HKB
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Often appears with: justice as a virtue · the passions and the emotions · reason and the intellect · fate, destiny, and necessity · sin, guilt, and repentance · duty, conscience, and obligation · the nature and attributes of God · pleasure, pain, and the good life · providence and divine governance · education and the training of the young · the fear of death · logic, method, and demonstration
Usually: argument (640) · detachment (479) · exhortation (207) · skepticism (164) · temptation (117) · reflection (116) · curiosity (106) · the test or trial (101) · censure (84) · crisis of belief (82)
“What? it is hard long love so lightly to leave in a moment? Hard; yet abides this one duty, to do it: obey.” Gaius Valerius Catullus (translated by Robinson Ellis), The Poems and Fragments of Catullus · precept
“Reason, is free; and Reason he made right, / But bid her well be ware, and still erect;” John Milton, Paradise Lost · precept
“Therefore, since he permits Within himself unworthy powers to reign Over free reason, God, in judgement just, Subjects him from without to violent lords; Who oft as undeservedly enthrall His outward freedom: Tyranny must be; Though to the tyrant thereby no excuse.” John Milton, Paradise Lost · insight
“for a time he struggled and covered his eyes, but at length the desire got the better of him; and forcing them open, he ran up to the dead bodies” Plato, The Republic · observation
“Virtue is free, and as a man honours or dishonours her he will have more or less of her; the responsibility is with the chooser—God is justified.” Plato, The Republic · precept
“Slavery does away with fathers, as it does away with families. Slavery has no use for either fathers or families, and its laws do not recognize their existence in the social arrangements of the plantation.” Frederick Douglass, My Bondage and My Freedom · insight
“Democracy does not confer the most skilful kind of government upon the people, but it produces that which the most skilful governments are frequently unable to awaken, namely, an all-pervading and restless activity.” Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America — Volume 1 · insight
“Experience teaches us no less clearly than reason, that men believe themselves to be free, simply because they are conscious of their actions, and unconscious of the causes whereby those actions are determined; and, further, it is plain that the dictates of the mind are but another name for the appetites.” Benedictus de Spinoza, Ethics — Part 3 · observation
“Therefore those who believe, that they speak or keep silence or act in any way from the free decision of their mind, do but dream with their eyes open.” Benedictus de Spinoza, Ethics — Part 3 · wit
“true love, I have heard it said, is indivisible, and must be voluntary and not compelled.” Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote · insight
“the outward actions and motions they give way to when their loves are in question are the faithful messengers that carry the news of what is going on in the depths of their hearts.” Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote · insight
“O bread thanklessly received! O promises ill-bestowed! O man more beast than human being!” Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote · wit
Pepys reports escalating plague in London with empty streets and massive death tolls, updates his will, describes people carrying corpses by day, and notes deaths near Deptford, Woolwich, and Court.
over anew my will, which I had bound myself by oath to dispatch by tomorrow night; the town growing so unhealthy, that a man cannot depend upon living two days. 12th. The people die so, that now it seems they are fain to carry the dead to be buried by day-light, the nights not sufficing to do it in. And my Lord Mayor commands people to be within at nine at night all, as they say, that the sick may have liberty to …
Pepys meets the Duke of York, hears bills proposed for Clarendon’s banishment/treason, learns Clarendon is in Calais after fleeing by boat, and draws a lesson that silence is better than speaking in such crises.
escape out of the nation. This day Gilsthrop is buried, who hath made all the late discourse of the great discovery of 65,000l. of which the King hath been wronged. 6th. With Sir J. Minnes to the Duke of York, the first time that I have seen him, or we waited on him, since his sickness: and blessed be God, he is not at all the worse for the small-pox, but is only a little weak yet. We did much business with him, …
Penelope struggles to speak face-to-face with Odysseus as she wonders if he truly is her husband in disguised rags, and Telemachus rebukes her while she insists on secret tokens to confirm identity.
[40] Reading σφῶι . . . . ἀμφοτέρω. Then wise Penelope answered her: “Dear nurse, boast not yet over them with laughter. Thou knowest how welcome the sight of him would be in the halls to all, and to me in chief, and to his son that we got between us. But this is no true tale, as thou declarest it, nay but it is one of the deathless gods that hath slain the proud wooers, in wrath at their bitter insolence and evil d…
Darwin begins the chapter on instinct, arguing instinct differs from habit in origin but can involve limited judgment or reasoning, and he introduces examples and categories needed to explain instinct by natural selection.
