosophy which respectively leave people in a fighting or thoughtful mood. ~ f-scott-fitzgerald, @wisdomtrove 283:If you use a philosophy education well, you can get your foot in the door of any industry you please. Industries are like the blossoms on a tree while philosophy is the trunk - it holds the tree together, but it often goes unnoticed. ~ criss-jami, @wisdomtrove 284:In spite of its glowing talk about the welfare of the masses, Communism's methods and philosophy strip man of his dignity and worth, leaving him as little more than a depersonalized cog in the ever-turning wheel of the state. ~ martin-luther-king, @wisdomtrove 285:I try to teach people to continually search and question the meaning of everything they are taught and everything they believe in. My job is not so much to impart a philosophy but to train people in the methods of self-discovery. ~ frederick-lenz, @wisdomtrove 286:Black Power is a nihilistic philosophy born out of the conviction that the Negro can't win... the view that American society is so hopelessly corrupt and enmeshed in evil that there is no possibility of salvation from within. ~ martin-luther-king, @wisdomtrove 287:In Hindu philosophy the whole creation is regarded as the Vishnu Lila, the play of Vishnu. Lila means dance or play. Also in Hindu philosophy, they call the world illusion; and in Latin the root of the word illusion is ludere, to play. ~ alan-watts, @wisdomtrove 288:There are evidently limits to the achievements of science; and there are irresolvable contradictions both between prosperity and virtue, and between happiness and "the good life," which had not been anticipated in our philosophy. ~ reinhold-niebuhr, @wisdomtrove 289:What's my philosophy? In a word, integral. And what on earth — or in heaven — do I mean by integral? The dictionary meaning is fairly simple: comprehensive, balanced, inclusive, essential for completeness. Short definition, tall order. ~ ken-wilber, @wisdomtrove 290:We are not called to proclaim philosophy and metaphysics, but the simple gospel. Man's fall, his need of a new birth, forgiveness through atonement, and salvation as the result of faith, these are our battle-ax and weapons of war. ~ charles-spurgeon, @wisdomtrove 291:I would rather sustain the penalties resulting from over-conservatism than face the consequences of error, perhaps with permanent capital loss, resulting from the adoption of "New Era" philosophy where trees really do grow to the sky. ~ warren-buffet, @wisdomtrove 292:And though the philosopher may live remote from business, the genius of philosophy, if carefully cultivated by several, must gradually diffuse itself throughout the whole society, and bestow a similar correctness on every art and calling. ~ david-hume, @wisdomtrove 293:That which is now called natural philosophy, embracing the whole circle of science, of which astronomy occupies the chief place, is the study of the works of God, and of the power and wisdom of God in his works, and is the true theology. ~ thomas-paine, @wisdomtrove 294:Are we alone in the universe? This is a question which goes back to the dawn of history, but for most of human history it has been in the province of religion and philosophy. Fifty or something years ago, however, it became part of science. ~ paul-davies, @wisdomtrove 295:One should, for example, be able to see that things are hopeless and yet be determined to make them otherwise. This philosophy fitted on to my early adult life, when I saw the improbable, the implausible, often the "impossible," come true. ~ f-scott-fitzgerald, @wisdomtrove 296:We must consider how very little history there is& 297:But in truth I know nothing about the philosophy of education except this: that the greatest and the most important difficulty known to human learning seems to lie in that area which treats how to bring up children and how to educate them. ~ michel-de-montaigne, @wisdomtrove 298:The problem of vindicating an omnipotent and omniscient God in the face of evil is insurmountable. Those who claim to have surmounted it, by recourse to notions of free will and other incoherencies, have merely heaped bad philosophy onto bad ethics. ~ sam-harris, @wisdomtrove 299:To me this is the most beautiful, the most satisfactory from a scientific standpoint, the most logical theory of life. For thirty years I have leaned toward the theory of Reincarnation. It seems a most reasonable philosophy and explains many things. ~ henry-ford, @wisdomtrove 300:What is rational is actual and what is actual is rational. On this conviction the plain man like the philosopher takes his stand,and from it philosophy starts in its study of the universe of mind as well as the universe of nature. ~ georg-wilhelm-friedrich-hegel, @wisdomtrove 301:The man whom philosophy leaves cold, and the man whom real faith does not illuminate, may be assured that the fault lies in them, not in knowledge and faith. The former is still an alien to philosophy, the latter an alien to faith. ~ georg-wilhelm-friedrich-hegel, @wisdomtrove 302:[Among the books he chooses, a statesman] ought to read interesting books on history and government, and books of science and philosophy; and really good books on these subjects are as enthralling as any fiction ever written in prose or verse. ~ theodore-roosevelt, @wisdomtrove 303:Since religion is a primitive form of philosophy ‚ an attempt to offer a comprehensive view of reality‚ many of its myths are distorted, dramatized allegories based on some element of truth, some actual, if profoundly elusive, aspect of man's existence. ~ ayn-rand, @wisdomtrove 304:Ethics are complete, profound and alive only when addressed to all living beings. Only then are we in spiritual connection with the world. Any philosophy not representing this, not based on the indefinite totality of life, is bound to disappear. ~ albert-schweitzer, @wisdomtrove 305:The highest science, the loftiest speculation, the mightiest philosophy, which can ever engage the attention of a child of God, is the name, the nature, the person, the work, the doings, and the existence of the great God whom he calls his Father. ~ charles-spurgeon, @wisdomtrove 306:True eloquence makes light of eloquence, true morality makes light of morality; that is to say, the morality of the judgment, which has no rules, makes light of the morality of the intellect... . To make light of philosophy is to be a true philosopher. ~ blaise-pascal, @wisdomtrove 307:Vain is the word of a philosopher which does not heal any suffering of man. For just as there is no profit in medicine if it does not expel the diseases of the body, so there is no profit in philosophy either, if it does not expel the suffering of the mind. ~ epicurus, @wisdomtrove 308:I do not wish you much happiness& 309:Philosophy is that part of science which at present people chose to have opinions about, but which they have no knowledge about. Therefore, every advance in knowledge robs philosophy of some problems which formerly it had …and will belong to science. ~ bertrand-russell, @wisdomtrove 310:The most striking feature of the perennial philosophy/psychology is that it presents being and consciousness as a hierarchy of dimensional levels, moving from the lowest, densest, and most fragmentary realms to the highest, subtlest, and most unitary ones. ~ ken-wilber, @wisdomtrove 311:In history, we are concerned with what has been and what is; in philosophy, however, we are concerned not with what belongs exclusively to the past or to the future, but with that which is, both now and eternally ¬ó in short, with reason. ~ georg-wilhelm-friedrich-hegel, @wisdomtrove 312:There will be no end to the troubles of states, or of humanity itself, till philosophers become kings in this world, or till those we now call kings and rulers really and truly become philosophers, and political power and philosophy thus come into the same hands. ~ plato, @wisdomtrove 313:While Newton seemed to draw off the veil from some of the mysteries of nature, he showed at the same time the imperfections of the mechanical philosophy; and thereby restored her ultimate secrets to that obscurity, in which they ever did and ever will remain. ~ david-hume, @wisdomtrove 314:My whole working philosophy is that the only stable happiness for mankind is that it shall live married in blessed union to woman-kind - intimacy, physical and psychical between a man and his wife. I wish to add that my state of bliss is by no means perfect. ~ d-h-lawrence, @wisdomtrove 315:The development of physics in the twentieth century already has transformed the consciousness of those involved with it. The study (of modern physics) produces insights into the nature of reality very similar to those produced by the study of eastern philosophy. ~ gary-zukav, @wisdomtrove 316:A philosophy can and must be worked out with the greatest rigour and discipline in the details, but can ultimately be founded on nothing but faith: and this is the reason, I suspect, why the novelties in philosophy are only in elaboration, and never in fundamentals. ~ t-s-eliot, @wisdomtrove 317:The one theme of the Vedanta philosophy is the search after unity. The Hindu mind does not care for the particular; it is always after the general, nay, the universal. "what is it that by knowing which everything else is to be known." That is the one search. ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove 318:Philosophy finds talkativeness a disease very difficult and hard to cure. For its remedy, conversation, requires hearers: but talkative people hear nobody, for they are ever prating. And the first evil this inability to keep silence produces is an inability to listen. ~ plutarch, @wisdomtrove 319:Philosophy, if it cannot answer so many questions as we could wish, has at least the power of asking questions which increase the interest of the world, and show the strangeness and wonder lying just below the surface even in the commonest things of daily life. ~ bertrand-russell, @wisdomtrove 320:All definite knowledge - so I should contend - belongs to science; all dogma as to what surpasses definite knowledge belongs to theology. But between theology and science there is a No Man's Land, exposed to attack by both sides; this No Man's Land is philosophy. ~ bertrand-russell, @wisdomtrove 321:There is, indeed a more mitigated scepticism or academical philosophy, which may be both durable and useful, and which may, in part, be the result of this Pyrrhonism, or excessive scepticism, when its undistinguished doubts are corrected by common sense and reflection. ~ david-hume, @wisdomtrove 322:Any time and any place can be used to study: his room, a garden, is table, his bed; when alone or in company; morning and evening. His chief study will be Philosophy, that Former of good judgement and character who is privileged to be concerned with everything. ~ michel-de-montaigne, @wisdomtrove 323:Atheism leaves a man to sense, to philosophy, to natural piety, to laws, to reputation; all of which may be guides to an outward moral virtue, even if religion vanished; but religious superstition dismounts all these and erects an absolute monarchy in the minds of men. ~ francis-bacon, @wisdomtrove 324:Pessimism: A philosophy forced upon the convictions of the observer by the disheartening prevalence of the optimist with his scarecrow hope and his unsightly smile. Ambrose Bierce ~ ambrose-bierce, @wisdomtrove 325:You cannot prove realism to a complete sceptic or idealist; but you can show an honest man that he is not a complete sceptic or idealist, but a realist at heart. So long as he is alive his sincere philosophy must fulfil the assumptions of his life and not destroy him. ~ george-santayana, @wisdomtrove 326:Religion does what philosophy could never do; it shows the equal dealings of Heaven to the happy and the unhappy, and levels all human enjoyments to nearly the same standard. It gives to both rich and poor the same happiness hereafter, and equal hopes to aspire after it. ~ oliver-goldsmith, @wisdomtrove 327:The Bhagavad-Gita is the most systematic statement of spiritual evolution of endowing value to mankind. It is one of the most clear and comprehensive summaries of perennial philosophy ever revealed; hence its enduring value is subject not only to India but to all of humanity. ~ aldous-huxley, @wisdomtrove 328:University President: Why is it that you physicists always require so much expensive equipment? Now the Department of Mathematics requires nothing but money for paper, pencils, and erasers . . . and the Department of Philosophy is better still. It doesn't even ask for erasers. ~ isaac-asimov, @wisdomtrove 329:I do not care what philosophy you take up; only I am ready to prove here that throughout the whole of India, there runs a mutual and cordial string of eternal faith in the perfection of humanity, and I believe in it myself. And let that faith be spread over the whole land. ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove 330:My philosophy and my belief was that there was a long way for us to go in improving what we had ever known before, that this country of ours was a country of constant improvement. And so I thought that, well, what my whole approach was based on the promise of a better America. ~ ronald-reagan, @wisdomtrove 331:The evident character of this defective cognition of which mathematics is proud, and on which it plumes itself before philosophy, rests solely on the poverty of its purpose and the defectiveness of its stuff, and is therefore of a kind that philosophy must spurn ~ georg-wilhelm-friedrich-hegel, @wisdomtrove 332:The older I get, the better I understand that every day is a gift. There's no guarantee of tomorrow. And part of my whole philosophy is: this day is too important to live it angry, upset, discouraged or stressed out if plans don't work out. This is life, and I'm going to move on. ~ joel-osteen, @wisdomtrove 333:There is no exercise of the intellect which is not, in the final analysis, useless. A philosophical doctrine begins as a plausible description of the universe; with the passage of the years it becomes a mere chapter if not a paragraph or a name in the history of philosophy. ~ jorge-luis-borges, @wisdomtrove 334:Religious and philosophical beliefs are, indeed, as dangerous as fire, and nothing can take from them that beauty of danger. But there is only one way of really guarding ourselves against the excessive danger of them, and that is to be steeped in philosophy and soaked in religion. ~ g-k-chesterton, @wisdomtrove 335:A good motivation is what is needed: compassion without dogmatism, without complicated philosophy; just understanding that others are human brothers and sisters and respecting their human rights and dignities. That we humans can help each other is one of our unique human capacities. ~ dalai-lama, @wisdomtrove 336:Philosophy may serve as the bridge between theology and science. All atheism is a philosophy, but not all philosophy is atheism. Philosophy (& 337:Nature in darkness groans and men are bound to sullen contemplation in the night: restless they turn on beds of sorrow; in their inmost brain feeling the crushing wheels, they rise, they write the bitter words of stern philosophy and knead the bread of knowledge with tears and groans. ~ william-blake, @wisdomtrove 338:Meditation, then, is not so much a part of this or that particular religion, but rather part of the universal spiritual culture of all humankind& 339:Procrastination is the fear of success. People procrastinate because they are afraid of the success that they know will result if they move ahead now. Because success is heavy, carries a responsibility with it, it is much easier to procrastinate and live on the "someday I'll" philosophy. ~ denis-waitley, @wisdomtrove 340:Nature does not teach. A true philosophy may sometimes validate an experience of nature; an experience of nature cannot validate a philosophy. Nature will not verify any theological or metaphysical proposition (or not in the manner we are now considering); she will help to show what it means. ~ c-s-lewis, @wisdomtrove 341:The most effective way I know to begin with the end in mind is to develop a personal mission statement or philosophy or creed. It focused on what you want to be (character) and to do (contributions and achievements) and on the values or principles upon which being and doing are based. ~ stephen-r-covey, @wisdomtrove 342:Accidents will occur in the best-regulated families; and in families not regulated by that pervading influence which sanctifies while it enhances... in short, by the influence of Woman, in the lofty character of Wife, they may be expected with confidence, and must be borne with philosophy. ~ charles-dickens, @wisdomtrove 343:What peculiar privilege has this little agitation of the brain which we call thought, that we must thus make it the model of the whole universe? Our partiality in our own favour does indeed present it on all occasions; but sound philosophy ought carefully to guard against so natural an illusion. ~ david-hume, @wisdomtrove 344:Today the West is awakening to its wants; and the "true self of man and spirit" is the watchword of the advanced school of Western theologians. The student of Sanskrit philosophy knows where the wind is blowing from, but it matters not whence the power comes so longs as it brings new life. ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove 345:It needs a good deal of philosophy not to be mortified by the thought of persons who have voluntarily abandoned everything that for the most of us makes life worth living and are devoid of envy of what they have missed. I have never made up my mind whether they are fools or wise men. ~ william-somerset-maugham, @wisdomtrove 346:Whatever happens, every individual is a child of his time; so philosophy too is its own time apprehended in thoughts. It is just as absurd to fancy that a philosophy can transcend its contemporary world as it is to fancy that an individual can overleap his own age, jump over Rhodes. ~ georg-wilhelm-friedrich-hegel, @wisdomtrove 347:From the high spiritual flights of the Vedanta philosophy, of which the latest discoveries of science seem like echoes, to the low ideas of idolatry with its multifarious mythology, the agnosticism of the Buddhists and the atheism of the Jains, each and all have a place in the Hinduism religion. ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove 348:We either have wild places or we don't. We admit the spiritual-emotional validity of wild, beautiful places or we don't. We have a philosophy of simplicity of experience in these wild places or we don't. We admit an almost religious devotion to the clean exposition of the wild, natural earth or we don't. ~ amsel-adams, @wisdomtrove 349:I do not believe that a moral philosophy can ever be founded on a scientific basis. … The valuation of life and all its nobler expressions can only come out of the soul’s yearning toward its own destiny. Every attempt to reduce ethics to scientific formulas must fail. Of that I am perfectly convinced. ~ albert-einstein, @wisdomtrove 350:In vain do science and philosophy pose as the arbiters of the human mind, of which they are in fact only the servants. Religion has provided a conception of life, and science travels in the beaten path. Religion reveals the meaning of life, and science only applies this meaning to the course of circumstances. ~ leo-tolstoy, @wisdomtrove 351:I want you to know that this administration is motivated by a political philosophy that sees the greatness of America in you, her people, and in your families, churches, neighborhoods, communities - the institutions that foster and nourish values like concern for others and respect for the rule of law under God. ~ ronald-reagan, @wisdomtrove 352:I have no duty to be anyone's Friend and no man in the world has a duty to be mine. No claims, no shadow of necessity. Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art, like the universe itself (for God did not need to create). It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things which give value to survival. ~ c-s-lewis, @wisdomtrove 353:Meditation is not aimed at developing a fine philosophy of life or mind. It is not about thinking at all. It is about keeping things simple. Right now, in this moment, do you see? Do you hear? This seeing, this hearing, when unadorned, is the recovery of original mind, free from all concepts, including “original mind.” ~ jon-kabat-zinn, @wisdomtrove 354:Philosophy can add to our happiness in no other manner but by diminishing our misery; it should not pretend to increase our present stock, but make us economists of what we are possessed of. Happy were we all born philosophers; all born with a talent of thus dissipating our own cares by spreading them upon all mankind. ~ oliver-goldsmith, @wisdomtrove 355:There is a growing interest in Confucianism in China and other parts of the world. More and more followers of Confucianism are advocating a deeper study of his philosophies. Confucius' ideals stand true even today. His philosophy on how to be a Junzi or the perfect gentleman is based on the simple ideology of love and tolerance. ~ confucius, @wisdomtrove 356:Since philosophy is the exploration of the rational, it is for that very reason the apprehension of the present and the actual, not the erection of a beyond, supposed to exist, God knows where, or rather which exists, and we can perfectly well say where, namely in the error of a one-sided, empty, ratiocination. ~ georg-wilhelm-friedrich-hegel, @wisdomtrove 357:Accurate and just reasoning is the only catholic remedy, fitted for all persons and all dispositions; and is alone able to subvert that abstruse philosophy and metaphysical jargon, which, being mixed up with popular superstition, renders it in a manner impenetrable to careless reasoners, and gives it the air of science and wisdom. ~ david-hume, @wisdomtrove 358:Descartes, the father of modern philosophy … would never—so he assures us—have been led to construct his philosophy if he had had only one teacher, for then he would have believed what he had been told; but, finding that his professors disagreed with each other, he was forced to conclude that no existing doctrine was certain. ~ bertrand-russell, @wisdomtrove 359:The agnostic, the skeptic, is neurotic, but this does not imply a false philosophy; it implies the discovery of facts to which he does not know how to adapt himself. The intellectual who tries to escape from neurosis by escaping from the facts is merely acting on the principle that ‚Äúwhere ignorance is bliss, ‚Äòtis folly to be wise. ~ alan-watts, @wisdomtrove 360:The aim of life is some way of living, as flexible and gentle as human nature; so that ambition may stoop to kindness, and philosophy to condor and humor. Neither prosperity nor empire nor heaven can be worth winning at the price of a virulent temper, bloody hands, an anguished spirit, and a vain hatred of the rest of the world. ~ george-santayana, @wisdomtrove 361:The fear of speculation, the ostensible rush from the theoretical to the practical, brings about the same shallowness in action that it does in knowledge. It is by studying a strictly theoretical philosophy that we become most acquainted with Ideas, and only Ideas provide action with vigour and ethical meaning. ~ friedrich-wilhelm-joseph-schelling, @wisdomtrove 362:I have never, in all my life, not for one moment, been tempted toward religion of any kind. The fact is that I feel no spiritual void. I have my philosophy of life, which does not include any aspect of the supernatural and which I find totally satisfying. I am, in short, a rationalist and believe only that which reason tells me is so. ~ isaac-asimov, @wisdomtrove 363:Philosophy dwells aloft in the Temple of Science, the divinity of its inmost shrine; her dictates descend among men, but she herself descends not : whoso would behold her must climb with long and laborious effort, nay, still linger in the forecourt, till manifold trial have proved him worthy of admission into the interior solemnities. ~ thomas-carlyle, @wisdomtrove 364:To be ignorant and simple now-not to be able to meet the enemies on their own ground-would be to throw down our weapons and to betray our uneducated brethren who have, under God, no defense but us against the intellectual attacks of the heathen. Good philosophy must exist, if for no other reason, because bad philosophy needs to be answered. ~ c-s-lewis, @wisdomtrove 365:Reasoning from the common course of nature, and without supposing any new interposition of the Supreme Cause, which ought always to be excluded from philosophy; what is incorruptible must also be ingenerable. The soul, therefore, if immortal, existed before our birth: And if the former existence noways concerned us, neither will the latter. ~ david-hume, @wisdomtrove 366:Philosophy is to be studied, not for the sake of any definite answers to its questions... but rather for the sake of the questions themselves... because, through the greatness of the universe which philosophy contemplates, the mind is also rendered great, and becomes capable of that union with the universe which constitutes its highest good. ~ bertrand-russell, @wisdomtrove 367:By profession a biologist, [Thomas Henry Huxley] covered in fact the whole field of the exact sciences, and then bulged through its four fences. Absolutely nothing was uninteresting to him. His curiosity ranged from music to theology and from philosophy to history. He didn't simply know something about everything; he knew a great deal about everything. ~ h-l-mencken, @wisdomtrove 368:And violence is impractical, because the old eye for an eye philosophy ends up leaving everybody blind .. It is immoral because it is a descending spiral ending in destruction for everybody. Means and ends are inseparable. The means represent the ideal in the making; in the long run of history destructive means cannot bring about constructive ends. ~ martin-luther-king, @wisdomtrove 369:There is but one truly serious philosophical problem, and that is suicide. Judging whether life is or is not worth living amounts to answering the fundamental question of philosophy. All the rest - whether or not the world has three dimensions, whether the mind has nine or twelve categories - comes afterward. These are games; one must first answer. ~ albert-camus, @wisdomtrove 370:To conclude, therefore, let no man out of a weak conceit of sobriety, or an ill-applied moderation, think or maintain, that a man can search too far or be too well studied in the book of God's word, or in the book of God's works; divinity or philosophy; but rather let men endeavour an endless progress or proficience in both."—Bacon: "Advancement of Learning". ~ charles-darwin, @wisdomtrove 371:We need courage and strength, a kind of warrior spirit. But the place for this warrior strength is in the heart. We need energy, commitment, and courage not to run from our life nor to cover it over with any philosophy-mate rial or spiritual. We need a warrior’s heart that lets us face our lives directly, our pains and limitations, our joys and possibilities. ~ jack-kornfield, @wisdomtrove 372:Each soul is potentially divine. The goal is to manifest this divinity by controlling nature, external and internal. Do this either by work, or worship, or psychic control, or philosophy - by one, or more, or all of these - and be free. This is the whole of religion. Doctrines, or dogmas, or rituals, or books, or temples, or forms, are but secondary details. ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove 373:Our philosophy about activity and our attitude about hard work will affect the quality of our lives. What we decide about the rightful ratio of labor to rest will establish a certain work ethic. That work ethic - our attitude about the amount of labor we are willing to commit to future fortune - will determine how substantial or how meager that fortune turns out to be. ~ jim-rohn, @wisdomtrove 374:What Brahman is cannot be described. All things in the world — the Vedas, the Puranas, the Tantras, the six systems of philosophy — have been defiled, like food that has been touched by the tongue, for they have been read or uttered by the tongue. Only one thing has not been defiled in this way, and that is Brahman. No one has ever been able to say what Brahman is. ~ sri-ramakrishna, @wisdomtrove 375:That which Dante saw written on the door of the inferno must be written in a different sense also at the entrance to philosophy: Abandon all hope, ye who enter here. Those who look for true philosophy must be bereft of all hope, all desire, all longing. They must not wish for anything, not know anything, must feel completely bare and impoverished. ~ friedrich-wilhelm-joseph-schelling, @wisdomtrove 376:W hat Brahman is cannot be described. All things in the world — the Vedas, the Puranas, the Tantras, the six systems of philosophy — have been defiled, like food that has been touched by the tongue, for they have been read or uttered by the tongue. Only one thing has not been defiled in this way, and that is Brahman. No one has ever been able to say what Brahman is. ~ sri-ramakrishna, @wisdomtrove 377:Whether we be Italians or Frenchmen, misery concerns us all. Ever since history has been written, ever since philosophy has meditated, misery has been the garment of the human race; the moment has at length arrived for tearing off that rag, and for replacing, upon the naked limbs of the Man-People, the sinister fragment of the past with the grand purple robe of the dawn. ~ victor-hugo, @wisdomtrove 378:Philosophy is perfectly right in saying that life must be understood backward. But then one forgets the other clause - that it must be lived forward. The more one thinks through this clause, the more one concludes that life in temporality never becomes properly understandable, simply because never at any time does one get perfect repose to take the stance - backward. ~ soren-kierkegaard, @wisdomtrove 379:The most perfect philosophy of the natural kind only staves off our ignorance a little longer: as perhaps the most perfect philosophy of the moral or metaphysical kind serves only to discover larger portions of it. Thus the observation of human blindness and weakness is the result of all philosophy, and meets us at every turn, in spite of our endeavours to elude or avoid it. ~ david-hume, @wisdomtrove 380:All the sciences have a relation, greater or less, to human nature; and... however wide any of them may seem to run from it, they still return back by one passage or another. Even Mathematics, Natural Philosophy, and Natural Religion, are in some measure dependent on the science of MAN; since they lie under the cognizance of men, and are judged of by their powers and faculties. ~ david-hume, @wisdomtrove 381:It is quite true what Philosophy says: that Life must be understood backwards. But that makes one forget the other saying: that it must be lived‚Äîforwards. The more one ponders this, the more it comes to mean that life in the temporal existence never becomes quite intelligible, precisely because at no moment can I find complete quiet to take the backward- looking position. ~ soren-kierkegaard, @wisdomtrove 382:Philosophy, art, politics, religion and bohemia have never sought to do away entirely with the status hierarchy; they have attemptee, rather, to institute new kinds of hierarchies based on sets of values unrecognised by, and critical of, those of the majority.. They have provided us with persuasive and consoling reminders that there is more than one way of succeeding in life. ~ alain-de-botton, @wisdomtrove 383:The undiscovered vein within us is a living part of the psyche; classical Chinese philosophy names this interior way "Tao," and likens it to a flow of water that moves irresistibly towards its goal. To rest in Tao means fulfillment, wholeness, one's destination reached, one's mission done; the beginning, end, and perfect realization of the meaning of existence innate in all things. ~ carl-jung, @wisdomtrove 384:I want to be a more serious-minded Christian, more detached from this world, more ready for heaven than I have ever been in my whole life. I want an ear that is sharp to know the voice of the enemy, whether it comes from religion, politics, or philosophy ... I would rather stand and have everybody my enemy than to go along with the crowd to destruction. Do you feel that way? ~ aiden-wilson-tozer, @wisdomtrove 385:You know, they've got these chocolate assortments, and you like some but you don't like others? And you eat all the ones you like, and the only ones left are the ones you don't like as much? I always think about that when something painful comes up. Now I just have to polish these off, and everything'll be OK. Life is a box of chocolates. I suppose you could call it a philosophy. ~ haruki-murakami, @wisdomtrove 386:It can be a good thing if deeper theology, or philosophy, only makes one more uncertain. It may lead to a healthy doubt; he may throw his hands up saying, & 387:I have long been an ardent believer in the science of Homeopathy and I feel happy that it has got now a greater hold in India than even in the land of its origin. It is not merely a collection of a few medicines but a real science with a rational philosophy at its base. We require more scientific interest and inquiry into the matter with special stress upon the Indian environment ~ rabindranath-tagore, @wisdomtrove 388:I know different ways of looking at things. I have my stockholders, and I feel a very keen responsibility to the shareholders, but I feel that the main responsibility I have to them is to have the stock appreciate. And you only have it appreciate by reinvesting as much as you can back in the business. And that's what we've done... and that has been my philosophy on running the business. ~ walt-disney, @wisdomtrove 389:... the test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function. One should, for example, be able to see that things are hopeless and yet be determined to make them otherwise. This philosophy fitted on to my early adult life, when I saw the improbable, the implausible, often the "impossible," come true. ~ f-scott-fitzgerald, @wisdomtrove 390:The whole drift of our law is toward the absolute prohibition of all ideas that diverge in the slightest form from the accepted platitudes, and behind that drift of law there is a far more potent force of growing custom, and under that custom there is a natural philosophy which erects conformity into the noblest of virtues and the free functioning of personality into a capital crime against society. ~ h-l-mencken, @wisdomtrove 391:We must have a new mythology, but it must place itself at the service of ideas, it must become a mythology of reason. Mythology must become philosophical, so that the people may become rational, and philosophy must become mythological, so that philosophers may become sensible. If we do not give ideas a form that is aesthetic, i.e., mythological, they will hold no interest for people. ~ georg-wilhelm-friedrich-hegel, @wisdomtrove 392:The man who cannot wonder, who does not habitually wonder (and worship), were he President of innumerable Royal Societies, and carried the whole Mecanique Celeste and Hegel's Philosophy, and the epitome of all Laboratories and Observatories with their results, in his single head, is but a Pair of Spectacles behind which there is no Eye. Let those who have Eyes look through him, then he may be useful. ~ thomas-carlyle, @wisdomtrove 393:The principle itself of dogmatic religion, dogmatic morality, dogmatic philosophy, is what requires to be rooted out; not any particular manifestation of that principle. The very corner-stone of an education intended to form great minds, must be the recognition of the principle, that the object is to call forth the greatest possible quantity of intellectual power, and to inspire the intensest love of truth. ~ john-stuart-mill, @wisdomtrove 394:And as this is the obvious appearance of things, it must be admitted, till some hypothesis be discovered, which by penetrating deeper into human nature, may prove the former affections to be nothing but modifications of the latter. All attempts of this kind have hitherto proved fruitless, and seem to have proceeded entirely from that love of simplicity which has been the source of much false reasoning in philosophy. ~ david-hume, @wisdomtrove 395:Experience has repeatedly confirmed that well-known maxim of Bacon's that & 396:It seems then, say I, that you leave politics entirely out of the question, and never suppose, that a wise magistrate can justly be jealous of certain tenets of philosophy, such as those of Epicurus, which, denying a divine existence, and consequently a providence and a future state, seem to loosen, in a great measure, the ties of morality, and may be supposed, for that reason, pernicious to the peace of civil society. ~ david-hume, @wisdomtrove 397:A writer must always try to have a philosophy and he should also have a psychology and a philology and many other things. Without a philosophy and a psychology and all these various other things he is not really worthy of being called a writer. I agree with Kant and Schopenhauer and Plato and Spinoza and that is quite enough to be called a philosophy. But then of course a philosophy is not the same thing as a style. ~ gertrude-stein, @wisdomtrove 398:Well, I always tried to look nice and be feminine even in the worst tragedies and crisis, there's no reason to add to everyone's misery by looking miserable yourself. That's my philosophy. This is why I always wore makeup and jewelry into the jungle-nothing too extravagant, but maybe just a nice gold bracelet and some earrings, a little lipstick, good perfume. Just enough to show that I still had my self-respect. ~ elizabeth-gilbert, @wisdomtrove 399:Every philosophy is complete in itself and, like a genuine work of art, contains the totality. Just as the works of Apelles and Sophocles, if Raphael and Shakespeare had known them, should not have appeared to them as mere preliminary exercises for their own work, but rather as a kindred force of the spirit, so, too reason cannot find in its own earlier forms mere useful preliminary exercises for itself. ~ georg-wilhelm-friedrich-hegel, @wisdomtrove 400:As to the so-called Hindu idolatry - first go and learn the forms they are going through, and where it is that the worshippers are really worshipping, whether in the temple, in the image, or in the temple of their own bodies. First know for certain what they are doing - which more than ninety per cent of the revilers are thoroughly ignorant of - and then it will explain itself in the light of the Vedantic philosophy. ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove 401:You know what I think?" she says. "That people's memories are maybe the fuel they burn to stay alive. Whether those memories have any actual importance or not, it doesn't matter as far as the maintenance of life is concerned. They're all just fuel. Advertising fillers in the newspaper, philosophy books, dirty pictures in a magazine, a bundle of ten-thousand-yen bills: when you feed 'em to the fire, they're all just paper. ~ haruki-murakami, @wisdomtrove 402:I need not instruct you of my belief: Time gives all and takes all away ; everything changes but nothing perishes ; One only is immutable, eternal and ever endures, one and the same with itself. With this philosophy my spirit grows, my mind expands. Whereof, how r ever obscure the night may be, I await daybreak, and they who dwell in day look for night Rejoice therefore, and keep whole, if you can, and return love for love. ~ giordano-bruno, @wisdomtrove 403:Our species is the only creative species, and it has only one creative instrument, the individual mind and spirit of man. Nothing was ever created by two men. There are no good collaborations, whether in music, in art, in poetry, in mathematics, in philosophy. Once the miracle of creation has taken place, the group can build and extend it, but the group never invents anything. The preciousness lies in the lonely mind of a man. ~ john-steinbeck, @wisdomtrove 404:If the ability to tell right from wrong should turn out to have anything to do with the ability to think, then we must be able to "demand" its exercise from every sane person, no matter how erudite or ignorant, intelligent or stupid, he may happen to be. Kant in this respect almost alone among the philosophers was much bothered by the common opinion that philosophy is only for the few, precisely because of its moral implications. ~ hannah-arendt, @wisdomtrove 405:How can a man find a sensible way to live? One way and one only - Philosophy. And my philosophy means keeping that vital spark within you free from damage and degradation, using it to transcend pain and pleasure, doing everything with a purpose, avoiding lies and hypocrisy, not relying on another person's actions or failings. To accept everything that comes, and everything that is given, as coming from that same spiritual source. ~ marcus-aurelius, @wisdomtrove 406:Until the philosophy which hold one race superior and another inferior is finally and permanently discredited and abandoned... Everything is war. Me say war. That until the're no longer 1st class and 2nd class citizens of any nation... Until the color of a man's skin is of no more significa... nce than the color of his eyes, me say war. That until the basic human rights are equally guaranteed to all without regard to race me say war! ~ bob-marley, @wisdomtrove 407:Descartes, the father of modern philosophy … would never—so he assures us—have been led to construct his philosophy if he had had only one teacher, for then he would have believed what he had been told; but, finding that his professors disagreed with each other, he was forced to conclude that no existing doctrine was certain. Bertrand Russell ~ rene-descartes, @wisdomtrove 408:The conduct of a man, who studies philosophy in this careless manner, is more truly sceptical than that of any one, who feeling inhimself an inclination to it, is yet so over-whelm'd with doubts and scruples, as totally to reject it. A true sceptic will be diffident of his philosophical doubts, as well as of his philosophical conviction; and will never refuse any innocent satisfaction, which offers itself, upon account of either of them. ~ david-hume, @wisdomtrove 409:It has been the error of the schools to teach astronomy, and all the other sciences, and subjects of natural philosophy, as accomplishments only; whereas they should be taught theologically, or with reference to the Being who is the author of them: for all the principles of science are of divine origin. Man cannot make, or invent, or contrive principles: he can only discover them; and he ought to look through the discovery to the Author. ~ thomas-paine, @wisdomtrove 410:Inspiration is a divine element inside our life. When we are inspired, we try to climb up the Himalayas. When we are inspired, we try to swim the English Channel. When we are in spired, we go from one country to another country to inspire people and to be inspired by them. I feel that when we inspire humanity, we automatically become good citizens of the world. This is my philosophy. My weightlifting feats I have done solely to inspire humanity. ~ sri-chinmoy, @wisdomtrove 411:While the dogmatist is harmful, the sceptic is useless …; one is certain of knowing, the other of not knowing. What philosophy should dissipate is certainty, whether of knowledge or of ignorance. Knowledge is not so precise a concept as is commonly thought. Instead of saying ‘I know this’, we ought to say ‘I more or less know something more or less like this’. … Knowledge in practical affairs has not the certainty or the precision of arithmetic. ~ bertrand-russell, @wisdomtrove 412:The result of my journey was to bring a certain mental peace. Where there had been chaos there was now order. My mind was at rest. I had a philosophy at last. The words of Christ "The Kingdom of Heaven is within you," had a new meaning for me. Not in the past or in the future, but now and here is Heaven within us. All our duties lie in this world and in the present, and trying impatiently to peer into that which lies beyond is as vain as fruitless. ~ andrew-carnegie, @wisdomtrove 413:Philosophy and science have not always been friendly toward the idea of God, the reason being they are dedicated to the task of accounting for things and are impatient with anything that refuses to give an account of itself. The philosopher and the scientist will admit that there is much that they do not know; but that is quite another thing from admitting there is something which they can never know, which indeed they have no technique for discovering. ~ aiden-wilson-tozer, @wisdomtrove 414:The mere man of pleasure is miserable in old age, and the mere drudge in business is but little better, whereas, natural philosophy, mathematical and mechanical science, are a continual source of tranquil pleasure, and in spite of the gloomy dogmas of priests and of superstition, the study of these things is the true theology; it teaches man to know and admire the Creator, for the principles of science are in the creation, and are unchangeable and of divine origin. ~ thomas-paine, @wisdomtrove 415:The intellectual and moral satisfaction that I failed to gain from the utilitarianism of Bentham and Mill, the revolutionary methods of Marx and Lenin, the social contract theory of Hobbes, the "back to nature" optimism of Rousseau, and the superman philosophy of Nietzsche, I found in the nonviolent resistance philosophy of Gandhi. I came to feel that this was the only morally and practically sound method open to oppressed people in their struggle for freedom. ~ martin-luther-king, @wisdomtrove 416:One is not unpopular because he uses peculiar expressions; that just so happens; such terms become a fad, and by and by everybody, down to the last simpleton, uses them. But a person who follows through an idea in his mind is, and always will be, essentially unpopular. That is why Socrates was unpopular, though he did not use any special terms, for to grasp and hold his & 417:A man who has cured himself of all ridiculous prepossessions, and is fully, sincerely, and steadily convinced, from experience as well as philosophy, that the difference of fortune makes less difference in happiness than is vulgarly imagined; such a one does not measure