Aphorisms and Observations – Page 36

Creation

The world's existence, intelligibility, and beauty point beyond it to its Source; its impermanence and deficiency to its non-identity with its Source.

Negativity and Animality

Negativity is more difficult to subdue than animality. No surprise: the mind is more difficult to control than the body.

One associates loud, domineering, and aggressive behavior with a 'big ego.' But a long memory for wrongs done one, a fine sensitivity to slights and slurs real and imagined are also signs of a 'big ego.'

Suggestibility

People lack an inner compass; or rather the compass they possess is easily deflected by the surrounding 'socio-magnetic' fields.

Philosophy as High Ground

Philosophy is the high ground from which to survey the dismal and contentious scene, the bellum omnium contra omnes. One retreats to the high ground for three reasons. To contemplate and understand the passing scene, to escape from it, and to be in a position to transcend toward what is neither passing nor a scene.

Society and Solitude

Solitude does not guarantee elevation, but society almost always insures the opposite.

Perils of Helping

Help a man, and he may be grateful to you. Or he may resent it that he needs your help, or envy you your ability to provide it, or act as if he has it coming, or become dependent on you, in which case your 'help' is harm.

Absolutely, one must do no harm. (Primum non nocere.) But when to help and when to leave well enough alone require careful thought.

Refutation

To refute an argument is not to refute its conclusion.

Contradiction and Koan

What is a contradiction from one angle is a koan from another. In a contradiction, logical thought hits a dead end. Discursive thought's road end, however, may well be the trail head of the Transdiscursive.

The Highest Mastery

The highest mastery is self-mastery. The highest self-mastery is thought-mastery. To control one's thoughts is to control the seeds of one's words and deeds.

In Many Cases A Dubious Presupposition

Those who place a high value on self-expression presuppose that their selves are worth expressing.

Two Mistakes

To reject moral equivalentism is not to embrace 'Manicheanism.' To reject robust interventionism in foreign policy is not to subscribe to 'isolationism.' To think otherwise in either case is to make a mistake. Most leftists make the first mistake; many conservatives the second.

Category: Aphorisms and Observations