INSTINCT. Instincts comparable with habits, but different in their origin. Instincts graduated. Aphides and ants. Instincts variable. Domestic instincts, their origin. Natural instincts of the cuckoo, ostrich, and parasitic bees. Slave-making ants. Hive-bee, its cell-making instinct. Difficulties on the theory of the Natural Selection of instincts. Neuter or sterile insects. Summary. The subject of instinct might h…
God gives Moses signs (serpent rod, leprous hand, river-to-blood) and addresses Moses’ speech fears by appointing Aaron as spokesman; Moses returns to Egypt, faces the danger in an inn, circumcision is performed, and Aaron meets him and the elders believe.
Moses answered and said: See, they will not believe me nor hearken unto my voice: but will say, the LORD hath not appeared unto thee. Then the LORD said unto him: what is that in thine hand? and he said, a rod. And he said, cast it on the ground, and it turned unto a serpent. And Moses ran away from it. And the LORD said unto Moses: put forth thine hand and take it by the tail. And he put forth his hand and caught it…
He argues frequent elections weaken accountability because voters can’t judge gradual multi-year measures, so a more permanent body is needed; he then claims the people may require defense against their own passions.
the concurrence of a select and stable body had been necessary, a regard to national character alone would have prevented the calamities under which that misguided people is now laboring. I add, as a SIXTH defect the want, in some important cases, of a due responsibility in the government to the people, arising from that frequency of elections which in other cases produces this responsibility. This remark will, perh…
Chased by hounds into the forest outside Waco, a convict is helped by the tall stranger who removes his chains, teaches him (“Thou shalt not steal”), and then the convict earns work until he steals again.
on his legs. He ran and jumped, in little, short steps, and his chains rang. He fell and rose again, while the howl of the hounds rang louder behind him. Into the forest he leapt and crept and jumped and ran, streaming with sweat; seeing the tall form rise before him, he stopped suddenly, dropped his hands in sullen impotence, and sank panting to the earth. A greyhound shot out of the woods behind him, howled, whine…
Douglass discusses how slavery abolishes fathers and families, gives an account of his mother’s appearance and separation from him, and explains how slave practices divert a child’s affection away from the mother.
MY FATHER SHROUDED IN MYSTERY—MY MOTHER—HER PERSONAL APPEARANCE—INTERFERENCE OF SLAVERY WITH THE NATURAL AFFECTIONS OF MOTHER AND CHILDREN—SITUATION OF MY MOTHER—HER NIGHTLY VISITS TO HER BOY—STRIKING INCIDENT—HER DEATH—HER PLACE OF BURIAL. If the reader will now be kind enough to allow me time to grow bigger, and afford me an opportunity for my experience to become greater, I will tell him something, by-and-by, of …
Plutarch argues that divine inspiration prompts human choice rather than removes agency, then narrates Valeria and other Roman women seeking Marcius’ mercy through Volumnia and family appeal.
-- Yet never to her wishes won The just mind of the brave Bellerophon. But where the act is something out of the way and extraordinary, and seems in a manner to demand some impulse of divine possession and sudden inspiration to account for it here he does introduce divine agency, not to destroy, but to prompt the human will; not to create in us another agency, but offering images to stimulate our own; images that in…
Volumnia and Marcius’s wife and children throw themselves at Marcius’s feet, urging him to ignore injuries; Marcius relents after being told it was a “victory” for Rome that destroys his own future.
but if the Volscians happen to be defeated under your conduct, then the world will say, that, to satisfy a revengeful humor, you brought misery on your friends and patrons." Marcius listened to his mother while she spoke, without answering her a word; and Volumnia, seeing him stand mute also for a long time after she had ceased, resumed: "O my son," said she, "what is the meaning of this silence? Is it a duty to p…
Timoleon’s brother is killed by assassins on a tyrant’s orders, after which Timoleon grieves, withdraws from Corinth for years, and Plutarch argues that moral actions must come from steadfast reason to prevent later regret.