out degrees of esteem according to the rent-rolls of his acquaintance. ... his internal sentiments are more regulated by the personal characters of men, than by the accidental and capricious favors of fortune. ~ david-hume, @wisdomtrove 418:... But nature does not say that cats are more valuable than mice; nature makes no remark on the subject. She does not even say that the cat is enviable or the mouse pitiable. We think the cat superior because we have (or most of us have) a particular philosophy to the effect that life is better than death. But if the mouse were a German pessimist mouse, he might not think that the cat had beaten him at all. He might think he had beaten the cat by getting to the grave first. ~ g-k-chesterton, @wisdomtrove 419:In the case of all other sciences, arts, skills, and crafts, everyone is convinced that a complex and laborious programme of learning and practice is necessary for competence. Yet when it comes to philosophy, there seems to be a currently prevailing prejudice to the effect that, although not everyone who has eyes and fingers, and is given leather and last, is at once in a position to make shoes, everyone nevertheless immediately understands how to philosophize. ~ georg-wilhelm-friedrich-hegel, @wisdomtrove 420:The integral approach is committed to the full spectrum of consciousness as it manifests in all its extraordinary diversity. This allows the integral approach to recognize and honor the Great Holarchy of Being first elucidated by the perennial philosophy and the great wisdom traditions in general... The integral vision embodies an attempt to take the best of both worlds, ancient and modern. But that demands a critical stance willing to reject unflinchingly the worst of both as well. ~ ken-wilber, @wisdomtrove 421:I feel we urgently need an alternative to the soul-destroying understanding of science that has become dominant in our culture over the last few decades ... I call this philosophy ‘scientific objectivism’, because it regards only the objective world as real for scientific objectivists the world of my imagination, from which these words are pouring right now, is just a by-product of a piece of meat called the ‘brain’, because only the world that can be measured and mapped really exists. ~ tim-freke, @wisdomtrove 422:“Philosophy, beginning in wonder, as Plato and Aristotle said, is able to fancy everything different from what it is. It sees the familiar as if it were strange, and the strange as if it were familiar. It can take things up and lay them down again. It rouses us from our native dogmatic slumber and breaks up our caked prejudices.” ~ william-james, @wisdomtrove 423:Waves of hands, hesitations at street corners, someone dropping a cigarette into the gutter-all are stories. But which is the true story? That I do not know. Hence I keep my phrases hung like clothes in a cupboard, waiting for some one to wear them. Thus waiting, thus speculating, making this note and then an¬∑ other I do not cling to life. I shall be brushed like a bee from a sunflower. My philosophy, always accumulating, welling up moment by moment, runs like quicksilver a dozen ways at once. ~ virginia-woolf, @wisdomtrove 424:The evil that has resulted from the error of the schools, in teaching natural philosophy as an accomplishment only, has been that of generating in the pupils a species of atheism. Instead of looking through the works of creation to the Creator himself, they stop short, and employ the knowledge they acquire to create doubts of his existence. They labour with studied ingenuity to ascribe every thing they behold to innate properties of matter, and jump over all the rest by saying, that matter is eternal. ~ thomas-paine, @wisdomtrove 425:The modern habit of saying "This is my opinion, but I may be wrong" is entirely irrational. If I say that it may be wrong, I say that is not my opinion. The modern habit of saying "Every man has a different philosophy; this is my philosophy and it suits me" ‚Äì the habit of saying this is mere weak-mindedness. A cosmic philosophy is not constructed to fit a man; a cosmic philosophy is constructed to fit a cosmos. A man can no more possess a private religion than he can possess a private sun and moon. ~ g-k-chesterton, @wisdomtrove 426:[The Head of Radio Three] had been ensnared by the Music Director of the college and a Professor of Philosophy. These two were busy explaining to the harassed man that the phrase "too much Mozart" was, given any reasonable definition of those three words, an inherently self-contradictory expression, and that any sentence which contained such a phrase would be thereby rendered meaningless and could not, consequently, be advanced as part of an argument in favour of any given programme-scheduling strategy. ~ douglas-adams, @wisdomtrove 427:To the exponents of the Perennial Philosophy, the question whether Progress is inevitable or even real is not a matter of primary importance. For them, the important thing is that individual men and women should come to the unitive knowledge of the divine Ground, and what interests them in regard to the social environment is not its progressiveness or non-progressiveness (whatever those terms may mean), but the degree to which it helps or hinders individuals in the their advance towards man's final end. ~ aldous-huxley, @wisdomtrove 428:Atheism is not a philosophy; it is not even a view of the world; it is simply an admission of the obvious. In fact, & 429:..I sought a world philosophy-or an integral philosophy-that would believably weave together the many pluralistic contexts of science, morals, aesthetics, Eastern as well as Western philosophy, and the world's great wisdom traditions. Not on the level of details-that is finitely impossible; but on the level of orienting generalizations: a way to suggest that the world really is one, undivided, whole, and related to itself in every way: a holistic philosophy for a holistic Kosmos, a plausible Theory of Everything. ~ ken-wilber, @wisdomtrove 430:A living body is not a fixed thing but a flowing event, like a flame or a whirlpool: the shape alone is stable, for the substance is a stream of energy going in at one end and out at the other. We are particularly and temporarily identifiable wiggles in a stream that enters us in the form of light, heat, air, water, milk, bread, fruit, beer, beef Stroganoff, caviar, and pate de foie gras. It goes out as gas and excrement - and also as semen, babies, talk, politics, commerce, war, poetry, and music. And philosophy. ~ alan-watts, @wisdomtrove 431:Everybody allows that to know any other science you must have first studied it, and that you can only claim to express a judgment upon it in virtue of such knowledge. Everybody allows that to make a shoe you must have learned and practised the craft of the shoemaker, though every man has a model in his own foot, and possesses in his hands the natural endowments for the operations required. For philosophy alone, it seems to be imagined, such study, care, and application are not in the least requisite ~ georg-wilhelm-friedrich-hegel, @wisdomtrove 432:Is it not evident, in these last hundred years (when the Study of Philosophy has been the business of all the Virtuosi in Christendome) that almost a new Nature has been revealed to us? that more errours of the School have been detected, more useful Experiments in Philosophy have been made, more Noble Secrets in Opticks, Medicine, Anatomy, Astronomy, discover'd, than in all those credulous and doting Ages from Aristotle to us? So true it is that nothing spreads more fast than Science, when rightly and generally cultivated. ~ john-dryden, @wisdomtrove 433:In order to live, man must act; in order to act, he must make choices; in order to make choices, he must define a code of values; in order to define a code of values, he must know what he is and where he is ‚ì i.e. he must know his own nature (including his means of knowledge) and the nature of the universe in which he acts ‚ e. he needs metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, which means: philosophy. He cannot escape from this need; his only alternative is whether the philosophy guiding him is to be chosen by his mind or by chance. ~ ayn-rand, @wisdomtrove 434:In philosophy, when we make use of false principles, we depart the farther from the knowledge of truth and wisdom exactly in proportion to the care with which we cultivate them, and apply ourselves to the deduction of diverse consequences from them, thinking that we are philosophizing well, while we are only departing the farther from the truth; from which it must be inferred that they who have learned the least of all that has been hitherto distinguished by the name of philosophy are the most fitted for the apprehension of truth. ~ rene-descartes, @wisdomtrove 435:The so-called Philosophy of India is even more blowsy and senseless than the metaphysics of the West. It is at war with everything we know of the workings of the human mind, and with every sound idea formulated by mankind. If it prevailed in the whole modern world we'd still be in the Thirteenth Century; nay, we'd be back among the Egyptians of the pyramid age. Its only coherent contribution to Western thought has been theosophy-and theosophy is as idiotic as Christian Science. It has absolutely nothing to offer a civilized white man. ~ h-l-mencken, @wisdomtrove 436:We have resorted to every means to win back the position that Adam lost. We have tried through education, through philosophy, through religion, through governments to throw off our yoke of depravity and sin. All our knowledge, all our inventions, all our developments and ambitious plans move us ahead only a very little before we drop back again to the point from which we started. For we are still making the same mistake that Adam made - - we are still trying to be king in our own right, and with our own power, instead of obeying God's law. ~ billy-graham, @wisdomtrove 437:For thirty years I have leaned toward the theory of Reincarnation. It seems a most reasonable philosophy and explains many things. No, I have no desire to know what, or who I was once; or what, or who, I shall be in the ages to come. This belief in immortality makes present living the more attractive. It gives you all the time there is. You will always be able to finish what you start. There is no fever or strain in such an outlook. We are here in life for one purpose: to get experience. We are all getting it, and we shall all use it somewhere. ~ henry-ford, @wisdomtrove 438:Without the suitable conditions life could not exist. But both life and its conditions set forth the operations of inscrutable Power. We know not its origin; we know not its end. And the presumption, if not the degradation, rests with those who place upon the throne of the universe a magnified image of themselves, and make its doings a mere colossal imitation of their own. Wonder was the motive that led people to philosophy ... wonder is a kind of desire in knowledge. It is the cause of delight because it carries with it the hope of discovery. ~ denis-diderot, @wisdomtrove 439:Without the suitable conditions life could not exist. But both life and its conditions set forth the operations of inscrutable Power. We know not its origin; we know not its end. And the presumption, if not the degradation, rests with those who place upon the throne of the universe a magnified image of themselves, and make its doings a mere colossal imitation of their own. Wonder was the motive that led people to philosophy ... wonder is a kind of desire in knowledge. It is the cause of delight because it carries with it the hope of discovery. ~ thomas-aquinas, @wisdomtrove 440:I shall venture to affirm, that there never was a popular religion, which represented the state of departed souls in such a light,as would render it eligible for human kind, that there should be such a state. These fine models of religion are the mere product of philosophy. For as death lies between the eye and the prospect of futurity, that event is so shocking to nature, that it must throw a gloom on all the regions which lie beyond it; and suggest to the generality of mankind the idea of Cerberus and Furies; devils, and torrents of fire and brimstone. ~ david-hume, @wisdomtrove 441:The whole is a riddle, an enigma, an inexplicable mystery. Doubt, uncertainty, suspence of judgment appear the only result of ourmost accurate scrutiny, concerning this subject. But such is the frailty of human reason, and such the irresistible contagion of opinion, that even this deliberate doubt could scarcely be upheld; did we not enlarge our view, and opposing one species of superstition to another, set them a quarrelling; while we ourselves, during their fury and contention, happily make our escape into the calm, though obscure, regions of philosophy. ~ david-hume, @wisdomtrove 442:[M]an has been accustomed, ever since he was a boy, to having a dozen incompatible philosophies dancing about together inside his head. He doesn't think of doctrines as primarily "true" or "false," but as "academic" or "practical," "outworn" or "contemporary," "conventional" or "ruthless." Jargon, not argument, is your best ally in keeping him from the Church. Don't waste time trying to make him think that materialism is true! Make him think it is strong or stark or courageous‚Äîthat it is the philosophy of the future. That's the sort of thing he cares about. ~ c-s-lewis, @wisdomtrove 443:To many, Indian thought, Indian manners; Indian customs, Indian philosophy, Indian literature are repulsive at the first sight; but let them persevere, let them read, let them become familiar with the great principles underlying these ideas, and it is ninety-nine to one that the charm will come over them, and fascination will be the result. Slow and silent, as the gentle dew that falls in the morning, unseen and unheard yet producing a most tremendous result, has been the work of the calm, patient, all-suffering spiritual race upon the world of thought. ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove 444:An imbecile habit has arisen in modern controversy of saying that such and such a creed can be held in one age but cannot be held in another. Some dogma, we are told, was credible in the twelfth century, but is not credible in the twentieth. You might as well say that a certain philosophy can be believed on Mondays, but cannot be believed on Tuesdays. You might as well say of a view of the cosmos that it was suitable to half-past three, but not suitable to half-past four. What a man can believe depends upon his philosophy, not upon the clock or the century. ~ g-k-chesterton, @wisdomtrove 445:Why multiply instances? It is written, the Heavens and the Earth shall fade away like a Vesture; which indeed they are: the Time-vesture of the Eternal. Whatsoever sensibly exists, whatsoever represents Spirit to Spirit, is properly a Clothing, a suit of Raiment, put on for a season, and to be laid off. Thus in this one pregnant subject of CLOTHES, rightly understood, is included all that men have thought, dreamed, done, and been: the whole External Universe and what it holds is but Clothing; and the essence of all Science lies in the PHILOSOPHY OF CLOTHES. ~ thomas-carlyle, @wisdomtrove 446:Nothing upsets the philosophical mind more than when he hears that from now on all philosophy is supposed to lie caught in the shackles of one system. Never has he felt greater than when he sees before him the infinitude of knowledge. The entire dignity of his science consists in the fact that it will never be completed. In that moment in which he would believe to have completed his system, he would become unbearable to himself. He would, in that moment, cease to be a creator, and would instead descend to being an instrument of his creation. ~ friedrich-wilhelm-joseph-schelling, @wisdomtrove 447:The Western approach to reality is mostly through theory, and theory begins by denying reality - to talk about reality, to go around reality, to catch anything that attracts our sense-intellect and abstract it away from reality itself. Thus philosophy begins by saying that the outside world is not a basic fact, that its existence can be doubted and that every proposition in which the reality of the outside world is affirmed is not an evident proposition but one that needs to be divided, dissected and analyzed. It is to stand consciously aside and try to square a circle. ~ bruce-lee, @wisdomtrove 448:How can there be methods and systems to arrive at something that is living? To that which is static, fixed, dead, there can be a way, a definite path, but not to that which is living. Do not reduce reality to a static thing and then invent methods to reach it. ... Truth has no path. Truth is living and, therefore, changing. It has no resting place, no form, no organized institution, no philosophy. When you see that, you will understand that this living thing is also what you are. You cannot express and be alive through static, put-together form, through stylized movement. ~ bruce-lee, @wisdomtrove 449:And indeed nothing but the most determined scepticism, along with a great degree of indolence, can justify this aversion to metaphysics. For if truth be at all within the reach of human capacity, it is certain it must lie very deep and abstruse: and to hope we shall arrive at it without pains, while the greatest geniuses have failed with the utmost pains, must certainly be esteemed sufficiently vain and presumptuous. I pretend to no such advantage in the philosophy I am going to unfold, and would esteem it a strong presumption against it, were it so very easy and obvious. ~ david-hume, @wisdomtrove 450:..there is need for a person to be generally educated. Otherwise you shrivel up much too soon. Whether this means reading the bible (I read the New Testament every few years) or reading the great 19th century novelists (the greatest and shrewdest judge of people and of society who ever lived), or classical philosophy (which I cannot read-it puts me to sleep immediately), or history (which is secondary). What matters is that the knowledge worker, by the time he or she reaches middle age, has developed and nourished a human being rather than a tax accountant or a hydraulic engineer. ~ peter-drucker, @wisdomtrove 451:In all determinations of morality, this circumstance of public utility is ever principally in view; and wherever disputes arise, either in philosophy or common life, concerning the bounds of duty, the questions cannot, by any means, be decided with greater certainty, than by ascertaining, on any side, the true interests of mankind. If any false opinion, embraced from appearances, has been found to prevail; as soon as farther experience and sounder reasoning have given us juster notions of human affairs, we retract our first sentiment, and adjust anew the boundaries of moral good and evil. ~ david-hume, @wisdomtrove 452:Each of the parts of philosophy is a philosophical whole, a circle rounded and complete in itself. In each of these parts, however, the philosophical Idea is found in a particular specificality or medium. The single circle, because it is a real totality, bursts through the limits imposed by its special medium, and gives rise to a wider circle. The whole of philosophy in this way resembles a circle of circles. The Idea appears in each single circle, but, at the same time, the whole Idea is constituted by the system of these peculiar phases, and each is a necessary member of the organisation. ~ georg-wilhelm-friedrich-hegel, @wisdomtrove 453:Love is blind, they say; sex is impervious to reason and mocks the power of all philosophers. But, in fact, a man’s sexual choice is the result and the sum of his fundamental convictions. Tell me what a man finds sexually attractive and I will tell you his entire philosophy on life. Show me the woman he sleeps with and I will tell you his valuation of himself. No matter what corruption he’s taught about the virtue of selflessness, sex is the most profoundly selfish of all acts, an act which he cannot perform for any motive but his own enjoyment–just try to think of performing it in a spirit of selfless charity!–an act which is not possible in self-abasement, only in self-exaltation, only in confidence of being desired and being worthy of desire. ~ ayn-rand, @wisdomtrove *** NEWFULLDB 2.4M ***
1:Philosophy begins in wonder. ~ Plato, #NFDB
2:Philosophy.—Nil. ~ Arthur Conan Doyle, #NFDB
3:Philosophy is the highest music. ~ Plato, #NFDB
4:Let's drop the philosophy! ~ Anton Chekhov, #NFDB
5:Philosophy begins with wonder. ~ Aristotle, #NFDB
6:Philosophy is an act of living. ~ Plutarch, #NFDB
7:AI makes philosophy honest ~ Daniel Dennett, #NFDB
8:Philosophy is the art of living. ~ Plutarch, #NFDB
9:All work is an act of philosophy. ~ Ayn Rand, #NFDB
10:Animal smell is beyond philosophy. ~ K b Abe, #NFDB
11:God loves only one philosophy, ~ Sri Chinmoy, #NFDB
12:Philosophy bakes no bread ~ Bertrand Russell, #NFDB
13:Philosophy begins in wonder." -Plato ~ Plato, #NFDB
14:Philosophy can make people sick. ~ Aristotle, #NFDB
15:Philosophy gives life to life. ~ Neel Burton, #NFDB
16:Philosophy is for the few. ~ William Gilbert, #NFDB
17:All Philosophy is Biography ~ Peter J Carroll, #NFDB
18:Too much philosophy makes men mad. ~ Alan Judd, #NFDB
19:Philosophy is the Devil's Whore ~ Martin Luther, #NFDB
20:How charming is divine philosophy! ~ John Milton, #NFDB
21:Never look back' is my philosophy. ~ Helen Clark, #NFDB
22:Science is practical philosophy. ~ Rene Descartes, #NFDB
23:Will our Philosophy to later Life ~ Julian Huxley, #NFDB
24:in each shave lies a philosophy. ~ Haruki Murakami, #NFDB
25:after philosophy, action is required; ~ Victor Hugo, #NFDB
26:History should be written as philosophy. ~ Voltaire, #NFDB
27:Leisure is the mother of Philosophy ~ Thomas Hobbes, #NFDB
28:Philosophy is nothing but discretion. ~ John Selden, #NFDB
29:Philosophy will clip an angel's wings. ~ John Keats, #NFDB
30:CHAPTER VIII—PHILOSOPHY AFTER DRINKING ~ Victor Hugo, #NFDB
31:Leisure is the Mother of Philosophy. ~ Thomas Hobbes, #NFDB
32:Philosophy is everybody's business. ~ Mortimer Adler, #NFDB
33:philosophy teaches us to act, not to speak; ~ Seneca, #NFDB
34:Vain wisdom all, and false philosophy. ~ John Milton, #NFDB
35:Don't explain your philosophy. Embody it. ~ Epictetus, #NFDB
36:Don’t explain your philosophy. Embody it. ~ Epictetus, #NFDB
37:Personal philosophy: Clothing optional ~ Will Ferrell, #NFDB
38:Philosophy is really homesickness. ~ George MacDonald, #NFDB
39:The essence of jiu-jitsu is philosophy. ~ David Mamet, #NFDB
40:Astonishment is the root of philosophy. ~ Paul Tillich, #NFDB
41:Philosophy is not a spectator sport. ~ Nigel Warburton, #NFDB
42:Philosophy is the microscope of thought. ~ Victor Hugo, #NFDB
43:The poem of the understanding is philosophy. ~ Novalis, #NFDB
44:History is Philosophy teaching by example. ~ Thucydides, #NFDB
45:Philosophy! the lumber of the schools. ~ Jonathan Swift, #NFDB
46:Propaganda replaces moral philosophy. ~ Hans Morgenthau, #NFDB
47:That's why I love philosophy: no one wins. ~ D T Suzuki, #NFDB
48:A religion without mystics is a philosophy. ~ Quintilian, #NFDB
49:Don't explain your philosophy. Embody it.
