Your Philosopher of Choice is ...

[Orgetorix]

I must admit that my understanding of HD is still on quite a basic level. He gets over my head pretty quickly. I have found his grounding of all theoretical thought in non-theoretical, religious underpinnings quite helpful. His theory of modal aspects, less so--though I'm not sure I completely understand it. His principled antireductionism, at any rate, seems a good way to approach things.

 

[Harp]

While I admire Kant in many respects, I disagree with his and the
Eighteenth Century Enlightenment rational denial of the Divine
within Phenomenal and Noumenal context. Schopenhauer's refutation
or correction of Kantism curtailed what entrance Kant had made within
the noumenal, confining it to phenomenology alone; unfortunately
Schopenhauer's atheism perhaps directed his own perspective. It is difficult
to admire two such men and yet disagree with them.

 

[carebear]

Jose Ortega y Gasset

I like his "Meditations on Hunting" and "Revolt of the Masses" anyway.

 

[CanadaDoll]

I've never heard of them (I assume they're two different books) Carebear, what are they like?

 

[Harp]

I must admit that my understanding of HD is still on quite a basic level. He gets over my head pretty quickly. I have found his grounding of all theoretical thought in non-theoretical, religious underpinnings quite helpful.

I am sympathetic to Dooyeweerd's approach; however, I see shades
of Schopenhauer's Oriental secularism whenever a philosopher draws
theology so close to mind without the mystical, and lays claim to a
singular interpretive methodology. Perhaps this is an unreasonable
subjective crtique of Dooyeweerd, whose work certainly merits study.

 

[carebear]

I've never heard of them (I assume they're two different books) Carebear, what are they like?

Ortega y Gasset was Spanish and died in '55 (IIRC).

"Meditations on Hunting" used to be tough to find, but is now more widely available. It discusses the nature of man and how hunting illuminates the essence of what it means to be human. It's hard to explain. "One does not hunt in order to kill, one kills in order to have hunted". If you ever wanted to understand why hunters are so passionate about what they do, this book helps illuminate the depth of meaning to the act.

"Revolt of the Masses" is available to read online. Both of these are originally in Spanish by the way so the English is a translation. There's a lot to "Revolt", but in essence it discusses how the advance of civilization has removed the need for individuals to show their true ability in day to day life through struggle, leading to a sense that whatever a person happens to be, is the best there is. That there's no need for self-improvement and thus that no individuals are "better" than others.

It also points to the danger of what he calls "hyperdemocracy", the idea that if the masses feel something is right they feel they have the right to impose that mediocracy (since their ideas are not formed from mental labor or personal effort they are mediocre at best) on those who actually excel as individuals. This is an overthrow of the idea of "rule of law" and Western classical liberalism (the supremacy of the individual).

 

[CanadaDoll]

Interesting.....I'll have to look for them, and see how I do with em.
Thanks a bunch for the info!!

 

[Harp]

Mock on, mock on, Voltaire, Rosseau,
Mock on, mock on; 'tis all in vain;
You throw the sand against the wind
And the wind blows it back again.

William Blake
The Scoffers

...a nice poetic comment on 18th Century Rationalism this cold
blustery Chicago night.

 

[Harp]

And every sand becomes a gem
Reflected in the beams divine;
Blown back, they blind the mocking eye,
But still in Israel's paths they shine.

Blake, Ibid

 

[Harp]

The atoms of Democritus
And Newton's particles of light
Are sands upon the Red Sea shore,
Where Israel's tents do shine so bright.

Blake, Ibid

 

[skwerl-hat]

interesting subject! the greek philosopher Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius are the two whose work i most often return to.

Remember that you are an actor in a drama, of such a kind as the author pleases to make it. If short, of a short one; if long, of a long one. If it is his pleasure you should act a poor man, a cripple, a governor, or a private person, see that you act it naturally. For this is your business, to act well the character assigned you; to choose it is another's.

The idle business of show, plays on the stage, flocks of sheep, herds, exercises with spears, a bone cast to little dogs, a bit of bread into fish-ponds, labourings of ants and burden-carrying, runnings about of frightened little mice, puppets pulled by strings- all alike. It is thy duty then in the midst of such things to show good humour and not a proud air; to understand however that every man is worth just so much as the things are worth about which he busies himself.

 

[Harp]

Dare to be wise! Begin!
The man who would reform his life, but hesitates, is kin
Unto the rustic boor who waits until the stream is gone;
But ever rolling flows the stream, and ever will flow on.

Let him live beneath the open sky
And dangerously.

Horace

 

[Brian Sheridan]

MARX - Groucho Marx!

 

[Harp]

MARX - Groucho Marx!

...not Karl? lol

 

[pretty faythe]

Ziggy

 

[Nick D]

Thomas Aquinas
John Duns Scottus
William of Ockham

 

[Diamondback]

Add to my list LTC Oliver North, USMC:
"If Nietzsche isn't dead yet, I'll see to it he is."

EDITED TO NOTE: Holy thread necromancy, Batman! Dead about two months, then back again...

 

[GeniusInTheLamp]

Another vote for Ayn Rand.

And would Frederic Bastiat count?

 

[Harp]

EDITED TO NOTE: Holy thread necromancy, Batman! Dead about two months, then back again...

"Old philosophy threads never die, they just fade away...."

 

[Diamondback]

"Old philosophy threads never die, they just fade away...."

OUCH! Hoist by my own petard (well, my prototype's)... lol