HKB
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Often appears with: justice as a virtue · the nature and attributes of God · natural law and higher law · duty, conscience, and obligation · universal reason · the passions and the emotions · sin, guilt, and repentance · servile and filial fear · right opinions · opinions as burdens · mourning externals · logic, method, and demonstration
Usually: argument (3) · detachment (2) · exhortation (2) · commentary or gloss (1) · verse (1) · crisis of belief (1) · curiosity (1) · indignation (1) · reverence (1)
“Thus the beginning of wisdom as to its essence consists in the first principles of wisdom, i.e. the articles of faith, and in this sense faith is said to be the beginning of wisdom.” Thomas, Aquinas, Saint, Summa Theologica, Part II-II (Secunda Secundae) · insight
“Wherefore, since the goodness of the will depends on the goodness of the thing willed, as stated above (AA. 1, 2), it must, of necessity, depend on the intention of the end.” Thomas, Aquinas, Saint, Summa Theologica, Part I-II (Pars Prima Secundae) · insight
“The beginning of philosophy, at least with those who lay hold of it as they ought and enter by the door,[1] is the consciousness of their own feebleness and incapacity in respect of necessary things.” Epictetus (trans. T. W. Rolleston), The Teaching of Epictetus · precept
“What is the divine law? To keep a man’s own, not to claim that which belongs to others, but to use what is given, and when it is not given, not to desire it; and when a thing is taken away, to give it up readily and immediately, and to be thankful for the time that a man has had the use of it.” Epictetus (translated by George Long), A Selection from the Discourses of Epictetus with th · precept
God is “a law unto Himself,” so divine justice repays what is due according to God’s wisdom for both creatures and God Himself, and justice in God can be seen as goodness’s fitting accompaniment or reward of merit.
will He does justly: as we do justly what we do according to law. But whereas law comes to us from some higher power, God is a law unto Himself. Reply Obj. 3: To each one is due what is his own. Now that which is directed to a man is said to be his own. Thus the master owns the servant, and not conversely, for that is free which is its own cause. In the word debt, therefore, is implied a certain exigence or necessit…
He continues the account of excusing ignorance: if one errs about a circumstance and thus the act becomes involuntary, the will that follows erring reason is not evil.
she asks for it, his will is excused from being evil: because this error arises from ignorance of a circumstance, which ignorance excuses, and causes the act to be involuntary. Reply Obj. 1: As Dionysius says (Div. Nom. iv), "good results from the entire cause, evil from each particular defect." Consequently in order that the thing to which the will tends be called evil, it suffices, either that it be evil in itself…
He answers that fear can be the beginning of wisdom by effect, while faith is the beginning by essence, because fear disposes people to avoid sin and submit to God’s direction.
*On the contrary,* It is written in the Ps. 110:10: "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." *I answer that,* A thing may be called the beginning of wisdom in two ways: in one way because it is the beginning of wisdom itself as to its essence; in another way, as to its effect. Thus the beginning of an art as to its essence consists in the principles from which that art proceeds, while the beginning of an a…
Epictetus says what weighs on people are opinions, advises training with “right opinions” tied to the divine law (own what’s yours, relinquish what’s taken), and criticizes people mourning lost places and pleasures.
Give (name) to me one that I may see the man whom I have long been looking for, who is truly noble and ingenuous, whether young or old; name him. What then are the things which are heavy on us and disturb us? What else than opinions? What else than opinions lies heavy upon him who goes away and leaves his companions and friends and places and habits of life? Now little children, for instance, when they cry on the nu…
Cleanthes’ Hymn to Zeus praises Zeus as the lawful ruler of nature, claims the universe obeys divine reason, and contrasts human wrongdoing with divine ordering of all things.
THE BEGINNING OF PHILOSOPHY. 1. Wouldst thou be good, then first believe that thou art evil. 2. The beginning of philosophy, at least with those who lay hold of it as they ought and enter by the door,[1] is the consciousness of their own feebleness and incapacity in respect of necessary things. 3. For we come into the world having by nature no idea of a right-angled triangle, or a quarter-tone, or a semi-tone, but…