Aphorisms and Observations – Page 40

Philosophy, Pride, and Humility

Philosophy can fuel intellectual pride. And it manifestly does in far too many of its practitioners. But pursued far enough and deep enough it may lead to insight into the infirmity of reason, an insight one salutary benefit of which is intellectual humility. Our patron saint was known for his knowing nescience, his learned ignorance. It was that which made Socrates wise.

Let Sleeping Dogs Lie

When I asked Harry if he uses the Internet to look up old friends, "Let sleeping dogs lie" was his reply. His attitude, qualified, recommends itself.

The friendships of old were many of them mere friendships of propinquity. They were born of time and place and circumstance, and they died the death of distance, whether temporal or spatial or circumstantial. They are relics that can be fingered but not reanimated. They are best left in the boneyard of memory.

The Compartmentalizer

He keeps his head together by keeping his head compartments apart.

Overheard Among Old Men

As we slow down, time speeds up!

Pray to Pray Well

And this in two senses. Pray to become good at praying. And pray for assistance in getting good at it.

The Wise Live by Probabilities, not by Possibilities

The worldly wise live by the probable and not by the possible. It is possible that you will reform the person you want to marry. But it is not probable.

Don't imagine that you can change a person in any significant way. What you see now in your partner is what you will get from here on out. People don't change. They are what they are. The few exceptions prove the rule. The wise live by rules, not exceptions, by probabilities, not possibilities. "Probability is the very guide to life." (Bishop Butler quoting Cicero, De Natura, 5, 12) It is foolish to gamble with your happiness. We gamble with what is inconsequential, what we can afford to lose. So if there is anything about your potential spouse that is unacceptable, don't foolishly suppose that you will change her. You won't. You must take her as she is, warts and all, as she must take you.

The principle applies not only to marriage but across the board.

Selective Memory

If your memory must be selective, better that it be selective of the positive rather than of the negative.

Doxastic Conservatism

The onus probandi is on the extremist in matters of belief. Extreme beliefs bear the burden of proof. There is a defeasible presumption in favor of moderate views just as there is a defeasible presumption in favor of traditional ways of doing things. Note the qualifier, 'defeasible.'

You First!

Those who write that there is too much writing ought to heed the advice implied by their complaint. But of course they don't and they won't.

Of Hurt and Humor

Don't tell a hurtful joke and expect the victim to appreciate the humor while abstracting from the hurtfulness.

The Academic Philosophers of Consciousness

Too many of the academic philosophers of consciousness are overly concerned with the paltriest aspects of consciousness, so-called qualia, and work their tails off trying to convince themselves and others that they are no threat to physicalism.

While man's nobility lies in the power of thought whereby he traverses all of time and existence, our materialists labor mightily to make physicalism safe for the smell of cooked onions.

On the Unseemly

Although the world runs on appearances, a fact well to be heeded by anyone who plans to hang out long in these sublunary precincts, the task of the philosopher is to penetrate seemings, whence we may conclude that it is unseemly for a philosopher to be much concerned with the seemly and the unseemly.