© Roger M Tagg 2010-2011
Welcome to FROLIO – a new attempt to merge philosophy and the "semantic web" . This website is under continuing development.
This is a most interesting selection of personal reactions to the main ideas of 6 selected "old" philosophers. The author intersperses this with some illustrative experiences of his own (real or imaginary). I am not totally sure about the titles of the chapters (or of the book as a whole), especially as some of the quotations don't recommend "consolation". However the book is very readable and is well within the grasp of an ordinary reader. One critic says of the book that "philosophy is the new rock and roll" - this I think is going too far!
| Chapter | Page | Highlight |
|---|---|---|
| Socrates | 7 | For many of us, a priority is to be liked, rather than to speak the truth. We do not like to publicly doubt ideas to which the majority is committed. We seek the approval of figures of authority. |
| 13 | It is not only the hostility of others that may prevent us from questioning the status quo. Our will to doubt can just as powerfully be sapped by an internal sense that social conventions must have a sound basis. | |
| 21 | One would never imagine that making a good pot or shoe could be result from intuition alone. So why then do we assume that the more complex task of directing one's life can be undertaken without any sustained reflection on premises or goals? | |
| 41-2 | However, we should beware against belief that being hated by the majority must be right. | |
| Epicurus | 55 | The task for philosophy is to help us interpret our indistinct pulses of distress and desire, and therefore save ourselves from mistaken schemes for happiness. |
| 60 | Natural and necessary: friends, freedom, food, shelter, clothing and thought (about the main sources of anxiety, such as illness, death, poverty, superstition). Natural but unnecessary: grand house, private pool, banquets, servants, fish and meat. Neither: fame, power. | |
| 61 | A graph of happiness against money spent flattens out very soon. | |
| 65 | Why do we think money will buy more happiness? We assume it will provide solutions to needs we don't fully understand. Also, the opinions of those around us, as well as commercial interests, promote a material vision of the good - and downplay an unsaleable one. | |
| Seneca | 80-1 | At the heart of every frustration lies a basic structure: the collision of a wish with an unyielding reality. The brick wall analogy: we need to think about a soft landing, or to somehow jump up and over (RT: or round?) |
| 83 | What makes us angry is dangerously optimistic notions about what the world and other people are like. | |
| 87 | We must hold in mind the possibility of disaster at all times. See "Praemeditatio" on p 91. | |
| 93 | The continuing belief that the world is fundamentally just (i.e. good prospers, evil doesn't) is implied by the very complaint that there has been an injustice. | |
| 96 | Reassurance can be the cruellest antidote to anxiety. | |
| 98 | Stoics are identified as wise by only one detail: how they would respond to sudden poverty (or other calamity). | |
| 102-5 | We must resist the construction that the other people associated with our frustration are doing it to spite us. It's better to assume that they don't know that they are adversely affecting us. | |
| 107-8 | Stoics' view of life - like being a dog attached by a lead to the back of an irregularly moving cart. It is better to go with the flow than resist and risk being strangled. | |
| 109 | But it's just as bad to treat external events as unchangeable when they are not, and accept the status quo. | |
| Montaigne | 119 | M comments on animals' ability to find natural cures for some bodily disorders, e.g. herbs, salt licks. |
| 120 | Pyrrho's pig - the only passenger that didn't panic in a storm at sea. | |
| 121a | We have been allocated inconstancy, hesitation, doubt, pain, superstition, worries about what will happen (even after we are dead), ambition, greed, jealousy, envy, unruly, insane and untameable appetites, war, lies, disloyalty, backbiting and curiosity. We take pride in our fair, discursive reason and our capacity to judge and to know, but we have bought them at a price which is strangely excessive. | |
| 121b | Misplaced confidence in reason was the wellspring of idiocy - and, indirectly, also of inadequacy. | |
| 121c | To learn that we have said or done a stupid thing is no big deal; we must learn a more ample and important lesson, that we are but blockheads (especially if we are philosophers that think we know all the answers). | |
| 124 | We have to accept that we don't always have full control over our own body parts (e.g. private parts). | |
| 125-7 | Much of the problem arises because it isn't socially acceptable to talk about such things. | |
