Beyond Philosophy

Marcus here appreciates the value of separating actions from emotions. Today as anciently, combat sports offer an excellent way to train this skill. Few things in life are more practical than learning to fight without losing your cool, especially when you lose. Ἐν τοῖς γυμνασίοις καὶ ὄνυξι κατέδρυψέ τις καὶ τῇ κεφαλῇ ἐρραγεὶς πληγὴν ἐποίησεν, ἀλλ’ οὔτε ἐπισημαινόμεθα οὔτε προσκόπτομεν οὔτε ὑφορώμεθα ὕστερον ὡς ἐπίβουλον· καίτοι φυλαττόμεθα, οὐ μέντοι ὡς ἐχθρὸν οὐδὲ μεθ’ ὑποψίας, ἀλλ’ ἐκκλίσεως εὐμενοῦς. τοιοῦτόν τι γινέσθω καὶ ἐν τοῖς λοιποῖς μέρεσι τοῦ βίου· πολλὰ παρενθυμώμεθα τῶν οἷον προσγυμναζομένων. ἔξεστι γάρ, ὡς ἔφην, ἐκκλίνειν καὶ μήτε ὑποπτεύειν μήτε ἀπέχθεσθαι. Someone lays us out in the gymnasium, drops a wild beating on our head, but we don't make a big deal of this, taking offense or suspecting that his deranged attack is an indication of deliberate malice. Though we defend ourselves, our defense isn't offered with spite, as to a foe, but with deference, as among ...

God, for Unamuno, is not a matter for explanation. Not a means to material ends. Not a locus of human control to be sought in the realm of the physical universe. Knowledge of divinity is not power in the way that knowledge of gravity is. Recognizing gravity better, with greater precision, does not make divinity less or worse or worthless to us. Era yo un mozo que empezaba a inquietarme de estos eternos problemas, cuando en cierto libro, de cuyo autor no quiero acordarme, leí esto: «Dios es una gran equis sobre la barrera última de los conocimientos humanos; a medida que la ciencia avanza, la barrera se retira». Y escribí al margen: «De la barrera acá, todo se explica sin Él; de la barrera allá, ni con Él ni sin Él; Dios, por lo tanto, sobra». Y en respecto al Dios-Idea, al de las pruebas, sigo en la misma sentencia. Atribúyese a Laplace la frase de que no había necesitado de la hipótesis de Dios para construir su sistema del origen del Universo, y así es muy cierto. La idea de Dios en ...

Seneca continues defending careful, slow rhetoric as proper for philosophy. If you must have bad discursive style, he says, pick a bad style that doesn't commit you to speaking too fast. Recte ergo facies si non audieris istos qui quantum dicant, non quemadmodum quaerunt, et ipse malueris, si necesse est, vel P. Vinicium dicere qui itaque (†). Cum quaereretur quomodo P. Vinicius diceret, Asellius ait tractim. Nam Geminus Varius ait, quomodo istum disertum dicatis nescio: tria verba non potest iungere. Quidni malis tu sic dicere quomodo Vinicius? Aliquis tam insulsus intervenerit quam qui illi singula verba vellenti, tamquam dictaret, non diceret, ait dic, numquam dicas? Nam Q. Hateri (‡) cursum, suis temporibus oratoris celeberrimi, longe abesse ab homine sano volo: numquam dubitavit, numquam intermisit; semel incipiebat, semel desinebat. You will do well to ignore those who attend only the quantity of their discourse, and not its quality. If needs must, you would even prefer t...

Generalizing from the particular works better when we know more particulars: my acquaintance with humanity should be extensive enough to suggest things for me to learn that I don't discover on my own, so that I express & become more than just my most narrow imagination of myself. Μή, εἴ τι αὐτῷ σοὶ δυσκαταπόνητον, τοῦτο ἀνθρώπῳ ἀδύνατον ὑπολαμβάνειν, ἀλλ’ εἴ τι ἀνθρώπῳ δυνατὸν καὶ οἰκεῖον, τοῦτο καὶ σεαυτῷ ἐφικτὸν νομίζειν. Don't suppose that something is impossible for mankind just because it is hard for you. Instead, think that you too must be able to grasp a thing commonly possible for other people.

Unamuno does not believe that we can prove the existence of God. What we prove are rational ideas, and these are never sufficient to contain divinity. Y de este Dios surgido así en la conciencia humana a partir del sentimiento de divinidad, apoderóse luego la razón, esto es, la filosofía, y tendió a definirlo, a convertirlo en idea. Porque definir algo es idealizarlo, para lo cual hay que prescindir de su elemento inconmensurable o irracional, de su fondo vital. Y el Dios sentido, la divinidad sentida como persona y conciencia única fuera de nosotros, aunque envolviéndonos y sosteniéndonos, se convirtió en la idea de Dios. El Dios lógico, racional, el ens summum , el primum movens , el Ser Supremo de la filosofía teológica, aquel a que se llega por los tres famosos caminos de negación, eminencia y causalidad, viae negationis, eminentiae, causalitatis , no es más que una idea de Dios, algo muerto. Las tradicionales y tantas veces debatidas pruebas de su existencia no son, en el fondo...

Seneca continues explaining good philosophical rhetoric to Lucilius. You want to speak fluently, he thinks, without undue hesitation, but not so quickly that you lose your audience, or sacrifice the ability to catch yourself mid-sentence, should you meet with something that requires reframing. He draws here on experience with Roman courts, where orators played the role of advocates to the judicial magistrate. Philosophers speak as advocates to the court of their listeners, he hints, some of whom are like a brand-new magistrate, unused to hearing cases argued and liable to miss something important, especially if the advocates get too passionate and cease to be cogent. Sed ut pleraque quae fieri posse non crederes cognovisse satis est, ita istos qui verba exercuerunt abunde est semel audisse. Quid enim quis discere, quid imitari velit? quid de eorum animo iudicet quorum oratio perturbata et immissa est nec potest reprimi? Quemadmodum per proclive currentium non ubi visum est gradus sisti...

Marcus reflects on the desire for celebrity that he discovers among many contemporary Romans, and finds it rather absurd. If we court too assiduously the thanks and praise of people we never meet, we are apt to forget that real human relationships are only possible with those whose presence we share. Οἷόν ἐστιν ὃ ποιοῦσι. τοὺς μὲν ἐπὶ τοῦ αὐτοῦ χρόνου καὶ μεθ’ ἑαυτῶν ζῶντας ἀνθρώπους εὐφημεῖν οὐ θέλουσιν, αὐτοὶ δὲ ὑπὸ τῶν μεταγενεστέρων εὐφημηθῆναι, οὓς οὔτε εἶδόν ποτε οὔτε ὄψονται, περὶ πολλοῦ ποιοῦνται. τοῦτο δὲ ἐγγύς ἐστι τῷ λυπηθῆναι ἄν, ὅτι οὐχὶ καὶ οἱ προγενέστεροι περὶ σοῦ λόγους εὐφήμους ἐποιοῦντο. This is the sort of thing people do: they do not want praise from those who live with them, sharing the same moment in time & space. Instead, they make much of being praised by future generations, whom they have never seen and will never see. This is very near to being grieved because past generations never dedicated speeches of praise to you.