Philosophy Now Forum

"It is foolish to take sides in disputes, or seek some other place or mode of living, or to envy the future or the past; all desire is delusion. Even life is an uncertain good; death not a certain evil; one should have no prejudices against either of them. Best of all is a calm acceptance; not to reform the world, but to bear with it patiently; not to fever ourselves with progress, but to content ourselves with peace." —from Will and Ariel Durant’s The Story of Civilization
Wisdom from a historian/philosopher
What implications do you see from this text.

Logic of a child.

To choose sides, depends on the reasoning from each part, if both are lost, one should stay neutral.

If 1 part is right, other is wrong, side with the right.

If both are partially wrong, and partially right, stay neural.

...but it's in most cases impossible to see who's righ or wrong, then it's always best to stay neutral.

HexHammer wrote:Logic of a child.

To choose sides, depends on the reasoning from each part, if both are lost, one should stay neutral.

If 1 part is right, other is wrong, side with the right.

If both are partially wrong, and partially right, stay neural.

...but it's in most cases impossible to see who's righ or wrong, then it's always best to stay neutral.

Stoicism is an ethical theory that came about in the ancient world because people were dissatisfied with the demise of the Greek city states. Stoic philosophy is not about who is right or wrong, but more about obtaining salvation in the face of a crumbling society. Basically, Stoicism is about learning to be indifferent when it comes to external influences.

Ginkgo wrote:Stoicism is an ethical theory that came about in the ancient world because people were dissatisfied with the demise of the Greek city states. Stoic philosophy is not about who is right or wrong, but more about obtaining salvation in the face of a crumbling society. Basically, Stoicism is about learning to be indifferent when it comes to external influences.

If that is really true, then philosophy is irrelevant for you.

HexHammer wrote:

Ginkgo wrote:Stoicism is an ethical theory that came about in the ancient world because people were dissatisfied with the demise of the Greek city states. Stoic philosophy is not about who is right or wrong, but more about obtaining salvation in the face of a crumbling society. Basically, Stoicism is about learning to be indifferent when it comes to external influences.

If that is really true, then philosophy is irrelevant for you.

Why is that?

Ginkgo wrote:

HexHammer wrote:

Ginkgo wrote:Stoicism is an ethical theory that came about in the ancient world because people were dissatisfied with the demise of the Greek city states. Stoic philosophy is not about who is right or wrong, but more about obtaining salvation in the face of a crumbling society. Basically, Stoicism is about learning to be indifferent when it comes to external influences.

If that is really true, then philosophy is irrelevant for you.

Why is that?

"be indifferent to external influences" that would suggest you would not care about intelligent reasoning, since philosophy = love of wisdom.

HexHammer wrote:

Ginkgo wrote:

HexHammer wrote:If that is really true, then philosophy is irrelevant for you.

Why is that?

"be indifferent to external influences" that would suggest you would not care about intelligent reasoning, since philosophy = love of wisdom.

After the demise of the Greek city states and the fall of Alexander the Great, Stoic philosophy was the wisdom of that age, right up until the time of Christianity.

Ginkgo wrote:

HexHammer wrote:

Ginkgo wrote:
Why is that?

"be indifferent to external influences" that would suggest you would not care about intelligent reasoning, since philosophy = love of wisdom.

After the demise of the Greek city states and the fall of Alexander the Great, Stoic philosophy was the wisdom of that age, right up until the time of Christianity.

That's probably why the greek empire declined so drastically since no one cared.

the pride of the baggage handlers is waning...

-Imp