classics digests, reflections and reviews
The important thing in Democracy is not to win, but to take part; the important thing in Life is not to have conquered but to have fought well. –The Olympian Socrates v. Scalia About four years ago, I had an interesting group discussion about the trial and death of Socrates. Someone said that the Athenians were good at sophistry, not sound reasoning, whereas the judicial system in the US was […]
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Locke criticizes, Sir Robert Filmer, a proponent of divine right of kings, for not defining terms clearly and building an edifice of political theory on a dubious foundation. I find it ironic that he makes the same mistake. Consequently, “there was never so much glib nonsense put together in well-sounding English”. In this review, I’ll first summarize Locke’s ideas in his own words, and then present my objections. Right to […]
Read more[Posted to commemorate the 106th anniversary of Tolstoy’s death] Who Am I? A man who has attained old age has passed through many vicissitudes : he was first an infant, then a child, an adult, an old man. But no matter how he has changed, he always calls himself “I”. This “I” was the same in his infancy, in his period of maturity, in his old age. This unchanging “I” we […]
Read moreConciseness has always seemed to me to be the most essential problem in art. To fit his destiny to a man so nicely as to leave no vacuum, to inclose him as radiantly as the ember does the fly and yet the while preserve every detail of his being has, of all tasks, ever been the dearest to me. –Stefan Zweig Stefan Zweig was an Austrian journalist and playwright, with […]
Read moreIn a previous post, I formulated Dostoevsky’s argument that belief in God is necessary for morality from an ontological perspective. In this post, I’ll formulate it from an epistemological perspective. I’ll demonstrate that knowledge of God is the foundation of morality, following the method of René Descartes. Foundation of Knowledge In his Meditations, Descartes reasoned that ideas formed within our mind have their origin beyond our mind, that is, our ideas are […]
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The Brothers Karamazov (TBK) has the reputation of a great philosophical and psychological novel. This was the main reason I chose to read the novel, but it disappointed on both counts. Dostoevsky’s philosophical arguments lack clarity and logical coherence. He shares this characteristic with another Existentialist philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche, who openly acknowledged his influence. His psychological portraits are perspicacious in many aspects. However, they lack the type of coherence that would […]
Read moreChoice vs. Freedom There is an important distinction, which most people overlook, between free choice of the will, commonly known as free will, and freedom. Choice is consequent of multiplicity, but freedom is consequent of power of being or becoming. For example, when a person is present at a crossroad, he has a choice between one way or the other, but he does not necessarily have the freedom to walk […]
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