Sublime
An inspiration engine for ideas
The stance that God be excluded from philosophy, we know well, exerts its influence because of the entrenched but unclarified modern distinction between theology and philosophy.
Steven DeLay • Before God: Exercises in Subjectivity
Philosophy
Jason Throckmorton • 3 cards
In the face of a god who is absent, we founder. —Martin Heidegger
David Shields • How We Got Here: Melville Plus Nietzsche Divided by the Square Root of (Allan) Bloom Times Žižek (Squared) Equals Bannon
answers that might save his sanity and his soul. What predicament could be more “modern” than this? Who among us is not looking for ways to alleviate the fear of death, to deal with pain, and to cope with anxiety and grief? Who among us has not wondered if virtue was truly necessary for living a happy life?
Quintus Curtius • Tusculan Disputations
And so what? This, for all practical (and speculative) purposes, sponges God off the slate. The word good, applied to Him, becomes meaningless: like abracadabra. We have no motive for obeying Him. Not even fear. It is true we have His threats and promises. But why should we believe them? If cruelty is from His point of view ‘good,’ telling lies may
... See moreC. S. Lewis • A Grief Observed (Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis)
Just suppose we did want to separate a few individual sayings from the throng: To whom would we attribute them? To Zeno? To Cleanthes? To Chrysippus? To Posidonius? To Panaetius?
Lucius Annaeus Seneca • Letters on Ethics: To Lucilius (The Complete Works of Lucius Annaeus Seneca)
Epictetus would then tell the prospective student that if he wishes to have a good life, he must consider his nature and the purpose for which God created him and live accordingly; he must, as Zeno put it, live in accordance with nature. The person who does this won’t simply pursue pleasure, as an animal might; instead, he will use his reasoning
... See more