To do good, signifies to do that which is good for man. But, in order to know what is good for man, it is necessary to be on humane, i.e., on friendly terms with him. It is not money that is necessary, but, first of all, a capacity for detaching ourselves, for a time at least, from the conditions of our own life. It is necessary that we should not […]
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“The Devil” by Leo Tolstoy
The Conservative It is generally supposed the Conservatives are usually old people, and that those in favour of change are the young. That is not quite correct. Usually Conservatives are young people: those who want to live but who do not think about how to live, and have not time to think, and therefore take as a model for themselves a way of life that they have seen. His Wife […]
Read moreTolstoy on Kant, Smoking and Writing
“It is usually said (and I used to say) that smoking facilitates mental work. And that is undoubtedly true if one considers only the quantity of one’s mental output. To a man who smokes, and who consequently ceases strictly to appraise and weigh his thoughts, it seems as if he suddenly had many thoughts. But this is not because he really has many thoughts, but only because he has lost […]
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Kant: Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals
Encountering Kant The cover image of a narrow staircase between heaven and earth is a picturesque representation of Kant’s notion of reason. On the one hand, reason must be separated from external causes and influences through the senses, i.e., reason is not subject to the laws of nature; on the other hand, it must not receive revelations or directives from a Supreme Being, as it must maintain its autonomy, i.e. freedom. […]
Read more“For Self-Examination/Judge for Yourself” by Søren Kierkegaard
Against Humanity Jesus and Socrates have much in common, according to Kierkegaard: Both were terrible robbers and both were sentenced to death for their robbery. “What is assaulting a lone traveler on a highway perhaps a half-dozen times compared with his assault upon the whole human race and upon what it means to be a human being! A thief can steal my money; in so doing we are in disagreement, […]
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“Aeneid” by Virgil
“The Plains of Troy Within Us” I chose Mandelbaum’s verse translation of Aeneid for two main reasons. First, because I plan to read his translation of Divine Comedy and the same translator might give me a better sense of the connection between the two classics. Second, Mandelbaum’s introduction and a phrase in his inscription, “the plains of Troy within us”, intrigued me. However, it was not until half way through […]
Read more“The Discourses of Epictetus” by Epictetus
A critic like Nietzsche might say that Stoicism is the philosophy of the slaves, just as religion is the opiate of the masses, or that a Stoic desperately rationalizes to make his miserable life more endurable, just as an Existentialist tries desperately to justify his own existence. However, reading the Discourses of Epictetus, who was born a slave and crippled later in life, I didn’t detect any baseness, slavishness, self-pity […]
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