~ Epictetus,#NFDB
50:My workout philosophy is; no pain, no pain ~ Woody Paige, #NFDB
51:Never judge a philosophy by its abuse. ~ Saint Augustine, #NFDB
52:Philosophy has degenerated into ideology. ~ Peter Kreeft, #NFDB
53:Philosophy teaches you to think big. ~ Jay Chandrasekhar, #NFDB
54:Adversity's sweet milk, philosophy. ~ William Shakespeare, #NFDB
55:I don’t have a philosophy. I have a camera. ~ Saul Leiter, #NFDB
56:O philosophy, you leader of life. ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero, #NFDB
57:Philosophy is nothing but a failed art. ~ Ibrahim Ibrahim, #NFDB
58:There is no other start to philosophy but wonder. ~ Plato, #NFDB
59:I was allowed to play at philosophy no longer. ~ C S Lewis, #NFDB
60:My philosophy is familiarity breeds contempt. ~ Chaka Khan, #NFDB
61:My style philosophy is: Be comfortable. ~ Cheyenne Kimball, #NFDB
62:Philosophy always buries its undertakers. ~ Etienne Gilson, #NFDB
63:Philosophy has forgotten about children ~ Bernhard Schlink, #NFDB
64:Philosophy - hopeless. Yet it gives me hope. ~ Anne Carson, #NFDB
65:Philosophy is common sense with big words. ~ James Madison, #NFDB
66:Philosophy is the education of grown-ups. ~ Stanley Cavell, #NFDB
67:Philosophy is the health of the mind. ~ Seneca the Younger, #NFDB
68:Philosophy is the microscope of the thought. ~ Victor Hugo, #NFDB
69:Philosophy may be dodged, eloquence cannot. ~ Edgar Quinet, #NFDB
70:Robert Garcia is a philosophy professor, ~ Nancy R Pearcey, #NFDB
71:Words, without power, is mere philosophy. ~ Muhammad Iqbal, #NFDB
72:It's easy to confuse a woman for a philosophy ~ Zadie Smith, #NFDB
73:I was only 44, which is childhood philosophy. ~ Will Durant, #NFDB
74:Philosophy: a purple bullfinch in a lilac tree. ~ T S Eliot, #NFDB
75:Philosophy is the invention of the rich. ~ Vladimir Nabokov, #NFDB
76:Philosophy is the opposite of fairy tales ~ Jostein Gaarder, #NFDB
77:Abortion does not compute with my philosophy. ~ Kate Mulgrew, #NFDB
78:My philosophy is worry means you suffer twice. ~ J K Rowling, #NFDB
79:Philosophy is the science which considers truth. ~ Aristotle, #NFDB
80:Slow are the beginnings of philosophy. ~ Henry David Thoreau, #NFDB
81:All is well... That's my new philosophy... ~ Charles M Schulz, #NFDB
82:All philosophy is a form of confession. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche, #NFDB
83:Common sense is the folklore of philosophy. ~ Antonio Gramsci, #NFDB
84:I made art a philosophy, and philosophy an art. ~ Oscar Wilde, #NFDB
85:My personal philosophy of life is one of ethics ~ Alva Myrdal, #NFDB
86:My whole philosophy is about playing dress-up. ~ Brad Goreski, #NFDB
87:Parent hard, play hard. That's my philosophy. ~ Oliver Hudson, #NFDB
88:Philosophy is the product of wonder. ~ Alfred North Whitehead, #NFDB
89:Philosophy says truth, literature shows truth. ~ Peter Kreeft, #NFDB
90:Religion is the retarded stepchild of philosophy. ~ Frank Mir, #NFDB
91:Remain true to yourself and your philosophy. ~ Giorgio Armani, #NFDB
92:To scorn philosophy is truly to philosophize. ~ Blaise Pascal, #NFDB
93:Without philosophy, action has no meaning. ~ Sebastien Foucan, #NFDB
94:History is philosophy teaching by examples. ~ Thomas Jefferson, #NFDB
95:History is philosophy teaching by experience. ~ Thomas Carlyle, #NFDB
96:Our whole philosophy is one of transparency. ~ Valerie Jarrett, #NFDB
97:Pessimism is an emotion not a philosophy. ~ Immortal Technique, #NFDB
98:Poetry and philosophy will become friends. ~ Swami Vivekananda, #NFDB
99:To ridicule philosophy is truly philosophical. ~ Blaise Pascal, #NFDB
100:God — the John Doe of philosophy and religion. ~ Elbert Hubbard, #NFDB
101:I see I have made my self a slave to Philosophy. ~ Isaac Newton, #NFDB
102:My philosophy is worrying means you suffer twice. ~ J K Rowling, #NFDB
103:one generation is the philosophy of government ~ David Kupelian, #NFDB
104:Philosophy is to science as masturbation is to sex. ~ Karl Marx, #NFDB
105:that last word of human philosophy, “Perhaps! ~ Alexandre Dumas, #NFDB
106:There is always a philosophy for lack of courage ~ Albert Camus, #NFDB
107:But philosophy proper has become a place to hide... ~ N D Wilson, #NFDB
108:Computers brought philosophy into everyday life. ~ Sherry Turkle, #NFDB
109:es·se n. [PHILOSOPHY] essential nature or essence. ~ Erin McKean, #NFDB
110:friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art ~ C S Lewis, #NFDB
111:Leisure can be one of the Mothers of Philosophy. ~ Thomas Hobbes, #NFDB
112:My philosophy? I'm always right and you are wrong. ~ Oscar Wilde, #NFDB
113:Philosophy is not a theory but an activity ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein, #NFDB
114:Philosophy is surgery; surgery is philosophy. ~ David Cronenberg, #NFDB
115:Philosophy likes to keen common sense on the run. ~ Mason Cooley, #NFDB
116:There is always a philosophy for lack of courage. ~ Albert Camus, #NFDB
117:To win true freeedom you must be a slave to philosophy. ~ Seneca, #NFDB
118:Where philosophy ends spirituality begins. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #NFDB
119:Believe it or not, philosophy has consequences. ~ Jonathan V Last, #NFDB
120:I'm very passionate about philosophy and religion. ~ Helen Slater, #NFDB
121:I saw death come for you, and I had no philosophy. ~ Mary Renault, #NFDB
122:Philosophy is not a theory but an activity. ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein, #NFDB
123:Philosophy is the true mother of science. ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero, #NFDB
124:Philosophy, satan's portal into man's insanity. ~ Ibrahim Ibrahim, #NFDB
125:The first step towards philosophy is incredulity. ~ Denis Diderot, #NFDB
126:To ridicule philosophy is really to philosophize. ~ Blaise Pascal, #NFDB
127:Where there is no bread, there is no philosophy. ~ Avram Davidson, #NFDB
128:All philosophy lies in two words, sustain and abstain. ~ Epictetus, #NFDB
129:Isn't that an odd philosophy for a vampire? ~ Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, #NFDB
130:Making fun of philosophy is really philosophising. ~ Blaise Pascal, #NFDB
131:All philosophy lies in two words, sustain and abstain. ~ Epictetus, #NFDB
132:Every man has two vocations: his own and philosophy. ~ Edward Abbey, #NFDB
133:Go away, you give philosophy nothing to catch hold of. ~ Xenocrates, #NFDB
134:In philosophy an individual is becoming himself. ~ Bernard Lonergan, #NFDB
135:My philosophy is that worrying means you suffer twice ~ J K Rowling, #NFDB
136:Philosophy is really nostalgia, the desire to be at home. ~ Novalis, #NFDB
137:I don't exercise. My philosophy is: No pain, no pain. ~ Carol Leifer, #NFDB
138:Indeed heresies are themselves instigated by philosophy ~ Tertullian, #NFDB
139:My philosophy is that worrying means you suffer twice. ~ J K Rowling, #NFDB
140:My philosophy of dating is to just fart right away. ~ Jenny McCarthy, #NFDB
141:Paradox is the pathos or the passion of philosophy. ~ Gilles Deleuze, #NFDB
142:Philosophy is one reason which could lead to death. ~ Santosh Kalwar, #NFDB
143:That’s the underlying philosophy of Aoki Bootcamp: ~ Timothy Ferriss, #NFDB
144:What philosophy has lacked most of all is precision. ~ Henri Bergson, #NFDB
145:Wisdom corresponds to the future; it is philosophy. ~ Herbie Hancock, #NFDB
146:Faith and philosophy are air, but events are brass. ~ Herman Melville, #NFDB
147:My fashion philosophy is that if I like it, I wear it. ~ Nicky Hilton, #NFDB
148:Philosophy: circles that include one another. ~ Maurice Merleau Ponty, #NFDB
149:Philosophy is the acquisition of knowledge. ~ Plato, Euthydemus, 288d, #NFDB
150:Poetry contains philosophy as the soul contains reason. ~ Victor Hugo, #NFDB
151:Stay away from philosophy, kids: it will ruin your mind. ~ Rex Murphy, #NFDB
152:Geometry is one of the handles of science and philosophy. ~ Xenocrates, #NFDB
153:Good biology without good philosophy will be a calamity. ~ George Will, #NFDB
154:Good philosophy is always hate speech to evil doers. ~ Stefan Molyneux, #NFDB
155:Have a philosophy of investment and try to follow it. ~ Walter Schloss, #NFDB
156:If you want to silence me, silence philosophy, who is my love. ~ Plato, #NFDB
157:Intelligent design is a philosophy of ignorance. ~ Neil deGrasse Tyson, #NFDB
158:Passions destroy more prejudices than philosophy does. ~ Denis Diderot, #NFDB
159:A novel is never anything, but a philosophy put into images. ~ Jim Rohn, #NFDB
160:Every show is your last show. That's my philosophy. ~ Garrison Keillor, #NFDB
161:My basic philosophy is that no human being is a saint. ~ David Maraniss, #NFDB
162:Popular atheism is not a philosophy but a therapy. ~ David Bentley Hart, #NFDB
163:Skepticism is the first step on the road to philosophy. ~ Denis Diderot, #NFDB
164:The grandeur of a philosophy does not certify its truth. ~ Mason Cooley, #NFDB
165:The question of being is the darkest in all philosophy. ~ William James, #NFDB
166:To make light of philosophy is to be a true philosopher ~ Blaise Pascal, #NFDB
167:Art for art's sake is a philosophy of the well-fed. ~ Frank Lloyd Wright, #NFDB
168:In philosophy all truth is old and only error is original. ~ Will Durant, #NFDB
169:Making itself intelligible is suicide for philosophy. ~ Martin Heidegger, #NFDB
170:Philosophy as well as foppery often changes fashion. ~ Benjamin Franklin, #NFDB
171:Philosophy is the history of philosophy. ~ Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, #NFDB
172:Philosophy is the rational expression of genius. ~ Alphonse de Lamartine, #NFDB
173:Philosophy studies the world, but the point is to change it. ~ Karl Marx, #NFDB
174:The chief error in philosophy is overstatement. ~ Alfred North Whitehead, #NFDB
175:To make light of philosophy is to be a true philosopher. ~ Blaise Pascal, #NFDB
176:Children, viewed from one angle, are philosophy in motion. ~ Anthony Lane, #NFDB
177:I'm not into working out. My philosophy: No pain, no pain. ~ Carol Leifer, #NFDB
178:...is not all philosophy but preparation for a serene dying? ~ Gore Vidal, #NFDB
179:Let the ‘why not’ philosophy be your life principle! ~ Mehmet Murat ildan, #NFDB
180:Original philosophy is always "deviant" or even subversive. ~ Mario Bunge, #NFDB
181:Philosophy is an art form—art of thought or thought as art ~ Susan Sontag, #NFDB
182:Philosophy leads to death, sociology leads to suicide. ~ Jean Baudrillard, #NFDB
183:Philosophy means the complete liberty of the mind. ~ Henri Fr d ric Amiel, #NFDB
184:Philosophy means the complete liberty of the mind. ~ Henri Frederic Amiel, #NFDB
185:Philosophy starts with doubt and loves only truth. ~ Henri Frederic Amiel, #NFDB
186:Shall I tell you what philosophy holds out to humanity? Counsel. ~ Seneca, #NFDB
187:The current philosophy was that Buddha was a communist. ~ Colin Cotterill, #NFDB
188:The facts must rule philosophy, not philosophy the facts. ~ Philip Schaff, #NFDB
189:Too much philosophy makes men mad. ~ Alan Judd, The Noonday Devil (1987)., #NFDB
190:Your Philosophy of life shapes you more than anything else ~ Tony Robbins, #NFDB
191:Do not all charms fly / At the mere touch of cold philosophy? ~ John Keats, #NFDB
192:In the presence of death reason and philosophy are silent ~ Ambrose Bierce, #NFDB
193:I've always said fantasy is sort of 'stealth philosophy'. ~ Terry Goodkind, #NFDB
194:Marriage is a team effort. Both of us share that philosophy. ~ Nick Lachey, #NFDB
195:Mere unbelief in a personal God is no philosophy at all. ~ Albert Einstein, #NFDB
196:My philosophy all my life has been the pursuit of excellence. ~ John Kluge, #NFDB
197:My philosophy has always been it's good to learn everything. ~ Gene LeBell, #NFDB
198:My philosophy is that everything starts with a great product. ~ Steve Jobs, #NFDB
199:Not to care for philosophy is to be a true philospher. ~ Lord Chesterfield, #NFDB
200:Poetry is philosophy's sister, the one that wears makeup. ~ Jennifer Grotz, #NFDB
201:rhetoric was to be surveyed from the standpoint of philosophy. ~ Aristotle, #NFDB
202:The science of love is the philosophy of the heart ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero, #NFDB
203:True philosophy is beyond all the attacks of things. ~ Apollonius of Tyana, #NFDB
204:What is philosophy but a continual battle against custom? ~ Thomas Carlyle, #NFDB
205:You destroy my life then feed me inspirational philosophy. ~ Richelle Mead, #NFDB
206:A novel is never anything, but a philosophy put into images. ~ Albert Camus, #NFDB
207:Be a philosopher but, amid all your philosophy be still a man. ~ David Hume, #NFDB
208:Be a philosopher, but amid all your philosophy be still a man. ~ David Hume, #NFDB
209:Everything is science and everything is philosophy. ~ Maurice Merleau Ponty, #NFDB
210:Growth purely for its own sake is the philosophy of cancer. ~ Jasper Fforde, #NFDB
211:I don't attach importance to great speeches or philosophy. ~ Jacques Santer, #NFDB
212:I will not allow the Athenians to sin twice against philosophy. ~ Aristotle, #NFDB
213:Philosophy: Impersonal anxiety; refuge among anemic ideas. ~ Emile M Cioran, #NFDB
214:Philosophy is not a body of doctrine but an activity. ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein, #NFDB
215:Philosophy is true mother of the arts [of science]. ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero, #NFDB
216:Something always turned up. That was Tom's philosophy. ~ Patricia Highsmith, #NFDB
217:To have no time for philosophy is to be a true philosopher. ~ Blaise Pascal, #NFDB
218:Any philosophy that can be put in a nutshell belongs there. ~ Julian Baggini, #NFDB
219:As a comforter, philosophy cannot compete with a good dinner. ~ Mason Cooley, #NFDB
220:but philosophy at half-past ten at night is somewhat late; ~ Alexandre Dumas, #NFDB
221:But philosophy is an anestetic, a shot to keep the wonder away. ~ N D Wilson, #NFDB
222:For justice is a blunt knife, both as a philosophy and as a judge. ~ Jo Nesb, #NFDB
223:I'm someone who believes in centrist governing philosophy. ~ Scott McClellan, #NFDB
224:Induction is the glory of science and the scandal of philosophy. ~ C D Broad, #NFDB
225:Philosophy did not find Plato already a nobleman ; it made him one. ~ Seneca, #NFDB
226:Science fiction tends to be philosophy for stupid people. ~ Chuck Klosterman, #NFDB
227:Television is to news as bumperstickers are to philosophy. ~ Richard M Nixon, #NFDB
228:The band has a liberal philosophy - that's sort of a given. ~ Thurston Moore, #NFDB
229:An abundance of good friends does not lead to better philosophy . ~ Karl Marx, #NFDB
230:Any philosophy that can be put in a nutshell belongs there. ~ Sydney J Harris, #NFDB
231:It is easy to build a philosophy - it doesn't have to run ~ Charles Kettering, #NFDB
232:Philosophy is a distancing, if not debilitating, activity. ~ Michael J Sandel, #NFDB
233:Politics is opposed to morality, as philosophy to naïveté. ~ Emmanuel Levinas, #NFDB
234:There is no philosophy that is not to some extent also theology. ~ Karl Barth, #NFDB
235:Yoga is a way of life; it is an art, a science, a philosophy. ~ B K S Iyengar, #NFDB
236:All good moral philosophy is ... but the handmaid to religion. ~ Francis Bacon, #NFDB
237:Be a philosopher; but amidst all your philosophy, be still a man. ~ David Hume, #NFDB
238:I am now convinced that theoretical physics is actually philosophy. ~ Max Born, #NFDB
239:Philosophy is "an unusually stubborn attempt to think clearly. ~ William James, #NFDB
240:philosophy of Marcus Aurelius and some of the work of Seneca. ~ Robin S Sharma, #NFDB
241:Science is what you know, philosophy is what you don't know ~ Bertrand Russell, #NFDB
242:Be a philosopher; but, amidst all your philosophy, be still a man. ~ David Hume, #NFDB
243:Ethical and questions of philosophy interest me a great deal. ~ Robert Sheckley, #NFDB
244:Every man must find his own philosophy, his attitude towards life. ~ Lin Yutang, #NFDB
245:Every philosophy is the philosophy of some stage of life. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche, #NFDB
246:It is precisely in knowing its limits that philosophy consists. ~ Immanuel Kant, #NFDB
247:My philosophy is that the club is more important than anyone! ~ Gerard Houllier, #NFDB
248:Philosophy is really homesickness: the urge to be at home everywhere. ~ Novalis, #NFDB
249:Science is what you know, philosophy is what you don't know. ~ Bertrand Russell, #NFDB
250:The agenda of the roadblock is the philosophy of the stop sign. ~ George W Bush, #NFDB
251:The philosophy of one century is the common sense of the next. ~ David Schnarch, #NFDB
252:Your face is a billboard advertising your philosophy of life! ~ Barbara Johnson, #NFDB
253:Your income is directly related to your philosophy, NOT the economy. ~ Jim Rohn, #NFDB
254:Even if I am but a pretender to wisdom, that in itself is philosophy. ~ Diogenes, #NFDB
255:If you would enjoy real freedom, you must be the slave of Philosophy. ~ Epicurus, #NFDB
256:I have this philosophy that A and B students work for C students. ~ Kenny Troutt, #NFDB
257:Income is primarily determined by your philosophy, not by the economy ~ Jim Rohn, #NFDB
258:Music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy, ~ Caroline Mitchell, #NFDB
259:My music and lyrics became an extension of this Indian philosophy. ~ Gary Wright, #NFDB
260:My philosophy is very simple: when in doubt, take a bath. ~ Sarah Ban Breathnach, #NFDB
261:My philosophy is, worrying means you suffer twice - Newt Scamander ~ J K Rowling, #NFDB
262:philosophy is the discipline that involves creating concepts” . ~ Gilles Deleuze, #NFDB
263:Philosophy is to a thinker … what push-ups are to a model. ~ Mokokoma Mokhonoana, #NFDB
264:Rightly defined philosophy is simply the love of wisdom. ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero, #NFDB
265:Skepticism is a virtue in history as well as in philosophy. ~ Napoleon Bonaparte, #NFDB
266:Yoga began as a philosophy rather than as a physical discipline. ~ Deepak Chopra, #NFDB
267:Go is to Western chess what philosophy is to double-entry accounting. ~ Trevanian, #NFDB
268:If I had a philosophy, it's that I support the beautiful side of anarchy. ~ Bjork, #NFDB
269:I just swung for the fence. That's my whole philosophy in life. ~ Ronnie Van Zant, #NFDB
270:I think [ fashion philosophy] it's about your smile and your smell. ~ Erykah Badu, #NFDB
271:I think the Greeks invented sports as an antidote to philosophy. ~ Jack Nicholson, #NFDB
272:Philosophy limits the disputable sphere of natural science. ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein, #NFDB
273:Philosophy's greatest task is to enlarge our sense of possibility. ~ Susan Neiman, #NFDB
274:Science gives us knowledge, but only philosophy can give us wisdom. ~ Will Durant, #NFDB
275:Science is what we know, and philosophy is what we don't know. ~ Bertrand Russell, #NFDB
276:The difficulty in philosophy is to say no more than we know ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein, #NFDB
277:There are no free lunches in philosophy any more than in real life. ~ Jaegwon Kim, #NFDB
278:The spectacle does not realize philosophy, it philosophizes reality. ~ Guy Debord, #NFDB
279:To be nice to people and make them happy - that's my philosophy in life. ~ Hiromi, #NFDB
280:True philosophy entails relearning to see the world anew. ~ Maurice Merleau Ponty, #NFDB
281:But then of course a philosophy is not the same thing as a style. ~ Gertrude Stein, #NFDB
282:Composition is a way of living out your philosophy and calling it art. ~ Brian Eno, #NFDB
283:Everyone has his own philosophy that doesn't hold good for anybody else. ~ K b Abe, #NFDB
284:I got an A in philosophy because I proved my professor didn't exist. ~ Judy Tenuta, #NFDB
285:I have no philosophy, my favourite thing is sitting in the studio. ~ Arne Jacobsen, #NFDB
286:Jiu-Jitsu is like a philosophy. It helps me learn how to face life. ~ Helio Gracie, #NFDB
287:Josiah Royce wrote a book with the title The Philosophy of Loyalty. ~ Atul Gawande, #NFDB
288:My pitching philosophy is simple - keep the ball way from the bat. ~ Satchel Paige, #NFDB
289:Philosophy is properly home-sickness; the wish to be everywhere at home. ~ Novalis, #NFDB
290:Philosophy is the process of deliberate dumbing down of Science. ~ Ibrahim Ibrahim, #NFDB
291:Philosophy seems to me on the whole a rather hopeless business. ~ Bertrand Russell, #NFDB
292:Philosophy's work is finding the shortest path between two points. ~ Khalil Gibran, #NFDB
293:the damaging notion that obscure is the way philosophy should sound. ~ Clive James, #NFDB
294:The difficulty in philosophy is to say no more than we know. ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein, #NFDB
295:There is no muse of philosophy, nor is there one of translation. ~ Walter Benjamin, #NFDB
296:There is no philosophy without the art of ignoring objections. ~ Joseph de Maistre, #NFDB
297:There's a difference between a philosophy and a bumper sticker. ~ Charles M Schulz, #NFDB
298:The tragedy of contemporary philosophy is that it has been castrated. ~ Paul Kurtz, #NFDB
299:We account the Scriptures of God to be the most sublime philosophy. ~ Isaac Newton, #NFDB
300:Whence? wither? why? how? - these questions cover all philosophy. ~ Joseph Joubert, #NFDB
301:Wonder is the feeling of the philosopher, and philosophy begins in wonder. ~ Plato, #NFDB
302:Did you party too much and drop out?” “No, I got a philosophy degree. ~ Bobby Adair, #NFDB
303:Fools alone say that work and philosophy are different, not the learned ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
304:If I had followed the multitude, I should not have studied philosophy. ~ Chrysippus, #NFDB
305:...it requires all my philosophy, and all my piety' to make peace... ~ Sarah Vowell, #NFDB
306:Music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy. ~ Ludwig van Beethoven, #NFDB
307:My philosophy is the same as a Samurai: To hit without getting hit. ~ Lyoto Machida, #NFDB
308:Only the most perfect human being can design the most perfect philosophy. ~ Novalis, #NFDB
309:Philosophy: A route of many roads leading from nowhere to nothing. ~ Ambrose Bierce, #NFDB
310:Philosophy asks the simple question: What is it all about? ~ Alfred North Whitehead, #NFDB
311:Philosophy makes literature clear, literature makes philosophy real. ~ Peter Kreeft, #NFDB
312:Philosophy only seems to offer endless dispute, with no cakes and ale. ~ Keith Ward, #NFDB
313:Prepare for the worst, and pursue the fun: this was her philosophy ~ Meredith Duran, #NFDB