rage and indignation against them, Timoleon stepped aside from him and stood weeping with his face covered, while the other two, drawing out their swords, dispatched him in a moment. On the rumor of this act being soon scattered about, the better and more generous of the Corinthians highly applauded Timoleon for the hatred of wrong and the greatness of soul that had made him, though of a gentle disposition and full …
Cato debates Stoic doctrine with philosophers at night, hides his apparent intentions, realizes he has been disarmed by servants, rebukes them with sharp moral reasoning, and reclaims his sword.
purpose; he is still resolute and unalterable, and declares he is determined to follow your example." At this, it is said, Cato smiled, and answered, "That will soon be tried." After he had bathed, he went to supper, with a great deal of company; at which he sat up, as he had always used to do ever since the battle of Pharsalia; for since that time he never lay down, but when he went to sleep. There supped with him…
Left with philosophers after others exit in tears, Cato argues that he needs no sword to escape life, regains self-mastery, sleeps briefly, then sends freedmen to check the departure of others at sea.
comes, he may find me unable to defend myself? To dispatch myself I want no sword; I need but hold my breath awhile, or strike my head against the wall." When he had thus spoken, his son went weeping out of the chamber, and with him all the rest, except Demetrius and Apollollides, to whom, being left alone with him, he began to speak more calmly. "And you," said he, "do you also think to keep a man of my age alive b…
Brutus’s anxiety troubles Porcia, daughter of Cato; she proves her constancy by wounding herself, suffering fever, and telling Brutus she will share their hidden griefs and endure pain for the cause.
and held it so silently among themselves, that, though by prophecies and apparitions and signs in the sacrifices the gods gave warning of it, yet could it not be believed. Now Brutus, feeling that the noblest spirits of Rome for virtue, birth, or courage were depending upon him, and surveying with himself all the circumstances of the dangers they were to encounter, strove indeed as much as possible, when abroad, to …
The armies resolve to fight the next day; Cassius privately tells Messala he must risk liberty like Pompey, while Brutus stays cheerful, arguing philosophy and intending decisive action.
Brutus and those with him did not believe when they heard he was come. Caesar came up ten days after, and encamped over against Brutus, and Antony over against Cassius. The space between the two armies is called by the Romans the Campi Philippi. Never had two such large Roman armies come together to engage each other. That of Brutus was somewhat less in number than that of Caesar, but in the splendidness of the me…
Brutus and Cassius meet between the camps; Cassius asks about flight or death and Brutus answers he will die contentedly, having already offered himself on the Ides of March.
was much displeased at this answer; and among the rest, Atellius was had in much disesteem for it. And so it was presently resolved to give battle the next day. Brutus that night at supper showed himself very cheerful and full of hope, and reasoned on subjects of philosophy with his friends, and afterwards went to his rest. But Messala says that Cassius supped privately with a few of his nearest acquaintance, and a…
Kant warns that the “I think” proposition involves internal intuition and thus still confines knowledge to phenomena, while practical use of categories points to freedom only analogically within experience.
That we may be able to enumerate with systematic precision these ideas according to a principle, we must remark, in the first place, that it is from the understanding alone that pure and transcendental conceptions take their origin; that the reason does not properly give birth to any conception, but only frees the conception of the understanding from the unavoidable limitation of a possible experience, and thus endea…
He defines how “world” and “nature” differ depending on whether phenomena are considered mathematically or dynamically, tying liberty to unconditioned causality and necessity to contingency.
possibility of which must be investigated—particularly in relation to the mode in which the unconditioned, as the transcendental idea which is the real subject of inquiry, may be contained therein. We possess two expressions, world and nature, which are generally interchanged. The first denotes the mathematical total of all phenomena and the totality of their synthesis—in its progress by means of composition, as wel…
In the Third Conflict of the Transcendental Ideas, Kant argues that if only natural causality exists, there can be no first beginning of the causal series and the principle becomes self-contradictory.
ANTITHESIS. There is no such thing as freedom, but everything in the world happens solely according to the laws of nature. PROOF. Granted, that there does exist freedom in the transcendental sense, as a peculiar kind of causality, operating to produce events in the world—a faculty, that is to say, of originating a state, and consequently a series of consequences from that state. In this case, not only the series o…
Kant explains freedom as a transcendental idea enabling us to impute spontaneity of action, allows a free first beginning in the causal order without requiring an absolute first moment in time.
