Beyond Philosophy

Some worthy goals exist as ends we strive for, but never achieve. Ἤδη τεθνήξῃ καὶ οὔπω οὔτε ἁπλοῦς οὔτε ἀτάραχος οὔτε ἀνύποπτος τοῦ βλαβῆναι ἂν ἔξωθεν οὔτε ἵλεως πρὸς πάντας οὔτε τὸ φρονεῖν ἐν μόνῳ τῷ δικαιοπραγεῖν τιθέμενος. You shall be dead before you achieve simplicity, calm, or release from the suspicion that the world has harmed you. Death will not find you gracious to all men, with thoughts for nothing except just action.

Where do we start? This is the question that matters, and there is no universal answer. Lo que hay es que el hombre, prisionero de la lógica, sin la cual no piensa, ha querido siempre ponerla al servicio de sus anhelos, y sobre todo del fundamental anhelo. Se quiso tener siempre a la lógica, y más en la Edad Media, al servicio de la teología y la jurisprudencia, que partían ambas de lo establecido por la autoridad. La lógica no se propuso hasta muy tarde el problema del conocimiento, el de la validez de ella misma, el examen de los fundamentos metalógicos. «La teología occidental —escribe Stanley— es esencialmente lógica en su forma y se basa en la ley; la oriental es retórica en la forma y se basa en la filosofía. El teólogo latino sucedió al abogado romano; el teólogo oriental al sofista griego». Y todas las elucubraciones pretendidas racionales o lógicas en apoyo de nuestra hambre de inmortalidad, no son sino abogacía y sofistería. Lo propio y característico de la abogacía, en efect...

Seneca tells Lucilius how to go about divesting himself of business when the latter proves bad. Note that malum (evil) here contrasts with felicitas (happiness, good fortune). Business can be very materially successful and yet prove bad for happiness. That is precisely the kind of bad business Seneca is most concerned with here. The kind so good, in conventional terms, that it becomes bad for the soul, occupying our time and overworking our emotions so that we have no joy in being alive. Iam intellegis educendum esse te ex istis occupationibus speciosis et malis, sed quomodo id consequi possis quaeris. Quaedam non nisi a praesente monstrantur; non potest medicus per epistulas cibi aut balinei tempus eligere: vena tangenda est. Vetus proverbium est gladiatorem in harena capere consilium: aliquid adversarii vultus, aliquid manus mota, aliquid ipsa inclinatio corporis intuentem monet. Quid fieri soleat, quid oporteat, in universum et mandari potest et scribi; tale consilium non tantum a...

Marcus Aurelius on the dynamic balance of nature. Nothing natural can be reduced to a single, momentary expression of time and space. Θεώρει διηνεκῶς πάντα κατὰ μεταβολὴν γινόμενα καὶ ἐθίζου ἐννοεῖν, ὅτι οὐδὲν οὕτως φιλεῖ ἡ τῶν ὅλων φύσις ὡς τὸ τὰ ὄντα μεταβάλλειν καὶ ποιεῖν νέα ὅμοια. σπέρμα γὰρ τρόπον τινὰ πᾶν τὸ ὂν τοῦ ἐξ αὐτοῦ ἐσομένου, σὺ δὲ μόνα σπέρματα φαντάζῃ τὰ εἰς γῆν ἢ μήτραν καταβαλλόμενα, τοῦτο δὲ λίαν ἰδιωτικόν. Contemplate constantly the fact that all things occur by change, and accustom your mind to see that the nature of everything whole loves nothing better than to change whatever exists at the moment, making new things that are similar to the old without being the same. A seed is already somehow every event that shall rise from it. You think that seeds scattered into the earth, or the womb, are just seeds, but that is an utterly foolish idea, one that you never got from nature.

Reason is fundamentally incapable of any comprehensive analysis of the world. To do her work, she must operate from premises whose ultimate standing is contingent (beyond her ability to project or control in any stable form). This means that she cannot see or manage the entire horizon upon which life occurs. That horizon is necessarily too much for her. Life is beyond computation, though as human beings we must perceive and express it with computative means (perception and expression, form and thought, word and argument, that become rational). The cause of our obsession with reason: we want to see the horizon of life, and reason is our largest window (and perhaps the only window, if we admit perception as form and thought as word). We must keep checking that window, because one view from it is never enough to show all the horizon. No hay sino leer el terrible Parménides de Platón, y llegar a su conclusión trágica de que «el uno existe y no existe, y él y todo lo otro existen y no exi...