314:Superstition sets the whole world in flames, but philosophy douses them. ~ Voltaire, #NFDB
315:The business of philosophy is to circumnavigate human nature. ~ Julius Charles Hare, #NFDB
316:The hunger for facile wisdom is the root of all false philosophy ~ George Santayana, #NFDB
317:The philosophy of one century is the common sense of the next. ~ Henry Ward Beecher, #NFDB
318:Where did biology, morality, literature, and philosophy intersect? ~ Paul Kalanithi, #NFDB
319:Wonder is the feeling of a philosopher, and all philosophy begins in wonder ~ Plato, #NFDB
320:As long as I draw breath and am able, I won't give up practicing philosophy. ~ Plato, #NFDB
321:I believe that philosophy is part of literature, and not the reverse. ~ Paul Virilio, #NFDB
322:Maybe it's my libertarian philosophy: but being in government is hard. ~ John Bolton, #NFDB
323:My philosophy is: If you can't have fun, there's no sense in doing it. ~ Paul Walker, #NFDB
324:my philosophy is that worrying means you suffer twice - newt scamander ~ J K Rowling, #NFDB
325:Newt Scamander: My philosophy is that worrying means you suffer twice. ~ J K Rowling, #NFDB
326:Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; the philosophy is kindness. ~ Dalai Lama, #NFDB
327:Philosophy - A route of many roads leading from nowhere to nothing. ~ Ambrose Bierce, #NFDB
328:Philosophy limits the thinkable and therefore the unthinkable. ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein, #NFDB
329:The final arbitrator in philosophy is not how we think but what we do. ~ Ian Hacking, #NFDB
330:The hunger for facile wisdom is the root of all false philosophy. ~ George Santayana, #NFDB
331:The legacy of Greece to Western philosophy is Western philosophy. ~ Bertrand Russell, #NFDB
332:Economic disaster begins with a philosophy of doing less and wanting more. ~ Jim Rohn, #NFDB
333:Europe was created by history. America was created by philosophy. ~ Margaret Thatcher, #NFDB
334:Geometry will draw the soul toward truth and create the spirit of philosophy. ~ Plato, #NFDB
335:Heresy is just philosophy that the establishment doesn’t approve of, ~ Mary Jo Putney, #NFDB
336:I really wanted to maintain that bedroom philosophy to creating stuff. ~ Jamie Lidell, #NFDB
337:Mathematics is less related to accounting than it is to philosophy. ~ Leonard Adleman, #NFDB
338:My philosophy is that you sell things for more than you bought them. ~ Sophia Amoruso, #NFDB
339:Philosophy does not exist. It is nothing but an hypostatized abstraction. ~ R D Laing, #NFDB
340:Philosophy is a state of fermentation a process without final outcome. ~ Esa Saarinen, #NFDB
341:Philosophy ought really to be written only as a form of poetry. ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein, #NFDB
342:Things bring their own philosophy with them, that is, prudence. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, #NFDB
343:But Aristotle's philosophy was the intellect's Declaration of Independence. ~ Ayn Rand, #NFDB
344:He who despises painting has no love for the philosophy in nature. ~ Leonardo da Vinci, #NFDB
345:I have a new philosophy. I'm only going to dread one day at a time. ~ Charles M Schulz, #NFDB
346:I like to think that death gives life meaning. I like that philosophy. ~ Kirsten Dunst, #NFDB
347:More things in heaven and earth than are dreamed of in your philosophy, ~ Stephen King, #NFDB
348:My philosophy is that worrying means you suffer twice." - Newt Scamander ~ J K Rowling, #NFDB
349:My philosophy of life can be summed up in four words: It can't be helped. ~ Will Cuppy, #NFDB
350:Philosophy can only be approached with the most concrete comprehension. ~ Karl Jaspers, #NFDB
351:Philosophy can't build bridges, but can encourage people to cross them. ~ Paulo Coelho, #NFDB
352:Philosophy is an unusually ingenious attempt to think fallaciously. ~ Bertrand Russell, #NFDB
353:Philosophy set knowledge adrift; physics anchored knowledge to reality. ~ James Gleick, #NFDB
354:Philosophy teaches us to bear with equanimity the misfortunes of others. ~ Oscar Wilde, #NFDB
355:Those who lack the courage will always find a philosophy to justify it. ~ Albert Camus, #NFDB
356:what Shakespeare was to the drama of England, Plato was to ancient philosophy, ~ Plato, #NFDB
357:Without philosophy, history is always for me dead and dumb. ~ Ferdinand Christian Baur, #NFDB
358:You can't better the world by simply talking to it. Philosophy ~ R Buckminster Fuller, #NFDB
359:Hinduism the perennial philosophy that is at the core of all religions. ~ Aldous Huxley, #NFDB
360:I believe strongly that philosophy has nothing to do with specialists. ~ Gilles Deleuze, #NFDB
361:I have the general philosophy of creating the future you want to see. ~ Peter Diamandis, #NFDB
362:Look, my philosophy in life is expect nothing and everything is a bonus. ~ Hugh Jackman, #NFDB
363:My philosophy, like color television, is all there in black and white. ~ Graham Chapman, #NFDB
364:Philosophy is good advice; and no one can give advice at the top of his lungs. ~ Seneca, #NFDB
365:Philosophy is the outcome of human weakness or limitation of knowledge". ~ Bhagat Singh, #NFDB
366:Philosophy, to be relevant, must offer us a wisdom to live by. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel, #NFDB
367:Reason in my philosophy is only a harmony among irrational impulses. ~ George Santayana, #NFDB
368:Science never makes an advance until philosophy authorizes it to do so. ~ Thomas E Mann, #NFDB
369:The bosom-weight, your stubborn gift, That no philosophy can lift. ~ William Wordsworth, #NFDB
370:The object of philosophy is the logical clarification of thought. ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein, #NFDB
371:There are nowadays professors of philosophy, but not philosophers ~ Henry David Thoreau, #NFDB
372:This so-called contemporary art is not a form, but a philosophy of society. ~ Ai Weiwei, #NFDB
373:You know, you have to have some inner philosophy to deal with adversity. ~ Kirk Douglas, #NFDB
374:All human philosophy is riddled with the nightmare of searching in vain. ~ Wilhelm Reich, #NFDB
375:Identify the dominant philosophy of a society and you can predict its future. ~ Ayn Rand, #NFDB
376:If you want to amend your errors, you must begin by amending your philosophy. ~ Jim Rohn, #NFDB
377:I have a new philosophy. I only dread one day at a time. —Charlie Brown ~ Edward T Welch, #NFDB
378:In the Art, Science, Philosophy and Mystic rests the temple of Wisdom. ~ Samael Aun Weor, #NFDB
379:Music is ... A higher revelation than all Wisdom & Philosophy ~ Ludwig van Beethoven, #NFDB
380:My philosophy is: Everybody needs to look out for everybody else. ~ Robert James Thomson, #NFDB
381:Philosophy is the replacement of category-habits by category-disciplines. ~ Gilbert Ryle, #NFDB
382:Should philosophy guide experiments, or should experiments guide philosophy? ~ Liu Cixin, #NFDB
383:The advantages of philosophy? That I am able to hold converse with myself. ~ Antisthenes, #NFDB
384:There are nowadays professors of philosophy, but not philosophers. ~ Henry David Thoreau, #NFDB
385:There is more wisdom in your body than in your deepest philosophy. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche, #NFDB
386:To study philosophy is nothing but to prepare one’s self to die. ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero, #NFDB
387:What is philosophy? It is something that lightens up, that makes bright. ~ Victor Cousin, #NFDB
388:why did rail journeys always provoke interior monologues of philosophy? ~ Alex Rosenberg, #NFDB
389:You may be a genius engineer, but I took Intro to Philosophy and got a B + ~ Audrey Bell, #NFDB
390:a grand goal in living is the first component of a philosophy of life. ~ William B Irvine, #NFDB
391:Bader's philosophy was my philosophy. His whole attitude to life was mine. ~ Kenneth More, #NFDB
392:If philosophy begins in wonder, pedagogy typically begins in frustration. ~ Lee S Shulman, #NFDB
393:Initial response illustrates a great deal about someone's personal philosophy. ~ Jim Rohn, #NFDB
394:In the presence of death, no philosophy of life can feel triumphant! ~ Mehmet Murat ildan, #NFDB
395:Let no one delay the study of philosophy while young nor weary of it when old. ~ Epicurus, #NFDB
396:literature is not conceivable without philosophy or the other way round ~ Thomas Bernhard, #NFDB
397:My philosophy has always been, you don't put your name in front of a movie. ~ Lee Daniels, #NFDB
398:Philosophy and Art both render the invisible visible by imagination. ~ George Henry Lewes, #NFDB
399:Remember: philosophy requires
only what your nature already demands. ~ Marcus Aurelius,#NFDB
400:The love of all-inclusiveness is as dangerous in philosophy as in art. ~ George Santayana, #NFDB
401:There is no real philosophy until the mind turns round and examines itself. ~ Will Durant, #NFDB
402:The sole remaining task for philosophy is the analysis of language. ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein, #NFDB
403:Truth is the object of philosophy, but not always of philosophers. ~ John Churton Collins, #NFDB
404:A bottle of wine contains more philosophy than all the books in the world. ~ Louis Pasteur, #NFDB
405:A new philosophy generally means in practice the praise of some old vice. ~ G K Chesterton, #NFDB
406:Aphorisms are the true form of the universal philosophy. ~ Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel, #NFDB
407:Deeds of endurance, which seem ordinary in philosophy, are rare in conduct. ~ Thomas Hardy, #NFDB
408:My interest in political philosophy was rather casual until I met Hayek. ~ Milton Friedman, #NFDB
409:My teaching is not a philosophy. It is the result of direct experience... ~ Gautama Buddha, #NFDB
410:Natural philosophy is the genius that has regulated my fate. ~ Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, #NFDB
411:philosophy is not suited for the masses, what they need is holiness. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche, #NFDB
412:Singing is my main goal, and I think philosophy will help me write songs. ~ Jackie Evancho, #NFDB
413:There is no real philosophy until the mind turns around and examines itself. ~ Will Durant, #NFDB
414:Adopt a new philosophy of cooperation (win-win) in which everybody wins. ~ W Edwards Deming, #NFDB
415:Existentialism is the kind of philosophy that makes for legendary children. ~ Norman Mailer, #NFDB
416:Extreme liberalism is not a political philosophy. It is a mental disorder. ~ Michael Savage, #NFDB
417:For axioms in philosophy are not axioms until they are proved upon our pulses. ~ John Keats, #NFDB
418:For two cents the voter buys his politics, prejudices, and philosophy. ~ F Scott Fitzgerald, #NFDB
419:God’s philosophy is simpler than the simplest: “Never give up, never give up! ~ Sri Chinmoy, #NFDB
420:Her philosophy is carpe diem for herself and laissez faire for others. ~ F Scott Fitzgerald, #NFDB
421:I think the Playboy philosophy is very, very connected to the American dream. ~ Hugh Hefner, #NFDB
422:Medicine rests upon four pillars - philosophy, astronomy, alchemy, and ethics. ~ Paracelsus, #NFDB
423:Philosophy, as the modern world knows it, is only intellectual club-swinging. ~ H L Mencken, #NFDB
424:Philosophy is as far separated from impiety as religion is from fanaticism. ~ Denis Diderot, #NFDB
425:Philosophy is overwhelmingly complicated, its procedure depressingly slow. ~ Max Horkheimer, #NFDB
426:Real philosophy seeks rather to solve than to deny. ~ Edward Bulwer Lytton 1st Baron Lytton, #NFDB
427:Deutschland über alles - I fear that was the end of German Philosophy. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche, #NFDB
428:For every un-universe, then, an un-philosophy that must also negate itself. ~ Eugene Thacker, #NFDB
429:In the world today, only a philosophy of eternity could justify non-violence. ~ Albert Camus, #NFDB
430:It has been my philosophy of life that difficulties vanish when faced boldly. ~ Isaac Asimov, #NFDB
431:Learning philosophy is learning a particular kind of intuitive understanding. ~ Iris Murdoch, #NFDB
432:My mind was formed by studying philosophy, Plato and that sort of thing. ~ Werner Heisenberg, #NFDB
433:Philosophy is the sum total of all that you know and what you decide is valuable. ~ Jim Rohn, #NFDB
434:Poetry implies the whole truth. Philosophy expresses a particle of it. ~ Henry David Thoreau, #NFDB
435:Prayer is to religion what thinking is to philosophy. To pray is to make religion. ~ Novalis, #NFDB
436:Should philosophy guide experiments, or should experiments guide philosophy?” Ye ~ Liu Cixin, #NFDB
437:The beginning of philosophy is the recognition of the conflict between opinions. ~ Epictetus, #NFDB
438:The ideas within this philosophy are certainly not exclusive to any writer. ~ Nic Pizzolatto, #NFDB
439:There is nothing in philosophy which could not be said in everyday language. ~ Henri Bergson, #NFDB
440:Think small.... If you can't think small, try philosophy or social criticism. ~ Richard Hugo, #NFDB
441:Trump himself has reduced his life philosophy to a single word—revenge. ~ David Cay Johnston, #NFDB
442:When people ask me what philosophy is, I say philosophy is what you do when ~ Daniel Dennett, #NFDB
443:Always marveling at how New Age pseudo-philosophy had taken over the Internet. ~ Jeff Lindsay, #NFDB
444:In philosophy if you aren't moving at a snail's pace you aren't moving at all. ~ Iris Murdoch, #NFDB
445:I take happiness very seriously. It is a creed, a philosophy and an objective. ~ Helen Keller, #NFDB
446:It seemed too good to be true and thus, be human philosophy, clearly false. ~ Stephenie Meyer, #NFDB
447:Know the philosophy, know the details, and ignore everything in the middle. ~ Gary Vaynerchuk, #NFDB
448:Man is fortunately inconsistent. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, Materialism, #NFDB
449:My philosophy in life is that you only live once. Live life to its fullest. ~ Richard Branson, #NFDB
450:My philosophy was if they weren't calling you names, you weren't doing anything. ~ Earl Lloyd, #NFDB
451:My relationship with Barack Obama isn't based on my political philosophy or his. ~ Tom Coburn, #NFDB
452:Never trust people that like to call things by initials, that's my philosophy. ~ Tad Williams, #NFDB
453:One may summon his philosophy when they are beaten in battle, not till then. ~ John Burroughs, #NFDB
454:Only then, approaching my fortieth birthday, I made philosophy my life's work. ~ Karl Jaspers, #NFDB
455:Philosophy is, in the last instance, class struggle in the field of theory. ~ Louis Althusser, #NFDB
456:Philosophy which asserts that human experience repeats itself is ineffectual. ~ Jacques Ellul, #NFDB
457:the bold sensualist will use the name of philosophy to gild his crimes. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, #NFDB
458:The old harlot, German philosophy, has finally turned into a church lady. ~ Franz Grillparzer, #NFDB
459:Those who love seek a philosophy and, because of this, are fond of solitude. ~ Eiji Yoshikawa, #NFDB
460:True philosophy invents nothing; it merely establishes and describes what is. ~ Victor Cousin, #NFDB
461:A little philosophy makes a man an Atheist: a great deal converts him to religion ~ David Hume, #NFDB
462:A man of business may talk of philosophy; a man who has none may practice it. ~ Alexander Pope, #NFDB
463:Don’t buy anything. My philosophy is, if it flies, floats, or fucks, rent it. ~ Nelson DeMille, #NFDB
464:God save me from fools with a little philosophy—no one is more difficult to reach. ~ Epictetus, #NFDB
465:I don't think there is any philosophy that suggests having polio is a good thing. ~ Bill Gates, #NFDB
466:I gotta think that one that becomes a philosophy of work, which is "no excuses." ~ Phil Ramone, #NFDB
467:I have a social philosophy; you have political opinions; he has an ideology. ~ Clifford Geertz, #NFDB
468:It is quite true what philosophy says; that life must be understood backwards. ~ Megan Miranda, #NFDB
469:Let that ethical philosophy therefore of free-will be far from a Christian mind. ~ John Calvin, #NFDB
470:Philosophy cannot be taught; it is the application of the sciences to truth. ~ Alexandre Dumas, #NFDB
471:Philosophy has a fine saying for everything.-For Death it has an entire set. ~ Laurence Sterne, #NFDB
472:Philosophy is a root of science. Science is a branch of a philosophical tree. ~ Santosh Kalwar, #NFDB
473:Philosophy is at once the most sublime and the most trivial of human pursuits. ~ William James, #NFDB
474:Philosophy seeks to explain life and portray how life should be lived ~ Ernest Agyemang Yeboah, #NFDB
475:Plato's Symposium shows that flirtation and philosophy can further one another. ~ Mason Cooley, #NFDB
476:Pragmatism is an intellectually safe but ultimately sterile philosophy. ~ J Robert Oppenheimer, #NFDB
477:Religion realizes philosophy by adapting it to the weaknesses of the vulgar.... ~ liphas L vi, #NFDB
478:The gems of philosophy are not less precious because they are not understood. ~ Giordano Bruno, #NFDB
479:To be deprived of art and left alone with philosophy is to be close to Hell. ~ Igor Stravinsky, #NFDB
480:When you adopt a tool you adopt the management philosophy embedded in that tool. ~ Clay Shirky, #NFDB
481:All that philosophy can teach is to be stubborn or sullen under misfortunes. ~ Oliver Goldsmith, #NFDB
482:[ ] dreams provide rare insights into their philosophy about life and money [ ] ~ Matthew Kelly, #NFDB
483:Genuine philosophical problems are always rooted outside philosophy and ~ Nassim Nicholas Taleb, #NFDB
484:It is a great advantage for a system of philosophy to be substantially true. ~ George Santayana, #NFDB
485:Men were first led to the study of philosophy, as indeed they are today, by wonder. ~ Aristotle, #NFDB
486:Philosophy is like a normal personal organizer, but it's smaller than a matchbox. ~ Oscar Wilde, #NFDB
487:Philosophy suffered more from modernity than any other field of human endeavor. ~ Hannah Arendt, #NFDB
488:Philosophy wants us to get ourselves out of trouble by utilising our own resources, ~ Luc Ferry, #NFDB
489:Philosophy would render us entirely Pyrrhonian, were not nature too strong for it. ~ David Hume, #NFDB
490:Plato's philosophy is a dignified preface to future religion. ~ Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel, #NFDB
491:Science asks what and how, philosophy asks why, myth and religion ask who. Who’s ~ Peter Kreeft, #NFDB
492:Taoist philosophy, “Rest is prior to motion and stillness prior to action. ~ Arianna Huffington, #NFDB
493:The creative mind is the playful mind. Philosophy is the play and dance of ideas. ~ Eric Hoffer, #NFDB
494:The Nordstrom corollary to that philosophy is hire the smile, train the skill. ~ Robert Spector, #NFDB
495:The only philosophy is that of language, the only religion is that of the word. ~ Michel Serres, #NFDB
496:The philosophy to 'buy and hold' is a philosophy that I use to manage funds. ~ Michael Lee Chin, #NFDB
497:There are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy ~ Julia Gregson, #NFDB
498:The topic of philosophy is whatever you experience, as you experience it. Such ~ Sarah Bakewell, #NFDB
499:We call it drunk philosophy. You have a few beers and you become a lot smarter. ~ Kenny Chesney, #NFDB
500:We can lead people to the well of philosophy, but we can’t force them to think. T ~ Jules Evans, #NFDB
501:A new philosophy generally means in practice the praise of some old vice. ~ Gilbert K Chesterton, #NFDB
502:A wise man once said, never discuss philosophy or politics in a disco environment. ~ Frank Zappa, #NFDB
503:Every day, I read books on philosophy and science fiction and human consciousness. ~ Tom DeLonge, #NFDB
504:I'm a philosophy major. That means I can think deep thoughts about being unemployed. ~ Bruce Lee, #NFDB
505:More wisdom is contained in the best
crime fiction than in philosophy. ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein,#NFDB
506:My philosophy is to enjoy yourself. Do the things you want to do, like play golf! ~ Phil Daniels, #NFDB
507:Philosophy began when man ate the produce of the earth and suffered indigestion. ~ Khalil Gibran, #NFDB
508:Philosophy is life's dry-nurse, who can take care of us - but not suckle us. ~ Soren Kierkegaard, #NFDB
509:Philosophy ... must not bargain away anything of the emphatic concept of truth. ~ Theodor Adorno, #NFDB
510:Philosophy's power to blunt all the blows of circumstance is beyond belief. ~ Seneca the Younger, #NFDB
511:Sorry, I was a philosophy major, so nutjob cultist is the only job I can hold. ~ Brian Clevinger, #NFDB
512:The philosophy of waiting is sustained by all the oracles of the universe. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, #NFDB
513:Wonder is the feeling of a philosopher, and philosophy begins in wonder. ~ Plato Theaetetus, 155, #NFDB
514:Between blasts she resorted to Epictetian philosophy in the form of pepsin chewing gum. ~ O Henry, #NFDB
515:Daisy wore a clingy black dress with a neckline so deep it could tutor philosophy. ~ Harlan Coben, #NFDB
516:Do all the work you can; that is the whole philosophy of the good way of life. ~ Eugene Delacroix, #NFDB
517:Hey, you wanna hear my philosophy of life? Do it to him before he does it to you. ~ Marlon Brando, #NFDB
518:I adhere to the philosophy, "I don't care who writes the laws, let me write the songs." ~ Chuck D, #NFDB
519:I do not know how to teach philosophy without becoming a disturber of the peace. ~ Baruch Spinoza, #NFDB
520:My fashion philosophy is, if you're not covered in dog hair, your life is empty. ~ Elayne Boosler, #NFDB
521:My philosophy is simple: It's a down-home, common, horse-sense approach to things. ~ Dolly Parton, #NFDB
522:My philosophy is TRUTH unto me. Through expressing my individuality I become free. ~ Stuart Wilde, #NFDB
523:One has only as much morality as one has philosophy and poetry. ~ Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel, #NFDB
524:Religion deals in certainties and philosophy deals more in un-answered questions. ~ Steve Hackett, #NFDB
525:Studying philosophy instills modesty and straightforwardness in your character. ~ Marcus Aurelius, #NFDB
526:There's no one way to dance. And that's kind of my philosophy about everything. ~ Ellen DeGeneres, #NFDB
527:You need your own philosophy for integrating deep work into your professional life. ~ Cal Newport, #NFDB
528:A church was only as good or bad as the philosophy that emanated from the pulpit. ~ Erika Johansen, #NFDB
