Combining Texts

All the ideas for 'fragments/reports', 'On the True Doctrine (Against Christians)' and 'The Realm of Matter'

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5 ideas

7. Existence / A. Nature of Existence / 6. Criterion for Existence

18521	The criterion of existence is the possibility of action [Santayana]
	Full Idea: The possibility of action ...is the criterion of existence, and the test of substantiality.
	From: George Santayana (The Realm of Matter [1930], p.107), quoted by John Heil - The Universe as We Find It
	A reaction: I rather like this. I think I would say the power is the criterion of existence.

25. Social Practice / E. Policies / 5. Education / b. Education principles

13304	Learned men gain more in one day than others do in a lifetime [Posidonius]
	Full Idea: In a single day there lies open to men of learning more than there ever does to the unenlightened in the longest of lifetimes.
	From: Posidonius (fragments/reports [c.95 BCE]), quoted by Seneca the Younger - Letters from a Stoic 078
	A reaction: These remarks endorsing the infinite superiority of the educated to the uneducated seem to have been popular in late antiquity. It tends to be the religions which discourage great learning, especially in their emphasis on a single book.

25. Social Practice / F. Life Issues / 6. Animal Rights

1868	The world was made as much for animals as for man [Celsus]
	Full Idea: The world was made as much for the irrational animals as for men.
	From: Celsus (On the True Doctrine (Against Christians) [c.178], §V)
	A reaction: A good remark. It seems to be a classic distortion of European Christianity that the world is made for us, and that animals only exist to fill our sandwiches.

27. Natural Reality / D. Time / 1. Nature of Time / d. Time as measure

20820	Time is an interval of motion, or the measure of speed [Posidonius, by Stobaeus]
	Full Idea: Posidonius defined time thus: it is an interval of motion, or the measure of speed and slowness.
	From: report of Posidonius (fragments/reports [c.95 BCE]) by John Stobaeus - Anthology 1.08.42
	A reaction: Hm. Can we define motion or speed without alluding to time? Looks like we have to define them as a conjoined pair, which means we cannot fully understand either of them.

29. Religion / B. Monotheistic Religion / 4. Christianity / a. Christianity

1867	Christians presented Jesus as a new kind of logos to oppose that of the philosophers [Celsus]
	Full Idea: Christians put forth this Jesus not only as the son of God, but as the very Logos - not the pure and holy Logos known to the philosophers, but a new kind of Logos.
	From: Celsus (On the True Doctrine (Against Christians) [c.178], III)