{"id":8237,"date":"2013-12-28T05:21:25","date_gmt":"2013-12-28T05:21:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2013\/12\/28\/nihil-philosophicum-a-nobis-alienum-putamus\/"},"modified":"2013-12-28T05:21:25","modified_gmt":"2013-12-28T05:21:25","slug":"nihil-philosophicum-a-nobis-alienum-putamus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2013\/12\/28\/nihil-philosophicum-a-nobis-alienum-putamus\/","title":{"rendered":"Nihil philosophicum a nobis alienum putamus<\/i>"},"content":{"rendered":"

"We consider nothing philosophical to be foreign to us."  This is the motto Hector-Neri Casta\u00f1eda <\/a>chose to place on the masthead of the philosophical journal he founded in 1967, No\u00fbs<\/a><\/em>. When Hector died too young a death at age 66  in the fall of '91, the editorship passed to others who removed the Latin phrase. There are people who find classical allusions  pretentious. I understand their sentiment while not sharing it.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Hector\"<\/a>Perhaps I should import Hector's motto into my own masthead. For it  certainly expresses my attitude and would be a nice, if inadequate, way of honoring the man.  He was a man of tremendous philosophical energy and also very generous with comments and professional assistance.  He was also unpretentious. His humble origins served him well in this regard.  He interacted with undergraduates with the same intensity and animation as with senior colleagues.   I was privileged to know this unforgettable character. What I missed in him, though, was spiritual depth.  The religion of his Guatemalan upbringing didn't rub  off on him.  Like so many analytic philosophers he saw philosophy as a merely theoretical enterprise.  A noble enterprise, that, but not enough for some of us.
<\/span><\/p>\n

How many read Hector's work these days? I don't know.  But I do know that there is plenty there to feast on.  I recently re-read his "Fiction and Reality: Their Fundamental Connections" (Poetics<\/em> 8, 1979, 31-62) an article rich in insight and required reading for anyone interested in the logic and ontology of fictional discourse.<\/span><\/p>\n

Hector's motto is modelled on Terentius: Homo sum, humani nihil a me alienum puto<\/em>. "I am a human being; I consider nothing human to be  foreign to me." One also sees the thought expressed in this form:  Nihil humanum a me alienum puto<\/em>. Hector's motto is based on this variant.<\/span><\/p>\n

Addendum<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Horace Jeffery Hodges<\/a> writes,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
I appreciated your blog post on December 28 for your remark about the origin of the the Latin motto:<\/span><\/div>\n
 <\/div>\n
Hector's motto is modelled on Terentius: Homo sum, humani nihil a me alienum puto<\/em>. "I am a human being; I consider nothing human to be  foreign to me." One also sees the thought expressed in this form:  Nihil humanum a me alienum puto<\/em>. Hector's motto is based on this variant.<\/span><\/div>\n
 <\/div>\n
Dostoevsky offers a variant (a conflation of Terentius's motto and the motto that Hector knew):<\/span><\/div>\n
 <\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
\n
"Satan sum et nihil humanum a me alienum puto<\/em>." (I am Satan, and nothing human is alien to me.) – Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov<\/em>.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
\n
 <\/div>\n
I borrowed Dostoesky's variant for the motto to my novella:<\/span><\/div>\n
 <\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
\n
http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/dp\/B00E18KW0K<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
\n
 <\/div>\n
It's visible on the book cover (just click on expanded view or the click to look inside). The original motto is thus a rather malleable expression, useful in various contexts.<\/span><\/div>\n
 <\/div>\n
By the way, is  "Fiction and Reality: Their Fundamental Connections" (Poetics<\/em> 8, 1979, 31-62) a work on literary fiction, as in novels, novellas, short stories, and the like? If so, I might benefit from reading it.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Yes, Jeff, it is about literary fiction.  It is not literary criticism, of course, but an attempt to explain how ficta can be integrated with the rest of what we take to be real  — and unreal.  It is heavy going, but you will get something out of it if you are patient and resolute.  And I wouldn't be averse to fielding a few very pithy and focused questions about it.<\/span><\/div>\n
 <\/div>\n
And where in the Brothers Karamazov<\/em>?<\/span><\/div>\n
 <\/div>\n
\nRelated articles<\/legend>\n
\n
\"\"<\/a>On Throwing Latin, and a Jab at the 'Analysts'<\/a><\/div>\n
\"\"<\/a>David Lewis on Religion<\/a><\/div>\n
\"\"<\/a>Idolatry and Atheism<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/fieldset>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

"We consider nothing philosophical to be foreign to us."  This is the motto Hector-Neri Casta\u00f1eda chose to place on the masthead of the philosophical journal he founded in 1967, No\u00fbs. When Hector died too young a death at age 66  in the fall of '91, the editorship passed to others who removed the Latin phrase. There are … Continue reading “Nihil philosophicum a nobis alienum putamus<\/i>“<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[198],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8237","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tributes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8237"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8237\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}