6 ideas
8658 | For there was never yet philosopher/ That could endure the toothache patiently [Shakespeare] |
Full Idea: For there was never yet philosopher/ That could endure the toothache patiently. | |
From: William Shakespeare (Much Ado About Nothing [1600], V.i) | |
A reaction: You can't argue with that. I do think that people who have studied philosophy at length are more likely to be 'philosophical' when faced with human misery, but only up to a point. |
1477 | Being manly and brave is the result of convention, not of human nature [Plutarch] |
Full Idea: Manliness is not a natural human attribute, otherwise women would be just as brave. It is due to pressure from laws, and this pressure has no free will, but is a slave of convention and criticism. | |
From: Plutarch (64: Gryllus - on Rationality in Animals [c.85], 988c) | |
A reaction: This is the first glimmerings of seeing gender as a cultural creation, rather than as a fact. Presumably he takes the same view of some of the supposed feminine virtues. |
1478 | Animals don't value pleasure, as they cease sexual intercourse after impregnation [Plutarch] |
Full Idea: Animals of both sexes cease to have intercourse after impregnation; that shows how little animals value pleasure, and that nature is all that counts. | |
From: Plutarch (64: Gryllus - on Rationality in Animals [c.85], 990d) | |
A reaction: A famous monkey had an implant to stimulate pleasure, and a button to trigger it. It apparently would have starved to death rather than release the button. Animal sex is dull? |
1479 | Animals have not been led into homosexuality, because they value pleasure very little [Plutarch] |
Full Idea: Because animals value pleasure very little, they have not been led into sex between males or between females. | |
From: Plutarch (64: Gryllus - on Rationality in Animals [c.85], 990d) |
1748 | Archelaus was the first person to say that the universe is boundless [Archelaus, by Diog. Laertius] |
Full Idea: Archelaus was the first person to say that the universe is boundless. | |
From: report of Archelaus (fragments/reports [c.450 BCE]) by Diogenes Laertius - Lives of Eminent Philosophers 02.Ar.3 |
5989 | Archelaus said life began in a primeval slime [Archelaus, by Schofield] |
Full Idea: Archelaus wrote that life on Earth began in a primeval slime. | |
From: report of Archelaus (fragments/reports [c.450 BCE]) by Malcolm Schofield - Archelaus | |
A reaction: This sounds like a fairly clearcut assertion of the production of life by evolution. Darwin's contribution was to propose the mechanism for achieving it. We should honour the name of Archelaus for this idea. |