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, […]
Read moreLatest Post
“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 […]
Read more
“Meditations” by Marcus Aurelius
The Stoic Ideal Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations, as well as works by Cicero which extol stoic virtues, put me in a state of awe and shame. I’m awed by the loftiness of their ideal character: purposefulness of life, clarity of vision, purity in dedication, fortitude, temperance, magnanimity, freedom and equanimity; I’m ashamed as if looking in a mirror and recognizing my own character contemptible in contrast. The Stoic Tenets As I […]
Read more“On the Ideal Orator” by Cicero
[Original Latin Title: De Oratore] Eloquence Forms a Unity For since all discourse is made up of content and words, the words cannot have any basis if you withdraw the content, and the content will remain in the dark if you remove the words. All the universe above and below us is a unity and is bound together by a single, natural force and harmony. For there is nothing in […]
Read more
“Eclogues” by Virgil
Eclogue I So in old age, you happy man, your fields will still be yours, and ample for your need! Though, with bare stones o’erspread, the pastures all be choked with rushy mire, your ewes with young by no strange fodder will be tried, nor hurt through taint contagious of a neighbouring flock. Happy old man, who ‘mid familiar streams and hallowed springs, will court the cooling shade! Here, as […]
Read more“Prometheus Bound” by Aeschylus
Prometheus In the beginning, though [humans] had eyes to see, they saw to no avail; they had ears, but they did not understand; but, just as shapes in dreams, throughout their length of days, without purpose they wrought all things in confusion. They had neither knowledge of houses built of bricks and turned to face the sun nor yet of work in wood; but dwelt beneath the ground like swarming […]
Read more