OBSERVATIONS ON THE THIRD ANTINOMY. ON THE THESIS. The transcendental idea of freedom is far from constituting the entire content of the psychological conception so termed, which is for the most part empirical. It merely presents us with the conception of spontaneity of action, as the proper ground for imputing freedom to the cause of a certain class of objects. It is, however, the true stumbling-stone to philosophy…
Kant notes that without interest, deliberation between thesis and antithesis yields hesitation, but practical interest guides choice, and he invites both sides to be judged freely by a jury-like community.
utterly impossible. Thus the architectonic interest of reason, which requires a unity—not empirical, but à priori and rational—forms a natural recommendation for the assertions of the thesis in our antinomy. But if any one could free himself entirely from all considerations of interest, and weigh without partiality the assertions of reason, attending only to their content, irrespective of the consequences which foll…
Kant distinguishes practical freedom from speculative (transcendental) freedom, defines free will as reason-independent of sensuous impulses, and argues practical freedom is confirmable only from experience through our power to overcome immediate desires.
they relate to pleasure or pain, that is, the elements of our practical judgements, do not belong to transcendental philosophy, which has to do with pure à priori cognitions alone. I have to remark, in the first place, that at present I treat of the conception of freedom in the practical sense only, and set aside the corresponding transcendental conception, which cannot be employed as a ground of explanation in the …
Assuming pure moral laws that bind a rational being a priori, Kant argues reason makes a moral world possible as an intelligible system where moral freedom harmonizes with happiness in a way that remains only an idea but has objective practical reality.
this freedom can harmonize with the distribution of happiness according to principles. This second law may therefore rest upon mere ideas of pure reason, and may be cognized à priori. I assume that there are pure moral laws which determine, entirely à priori (without regard to empirical motives, that is, to happiness), the conduct of a rational being, or in other words, to use which it makes of its freedom, and that…
He defines parental power as arising from a duty of care for children’s rational immaturity, and he explains that freedom is not doing whatever one wants but acting within laws that prevent domination.
too; he must prescribe to his will, and regulate his actions; but when he comes to the estate that made his father a freeman, the son is a freeman too. Sect. 59. This holds in all the laws a man is under, whether natural or civil. Is a man under the law of nature? What made him free of that law? what gave him a free disposing of his property, according to his own will, within the compass of that law? I answer, a sta…
Marcela defends herself logically, arguing that beauty attracts love but does not obligate the beloved to reciprocate, insists love must be voluntary, and denies responsibility for Chrysostom’s death given no promises or deception.
as I know the thoughts of Chrysostom never failed to obey thee in life, I will make all these who call themselves his friends obey thee, though he be dead.” “I come not, Ambrosio for any of the purposes thou hast named,” replied Marcela, “but to defend myself and to prove how unreasonable are all those who blame me for their sorrow and for Chrysostom’s death; and therefore I ask all of you that are here to give me y…
After hiding near El Toboso, Don Quixote instructs Sancho to observe how Dulcinea reacts to his message, arguing that lovers’ outward motions reveal their inward feelings, then sends him back into the city.
WHEREIN IS RELATED THE CRAFTY DEVICE SANCHO ADOPTED TO ENCHANT THE LADY DULCINEA, AND OTHER INCIDENTS AS LUDICROUS AS THEY ARE TRUE p10a.jpg (142K) Full Size When the author of this great history comes to relate what is set down in this chapter he says he would have preferred to pass it over in silence, fearing it would not be believed, because here Don Quixote’s madness reaches the confines of the greatest that c…
Sancho says Don Quixote has promised him an island for over twenty years, and Don Quixote angrily rejects the profit-sharing bargain, insults Sancho, then they set off toward the Ebro.