| 142 | Every man calls barbarous anything he is not accustomed to. But there are still differences in value between the customs of different countries. Cultural relativism is as crude as nationalism. | |
| 146 | Terence: I am a man, nothing is foreign to me. | |
| 147 | Of M's best friend: "he alone had the privilege of my true portrait". M wrote to compensate for losing him. With most people, we feel we have to hide so much. | |
| 153 | The very good Collège de Guyenne excelled at imparting learning, but failed entirely at imparting wisdom. We ought to seek out not who understands most, but who understands best. | |
| 161 | We should maybe learn from authors who can express our very own thoughts but with a clarity and psychological accuracy we cannot match. But they may impose limits on us, since they may not have had all the experiences we have. | |
| 165 | There is much danger in trying to justify what one says or writes by quoting big names. | |
| 166 | If we are good scholars, we can derive greater insights from our own experience than from all the books of old. | |
| 168 | A virtuous, ordinary life, striving for wisdom but never far from folly, is achievement enough. | |
| Schopenhauer | 185 | "Will to life", which includes love, is a force that invariably has precedence over our reason, and distorts all reason's plans and judgments. |
| 187 | The conscious mind is a partially sighted servant of a dominant, child-obsessed will to life. It is unable to learn all its plans. | |
| 192 | The pursuit of personal happiness (e.g. with a life partner) and the production of healthy children are two radically contrasting projects. We unconsciously choose opposites or different types for our partners, maybe to cancel out our own bad tendencies. | |
| 196 | Every (other) creature on earth (including rats and moles) seems to be equally committed to a meaningless existence, so why do we expect any better? | |
| 197 | We should drop expectations which, when dashed, would inspire bitterness. | |
| 198 | The world and this life are certainly not arranged for the purpose of maintaining a happy existence. Older people wear the expression of disappointment(!). | |
| 199 | Art and philosophy are humankind's relief from purposeless existence. | |
| Nietzsche | 210 | Fulfillment is not to be resolved by avoiding pain, but by recognizing its role as a natural, inevitable step on the way to reaching anything good. |
| 211-2 | Übermenschen show courage, ambition, dignity, strength of character, humour and independence; and not sanctimoniousness, conformity, resentment and prissiness. They are involved in the world. | |
| 215 | The most fulfilling projects appear inseparable from a degree of torment, because we can't hit things off straight away without experience. See the mountain climbing analogy (p 218 on). | |
| 223a | Only thoughts which come from walking have any value (RT: are they better if walking on your own?) | |
| 223b | The frightful, destructive forces (like glaciers) are the road makers of humanity (the produce fertile soil). | |
| 224 | Every pain is an indistinct signal that something is wrong, which may engender a good or bad result, depending on the sagacity and strength of mind of the sufferer (e.g. panic, or analysis of what is amiss). | |
| 226 | Good craftsmen learn to construct the parts properly before daring to make a great whole. And they allow themselves time for it. | |
| 227 | The gardening analogy: things have potential. One should not cut out every negative root. | |
| 229 | Even Greek temples come from a culture which had Dionysiac festivals. | |
| 230 | The Greeks did not repudiate the natural drives. Waging war on passion is stupidity. | |
| 232 | Getting drunk to escape anxiety is stupid. | |
| 233 | Man does not strive for happiness - only the English do that. But Nietzsche did - but at least he expected pain too. | |
| 234 | Don't drink beer in the 'lowlands'; make the climb, live dangerously. | |
| 236-7 | Christianity is cowardice, self-deception (e.g. be meek, obey your masters). This weakens our resolve to 'garden' our problems. | |
| 238-9 | Christianity emerged from the minds of slaves, denouncing what they would have liked but were too weak to fight for. The claim was that powerlessness is good, and the emphasis is on comfortableness. | |
| 243a | Saccharine consolations are ultimately more cruel than helpful. | |
| 243b | The worst sickness in men is in the way they have contributed to their own sickness. | |
| 244 | Not everything which makes us feel better is good for us. Not everything which hurts may be bad. To regard states of distress as something to be abolished is almost as stupid as the will to abolish bad weather. |
Index to more highlights of interesting books
Some of these links may be under construction – or re-construction.
This version updated on 22nd January 2011
If you have constructive suggestions or comments, please contact the author rogertag@tpg.com.au .