Great Thinkers

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An operation of the reasoning process.

Now consider when and how the reasoning process breaks down or is circumvented by other human faculties (emotions, Freudian slips, etc).

Tres cool!

ruveyn

"A German Joke is no laughing matter" - Mark Twain

Any really good piece of humor destroys fantasy with reality and is so frightening that it is hilarious.

Here are a few:

Newton claimed he saw further because he stood on the shoulders of giants but a parrot on a giant's shoulder remains a parrot.

To be free means to become responsible for one's mistakes and most people flee from that possibility.

The forces of economics, religion and morality are conjoined to keep people indebted and are aligned against freedom.

There is no such thing as a boundless life. One merely exchanges one set of boundaries for another.

To imply, in general, that the individual is always superior to the government is a very strange concept since individuals differ markedly in capability, motivation and ethics. Government is social organization and equally, to imply that all social organization is inherently bad seems a strange principle for humans who are deeply social and benefit greatly from organization.

The universe doesn't give a damn. You either figure out how to deal with it or you're dead.

When someone tosses bread upon the waters it is most likely to be eaten by fish.

The great error of many philosophers and almost all theologians is that they appraise the universe in terms of humanity rather than humanity in terms of the universe.

It's not necessary to fool all of the people all of the time. It's merely sufficient to partake of the abundance of gullible people readily available in order to make a lucrative prophet.

Faith is a strange characteristic of many people that is taken advantage of in many ways, a few worthy, but many very detrimental.

One of the basic laws of the universe is that energy dissipates and organization becomes disorganized. Life breaks those laws temporarily which is a crime for which the punishment is death.

Looking inward to discover reality is only useful when the search provides material to be compared with looking outward for results. The world has been plagued for centuries by thinkers who neglected to make that astute comparison.

When I was young the chemical component value of a human was estimated at something under a dollar. Currently it is now estimated at about $4.50. In the same time span the value of a cup of coffee or an ice cream cone has increased forty fold from five cents to $2. There seems to a problem with human over production.

To exult in folly and stupidity and ignorance by labeling it human is the greatest folly of all.

One of the most significant decisions a human can make when viewing the world and culture and the way things are is to not accept it.

Sorry. I have never had an innate understanding of God. In the Bible He is portrayed as a vicious ill-tempered childish maniac who didn't know what he was doing when he created the universe and mankind and blamed his mistakes on humanity. Why should I even want to believe in such a frightful idiot?

Religious people don't do much for their position when they assume wisdom in love of ignorance.

The Bible claims that in the beginning there was the word but, seeing where we are now, it's worth speculating if it was the right word

The title was Great Thinkers, not Great Quotes.

I propose the pre-Socratic philosophers, who were the true originators of naturalistic thought.

Anaximander (610-546 BCE)
Anaximenes of Miletus (585-525 BCE)

* Pythagorean Schools

Pythagoras (582-496 BCE)
Philolaus (470-380 BCE)
Alcmaeon of Croton
Archytas (428-347 BCE)

* Heraclitus (535-475 BCE)
* Eleatic School

Xenophanes (570-470 BCE)
Parmenides (510-440 BCE)
Zeno of Elea (490-430 BCE)
Melissus of Samos (C.470 BCE-Unknown)

* Pluralist School

Empedocles (490-430 BCE)
Anaxagoras (500-428 BCE)

* Atomist School

Leucippus (5th century BCE, dates unknown)
Democritus (460-370 BCE)

[My heroes]
And the post socratics

Socrates, Plato, Aristotle along with the Stoic Crysipus who invented modern logic hundreds of years b.c.e. His work was re-discovered by Leibniz and re-instituted by Frege. The rest is history.

And of course the greatest scientist of classic times -- Archimedes whose work still stands up tall, even in this modern time. He invented calculus 1800 years before Leibniz and Newton.

Right now we have to put up with the very antithesis of Great Thought, the Postmodernists and the Deconstructionists.

ruveyn

Postmodernist post topic


"No one gets angry at a mathematician or a physicist whom he or she doesn't understand, or at someone who speaks a foreign language, but rather at someone who tampers with your own language." Jacques Derrida

ruveyn,

The philosophy of the ancient Greeks is my favorite too. Pythagoras is my favorite thinker.
I'm curious to see what you think of this quote.

sartresue wrote:

translated by Arthur Waley

What is a soul? Pythagoras was a mystic. He was right about one thing: mathematics is essential for comprehending the sensible world. However he saw the mathematics Out There when in fact it is In Here (i.e. a mental construct).

ruveyn

ruveyn,

I thought you said that mystics have never contributed anything of value to humanity.
Is that true?

At any rate, mystics seem to follow the hive mentality more than any other breed of thought.
All is one, yadda yadda...

Some mystics have sat down and learned some math, science and engineering at which point they could produce something of use. The mystic mind set is contrary to productivity. But all of us have our mystical moments.

ruveyn