“If I remember rightly,” said Sancho, “it must be over twenty years, three days more or less.” Don Quixote gave himself a great slap on the forehead and began to laugh heartily, and said he, “Why, I have not been wandering, either in the Sierra Morena or in the whole course of our sallies, but barely two months, and thou sayest, Sancho, that it is twenty years since I promised thee the island. I believe now thou wou…
Continuing her rebuttal, she argues Rousseau’s “habitual restraint” and servility damage people and can be transmitted to posterity, compares women to domesticated creatures shaped by custom, and rejects obedience as the basis of temper.
lays them under, if well directed, will increase their affection, instead of lessening it; because a state of dependence being natural to the sex, they perceive themselves formed for obedience." This is begging the question; for servitude not only debases the individual, but its effects seem to be transmitted to posterity. Considering the length of time that women have been dependent, is it surprising that some of t…
Switching to Dr. Fordyce, she objects to sermons and advice that cultivate artificial grace and sentimental pandering, insisting true grace comes from independence of mind and rational self-respect.
Dr. Fordyce's sermons have long made a part of a young woman's library; nay, girls at school are allowed to read them; but I should instantly dismiss them from my pupil's, if I wished to strengthen her understanding, by leading her to form sound principles on a broad basis; or, were I only anxious to cultivate her taste; though they must be allowed to contain many sensible observations. Dr. Fordyce may have had a ve…
Quoting Fordyce’s portrait of a wife who endlessly yields and submits to her husband, Wollstonecraft calls it house-slave morality, arguing lasting affection comes from esteem rooted in virtue and reason.
the masculine kind, are always forbidding; and that men of sensibility desire in every woman soft features, and a flowing voice, a form not robust, and demeanour delicate and gentle." Is not the following portrait--the portrait of a house slave? "I am astonished at the folly of many women, who are still reproaching their husbands for leaving them alone, for preferring this or that company to theirs, for treating th…
She argues for simpler principles in love and friendship, claims that vanity and duplicity degrade women, and insists that education should build understanding, wisdom, and the energy to love and trust.
privileges of friendship, or the momentary homage which the heart pays to virtue, when it flashes suddenly on the notice--mere animal spirits have no claim to the kindnesses of affection. Wishing to feed the affections with what is now the food of vanity, I would fain persuade my sex to act from simpler principles. Let them merit love, and they will obtain it, though they may never be told that: "The power of a fi…
Freud argues against popular ideas that sexual impulse appears at puberty and aims only at heterosexual union, proposing instead that the sexual impulse (libido) varies in object and aim and must be studied scientifically.
one another. In the most extreme cases it can regularly be assumed that the inversion has existed at all times and that the person feels contented with his peculiar state. Many authors will hesitate to gather into a unit all the cases enumerated here and will prefer to emphasize the differences rather than the common characters of these groups, a view which corresponds with their preferred judgment of inversions. Bu…
He explains object selection happening first around ages three to five and then again at puberty, mediated by latency, and argues that unresolved infantile object aims produce later tenderness masking old sexual strivings.
by the latency period; it is characterized by the infantile nature of its sexual aims. The second shift starts with puberty and determines the definitive formation of the sexual life. The fact of the double object selection which is essentially due to the effect of the latency period, becomes most significant for the disturbance of this terminal state. The results of the infantile object selection reach into the lat…
Freud explains repression as requiring two cooperating processes, likening it to a tourist being pushed from one side and pulled from the other.
with satisfaction to the fact that direct observation has fully confirmed the conclusion drawn from psychoanalysis, and thus furnishes good evidence for the reliability of the latter method of investigation. Moreover, the "Analysis of a Phobia in a Five-year-old Boy" (Jahrbuch, Bd. 1) has taught us something new for which psychoanalysis had not prepared us, to wit, that sexual symbolism, the representation of the se…
Freud clarifies that sublimation and reaction formation should be distinguished: in the discussed case sublimation happens via reaction formations, but in general they are separate processes.
connected with the voiding of sexual substance there is no production of tension but rather a removal of all tension. Hence, pleasure and sexual tension can be only indirectly connected. *The Role of the Sexual Substance.*--Aside from the fact that only the discharge of the sexual substance can normally put an end to the sexual excitement, there are other essential facts which bring the sexual tension into relation …
Freud claims that sexual object-finding originates in early nursing and the loss of the breastfeeding object, then returns after latency; tender child–nurse relations are treated as preparing future sexual love, which parents may unintentionally stimulate.
entrance but not at all unexcitable through the clitoris or even through other zones. Besides these erogenous causes of anesthesia there are also psychic causes likewise determined by the repression. If the transference of the erogenous excitability from the clitoris to the vagina has succeeded, the woman has thus changed her leading zone for the future sexual activity; the man on the other hand retains his from chi…
Ellen recognizes Linda as her mother during the night, cries about losing love and family, promises secrecy to keep seeing grandmother, and Linda instructs her to be a good child and pray for her imprisoned mother.
