PHILOSOPHY: “On Truth” / Arthur Schopenhauer
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Category Archives: Arthur Schopenhauer
ART: “Round Hole Square Peg”
h/t: Richard Dawkins Foundation Facebook
This led me to reflect on the great German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer’s magnum opus, The World as Will and Representation. Where did your thoughts lead you?
Should People and Governments Shun the Totalitarian Catholic Church? [Seriously, is it not blatantly obvious to any intelligent . . . ah, disregard, my bad?]
When a totalitarian regime aids and abets the rape of tens of thousands of children one would expect it to be shunned by governments and citizens alike. And any statements it might issue on matters of morality accorded no respect. Why should we make an exception when the regime is the Catholic Church? . . .
That the Catholic Church is guilty of widespread rape is also undeniable. A few years ago there was a spate of news items when sexual abuse cases first surfaced in Boston and a few other cities. Media coverage since then has withered but the issue has not. Just the opposite. In 2011 allegations of sexual abuse of minors have spread to 26 countries. . .
The Vatican has been a state since 1929, when it was granted that status by Benito Mussolini in return for its support for his dictatorship. Comprising 110 acres, an area smaller than Washington’s National Mall, and 800 people Vatican City is by far the smallest nation in the world.
Some might say that an institution, even a totalitarian institution, cannot be blamed for the actions of a small fraction of its members. But when stories of sexual abuse were first raised the Catholic Church ignored them. Later it often reassigned the rapacious priest to another parish where he might prey on other minors. . .
Instructively, virtually all of the Church’s most aggressive policy interventions relate to sex. (e.g. contraception, abortion, gay rights).
Indeed, the Catholic Church acts of if it believes that sex matters above anything else. It will not go to the mat to fight against poverty or injustice but it will pull out all the stops to prevent people of the same sex from marrying.
Arthur Schopenhauer: On Noise
Quote: Arthur Schopenhauer
Arthur Schopenhauer, Ph.D., German Philosopher, Atheist
Consider, first, the absurdity of the desire for material goods. Fools believe that if they can only achieve wealth, their wills can be completely gratified; a man of means is supposed to be a man with means for the fulfilment of every desire… [A] life devoted to the acquisition of wealth is useless unless we know how to turn it into joy; and this is an art that requires culture and wisdom… Men are a thousand times more intent on becoming rich than on acquiring culture, though it is quite certain that what a man ‘is’ contributes more to his happiness than what he ‘has…’ Not wealth but wisdom is the Way… [O]ur happiness depends on what we have in our heads rather than on what we have in our pockets.
Quote: Arthur Schopenhauer
Arthur Schopenhauer, Ph.D., German Philosopher, Atheist
To be happy, one must be as ignorant as youth. Youth thinks that willing and striving are joys; it has not yet discovered the weary insatiableness of desire, and the fruitlessness of fulfilment; it does not yet see the inevitableness of defeat.
Quote: Arthur Schopenhauer
Arthur Schopenhauer, Ph.D., German Philosopher, Atheist
He that increaseth knowledge, therefore, increaseth sorrow. Even memory and foresight add to human misery; for most of our suffering lies in retrospect or anticipation; pain itself is brief. How much more suffering is caused by the thought of death than by death itself.
Quote: Arthur Schopenhauer
Arthur Schopenhauer, Ph.D., German Philosopher, Atheist
All religions promise a reward … for excellences of the ‘will’ or heart, but none for excellences of the head or understanding.
Quote: Arthur Schopenhauer
Arthur Schopenhauer, Ph.D., German Philosopher, Atheist
Since love is a deception practiced by nature, marriage is the attrition of love, and must be disillusioning. Only a philosopher can be happy in marriage, and philosophers do not marry.
Quote: Arthur Schopenhauer
Arthur Schopenhauer, Ph.D., German Philosopher, Atheist
Consider the agitated strife of man for food, mates, or children; can this be worth reflection? Certainly not; the cause is the half conscious will to live, and to live fully. “Men are only apparently drawn from in front; in reality they are pushed from behind”; they think they are led on by what they see, when in truth they are driven on by what they feel, –by instincts of whose operation they are half the time unconscious. Intellect is merely the minister of foreign affairs; “nature has produced it for the service of the individual will. Therefore it is only designed to know things so far as they afford motives for the will, but not to fathom them or to comprehend their true being.” The will is the only permanent and unchangeable element in the mind; … it is the will which,” through continuity of purpose, “gives unity to consciousness and holds together all its ideas and thoughts, accompanying them like a continuous harmony.” It is the organ-point of thought.
Always Question Authority 