Seneca advises Lucilius to pay his animal desires only what nature requires, not what civilization allows. Nature demands that we attend our desires, but civilization offers us more means of doing this than we can safely deploy. Because nature makes us hungry and civilization makes us rich, we can give ourselves chronic indigestion (and eventually diseases of excess, like gout or diabetes). But we don't have to. The key is to avoid eating everything we can, looking instead to eat only that which we need. Epicurus' dietary needs were minimal: his school met them with water and barley. Pr o eo libentius Epicuri egregia dicta commemoro, ut isti qui ad ill a confugiunt spe mala inducti, qui velamentum ipsos vitiorum suorum habituros existimant, probent quocumque ierint honeste esse vivendum (†). Cum adieris eius hortulos et inscriptum hortulis HOSPES HIC BENE MANEBIS, HIC SVMMVM BONVM VOLVPTAS EST, paratus erit istius domicilii custos hospitalis, humanus, et te polenta excipie...

A recurring Stoic theme is the mortality of everything about us. What is truly excellent, they might say, about our condition: we can always release anything we hold. Ideally, we release all holds before they become evil, to us or to others with whom our little moment of life is shared. Our mistakes need not be terrible or irrevocable, as we ourselves are not eternal, and so not liable to the divine sins of Olympus. Πᾶν ἐφήμερον, καὶ τὸ μνημονεῦον καὶ τὸ μνημονευόμενον. Everything lives for but a day, both the mind that marks and the world of things illustrated in its memories.

Our memory seeks to grasp something stable, something firm, a ground to hold for all of human time. But that is not what life is, holding the same ground for all time. Indeed, life might be framed in terms of letting go, releasing the fixed stability of the corpse to dance in an ungrounded volatility. Knowing too much is bad the same way moving too little is lethal: in either case, life demands mobility. Es una cosa terrible la inteligencia. Tiende a la muerte como a la estabilidad la memoria. Lo vivo, lo que es absolutamente inestable, lo absolutamente individual, es, en rigor, ininteligible. La lógica tira a reducirlo todo a identidades y a géneros, a que no tenga cada representación más que un sólo y mismo contenido en cualquier lugar, tiempo o relación en que se nos ocurra. Y no hay nada que sea lo mismo en dos momentos sucesivos de su ser. Mi idea de Dios es distinta cada vez que la concibo. La identidad, que es la muerte, es la aspiración del intelecto. La mente busca lo muerto, ...

Seneca tells Lucilius how to handle desires (always cut them back!) and philosophical attribution (never credit another person for your own philosophy, which is simply your own fault, no matter what the world might say or seem to contribute). Two lessons for the price of one! Ne gratis Idomeneus in epistulam meam venerit, ipse eam de suo redimet. Ad hunc Epicurus illam nobilem sententiam scripsit qua hortatur ut Pythoclea locupletem non publica nec ancipiti via faciat. Si vis inquit Pythoclea divitem facere, non pecuniae adiciendum sed cupiditati detrahendum est. Et apertior ista sententia est quam ut interpretanda sit, et disertior quam ut adiuvanda. Hoc unum te admoneo, ne istud tantum existimes de divit ii s dictum: quocumque transtuleris, idem poterit. Si vis Pythoclea honestum facere, non honoribus adiciendum est sed cupiditatibus detrahendum; si vis Pythoclea esse in perpetua voluptate, non voluptatibus adiciendum est sed cupiditatibus detrahendum; si vis Pythoclea senem facer...

Fatum decrevit amandum dominus Romanorum. Choose to embrace the fate that the universe gives you. Even the gods cannot escape it, and if you bear it well, it will bear you to glory. Ἑκὼν σεαυτὸν τῇ Κλωθοῖ συνεπιδίδου παρέχων συννῆσαι οἷστισί ποτε πράγμασι βούλεται. Surrender yourself willingly to Clotho (†), allowing her to weave the thread of your life among whatever circumstances she will. --- (†) One of the three female Fates (Μοῖραι , Parcae ) who together spin (Clotho, Nona), measure (Lachesis, Decima), and cut (Atropos, Morta) the thread of mortal life in ancient Mediterranean mythology. Hesiod makes them alternately daughters of gloomy Night ( Theogony 211-25 ), or of Zeus and Themis ( Theogony 901-6 ). Plato depicts them singing round the throne of their mother Necessity, who turns the spindle of the world on her knees as they sing a siren song—Clotho of what is, Lachesis of what was, and Atropos of what is to come ( Republic 10, 617d) .