God, in anguish of heart, to forgive the wrong I had done. How vividly it all came back! And after this long, gloomy interval, I stood there such a wreck! In the midst of these meditations, I heard footsteps on the stairs. The door opened, and my uncle Phillip came in, leading Ellen by the hand. I put my arms round her, and said, “Ellen, my dear child, I am your mother.” She drew back a little, and looked at me; the…
He argues the individual’s personality derives from an impersonal collective spiritual principle plus an individualizing bodily factor, and he connects this to philosophical accounts by Leibniz and Kant.
ideas and sentiments which brings about the moral unity of the group, they do not all see it from the same angle; each one expresses it in its own fashion. Of these two equally indispensable factors, the former is certainly not the less important, for this is the one which furnishes the original matter for the idea of the soul. Perhaps some will be surprised to see so considerable a rôle attributed to the impersonal…
Durkheim maintains the soul’s autonomy is grounded sociologically, not biological mysticism: social ideas and sentiments form a part of us held in common, freeing us from bodily constraint.
way when he said that the monad was completely closed to the outside. Now our analysis permits us to see how this conception was formed and to what it corresponds. In fact, the soul, a symbolic representation of the personality, has the same characteristic. Although closely bound to the body, it is believed to be profoundly distinct from it and to enjoy, in relation to it, a large degree of independence. During life…
In the dungeon, Christian laments his misery and debates whether life or death is better, questioning whether he should submit to the Giant’s rule.
to go back, but it was so dark, and the flood was so high, that in their going back they had like to have been drowned nine or ten times. {283} Neither could they, with all the skill they had, get again to the stile that night. Wherefore, at last, lighting under a little shelter, they sat down there until the daybreak; but, being weary, they fell asleep. Now there was, not far from the place where they lay, a castle…
Hopeful and Christian, imprisoned in Giant Despair’s dungeon, reject suicide and debate God’s commands, the fear of hell, and the possibility of release, urging patience until their minds are moderated together.
out of hand. "My soul chooseth strangling rather than life", and the grave is more easy for me than this dungeon. [Job 7:15] Shall we be ruled by the Giant? {286} HOPE. Indeed, our present condition is dreadful, and death would be far more welcome to me than thus for ever to abide; but yet, let us consider, the Lord of the country to which we are going hath said, Thou shalt do no murder: no, not to another man's per…
Christian probes Hopeful’s earlier fears and beliefs, then Hopeful recounts his conversion process: resisting conviction, trying self-reform, and finally trusting Christ’s righteousness through prayer and revelation.
causeth to err from the words of knowledge." [Prov. 19:27] I say, my brother, cease to hear him, and let us "believe to the saving of the soul". [Heb. 10:39] {335} CHR. My brother, I did not put the question to thee for that I doubted of the truth of our belief myself, but to prove thee, and to fetch from thee a fruit of the honesty of thy heart. As for this man, I know that he is blinded by the god of this world. L…
After the night fight, the Spaniards vow to free prisoners and pursue peace, while Doña Marina and Aguilar coach delegates; the narrator criticizes Gomara for omitting Spanish hardships and confirms their next diplomatic replies.
undertakings, his blessing was upon the arm of us soldiers and the advice we gave Cortes, and it was only in this way all things could have terminated so well. I will not, however, detain the reader with this preamble of great deeds, for it has little to do with the principal object of this history. I am more pleased to relate, that we unanimously swore to protect his person, and begged of him, that as God had rescu…
Responding to the objection that conciliation yields no revenue, Burke claims freedom to refuse grants makes revenue flow reliably, contrasts stable government with forced, precarious supply, and rejects “compounding” demands.
of this Empire. I now go so far as to risk a proposal of my own. If I cannot give peace to my country, I give it to my conscience. But what, says the financier, is peace to us without money? Your plan gives us no revenue. No! But it does; for it secures to the subject the power or refusal, the first of all revenues. Experience is a cheat, and fact a liar, if this power in the subject of proportioning his grant, or o…
He argues that incessant democratic agitation can be the greatest advantage of democracy because participation expands citizens’ ideas, improves information and activity, and ultimately fosters a restless energy that brings benefits.