529:I do not know how to teach philosophy without becoming a disturber of the peace. ~ Baruch Spinoza, #NFDB
530:In Russia there is no philosophy, but philosophize everything, even the small fry. ~ Anton Chekhov, #NFDB
531:I once heard philosophy defined as ‘the study of things that no one understands. ~ E William Brown, #NFDB
532:I want to build up my philosophy... my philosophy with kung fu is to respect people. ~ Jackie Chan, #NFDB
533:Philosophy becomes poetry, and science imagination, in the enthusiasm of genius. ~ Isaac D Israeli, #NFDB
534:Philosophy insists that there is a joy which is absolute, which never changes. ~ Swami Vivekananda, #NFDB
535:Philosophy is transcendental homelessness; it is the urge to be at home everywhere ~ Gyorgy Lukacs, #NFDB
536:Philosophy teaches how man thinks he thinks; but drinking shows how he really thinks. ~ Ren Daumal, #NFDB
537:the power of philosophy floats through my head.. light like a feather, heavy as lead. ~ Bob Marley, #NFDB
538:There's more philosophy in jiu-jitsu mats than in any Ivy League school in America. ~ Renzo Gracie, #NFDB
539:We're all in this together is a far better philosophy than you're on your own. ~ William J Clinton, #NFDB
540:Without philosophy man cannot know what he makes; without religion he cannot know why. ~ Eric Gill, #NFDB
541:Your personal philosophy is the greatest determining factor in how your life works out. ~ Jim Rohn, #NFDB
542:During a wise man's whole life, his destiny holds his philosophy in a state of siege. ~ Victor Hugo, #NFDB
543:Empiricist philosophy always tends to be anti-philosophy (and is often proud of it). ~ Allen W Wood, #NFDB
544:I bought some books in order to learn the first principles of philosophy. ~ Johann Heinrich Lambert, #NFDB
545:I suppose philosophy is historically not a woman's game, though that is changing. ~ Robert M Pirsig, #NFDB
546:Living with less is a life philosophy; it’s not about the number of things you own. ~ Tammy Strobel, #NFDB
547:My personal philosophy is I'm running a 100-yard dash, and I haven't reached the end. ~ Bill Kurtis, #NFDB
548:My philosophy is: It's none of my business what people say of me and think of me. ~ Anthony Hopkins, #NFDB
549:My philosophy is this: Life is too short to work another minute at a job you don’t love. ~ J R Rain, #NFDB
550:My philosophy is very simple. To feel young, you must work as long as you can. ~ Dino De Laurentiis, #NFDB
551:Of your philosophy you make no use,
If you give place to accidental evils. ~ William Shakespeare,#NFDB
552:Philosophy's true use - "An operating system for life's difficulties and hardships". ~ Ryan Holiday, #NFDB
553:Philosophy teaches how man thinks he thinks; but drinking shows how he really thinks. ~ Rene Daumal, #NFDB
554:The basically simple things are best, whether it's automobiles or diets or philosophy. ~ Henry Ford, #NFDB
555:The chief danger to philosophy is narrowness in the selection of evidence. ~ Alfred North Whitehead, #NFDB
556:We are not called to proclaim philosophy and metaphysics, but the simple gospel. ~ Charles Spurgeon, #NFDB
557:We come late, if at all, to wine and philosophy: whiskey and action are easier. ~ Mignon McLaughlin, #NFDB
558:What sort of philosophy one chooses depends on what sort of person one is. ~ Johann Gottlieb Fichte, #NFDB
559:What we learn from experience depends on the kind of philosophy we bring to experience. ~ C S Lewis, #NFDB
560:Doing philosophy is only a threefold or double kind of waking--being awake--consciousness. ~ Novalis, #NFDB
561:Feeling in the young precedes philosophy, and often acts with a more certain aim. ~ William Carleton, #NFDB
562:Finding bad reasons for what one believes for other bad reasons - that's philosophy. ~ Aldous Huxley, #NFDB
563:'Freedom from fear' could be said to sum up the whole philosophy of human rights. ~ Dag Hammarskjold, #NFDB
564:I have some intellectual-type pursuits, like studying philosophy and stuff like that. ~ Van Morrison, #NFDB
565:in the East al-Rashid and al-Mamun were delving into Greek and Persian philosophy, ~ Steven Weinberg, #NFDB
566:I remain instinctively hostile to communitarian philosophy and communitarian politics. ~ Amartya Sen, #NFDB
567:It is a proof of philosophical mediocrity, today, to look for a philosophy. ~ Pierre Joseph Proudhon, #NFDB
568:Life is a gift of the immortal Gods, but living well is the gift of philosophy. ~ Seneca the Younger, #NFDB
569:Philosophy, while it soothes the reason, damps the ambition. ~ Edward Bulwer Lytton 1st Baron Lytton, #NFDB
570:Sometimes, in doing philosophy, one just wants to utter an inarticulate sound. ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein, #NFDB
571:The object of studying philosophy is to know one's own mind, not other peoples. ~ William Ralph Inge, #NFDB
572:The perfect man is a divine child! ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, Heraclitus - VII, #NFDB
573:This is my philosophy: I prefer to stay out of the public eye. I love freedom. ~ Bidzina Ivanishvili, #NFDB
574:To create happiness for oneself and others is the whole philosophy of religion. ~ Hazrat Inayat Khan, #NFDB
575:True philosophy consists in relearning to look at the world. Maurice Merleau-Ponty ~ Simon Critchley, #NFDB
576:What is your aim in philosophy? To show the fly the way out of the fly-bottle. ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein, #NFDB
577:A philosophy untouched by the shadows on the wall can only yield a sterile utopia. ~ Michael J Sandel, #NFDB
578:Dzin philosophy insisted that true ignorance was far superior to shallow knowledge. ~ L E Modesitt Jr, #NFDB
579:It's a kind of philosophy of my own life, to create the energy enough to keep on going. ~ Ernie Banks, #NFDB
580:My old man had a philosophy: peace means having a bigger stick than the other guy. ~ Robert Downey Jr, #NFDB
581:Philosophy is good advice, and no one gives good advice at the top of his lungs. ~ Seneca the Younger, #NFDB
582:Philosophy is the stray camel of the Faithful, take hold of it wherever ye come across it ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
583:Rock is a great master of life. It teaches us this simple philosophy: Stay firm! ~ Mehmet Murat ildan, #NFDB
584:SAMO as an end to to mindwash religion, nowhere politics and bogus philosophy. ~ Jean Michel Basquiat, #NFDB
585:Small amounts of philosophy lead to atheism, but larger amounts bring us back to God. ~ Francis Bacon, #NFDB
586:there are the learners and the learned. Memory makes the one, philosophy the other. ~ Alexandre Dumas, #NFDB
587:The Yogi Philosophy teaches that Man has always lived and always will live. ~ William Walker Atkinson, #NFDB
588:Thoreau’s philosophy: If you read about one train wreck, you’ve read about them all. ~ Nelson DeMille, #NFDB
589:Truth as such is not a particularly important concept in naturalistic philosophy. ~ Phillip E Johnson, #NFDB
590:Your philosophy determines whether you will go for the disciplines or continue the errors. ~ Jim Rohn, #NFDB
591:About no subject is there less philosophizing than about philosophy. ~ Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel, #NFDB
592:Do not confuse manners for kindness. - STRONG: Powerful Philosophy for Timeless Thoughts. ~ Kailin Gow, #NFDB
593:I do not believe that what one gives to the sciences is taken from philosophy. ~ Maurice Merleau Ponty, #NFDB
594:In the last stage of civilization, Poetry, Religion, and Philosophy will be one. ~ Henry David Thoreau, #NFDB
595:Let us not pretend to doubt in philosophy what we do not doubt in our hearts. ~ Charles Sanders Peirce, #NFDB
596:My chief 'success philosophy' is, 'Give people every opportunity to say "Yes" to you'. ~ Robert Holden, #NFDB
597:My philosophy? Have a laugh for as long as you can and don't get run over. Or stabbed. ~ Ricky Gervais, #NFDB
598:Odd how food and water and a clean body—and a few moments of rest—lead me into philosophy. ~ Greg Bear, #NFDB
599:One can say without exaggeration that Descartes was the father of modern philosophy. ~ Jostein Gaarder, #NFDB
600:Only human beings can reorder their lives any day they choose by refining their philosophy. ~ Jim Rohn, #NFDB
601:Philosophy first constructs a scheme of happiness and then tries to fit the world to it. ~ H L Mencken, #NFDB
602:Philosophy, in its very diachrony, is the consciousness of the breakup of consciousness. ~ John Zerzan, #NFDB
603:Philosophy is a will to confront human artifice with its outside, with Nature. ~ Maurice Merleau Ponty, #NFDB
604:Philosophy is tested and characterised by the way in which it appropriates its history. ~ Karl Jaspers, #NFDB
605:Philosophy of science is about as useful to scientists as ornithology is to birds. ~ Richard P Feynman, #NFDB
606:Real philosophy is like trying to read an alarm system installation manual in Korean. ~ Chris Hardwick, #NFDB
607:The mind pre-eminently is man; ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, Perfection of the Body, #NFDB
608:There are — how do you say — things in this world our philosophy cannot account for. ~ Haruki Murakami, #NFDB
609:[This philosophy] … is antagonistic to minds perverted and crippled by a superhuman ~ Ludwig Feuerbach, #NFDB
610:This sense of wonder is the mark of the philosopher. Philosophy indeed has no other origin. ~ Socrates, #NFDB
611:We need a philosophy for mature adults, not fables and false consolations for children. ~ Hiram Crespo, #NFDB
612:A great philosophy is not a philosophy without reproach; it is philosophy without fear. ~ Charles Peguy, #NFDB
613:Democritus is studying philosophy here at Athens. This means that he delights in quarrels. ~ Gore Vidal, #NFDB
614:History is philosophy teaching by example and also by warning. ~ Henry St John 1st Viscount Bolingbroke, #NFDB
615:I am too good for philosophy and not good enough for physics. Mathematics is in between. ~ George Polya, #NFDB
616:In my view all salvation for philosophy may be expected to come from Darwin's theory ~ Ludwig Boltzmann, #NFDB
617:It's the Platonic philosophy in The Republic that philosophers should lead the country. ~ Alan Lightman, #NFDB
618:Leisure is the mother of philosophy; and commonwealth, the mother of peace and leisure. ~ Thomas Hobbes, #NFDB
619:...[P]hysics... [is] the philosophy of nature, so far as it is based on empirical laws. ~ Immanuel Kant, #NFDB
620:proper task of philosophy is to remind ourselves of what we already know to be true: ~ Bertrand Russell, #NFDB
621:The philosophy of the discoveries, the emigration, and the colonisation was Christianity. ~ Hugh Thomas, #NFDB
622:There is more things in heaven and earth...than are dreamt of by your philosophy. ~ William Shakespeare, #NFDB
623:There is no heresy or no philosophy which is so abhorrent to the church as a human being. ~ James Joyce, #NFDB
624:This same philosophy is a good horse in the stable, but an arrant jade on a journey. ~ Oliver Goldsmith, #NFDB
625:Truth in philosophy means that concept and external reality correspond. ~ Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, #NFDB
626:Well, thinking about what’s not supposed to require thinking, that is philosophy, no? ~ Samuel R Delany, #NFDB
627:I don't discuss basketball. I dictate basketball. I'm not interested in philosophy classes. ~ Al McGuire, #NFDB
628:In philosophy, as in politics, the longest distance between two points is a straight line. ~ Will Durant, #NFDB
629:I practice Buddhist philosophy and contemplation but I don't know if I'm more of anything. ~ Goldie Hawn, #NFDB
630:Liberation is self-possession, ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, Involution and Evolution, #NFDB
631:Nietzsche: A poet with a philosophy. A system without a method. A mustache with a man. ~ Eric Jarosinski, #NFDB
632:Philosophy ... bears witness to the deepest love of reflection, to absolute delight in wisdom. ~ Novalis, #NFDB
633:Philosophy, however, is for the few, whereas poetry is more useful to the people at large. ~ Will Durant, #NFDB
634:Philosophy is not best expressed in words; it is expressed in the choices one makes. ~ Eleanor Roosevelt, #NFDB
635:philosophy was that death should not be embarrassing; he was not about to powder its nose. ~ Mitch Albom, #NFDB
636:The intricacies of spiritual philosophy and theologies are just a thought within Emptiness. ~ Adyashanti, #NFDB
637:There are more things in heaven and earth...than are dreamt of by your philosophy. ~ William Shakespeare, #NFDB
638:What is your aim in Philosophy?”
“To show the fly the way out of the fly-bottle ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein,#NFDB
639:Again, both literature and philosophy work by appealing to certain reigning idols. ~ Morris Raphael Cohen, #NFDB
640:Always be polite to possible murderers: that was the twenty-four-hour-shopping philosophy. ~ Kate Griffin, #NFDB
641:Broaden your vision, and maintain stability while advancing forward. That is my philosophy. ~ Li Ka shing, #NFDB
642:Every religion, every philosophy, every individual outlook on life tells a story of reality. ~ Greg Koukl, #NFDB
643:From the very beginning, existentialism defined itself as a philosophy of ambiguity. ~ Simone de Beauvoir, #NFDB
644:If this is philosophy it is at any rate a philosophy that is not in its right mind. ~ Georg C Lichtenberg, #NFDB
645:In its youth a people produce mythology and poetry; in its decadence, philosophy and logic. ~ Will Durant, #NFDB
646:Live in the fields, and God will give you lectures on natural philosophy every day. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, #NFDB
647:My philosophy in life is, Decide what you want to do. You have to have something to hope for. ~ Lou Holtz, #NFDB
648:Philosophy makes progress not by becoming more rigorous but by becoming more imaginative. ~ Richard Rorty, #NFDB
649:The philosophy that I've embraced isn't about sitting under a tree and studying my navel. ~ Orlando Bloom, #NFDB
650:the Reggio Emilia philosophy for the education of young children and the Waldorf schools. ~ Daniel H Pink, #NFDB
651:The trouble was that he was talking in philosophy but they were listening in gibberish. ~ Terry Pratchett, #NFDB
652:Why is it that all men who are outstanding in philosophy, poetry or the arts are melancholic? ~ Aristotle, #NFDB
653:You know, the whole philosophy of ad hoc combinations has its strengths and its weaknesses. ~ Evan Parker, #NFDB
654:Careerism: the self-centered philosophy of governing to win the next election above all else. ~ Tom Coburn, #NFDB
655:In brief, the Tree of Life is a compendium of science, psychology, philosophy and theology. ~ Dion Fortune, #NFDB
656:In every religion there are three parts: philosophy, mythology, and ritual. Philosophy ~ Swami Vivekananda, #NFDB
657:In fourteenth-century philosophy, the word patient simply meant “the object of an action, ~ Paul Kalanithi, #NFDB
658:It has been my philosophy of life that difficulties vanish when faced boldly.” Isaac Asimov ~ William Boyd, #NFDB
659:Materialism is the philosophy of the subject who forgets to take account of himself. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer, #NFDB
660:My philosophy is to always find the smartest people you can. Hire people smarter than you. ~ Donny Deutsch, #NFDB
661:One cannot live through a long stretch of years without forming some philosophy of life. ~ Clarence Darrow, #NFDB
662:One of the most destructive anti-concepts in the history of moral philosophy is the term 'duty. ~ Ayn Rand, #NFDB
663:Philosophy . . .consists chiefly in suggesting unintelligible answers to insoluble problems. ~ Henry Adams, #NFDB
664:Philosophy, that leaned on Heaven before,
Shrinks to her second cause, and is no more. ~ Alexander Pope,#NFDB
665:Technology at present is covert philosophy; the point is to make it overtly philosophical. ~ Philip E Agre, #NFDB
666:The Divine Truth is greater than any religion or creed or scripture or idea or philosophy. ~ Sri Aurobindo, #NFDB
667:there’s anything I learned from studying philosophy, it’s that everything turns to shit—but ~ Kevin Hearne, #NFDB
668:The violence had broken out in both sides, but our philosophy as a party was very, very clear. ~ John Hume, #NFDB
669:The word " philosophy " carries unfortunate connotations: impractical, unworldly, weird. ~ Simon Blackburn, #NFDB
670:Twentieth-century philosophy is not unique in its ability to confuse puzzles with problems. ~ Susan Neiman, #NFDB
671:Wonder is the foundation of all philosophy, inquiry the progress, ignorance the end. ~ Michel de Montaigne, #NFDB
672:You can't do without philosophy, since everything has its hidden meaning which we must know. ~ Maxim Gorky, #NFDB
673:Ali's belief in himself was something I picked up on, and it's become my own philosophy ~ Sugar Ray Leonard, #NFDB
674:As a universal history of philosophy, the history of philosophy must become one great unity. ~ Karl Jaspers, #NFDB
675:As commonly practiced, philosophy is the attempt to find good reasons for conventional beliefs. ~ John Gray, #NFDB
676:Generally speaking, the errors in religion are dangerous; those in philosophy only ridiculous. ~ David Hume, #NFDB
677:Generally speaking, the errors in religion are dangerous; those in philosophy only ridiculous. ~ John Rawls, #NFDB
678:However good an argument in philosophy may happen to be, it is generally not good enough. ~ David Berlinski, #NFDB
679:I'm not the one going for a biology degree. I'm just a philosophy major who eats people. ~ Scott Westerfeld, #NFDB
680:In 1970s Britain, conservative philosophy was the preoccupation of a few half-mad recluses. ~ Roger Scruton, #NFDB
681:Less is more. Simplicity is awesome. That's all you need in life. Its just my personal philosophy. ~ G Eazy, #NFDB
682:Philosophy and Religion-what are they when the wind blows and the water gets up in lumps? ~ William Golding, #NFDB
683:Philosophy has no end in view save truth; faith looks for nothing but obedience and piety. ~ Baruch Spinoza, #NFDB
684:Teaching and writing about philosophy is about the only thing I've ever been really good at. ~ Allen W Wood, #NFDB
685:The philosophy of laughter will never have anything in common with the religion of tears.
~ Eliphas Levi,#NFDB
686:There's lots of stocks out there and all you need is a few of 'em. That's been my philosophy. ~ Peter Lynch, #NFDB
687:The trouble begins with a design philosophy that equates 'more options' with 'greater freedom.' ~ Brian Eno, #NFDB
688:To grasp the limits of reason – only this is truly philosophy. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche, The Antichrist, §55}}, #NFDB
689:Believe me if you consult philosophy she will persuade you not to lit so long at your counting desk ~ Seneca, #NFDB
690:But also philosophy is not about perceptible substances they, you see, are prone to destruction. ~ Aristotle, #NFDB
691:By necessity practical and by philosophy stern, these folk were not beautiful in their sins. ~ H P Lovecraft, #NFDB
692:Everything is a poise of contrary energies. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, Heraclitus - IV, #NFDB
693:Good philosophy must exist, if for no other reason, because bad philosophy needs to be answered. ~ C S Lewis, #NFDB
694:I do not know how to teach philosophy without becoming a disturber of established religion. ~ Baruch Spinoza, #NFDB
695:My philosophy of life is simple: I need someone to love, something to wait and do something. ~ Elvis Presley, #NFDB
696:only philosophy can go deep enough to show that literature goes still deeper than philosophy ~ Michel Serres, #NFDB
697:Philosophy is that which grasps its own era in thought. ~ Hegel, Elements of the Philosophy of Rights; 1821., #NFDB
698:Philosophy... is the creative perception by the spirit of the meaning of human existence. ~ Nikolai Berdyaev, #NFDB
699:Philosophy of science is the neurotic self-consciousness of the modern body of knowledge. ~ Peter Sj stedt H, #NFDB
700:Science is a philosophy of discovery. Intelligent design is a philosophy of ignorance. ~ Neil deGrasse Tyson, #NFDB
701:Socialism is the philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance and the gospel of envy. ~ Winston S Churchill, #NFDB
702:The person that turns over the most rocks wins the game. And that's always been my philosophy. ~ Peter Lynch, #NFDB
703:The philosophy of a lot of European teams, even in home matches, is not to give a goal away. ~ Alex Ferguson, #NFDB
704:There is no philosophy that will help us to succeed if we doubt our ability to do so. ~ Joan Bennett Kennedy, #NFDB
705:The true Philosophy, known and practised by Solomon, is the basis on which Masonry is founded. ~ Albert Pike, #NFDB
706:As commonly practiced, philosophy is the attempt to find good reasons for conventional beliefs. ~ John N Gray, #NFDB
707:Hello again! As you see, this short course in philosophy will come in handy-sized portions. ~ Jostein Gaarder, #NFDB
708:I am composed of contradictions, which is why poetry is a better form for me than philosophy ~ Czes aw Mi osz, #NFDB
709:I am composed of contradictions, which is why poetry is a better form for me than philosophy ~ Czeslaw Milosz, #NFDB
710:I don't subscribe to relativism, whether it's in political philosophy, foreign policy or in life. ~ Paul Ryan, #NFDB
711:I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. ~ John Adams, #NFDB
712:Literature is the question without the answer. Philosophy is the answer without the question. ~ Chloe Thurlow, #NFDB
713:My philosophy has always been that benefits should percolate up rather than trickle down. ~ Hubert H Humphrey, #NFDB
714:Not to be offended with other men's liberty of speech, and to apply myself unto philosophy. ~ Marcus Aurelius, #NFDB
715:Philosophy and religion - what are they when the wind blows and the water gets up in lumps? ~ William Golding, #NFDB
716:Philosophy! Empty thinking by ignorant conceited men who think they can digest without eating! ~ Iris Murdoch, #NFDB
717:Philosophy is empty if it isn't based on science. Science discovers, philosophy interprets. ~ Albert Einstein, #NFDB
718:Philosophy, the love of Wisdom, is at the very bottom defence against the incomprehensible. ~ Oswald Spengler, #NFDB
719:Science must not impose any philosophy, any more than the telephone must tell us what to say ~ G K Chesterton, #NFDB
720:The history of philosophy is to a great extent that of a certain clash of human temperaments. ~ William James, #NFDB
721:There is no monster more destructive than the inventive mind that has outstripped philosophy. ~ Ellen Glasgow, #NFDB
722:To know and to will are two operations of the human mind.