Our reason is hostile to every lack of clear boundaries, which makes it an enemy to life, whose historical expression is one that escapes all boundaries we can recognize or create. Life has boundaries, of course, but they are not limits we control (or understand, with our reason). Y si la creencia en la inmortalidad del alma no ha podido hallar comprobación empírica racional, tampoco le satisface el panteísmo. Decir que todo es Dios, y que al morir volvemos a Dios, mejor dicho, seguimos en Él, nada vale a nuestro anhelo; pues si es así, antes de nacer, en Dios estábamos, y si volvemos al morir adonde antes de nacer estábamos, el alma humana, la conciencia individual, es perecedera. Y como sabemos muy bien que Dios, el Dios personal y consciente del monoteísmo cristiano, no es sino el productor, y sobre todo, el garantizador de nuestra inmortalidad, de aquí que se dice, y se dice muy bien, que el panteísmo no es sino un ateísmo disfrazado. Y yo creo que sin disfrazar. Y tenían razón los...

What is literature? A tool for extending memory, staving off the power of time to destroy lessons learned by ancestors whom we cannot meet, except in its words. Quod Epicurus amico suo potuit promittere, hoc tibi promitto, Lucili: habebo apud posteros gratiam, possum mecum duratura nomina educere. Vergilius noster duobus memoriam aeternam promisit et praestat:         fortunati ambo! si quid mea carmina possunt,         nulla dies umquam memori vos eximet aevo,         dum domus Aeneae Capitoli immobile saxum         accolet imperiumque pater Romanus habebit . Quoscumque in medium fortuna protulit, quicumque membra ac partes alienae potentiae fuerunt, horum gratia viguit, domus frequentata est, dum ipsi steterunt: post ipsos cito memoria defecit. Ingeniorum crescit dignatio nec ipsis tantum honor habetur, sed quidquid illorum memoriae adhaesit excipitur. What Epicurus was able to promise his friend, that ...

Think carefully. Work with others. Don't cheat or be cheated. That's it, according to Marcus Aurelius. Making a name is not as important as living well, since all names are forgotten in time. Remember that your life is just one moment in the vastness of all life, and that every event in your life happens according to nature. Greet all events, even the hard ones, as part of your fate that you accept. Αἱ πάλαι συνήθεις λέξεις γλωσσήματα νῦν· οὕτως οὖν καὶ τὰ ὀνόματα τῶν πάλαι πολυυμνήτων νῦν τρόπον τινὰ γλωσσήματά ἐστιν· Κάμιλλος, Καίσων, Οὐόλεσος, Δεντάτος, κατ’ ὀλίγον δὲ καὶ Σκιπίων καὶ Κάτων, εἶτα καὶ Αὔγουστος, εἶτα καὶ Ἁδριανὸς καὶ Ἀντωνῖνος· ἐξίτηλα γὰρ πάντα καὶ μυθώδη ταχὺ γίνεται, ταχὺ δὲ καὶ παντελὴς λήθη κατέχωσεν. καὶ ταῦτα λέγω ἐπὶ τῶν θαυμαστῶς πως λαμψάντων· οἱ γὰρ λοιποὶ ἅμα τῷ ἐκπνεῦσαι «ἄιστοι, ἄπυστοι». τί δὲ καὶ ἔστιν ὅλως τὸ ἀείμνηστον; ὅλον κενόν. τί οὖν ἐστι περὶ ὃ δεῖ σπουδὴν εἰσφέρεσθαι; ἓν τοῦτο· διάνοια δικαία καὶ πράξεις κοινωνικαὶ καὶ λόγος, οἷος μήπο...

