Tertullian was a prominent Latin Church Father of the second and third century, probably a jurisconsult in Rome, and one of the best legal minds in the history of Western Civilization. Among his writings are the earliest and most coherent formulations of legal principles now commonly known as “freedom of conscience” and “consent of the governed”. In more than one ways, these principles are corollaries of Judeo-Christian morality. First, the […]
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Kierkegaard: The Concept of Anxiety
Reading Kierkegaard without sufficient knowledge of Christian theological tradition and the Western philosophical tradition, Hegel in particular, is like watching a boxing match where one opponent is invisible to the audience: you see the movement of only one boxer, you might appreciate his physique and agility, but you don’t know at all whether his attacks and dodges are effective. I’ve read eight of Kierkegaard’s works, and enjoyed them all, but […]
Read moreFrancis Bacon: The Advancement of Learning II
Divine and Kingly Glory Solomon the king, although he excelled in the glory of treasure and magnificent buildings, of shipping and navigation, of service and attendance, of fame and renown, and the like, yet he maketh no claim to any of those glories, but only to the glory of inquisition of truth; for so he saith expressly, “The glory of God is to conceal a thing, but the glory of […]
Read moreFrancis Bacon: The Advancement of Learning
Nothing can fill, much less extend the soul of man, but God and the contemplation of God. — Francis Bacon In Defence of the Pursuit of Knowledge It was not the pure knowledge of Nature and universality, a knowledge by the light whereof man did give names unto other creatures in Paradise as they were brought before him according unto their proprieties, which gave the occasion to the fall; but […]
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Thomas More: Dialogue of Comfort against Tribulation
The Insufficiency of Humanism Tribulation generally signifies nothing else but some kind of grief, either pain of the body or heaviness of the mind. All the wit in the world cannot bring about that the body should not feel what it feels. But that the mind should not be grieved with either bodily pain or occasions of heaviness pressed unto the soul, this thing the philosophers laboured very much about. […]
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Iamblichus: Life of Pythagoras
Why Pythagoras Called Himself a Philosopher Pythagoras was the first who called himself a philosopher; a word which heretofore had not been an appellation but a description. When Leon the tyrant of Phlius asked him who he was, he said, “A philosopher”. He likens the entrance of men into the present life to the progression of a crowd to some public spectacle. For there men of every description assemble with different views. One […]
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Diogenes Laertius: Life of Pythagoras
The Learning and Piety of Pythagoras While still young, so eager was he for knowledge, Pythagoras left his own country and had himself initiated into all the mysteries and rites not only of Greece but also of foreign countries. He learned the Egyptian language, and also journeyed among the Chaldaeans and Magi. While in Crete he went down into the cave of Ida with Epimenides; he also entered the Egyptian […]
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