~ Leonardo da Vinci, Notebooks, Philosophy, 1146,#NFDB
723:Cicero says—[Tusc., i. 31.]—"that to study philosophy is nothing but to prepare one's self to die. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
724:Dan Philosophy is what you do when you don’t yet know what the right questions are to ask. ~ Susan Blackmore, #NFDB
725:Everything you have is to give. Thou art a phenomenon of philosophy and an unfortunate man. ~ Ernest Hemingway, #NFDB
726:I'm a believer in the parent first, friend second philosophy, and trying to find that balance. ~ Jenna Fischer, #NFDB
727:In philosophy, the opposite of truth is error; in Scripture, the opposite of truth is a lie. ~ Brennan Manning, #NFDB
728:I study philosophy after my dinner, but the dinner is not the cause o my studying philosophy. ~ Fulton J Sheen, #NFDB
729:It was the spirit of the times: we applied high theory to shampoo ads, philosophy to NWA videos. ~ Zadie Smith, #NFDB
730:Philosophy is a battle against the bewitchment of our intelligence by means of language. ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein, #NFDB
731:Philosophy when superficially studied, excites doubt, when thoroughly explored, it dispels it. ~ Francis Bacon, #NFDB
732:Science must not impose any philosophy, any more than the telephone must tell us what to say. ~ G K Chesterton, #NFDB
733:Strength gives a man the right to do as he wishes." "The philosophy of a bully and a thug, ~ Jonathan Moeller, #NFDB
734:The dangers of sophistry and scholasticism are present in the possibility of philosophy itself. ~ Susan Neiman, #NFDB
735:To create a healthy philosophy you should renounce metaphysics but be a good mathematician. ~ Bertrand Russell, #NFDB
736:Back of every wasted life is a bad philosophy, an erroneous conception of life’s worth and purpose. ~ A W Tozer, #NFDB
737:Don't borrow someone else's plan. Develop your own philosophy and it will lead you to unique places. ~ Jim Rohn, #NFDB
738:Hey, if it's a good philosophy, it works. Death is imminent. Live every day like it's your last. ~ Justina Chen, #NFDB
739:I'm not a proper anything. Majoring in philosophy kind of turns positive assertions into maybes. ~ Kevin Hearne, #NFDB
740:In the western philosophy you can't perceive infinities at every moment. It's not there to do. ~ Frederick Lenz, #NFDB
741:I stand in philosophy exactly where I stand in daily life; I should not be honest otherwise. ~ George Santayana, #NFDB
742:Let's practice a little philosophy now; that is, let's shut up, lie on our stomachs, and think. ~ Hermann Hesse, #NFDB
743:OTTO. Apes don't read philosophy.
WANDA. Yes they do, Otto. They just don't understand it. ~ John Cleese,#NFDB
744:Shamanism is just show business and philosophy is just a branch of that vaudevillian impulse. ~ Terence McKenna, #NFDB
745:There are three dominant worldviews in psychology and philosophy. Each worldview is represented ~ Robert Holden, #NFDB
746:The whole Redwood City philosophy was based on a willingness to try harder than anyone else. ~ Malcolm Gladwell, #NFDB
747:This is the highest point of philosophy, to be simple & wise; this is the angelic life. ~ Saint John Chrysostom, #NFDB
748:You gotta think positive, you know. Make the obstacles opportunities. Thats my philosophy. ~ Melina Kanakaredes, #NFDB
749:According to Zen philosophy each human being has two minds, a finite mind and an infinite mind. ~ Frederick Lenz, #NFDB
750:All the big problems of the world today are routed in the philosophy of separateness and dualism. ~ Satish Kumar, #NFDB
751:Art requires philosophy, just as philosophy requires art. Otherwise, what would become of beauty? ~ Paul Gauguin, #NFDB
752:As long as one believes in philosophy, one is healthy; sickness begins when one starts to think. ~ Emil M Cioran, #NFDB
753:Countless things that happen every hour call for advice; and such advice is to be sought in philosophy. ~ Seneca, #NFDB
754:Here is a good philosophy of life: Enjoy the road with flowers; enjoy the road with stones! ~ Mehmet Murat ildan, #NFDB
755:Human knowledge is dark and uncertain; philosophy is dark, astrology is dark, and geometry is dark. ~ John Jewel, #NFDB
756:Philosophy contemplates the world in every facet—its creation, its beauty, its flaws, its meaning. ~ Tillie Cole, #NFDB
757:Philosophy is like wine. There are good years and bad years but, in general, the older the better. ~ Eric Weiner, #NFDB
758:Philosophy may describe unreasoning, as it may describe force; it cannot hope to refute them. ~ George Santayana, #NFDB
759:Philosophy, most broadly viewed, is the critical survey of existence from the standpoint of value. ~ Sidney Hook, #NFDB
760:Tell me how you deal with your fear of annihilation, and I will tell you about your philosophy. ~ Costic Br d an, #NFDB
761:The difference between gossip and philosophy lies only in one's way of taking a fact. ~ Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr, #NFDB
762:The more one is absorbed in so-called philosophy, the greater one's delusion and blindness. ~ Emanuel Swedenborg, #NFDB
763:The philosophy of FIFA is to expand world soccer space, to spread out the world football space. ~ Vladimir Putin, #NFDB
764:There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy. ~ William Shakespeare, #NFDB
765:Unfortunately, I'm not a person that's always capable of living up to the Boy Scout philosophy. ~ Stanley Crouch, #NFDB
766:Without the English, reason and philosophy would still be in the most despicable infancy in France. ~ John Dewey, #NFDB
767:After a tragedy, a farce. Philosophy enters into her power, and the earth returns under one's feet. ~ Lev Shestov, #NFDB
768:As long as one believes in philosophy, one is healthy; sickness begins when one starts to think. ~ Emile M Cioran, #NFDB
769:His philosophy is that somethings the only way to get over feeling like shit is to feel like shit. ~ Trish Doller, #NFDB
770:It is quite true what philosophy says; that life must be understood backwards. —SØREN KIERKEGAARD ~ Megan Miranda, #NFDB
771:No philosophy based on an incorrect view of the nature of man is likely to produce social good. ~ Stanley Kubrick, #NFDB
772:Not to be offended with other men's liberty of speech, and to apply myself unto philosophy. Him ~ Marcus Aurelius, #NFDB
773:Philosophy is a kind of journey, ever learning yet never arriving at the ideal perfection of truth. ~ Albert Pike, #NFDB
774:Philosophy is questions that may never be answered. Religion is answers that may never be questioned. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
775:Philosophy still moves too much straight ahead, and is not yet cyclical enough. ~ Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel, #NFDB
776:Religion and morals are symmetrically opposed, just like poetry and philosophy. ~ Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel, #NFDB
777:That's always been my philosophy. - I've never thought of the consequences of a necessary action. ~ Indira Gandhi, #NFDB
778:the one aim of those who practice philosophy in the proper manner is to practice for dying and death. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
779:The philosophy of the schoolroom in one generation is the philosophy of government in the next. ~ Abraham Lincoln, #NFDB
780:To choose doubt as a philosophy of life is akin to choosing immobility as a means of transportation ~ Yann Martel, #NFDB
781:To choose doubt as a philosophy of life is ken to choosing immobility as a means of transportation. ~ Yann Martel, #NFDB
782:To chose doubt as a philosophy of life is akin to choosing immobility as a means of transportation. ~ Yann Martel, #NFDB
783:To observe processes and construct means is science; to criticize and coordinate ends is philosophy ~ Will Durant, #NFDB
784:You must learn some of my philosophy. Think only of the past as its remembrance gives you pleasure. ~ Jane Austen, #NFDB
785:All other love is extinguished by self-love; beneficence, humanity, justice, philosophy, sink under it. ~ Epicurus, #NFDB
786:But basing a whole philosophy of life on what you would do in extremis does not seem to me to be right. ~ Jean Ure, #NFDB
787:But sweat is the kindest creature of the three—far better than philosophy, as a cure for ill thoughts. ~ C S Lewis, #NFDB
788:Don’t see anything impossible! This simple philosophy will enable many things to be possible! ~ Mehmet Murat ildan, #NFDB
789:Every philosophical review ought to be a philosophy of reviews at the same time. ~ Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel, #NFDB
790:I believe philosophy must go to school with the poets; it's not either/or, it's not over or against. ~ Cornel West, #NFDB
791:I have this terrible habit of wanting to try to be consistent and develop a philosophy that's coherent. ~ Ron Paul, #NFDB
792:My philosophy is pretty simple – any day nobody’s trying to kill me is a good day in my book. ~ Karen Marie Moning, #NFDB
793:Once we were alone Ryan scooped me into his arms and upheld his philosophy of kiss first, talk later. ~ Kelly Oram, #NFDB
794:Philosophy does not regard pedigree, she received Plato not as a noble, but she made him one. ~ Seneca the Younger, #NFDB
795:Philosophy is the microscope of thought. Everything desires to flee from it, but nothing escapes it. ~ Victor Hugo, #NFDB
796:Reality has always proved to be much more sophisticated and subtle than any preconceived philosophy. ~ Michio Kaku, #NFDB
797:The Beginning of Philosophy is a Consciousness of your own Weakness and inability in necessary things. ~ Epictetus, #NFDB
798:The ductless glands secrete among other things our moods, our aspirations, our philosophy of life. ~ Aldous Huxley, #NFDB
799:the Romans first neutralized Greek philosophy, then turned Christianity into a prop for their empire. ~ Ian Morris, #NFDB
800:To choose doubt as a philosophy of life is akin to choosing immobility as a means of transportation. ~ Yann Martel, #NFDB
801:We have no firm hold on any knowledge or philosophy that can lift us out of our difficulties. ~ Anne Sullivan Macy, #NFDB
802:What philosophy worthy of the name has truly been able to avoid the link between poem and theorem? ~ Michel Serres, #NFDB
803:Where the dance of Meera and the silence of Buddha meet, blossoms the true philosophy of Rajneesh. ~ Amrita Pritam, #NFDB
804:You may proclaim, good sirs, your fine philosophy But till you feed us, right and wrong can wait! ~ Bertolt Brecht, #NFDB
805:Your woodlot is, in fact, an historical document which faithfully records your personal philosophy. ~ Aldo Leopold, #NFDB
806:A catholic and far-sighted theory of the adjustment of the conflicting factors of life is philosophy. ~ Will Durant, #NFDB
807:A clear, well-defined philosophy gives you the guidelines and boundaries that keep you on track, ~ Angela Duckworth, #NFDB
808:An important place to begin in philosophy is this: a clear perception of one’s own ruling principle. ~ Ryan Holiday, #NFDB
809:Be attentive, feel nothing in vain, measure and compare: this is the whole law of philosophy. ~ Georg C Lichtenberg, #NFDB
810:Be careful that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit based on human tradition, ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
811:he came into the store to threaten you with math and philosophy. The motherfucker’s going down. ~ Jonathan L Howard, #NFDB
812:I don't master my craft or my style enough to have any philosophy or dogma to which I feel I belong. ~ Xavier Dolan, #NFDB
813:In my view, we ought to replace the notion of analytic philosophy by that of synthetic philosophy. ~ Philip Kitcher, #NFDB
814:I will not call it my philosophy; for I did not make it. God and humanity made it; and it made me. ~ G K Chesterton, #NFDB
815:Laughter without a tinge of philosophy is but a sneeze of humor. Genuine humor is replete with wisdom. ~ Mark Twain, #NFDB
816:My philosophy: if the heels are high enough, everyone looks like they have runner's calves, right? ~ Gemma Halliday, #NFDB
817:Philosophy should be an energy; it should find its aim and its effect in the amelioration of mankind. ~ Victor Hugo, #NFDB
818:Philosophy stands in the same relation to the study of the actual world as masturbation to sexual love. ~ Karl Marx, #NFDB
819:The poet uses the results of science and philosophy, and generalizes their widest deductions. ~ Henry David Thoreau, #NFDB
820:The problem is, if you study philosophy and stop believing in a meaning you start to need medical help. ~ Matt Haig, #NFDB
821:There is more in the world than is dreamt of in your philosophy, Doctor - or in the Merck Manual. ~ Douglas Preston, #NFDB
822:To become a popular religion, it is only necessary for a superstition to enslave a philosophy. ~ William Ralph Inge, #NFDB
823:All Nature is a display and a play of God, ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, Involution and Evolution, #NFDB
824:A philosophy that begins in doubt assails what no-one believes, and invites us to nothing believable ~ Roger Scruton, #NFDB
825:Genuine philosophical problems are always rooted outside philosophy and they die if these roots decay. ~ Karl Popper, #NFDB
826:However attractive anarchy may be as a philosophy, it is not feasible in a world of imperfect men. ~ Milton Friedman, #NFDB
827:I Should Just Stop Tweeting, The Human Consciousness Must Raise Before I Speak My Juvenile Philosophy. ~ Jaden Smith, #NFDB
828:Microsoft's philosophy is to 'do things better.' And Vista has given us lots of opportunity to do that. ~ Bill Gates, #NFDB
829:Philosophy are questions that may never get a answer, religion is an answer that may never be questioned ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
830:Philosophy, having crept clinging to the rocks so far, puts out its feelers many ways in vain. ~ Henry David Thoreau, #NFDB
831:Philosophy is the childhood of the intellect, and a culture that tries to skip it will never grow up. ~ Thomas Nagel, #NFDB
832:Philosophy, like medicine, has plenty of drugs, few good remedies, and hardly any specific cures. ~ Nicolas Chamfort, #NFDB
833:Science must not impose any philosophy, any more than the telephone must tell us what to say. ~ Gilbert K Chesterton, #NFDB
834:Strive to be authentic all the time. That's sort of my philosophy on life, which applies to acting. ~ Paul Guilfoyle, #NFDB
835:The flies were teaching an advanced seminar in philosophy as they crawled up the crack of my ass ~ Richard Brautigan, #NFDB
836:We must re-center philosophy within our frame of reference which I think is the way to deal with it. ~ Tariq Ramadan, #NFDB
837:Considered subjectively, philosophy always begins in the middle, like an epic poem. ~ Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel, #NFDB
838:Every science begins as philosophy and ends as art; it arises in hypothesis and flows into achievement. ~ Will Durant, #NFDB
839:Everything becomes, nothing is made. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, The Stress of the Hidden Spirit, #NFDB
840:History, therefore, is firmly rooted in philosophy. It deserves to be accounted a branch of philosophy. ~ Ibn Khaldun, #NFDB
841:I decided to teach because I think that any person who studies philosophy has to be involved actively. ~ Angela Davis, #NFDB
842:I discovered philosophy in my youth when I read wildly, and thus I was exposed to the world of ideas. ~ Michel Onfray, #NFDB
843:In Plato's opinion, man was made for philosophy; in Bacon's opinion, philosophy was made for man. ~ Thomas B Macaulay, #NFDB
844:It is an acknowledged truth in philosophy that a just theory will always be confirmed by experiment. ~ Thomas Malthus, #NFDB
845:It is only through life that one can reach to immortality. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, Karmayoga, #NFDB
846:I will not call it my philosophy; for I did not make it. God and humanity made it; and it made me. I ~ G K Chesterton, #NFDB
847:Karma theory is a spiritual philosophy used to explain and maintain the economic status of Asia. ~ Stephen H Wolinsky, #NFDB
848:Let animals live like animals; let humans live like humans. That's my whole philosophy in a sentence. ~ Aravind Adiga, #NFDB
849:Naturally, the Zen Master Rama philosophy is to have a high state of awareness and material success. ~ Frederick Lenz, #NFDB
850:Natura nihil agit frustra, [Nature does nothing in vain] is the only indisputed Axiome in Philosophy. ~ Thomas Browne, #NFDB
851:No literature is sound, no philosophy of action workable, if it doesn't take a hard look at itself. ~ John W Campbell, #NFDB
852:Philosophy gets its ugly head into everything, but I don't think we live philosophy anymore. It's done. ~ Agnes Denes, #NFDB
853:Science, philosophy and religion are bound to converge as they draw nearer to the whole. ~ Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, #NFDB
854:So that's my philosophy: If you believe in yourself, the chances and the opportunities will come around. ~ Mindy Cohn, #NFDB
855:Tell me what gives a man or woman their greatest pleasure and I'll tell you their philosophy of life. ~ Dale Carnegie, #NFDB
856:The finding of arguments for a conclusion given in advance is not philosophy, but special pleading ~ Bertrand Russell, #NFDB
857:The great question of philosophy remains: If life is meaningless, what can be done about alphabet soup? ~ Woody Allen, #NFDB
858:The Linux philosophy is "laugh in the face of danger". Oops. Wrong one. "Do it yourself". That's it. ~ Linus Torvalds, #NFDB
859:The men who are not interested in philosophy need it most urgently; they are most helplessly in its power. ~ Ayn Rand, #NFDB
860:The philosophy of the wisest man that ever existed, is mainly derived from the act of introspection. ~ William Godwin, #NFDB
861:The point of philosophy, as I see it, is to change thinking, and thereby to change the conversation. ~ Philip Kitcher, #NFDB
862:There is always a philosophy behind the misadventures of men, even if they are unaware of it.’ And ~ Lawrence Durrell, #NFDB
863:They do say that socialism is the ideal philosophy-just as long as you have capitalists to pay for it. ~ Wilbur Smith, #NFDB
864:We must reason in natural philosophy not from what we hope, or even expect, but from what we perceive. ~ Humphry Davy, #NFDB
865:All is eternal in the eternal spirit. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, The Stress of the Hidden Spirit, #NFDB
866:During the Great Depression, the philosophy of grin-and-bear-it became a national coping mechanism. ~ Maureen Corrigan, #NFDB
867:Excellent. I approve of statesmen who write philosophy. It means they have given up all hope of power. ~ Robert Harris, #NFDB
868:For this feeling of wonder shows that you are a philosopher, since wonder is the only beginning of philosophy. ~ Plato, #NFDB
869:I do not presume that I have found the best philosophy, I know that I understand the true philosophy. ~ Baruch Spinoza, #NFDB
870:I have a simple philosophy: Fill what's empty. Empty what's full. Scratch where it itches. ~ Alice Roosevelt Longworth, #NFDB
871:I have no personal system of philosophy. I never attempt to do that. I am merely a man of letters. ~ Jorge Luis Borges, #NFDB
872:It took all their common sense and philosophy to face life these days. The two are synonymous. ~ Bess Streeter Aldrich, #NFDB
873:I went to Princeton from Amherst, where I split my interests between mathematics and philosophy. ~ Stephen Cole Kleene, #NFDB
874:Most of my learning and philosophy regarding coaching basketball was developed after great frustration. ~ Dick Bennett, #NFDB
875:My philosophy is fundamentally sad, but I'm not a sad man, and I don't believe I sadden anyone else. ~ Antonio Machado, #NFDB
876:People who lean on logic and philosophy and rational exposition end by starving the best part of the mind. ~ W B Yeats, #NFDB
877:Philosophy, as I shall understand the word, is something intermediate between theology and science. ~ Bertrand Russell, #NFDB
878:Philosophy goes no further than probabilities, and in every assertion keeps a doubt in reserve. ~ James Anthony Froude, #NFDB
879:Philosophy is the self-correction by consciousness of its own initial excess of subjectivity. ~ Alfred North Whitehead, #NFDB
880:Philosophy, n. A route of many roads leading from nowhere to nothing. ~ Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary (1911)., #NFDB
881:Playborhood, which documents these efforts, and more, as well as his overarching philosophy.8 I ~ Julie Lythcott Haims, #NFDB
882:that philosophy was not something you can learn; but perhaps you can learn to think philosophically. ~ Jostein Gaarder, #NFDB
883:The most effective way of destroying art is the canonization of one given form. And one philosophy. ~ Yevgeny Zamyatin, #NFDB
884:The purpose of philosophy is to turn you inward. If you know your Self, no evil can come to you. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #NFDB
885:This was the last thing I expected. You destroy my life and then feed me some inspiratonal philosophy. ~ Richelle Mead, #NFDB
886:Those who practice philosophy in the right way are in training for dying and they fear death least of all men. ~ Plato, #NFDB
887:We may receive so much light as not to see, and so much philosophy as to be worse than foolish. ~ Walter Savage Landor, #NFDB
888:A cold atheistical materialism is the tendency of the so-called material philosophy of the present day. ~ Adam Sedgwick, #NFDB
889:A man with no philosophy in him is the most inauspicious and unprofitable of all possible social mates. ~ William James, #NFDB
890:Art shows how it loves, philosophy what it loves; mysticism knows only that it loves. ~ Constantin Brunner, Our Christ., #NFDB