Montesquieu somewhere alludes to the excessive despondency of certain Roman citizens who, after the excitement of political life, were all at once flung back into the stagnation of private life.] This ceaseless agitation which democratic government has introduced into the political world influences all social intercourse. I am not sure that upon the whole this is not the greatest advantage of democracy. And I am muc…
Tocqueville claims democratic-age historians turn people into passive subjects of Providence or necessity, teaching that events could not have happened otherwise, which paralyzes society.
all together in the same direction, may well seem irresistible: having seen that mankind do yield to it, the mind is close upon the inference that mankind cannot resist it. Historians who live in democratic ages, then, not only deny that the few have any power of acting upon the destiny of a people, but they deprive the people themselves of the power of modifying their own condition, and they subject them either to …
Zarathustra teaches that virtue comes from overcoming impulses—exaltation above blame, rejecting comfort, willing one will—and then urges devotion of love and knowledge to earth rather than fleeing to “eternal” walls.
When your heart overfloweth broad and full like the river, a blessing and a danger to the lowlanders: there is the origin of your virtue. When ye are exalted above praise and blame, and your will would command all things, as a loving one’s will: there is the origin of your virtue. When ye despise pleasant things, and the effeminate couch, and cannot couch far enough from the effeminate: there is the origin of your …
Zarathustra teaches that God is a conjecture and the human task is to conceive and create the Superman, warning that “conjecture” should stay within what can be humanly made visible and endured.
To my friends can I again go down, and also to mine enemies! Zarathustra can again speak and bestow, and show his best love to his loved ones! My impatient love overfloweth in streams,—down towards sunrise and sunset. Out of silent mountains and storms of affliction, rusheth my soul into the valleys. Too long have I longed and looked into the distance. Too long hath solitude possessed me: thus have I unlearned to k…
Zarathustra argues that if God existed he could not endure being “no God,” concludes that there are no gods, and links truth and thinking to creation that redeems suffering and becoming.
God is a conjecture: but I should like your conjecturing restricted to the conceivable. Could ye CONCEIVE a God?—But let this mean Will to Truth unto you, that everything be transformed into the humanly conceivable, the humanly visible, the humanly sensible! Your own discernment shall ye follow out to the end! And what ye have called the world shall but be created by you: your reason, your likeness, your will, your…
A dance-song scene follows Cupid and maidens: Zarathustra praises life’s unfathomable nature, casts Wisdom as life’s double, and then becomes sad as evening interrogates Zarathustra about whether living is still folly.
But that I am fond of Wisdom, and often too fond, is because she remindeth me very strongly of Life! She hath her eye, her laugh, and even her golden angle-rod: am I responsible for it that both are so alike? And when once Life asked me: “Who is she then, this Wisdom?”—then said I eagerly: “Ah, yes! Wisdom! One thirsteth for her and is not satisfied, one looketh through veils, one graspeth through nets. Is she be…
After sensing a “stillest hour” from his terrible mistress, Zarathustra reveals he must depart unjoyously back to solitude, recounting an inner command he resists until he finally goes.
And I answered: “Ah, is it MY word? Who am *I*? I await the worthier one; I am not worthy even to succumb by it.” Then was there again spoken unto me without voice: “What matter about thyself? Thou art not yet humble enough for me. Humility hath the hardest skin.”— And I answered: “What hath not the skin of my humility endured! At the foot of my height do I dwell: how high are my summits, no one hath yet told me. B…
Before sunrise Zarathustra communes with the sky, then mistrusts his blissful hour, waiting all night for misfortune while laughing that happiness pursues him because he does not run after women.
My past burst its tomb, many pains buried alive woke up—: fully slept had they merely, concealed in corpse-clothes. So called everything unto me in signs: “It is time!” But I—heard not, until at last mine abyss moved, and my thought bit me. Ah, abysmal thought, which art MY thought! When shall I find strength to hear thee burrowing, and no longer tremble? To my very throat throbbeth my heart when I hear thee burro…
In “The Great Longing,” Zarathustra addresses his soul, claiming he liberated it from shame, gave it liberty and new names like “Fate,” and ends by urging it to sing through its overfull longing.
