6 Great Sayings From Western Philosophy

philosophy is a discipline committed to helping us to live wiser and less sorrowful lives here are six ideas from its Western branch that can inspire and console what need is there to weep over parts of life the whole of it calls for tears the Roman philosopher Seneca used to comfort his friends and himself with this darkly humorous remark which gets to the heart of stoicism the school of philosophy which Seneca helped to found and which dominated the West for two hundred years we get weepy and furious says stoicism not simply because our plans have failed but because they have failed and we strongly expected them not to therefore thought Seneca the task of philosophy is to disappoint us gently before life has a chance to do so violently the less we expect the less we will suffer through the help of a consoling pessimism we should strive to turn our rage and our tears into that far less volatile compound sadness Seneca was not trying to depress us just to spare us the kind of hope that when it fails inspires bitterness and intemperate shouting in the late fourth century as the immense Roman Empire was collapsing the leading philosopher of the age st. Augustine became deeply interested in possible explanations for the evident tragic disorder of the human world one central idea he developed was what he legendarily termed piccata originally original sin Augustine proposed that human nature is inherently damaged and tainted because in the Garden of Eden the mother of all people Eve sinned against God by eating an apple from the tree of knowledge her guilt was then passed down to her descendants and now all earthly human endeavors are bound to fail because they are the work of a corrupt and faulty human spirit this odd idea might not be literally true of course however as a metaphor for why the world is in a mess has a beguiling poetic truth as relevant to atheists as believers we should not perhaps expect too much from the human race Augustine implies we've been somewhat doomed from the outset and that can in certain moods be a highly redemptive thought to keep in mind Kings and philosophers and so do ladies this blunt phrase appears in an essay by the 16th century French philosopher Michel de Montaigne Montaigne wasn't being mean his point was kindly he wanted us to feel closer to and less intimidated by people whose overt mode of life might seem painfully impressive and very far from our own and he could have added in secret these people also feel inadequate fear rejection and mess up their sex lives we could also update his examples to speak of CEOs entrepreneurs and the overachieving person we went to college with more tane was attempting to free us from under confidence and shyness born out of an exaggerated sense of the differences between ourselves and mighty others at moments of panic maybe before an important speech or a much anticipated date we should run Montagnes phrase through our febrile under confident minds and remind ourselves that no one however outwardly poised is more than a few hours away from a poignant ly modest and vulnerable moment all our unhappiness comes from our inability to sit alone in our room this assertion by the 17th century French philosopher Pascal is obviously not literally true but like all good philosophical aphorisms it pointedly exaggerated SAN important idea in order to bring home a general insight we are tempted to leave our room and crave excitements that too often turn out badly we meddle in the lives of others but fail to help them we seek Fame and end up being misunderstood by large numbers of people we don't know sitting alone doesn't mean literally being on the bed but rather staying undistracted with ourselves appreciating small pleasures examining the contents of our own minds allowing the quieter but important parts of our psyches to emerge thinking before we act Pascal's phrase is poignant because the louder voices in our culture are constantly speaking in the opposite direction they're always goading us to get out more to grow more agitated to seek more drama and to spend less time in thoughtful daydreams gazing out for the window at the clouds passing high above but we should with Pascal's encouragement learn to become better quieter friends to ourselves subspecies eternity artists this means translated from the Latin under the aspect of eternity a memorable phrase from the ethics published in 1677 by the Dutch philosopher bajo Spinoza for Spinoza the task of philosophy is the teachers to look at things especially our own suffering and disappointment under the aspect of eternity that is as though we were gazing down at the earth from very far away or from a different star Spinoza's outlook was much indebted to Galileo from this lofty perspective the incidents that trouble us no longer have to seem so shocking or so large what is a divorce or a sacking when contemplated from the lunar surface what is a rejection in love judged against the Earth's 4.5 billion year history on nature means that we'll always be pulled to exaggerate the here and now but our reasoned intelligence gives us access to a unique alternative perspective in which we participate in what Spinoza called eternal totality and can see sailing against the status quo submitting to the flow of events with clear-eyed serenity instead our soaked women halter alpha house dementia Kim artists can lease ganske hardest-hit simmered garden it's a slightly daunting and long German phrase but a hugely arresting and redemptive one central to the spirit of Western philosophy to translate out of the Crooked Timber of humanity no straight thing was ever made so wrote the German 18th century philosopher in Manuel Kant who urged us to recognize that nothing human beings do can ever be less than slightly wonky because we are creatures as much of passion and erroneous instinct as of reason and noble intelligence the wise accept this dark reality head-on and so don't expect perfection when designing governments they don't presume that rationality will triumph they do everything to assume that error and folly will try to have their way and so create structures to contain them when they marry with comparable realism the wise never expects that one person can be everything to them and then harangue a partner when they turn out not to be an acceptance of our crooked nature isn't dispiriting it's the birth of generosity and dark good humor not least added Immanuel Kant crooked beams can make for beautiful flaws in the hands of a talented carpenter if you want to learn more about the thinkers from our videos check out our great thinkers book available worldwide and now as an e-book you

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Id: LsHyE4s3YuM

Length: 7min 57sec (477 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 05 2018