891:Atheism is not a philosophy; it is not even a view of the world; it is simply an admission of the obvious. ~ Sam Harris, #NFDB
892:Bravery is going forth despite the fear. - STRONG: Powerful Philosophy for Timeless Thoughts by Kailin Gow ~ Kailin Gow, #NFDB
893:If your divines are not philosophers, your philosophy will neither be divine, nor able to divine. ~ Julius Charles Hare, #NFDB
894:In the eyes of dialectical philosophy, nothing is established for all times, nothing is absolute or sacred. ~ Karl Marx, #NFDB
895:In theology we must consider the predominance of authority; in philosophy the predominance of reason. ~ Johannes Kepler, #NFDB
896:I saw that philosophy had no power to make my life more bearable. Thus I lost my belief in philosophy. ~ Emile M Cioran, #NFDB
897:Man, therefore, according to the Vedanta philosophy, is the greatest being that is in the universe. ~ Swami Vivekananda, #NFDB
898:My philosophy: find what it is you want to say, walk in the room, say it, and get the hell out. ~ J Michael Straczynski, #NFDB
899:My philosophy is that if I have any money I invest it in new ventures and not have it sitting around. ~ Richard Branson, #NFDB
900:Not philosophy, after all, not humanity, just sheer joyous power of song, is the primal thing in poetry. ~ Max Beerbohm, #NFDB
901:Philosophy calls for simple living, not for doing penance, and the simple way of life need not be a crude one. ~ Seneca, #NFDB
902:the blessings of matrimony, like those of poverty, belong rather to philosophy than reality. ~ Letitia Elizabeth Landon, #NFDB
903:The business of philosophy is not to give rules, but to analyze the private judgments of common reason. ~ Immanuel Kant, #NFDB
904:The philosophy of the school room in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next. ~ Abraham Lincoln, #NFDB
905:The search for something permanent is one of the deepest of the instincts leading men to philosophy. ~ Bertrand Russell, #NFDB
906:this approach, in which you fit deep work wherever you can into your schedule, the journalist philosophy. ~ Cal Newport, #NFDB
907:This is the philosophy of nonviolence that I have learned from Gandhi, Bacha Khan and Mother Teresa. ~ Malala Yousafzai, #NFDB
908:we know that he read a considerable amount of philosophy, including Bacon, Hobbes, Montaigne, and Cicero. ~ Ron Chernow, #NFDB
909:Wisdom is the perfect good of the human mind; philosophy is the love of wisdom, and the endeavor to attain it. ~ Seneca, #NFDB
910:You sound like a college freshman taking his first philosophy class way too seriously, but that's good. ~ Michael Grant, #NFDB
911:All the most prominent Darwinists proclaim naturalistic philosophy when they think it safe to do so. ~ Phillip E Johnson, #NFDB
912:for only philosophy or honourable occupation can divert from its anguish a heart whose grief springs from love. ~ Seneca, #NFDB
913:Here in the world, each human frailty Provides occasion for philosophy, And that is virtue's noblest exercise; ~ Moli re, #NFDB
914:I am,” Jefferson wrote to a correspondent who wanted to know his philosophy of life, “an Epicurean. ~ Stephen Greenblatt, #NFDB
915:I believe in the Democratic party, and their philosophy and what they stand for - for the poor people. ~ Dikembe Mutombo, #NFDB
916:If we are to know ourselves, philosophy needs to maintain an ongoing dialogue with the sciences of mind. ~ George Lakoff, #NFDB
917:I'm in love with a philosophy major, and she doesn't even know I exist. And what's worse, she can prove it. ~ Arj Barker, #NFDB
918:In conformity with the philosophy of Christ, let us make of our life a training for death. ~ Saint Maximus the Confessor, #NFDB
919:My philosophy is, don't take no for an answer and be willing to sacrifice your entire project for freedom. ~ Tim Robbins, #NFDB
920:My philosophy is that when I go out of my room, I'm prepared to love everybody I meet, unless they're bad. ~ Omar Sharif, #NFDB
921:No philosophy, no religion, has ever brought so glad a message to the world as this good news of Atheism. ~ Annie Besant, #NFDB
922:Philosophy and the study of the real world have the same relation to one another as onanism and sexual love. ~ Karl Marx, #NFDB
923:Religion, history, and philosophy are just fictions we’ve invented to explain our meaningless world. ~ John Twelve Hawks, #NFDB
924:Science and knowledge, especially that of philosophy, came from the Arabs into the West. ~ Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, #NFDB
925:She - philosophy is equally helpful to the rich and poor: neglect her, and she equally harms the young and old. ~ Horace, #NFDB
926:The disciple of philosophy must present itself, first as a way of thinking and then as a way of life. ~ Peter Sloterdijk, #NFDB
927:Theology sits rouged at the window and courts philosophy's favor, offering to sell her charms to it. ~ Soren Kierkegaard, #NFDB
928:Theology sits rouged at the window and courts philosophy's favor, offering to sell her charms to it. ~ S ren Kierkegaard, #NFDB
929:[T]hose who practice philosophy in the right way are in training for dying and they fear death least of all men. ~ Plato, #NFDB
930:All sentience is ultimately self-sentience. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Kena and Other Upanishads, The Philosophy of the Upanishads, #NFDB
931:Being deluged with trolley problems is one of the professional hazards of modern moral philosophy. ~ Kwame Anthony Appiah, #NFDB
932:Even if we don't know it or aren't aware of it, politics and philosophy are really what make our up lives. ~ Roland Joffe, #NFDB
933:Everybody should have a chance to rise. That's our philosophy in Ohio and that's my philosophy for America. ~ John Kasich, #NFDB
934:For what is philosophy but an art - one more attempt to give "significant form" to the chaos of experience? ~ Will Durant, #NFDB
935:I believe if you want to convey a complex philosophy, its advisable to keep it simple: day-to-day lingo. ~ Amish Tripathi, #NFDB
936:I find purer philosophy in a Poem than in a Conclusion of Geometry, a chemical analysis, or a physical law ~ Wilfred Owen, #NFDB
937:I have always done what I love myself. My philosophy was that I never had focus groups. I did what I wear. ~ Ralph Lauren, #NFDB
938:It’s very fluid, this space between philosophy and literature, and that’s something that resonates for me. ~ Tom McCarthy, #NFDB
939:I will not call it my philosophy; for I did not make it. God and humanity made it; and it made me. ~ Gilbert K Chesterton, #NFDB
940:My pitching philosophy is simple. I believe in getting the ball over the plate and not walking a lot of men. ~ Bob Gibson, #NFDB
941:Philosophy addresses, in a systematic and progress-making way, questions of deep concern to everyone. ~ Rebecca Goldstein, #NFDB
942:Philosophy and the subjects known as ‘humanities’ are still taught almost as if Darwin had never lived. ~ Richard Dawkins, #NFDB
943:Philosophy as science, as serious, rigorous, indeed apodictically rigorous science -- the dream is over. ~ Edmund Husserl, #NFDB
944:The body has an unexpressed knowledge of its own. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, Supermind and Humanity, #NFDB
945:The business of philosophy is to teach man to live in uncertainty... not to reassure him, but to upset him. ~ Lev Shestov, #NFDB
946:The philosophy of Africanism holds out the hope of a genuine democracy beyond the stormy sea of struggle ~ Robert Sobukwe, #NFDB
947:The philosophy of the rain is very simple: No obstacle is obstacle when you are strongly determined! ~ Mehmet Murat ildan, #NFDB
948:After the first exams, I switched to the Faculty of Philosophy and studied Zoology in Munich and Vienna. ~ Karl von Frisch, #NFDB
949:All laws and philosophy merely tell us what should be done, but they do not provide the strength to do it. ~ Martin Luther, #NFDB
950:All our philosophy is as dry as dust if it is not immediately translated into some act of living service. ~ Mahatma Gandhi, #NFDB
951:Challenges in life, keeps us in the game." - STRONG: Powerful Philosophy for Timeless Thoughts by Kailin Gow. ~ Kailin Gow, #NFDB
952:Europe will never be like America. Europe is a product of history. America is a product of philosophy. ~ Margaret Thatcher, #NFDB
953:For me, Buddhism is a psychology and a philosophy that provides a means, upayas, for working with the mind. ~ Joan Halifax, #NFDB
954:For me, philosophy is an activity of thought that is common to human beings. Human beings at their best. ~ Simon Critchley, #NFDB
955:History is philosophy teaching by example, and also warning; its two eyes are geography and chronology. ~ James A Garfield, #NFDB
956:If asked my philosophy, it would be simply this: Savor life, don't press too hard, don't worry too much. ~ Jerry Weintraub, #NFDB
957:I have lived most of my life as a devotee of the philosophy that a man should not see two sevens in one day ~ Mackenzi Lee, #NFDB
958:Judging whether life is or is not worth living amounts to answering the fundamental question of philosophy. ~ Albert Camus, #NFDB
959:Life's philosophy, hm... I just say, 'Do what you do and have fun doing it and try not to be too miserable.' ~ Bam Margera, #NFDB
960:Mandatory, and soon despised, dancing sessions were implemented under this same improving philosophy. ~ Caroline Alexander, #NFDB
961:Monogamy is monotonous, but it's safe you know. And that's my philosophy. And I like to convey that to people. ~ Joy Behar, #NFDB
962:My philosophy on getting knocked out is that it renders you unconscious and numb, so why worry about it. ~ Forrest Griffin, #NFDB
963:never ceased to amaze him how a discredited philosophy and a repressive nation still attracted idealists. ~ Nelson DeMille, #NFDB
964:Nothing could be more reckless than to base one's moral philosophy on the latest pronouncements of science. ~ Edward Abbey, #NFDB
965:Our philosophy is that if it was grown on a plant, eat it. If it was made in a plant, leave it on the shelf. ~ Rick Warren, #NFDB
966:People look for morals in fiction because there has always been a confusion between fiction and philosophy. ~ John Cheever, #NFDB
967:state’s position on the map is the first thing that defines it, more than its governing philosophy even. ~ Robert D Kaplan, #NFDB
968:The key factor that will determine your financial future is not the economy; the key factor is your philosophy. ~ Jim Rohn, #NFDB
969:The search for something permanent is one of the deepest of the instincts leading men to philosophy.
~ Bertrand Russell,#NFDB
970:The universe is a self-creative process of a supreme Reality. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Philosophy of Rebirth, #NFDB
971:[...] to introduce into the philosophy of war itself a principle of moderation would be an absurdity ~ Carl von Clausewitz, #NFDB
972:When truth has no burning, then it is philosophy, when it gets burning from the heart, it becomes poetry. ~ Muhammad Iqbal, #NFDB
973:You wander. You work nearly every job known to man, it seems, only to arrive at the wonderings of philosophy. ~ Criss Jami, #NFDB
974:8See to it that no one takes you captive by n philosophy and o empty deceit, according to p human tradition, ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
975:At the present moment, the security of coherent philosophy, which existed from Parmenides to Hegel, is lost. ~ Karl Jaspers, #NFDB
976:But know this. All is speculation under the sky. All myth, all religion, all philosophy, all history - is lies. ~ Anne Rice, #NFDB
977:Especially the transcendental philosophy needs the leaven of humor to render it light and digestible. ~ Henry David Thoreau, #NFDB
978:Good Governance cannot remain merely a philosophy. Concrete steps have to be taken for realizing its goals. ~ Narendra Modi, #NFDB
979:If I were to adopt pure mechanism as a philosophy, there would be no way I could choose to be a scholar. ~ Kenneth Lee Pike, #NFDB
980:I had a philosophy, which may have been proven right, that directing isn't as hard as everyone says it is. ~ Matthew Vaughn, #NFDB
981:I have gained this from philosophy: that I do without being commanded what others do only from fear of the law. ~ Aristotle, #NFDB
982:I have lived most of my life as a devotee of the philosophy that a man should not see two sevens in one day, ~ Mackenzi Lee, #NFDB
983:I looked at the sweatshirt again. "'You swim' is a philosophy?" He shrugged. "Better than 'you sink', right? ~ Sarah Dessen, #NFDB
984:I'm big into social studies, the humanities. I really love history and world issues and philosophy and law. ~ Connor Jessup, #NFDB
985:In both classes, Pastor Merrill preached his doubt-is-the-essence-of-and-not-the-opposite-of-faith philosophy ~ John Irving, #NFDB
986:Infinite possibility in all things is a certainty. That pretty much covers theology and philosophy for me. ~ Robert Fulghum, #NFDB
987:It's something that's very often said that philosophy, as opposed to science, never makes any progress. ~ Rebecca Goldstein, #NFDB
988:Let us not pretend to doubt in philosophy what we do not doubt in our hearts. (Peirce 1992, pp. 28–9) ~ Richard J Bernstein, #NFDB
989:Nothing can exist which is not substance and power of Brahman. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Philosophy of Rebirth, #NFDB
990:Our intonations contain our philosophy of life, what each of us is constantly telling himself about things. ~ Marcel Proust, #NFDB
991:Our offensive philosophy is to simply find a way to get the ball into the hands of our team's best player. ~ Kelvin Sampson, #NFDB
992:Our philosophy is we call it as we see it. Sometimes you agree, sometimes you don't. Robust debate is good. ~ Bill O Reilly, #NFDB
993:Philosophy is an act of seduction between one true lover and another, most often the philosopher and himself. ~ Neel Burton, #NFDB
994:Philosophy is a process of inquiry only. It doesn't attempt to find specific answers to specific questions. ~ Harold Pinter, #NFDB
995:She is not philosophy, I am not an ethical question. I will not risk my existence to satisfy your curiosity. ~ Heidi Heilig, #NFDB
996:The American Revolution was, in fact, a battle against the philosophy of Locke and the English utilitarians. ~ Robert Trout, #NFDB
997:The chief error in philosophy is overstatement. ~ Alfred North Whitehead, Process and Reality: An Essay in Cosmology (1929), #NFDB
998:The Linux philosophy is 'Laugh in the face of danger'. Oops. Wrong One. 'Do it yourself'. Yes, that's it. ~ Linus Torvalds, #NFDB
999:There are three traps that strangle philosophy: The church, the marriage bed, and the professor's chair. ~ George Santayana, #NFDB
1000:The sole philosophy open to those who doubt the possibility of truth is absolute silence -- even mental. ~ Jacques Maritain, #NFDB
1001:To sum up the whole, we should say that the aim of the Platonic philosophy was to exalt man into a god. ~ Thomas B Macaulay, #NFDB
1002:When appearance and reality coincide, philosophy and literary criticism find themselves with nothing to say. ~ Mason Cooley, #NFDB
1003:All genuine philosophy transcends national boundaries. Patriotic philosophies are just nationalist ideologies. ~ Mario Bunge, #NFDB
1004:Any genuine philosophy leads to action and from action back again to wonder, to the enduring fact of mystery. ~ Henry Miller, #NFDB
1005:EVERYTHING THAT HAPPENS, STAYS HAPPENED.
"What kind of philosophy is that?"
THE ONLY ONE THAT WORKS. ~ Terry Pratchett,#NFDB
1006:HTML5 isn’t just a pile of cool new functionality, but a whole new philosophy that empowers web applications. ~ Kyle Simpson, #NFDB
1007:In no country in the civilized world is less attention paid to philosophy than in the United States. ~ Alexis de Tocqueville, #NFDB
1008:In their different ways, art and philosophy help us, in Schopenhauer's words, to turn pain into knowledge. ~ Alain de Botton, #NFDB
1009:Philosophy calls for simple living, but not for penance—it’s quite possible to be simple without being crude. ~ Ryan Holiday, #NFDB
1010:Philosophy lives in words, but truth and fact well up into our lives in ways that exceed verbal formulation. ~ William James, #NFDB
1011:That was it! The whole Redwood City philosophy was based on a willingness to try harder than anyone else. ~ Malcolm Gladwell, #NFDB
1012:There should be a harmonious blend of religion, philosophy and art for man to live healthily in the world. ~ Sathya Sai Baba, #NFDB
1013:Adversity's sweet milk, philosophy, to comfort thee, though thou art banished. Friar Lawrence to Romeo. ~ William Shakespeare, #NFDB
1014:Any philosophy worth taking seriously would have to be built upon a firm foundation of unyielding despair. ~ Bertrand Russell, #NFDB
1015:Any religion or philosophy which is not based on a respect for life is not a true religion or philosophy. ~ Albert Schweitzer, #NFDB
1016:Art tries, literally, to picture the things which philosophy tries to put into carefully thought-out words. ~ Hans Rookmaaker, #NFDB
1017:A sense of humor, being born of perspective, bears a near kinship to philosophy; each is the soul of the other. ~ Will Durant, #NFDB
1018:I learn that you can work really hard and still have a great time. That is part of Russell Crowe philosophy. ~ Rachel McAdams, #NFDB
1019:I rather stumbled into philosophy. When I began my undergraduate career at Cambridge, I studied mathematics. ~ Philip Kitcher, #NFDB
1020:I still somehow or other fancy that "my philosophy" represents the true meaning of the teaching of the Gita. ~ Mahatma Gandhi, #NFDB
1021:I thought you went to college here. Did you party too much and drop out?” “No, I got a philosophy degree.” “Oh. ~ Bobby Adair, #NFDB
1022:It's clear to me that there is no good reason for many philosophy books to sound as complicated as they do. ~ Alain de Botton, #NFDB
1023:Lymond said gently, "Let us bathe in moral philosophy, as in a living river. Double-dealing is my business. ~ Dorothy Dunnett, #NFDB
1024:Nobody can have the consolations of religion or philosophy unless he has first experienced their desolations. ~ Aldous Huxley, #NFDB
1025:Philosophy is called upon to compensate for the frustrations of politics and, more generally, of life itself. ~ Hannah Arendt, #NFDB
1026:Philosophy is life's dry-nurse, who can take care of us -- but not suckle us. ~ Søren Kierkegaard, Journals and Papers, 1837., #NFDB
1027:Philosophy may in no way interfere with the actual use of language; it can in the end only describe it. ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein, #NFDB
1028:Philosophy teaches a man that he can't take it with him; taxes teach him he can't leave it behind either. ~ Mignon McLaughlin, #NFDB
1029:Shall I tell you what philosophy holds out to humanity? Counsel...You are called in to help the unhappy. ~ Seneca the Younger, #NFDB
1030:The form is phenomenon, the idea is reality. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, The Stress of the Hidden Spirit, #NFDB
1031:There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in our philosophy.” act 1, sc. 5 ~ William Shakespeare, #NFDB
1032:The word right should be excluded from political language, as the word cause from the language of philosophy. ~ Auguste Comte, #NFDB
1033:This is the tragedy of almost every civilization—that its soul is in its faith, and seldom survives philosophy. ~ Will Durant, #NFDB
1034:To persevere is always a reflection of the state of one's inner life, one's philosophy and one's perspective ~ David Guterson, #NFDB
1035:To theology, ... only what it holds sacred is true, whereas to philosophy, only what holds true is sacred. ~ Ludwig Feuerbach, #NFDB
1036:You have heard of, and studied various systems of philosophy; but real philosophy is opposed to all systems. ~ Frances Wright, #NFDB
1037:All variations resolve themselves into an unity. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Kena and Other Upanishads, The Philosophy of the Upanishads, #NFDB
1038:Darwinism is not merely a support for naturalistic philosophy: it is a product of naturalistic philosophy. ~ Phillip E Johnson, #NFDB
1039:Energy distributes itself, but never really dissipates itself. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, Heraclitus - V, #NFDB
1040:Epicurus summed up his whole philosophy in his epitaph: ‘I was not; I have been; I am not; I do not mind’ If ~ Nigel Warburton, #NFDB
1041:God created philosophy for all the intellects that got bored of hearing the same bible stories every Sunday. ~ Shannon L Alder, #NFDB
1042:Hillary Clinton appears to believe in a form of stoicism - which is a tried and true life philosophy. ~ Christina Hoff Sommers, #NFDB
1043:It stares you in the face. No role is so well suited to philosophy as the one you happen to be in right now. ~ Marcus Aurelius, #NFDB
1044:My philosophy of life is that the meek shall inherit nothing but debasement, frustration, and ignoble deaths. ~ Harlan Ellison, #NFDB
1045:Philosophy calls for plain living, but not for penance; and we may perfectly well be plain and neat at the same time. ~ Seneca, #NFDB
1046:Philosophy easily triumphs over past and future ills; but present ills triumph over philosophy. ~ Francois de La Rochefoucauld, #NFDB
1047:Philosophy triumphs easily over past evils and future evils, but present evils triumph over it. ~ Francois de La Rochefoucauld, #NFDB
1048:Religion and philosophy, philosophy and religion - they're two words which are both ... different. In spelling. ~ Eddie Izzard, #NFDB
1049:Roast Beef, Medium, is not only a food. It is a philosophy. ... Roast Beef, Medium, is safe, and sane, and sure. ~ Edna Ferber,