O my soul, I have taken from thee all obeying and knee-bending and homage-paying; I have myself given thee the names, “Change of need” and “Fate.” O my soul, I have given thee new names and gay-coloured playthings, I have called thee “Fate” and “the Circuit of circuits” and “the Navel-string of time” and “the Azure bell.” O my soul, to thy domain gave I all wisdom to drink, all new wines, and also all immemorially …
Zarathustra continues “The Higher Man,” warning higher people against honesty-lacking falseness and crowd thinking, urging secret reasons, distrust of learned people, and using one’s own legs to reach one’s height.
6. Ye higher men, think ye that I am here to put right what ye have put wrong? Or that I wished henceforth to make snugger couches for you sufferers? Or show you restless, miswandering, misclimbing ones, new and easier footpaths? Nay! Nay! Three times Nay! Always more, always better ones of your type shall succumb,—for ye shall always have it worse and harder. Thus only— —Thus only groweth man aloft to the height…
Achilles laments that he can’t save Patroclus and feels like a useless burden, decides to pursue Hector, and Thetis urges him not to rejoin the battle until she returns with forged armor.
Thetis wept and answered, “Then, my son, is your end near at hand—for your own death awaits you full soon after that of Hector.” Then said Achilles in his great grief, “I would die here and now, in that I could not save my comrade. He has fallen far from home, and in his hour of need my hand was not there to help him. What is there for me? Return to my own land I shall not, and I have brought…
He argues extreme grief stuns the soul and prevents speech, then turns to examples of dying or paralysis from grief or joy (and love’s effects), and claims only moderate passions can be fully expressed.
["Petrified with her misfortunes."--Ovid, Met., vi. 304.] thereby to express that melancholic, dumb, and deaf stupefaction, which benumbs all our faculties, when oppressed with accidents greater than we are able to bear. And, indeed, the violence and impression of an excessive grief must of necessity astonish the soul, and wholly deprive her of her ordinary functions: as it happens to every one of us, who, upon any…
In a new essay section, Montaigne claims human beings are never truly present because fear and desire push them toward the future, and he recommends self-knowledge and doing one’s proper work rather than chasing what comes later.
THAT OUR AFFECTIONS CARRY THEMSELVES BEYOND US. Such as accuse mankind of the folly of gaping after future things, and advise us to make our benefit of those which are present, and to set up our rest upon them, as having no grasp upon that which is to come, even less than that which we have upon what is past, have hit upon the most universal of human errors, if that may be called an error to which nature herself has…
He argues that he prepares himself by continually imagining death; he says his health or illness changes how terrible death seems, and approaching it gradually makes it easier to accept.
to entreat him that he would not lead him in his triumph, "Let him make that request to himself."--[ Plutarch, Life of Paulus Aemilius, c. 17; Cicero, Tusc., v. 40.] In truth, in all things, if nature do not help a little, it is very hard for art and industry to perform anything to purpose. I am in my own nature not melancholic, but meditative; and there is nothing I have more continually entertained myself withal …
Continuing his physiological reasoning, Montaigne argues that many bodily motions (including the genitals, face, lungs, pulse, and digestion) act without the will’s control; he uses examples and authorities to defend nature’s autonomy and blame the will’s “mutiny.”
an absolute conquest over his own mutinous and indisposed faculties. Such as know their members to be naturally obedient, need take no other care but only to counterplot their fantasies. The indocile liberty of this member is very remarkable, so importunately unruly in its tumidity and impatience, when we do not require it, and so unseasonably disobedient, when we stand most in need of it: so imperiously contesting …
Locke challenges those who say the soul always thinks, asking how they know it—especially when they do not perceive their own thinking—and calling this belief unsupported.
18. How knows any one that the Soul always thinks? For if it be not a self-evident Proposition, it needs Proof. I would be glad also to learn from these men who so confidently pronounce that the human soul, or, which is all one, that a man always thinks, how they come to know it; nay, how they come to know that they themselves think, when they themselves do not perceive it. This, I am afraid, is to be sure without p…