Unamuno recounts the history of modern attempts to argue rationally for the soul's immortality, starting with the Renaissance and its aftermath. He finds the humanist reading of Aristotle more convincingly rational than the scholastic, when it comes to the soul's mortality, and dismisses nineteenth-century spiritualism (which argued that souls might be immortal because we observe them communicating with mediums, psychics, and others, in various circumstances we can observe). A partir del Renacimiento y la restitución del pensamiento puramente racional y emancipado de toda teología, la doctrina de la mortalidad del alma se restableció con Alejandro Afrodisiense, Pedro Pomponazzi y otros. Y en rigor, poco o nada puede agregarse a cuanto Pomponazzi dejó escrito en su Tractatus de inmortalitate animae . Esa es la razón, y es inútil darle vueltas. No ha faltado, sin embargo, quienes hayan tratado de apoyar empíricamente la fe en la inmortalidad del alma, y ahí está la obra de Fred...

Seneca urges Lucilius to avoid identifying too much with celebrity of any kind. As nature does not care to know my name, so I too must learn not to identify too strongly with it. Exemplum Epicuri referam. Cum Idomeneo scriberet et illum a vita speciosa ad fidelem stabilemque gloriam revocaret, rigidae tunc potentiae ministrum et magna tractantem, si gloria inquit tangeris, notiorem te epistulae meae facient quam omnia ista quae colis et propter quae coleris. Numquid ergo mentitus est? quis Idomenea nosset nisi Epicurus illum litteris suis incidisset? Omnes illos megistanas et satrapas et regem ipsum ex quo Idomenei titulus petebatur oblivio alta suppressit. Nomen Attici perire Ciceronis epistulae non sinunt. Nihil illi profuisset gener Agrippa et Tiberius progener et Drusus Caesar pronepos; inter tam magna nomina taceretur nisi Cicero illum applicuisset. Profunda super nos altitudo temporis veniet, pauca ingenia caput exserent et in idem quandoque silentium abitura oblivioni resis...

Marcus recommends taking a long view of history, seeing how our arts and intentions play out over multiple generations, in an arena that eludes effective control. Give nature her due, and be at peace in the knowledge that her bounty will eventually include many who forget you, no matter who or what you were. Stoic virtue is not ultimately a matter of personal renown. Ἐπινόησον λόγου χάριν τοὺς ἐπὶ Οὐεσπασιανοῦ καιρούς, ὄψει τὰ αὐτὰ πάντα· γαμοῦντας, παιδοτροφοῦντας, νοσοῦντας, ἀποθνῄσκοντας, πολεμοῦντας, ἑορτάζοντας, ἐμπορευομένους, γεωργοῦντας, κολακεύοντας, αὐθαδιζομένους, ὑποπτεύοντας, ἐπιβουλεύοντας, ἀποθανεῖν τινας εὐχομένους, γογγύζοντας ἐπὶ τοῖς παροῦσιν, ἐρῶντας, θησαυρίζοντας, ὑπατείας, βασιλείας ἐπιθυμοῦντας· οὐκοῦν ἐκεῖνος μὲν ὁ τούτων βίος οὐκ ἔτι οὐδαμοῦ. πάλιν ἐπὶ τοὺς καιροὺς τοὺς Τραιανοῦ μετάβηθι· πάλιν τὰ αὐτὰ πάντα· τέθνηκε κἀκεῖνος ὁ βίος. ὁμοίως καὶ τὰς ἄλλας ἐπιγραφὰς χρόνων καὶ ὅλων ἐθνῶν ἐπιθεώρει καὶ βλέπε, πόσοι κατενταθέντες μετὰ μικρὸν ἔπεσον καὶ ἀνελύθησαν ...

A problem with words, historically: they are used to mark events, to describe observation. Not all observations are reducible to rational abstraction that parses them all equally, delimiting them according to some universal plan that can be rendered explicit. A descriptive grammar is not the same as a prescriptive one, and a collection of descriptions is no exhaustive index of prescription. Having a term for something is not the same as knowing that that something exists in any actual, definitive form outside our language (subject to our direct control or manipulation, as words are). Jorge Berkeley, obispo anglicano de Cloyne y hermano en espíritu del también obispo anglicano José Butler, quería salvar como éste la fe en la inmortalidad del alma. Desde las primeras palabras del Prefacio de su Tratado referente a los principios del conocimiento humano ( A treatise concerning the Principles of human Knowledge ) , nos dice que este su tratado le parece útil, especialmente para los tocad...