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pondering philosophy
Aug. 13th, 2024 05:18 pmWas pondering sagacity. I have recommended in the past that if you wish to have a wise old sage, you rip off wise things for him to say.
It is still a wise route. The problem is, as Machiavelli philosophically observed, that a prince who is not wise can not be wisely counseled, and likewise, a writer who is not wise can not recognize wise things to rip off.
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It is still a wise route. The problem is, as Machiavelli philosophically observed, that a prince who is not wise can not be wisely counseled, and likewise, a writer who is not wise can not recognize wise things to rip off.
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the natural tendencies of mankind
Jul. 2nd, 2023 11:44 pmIf the natural tendencies of mankind are so bad that it is not safe to permit people to be free, how is it that the tendencies of these organizers are always good? Do not the legislators and their appointed agents also belong to the human race? Or do they believe that they themselves are made of a finer clay than the rest of mankind?
Frederic Bastiat
Frederic Bastiat
The thieves of virtue
Jun. 12th, 2022 11:54 pmThey agree with the current customs. They consent with an impure age. Their principles have a semblance of right-heartedness and truth. Their conduct has a semblance of disinterestedness and purity. All men are pleased with them, and they think themselves right, but you cannot enter into the Way of Yao and Shun with them. For this reason they are called "The thieves of virtue."
― Mencius
― Mencius
first-person philosophy
Oct. 25th, 2020 11:33 pmA character who comments on his own stupidity at the point in the story is looking back retrospectively.
This means that he has to be consistently looking back retrospectively, not just when it's convenient.
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This means that he has to be consistently looking back retrospectively, not just when it's convenient.
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Wise men will apply their remedies to vices, not to names -- to the causes of evil, which are permanent, not to the occasional organs by which they act, and the transitory modes in which they appear. Otherwise you will be wise historically, a fool in practice. Seldom have two ages the same fashion in their pretexts and the same modes of mischief. Wickedness is a little more inventive. Whilst you are discussing fashion, the fashion is gone by. The very same vice assumes a new body.
Edmund Burke
Edmund Burke
Was philosophically contemplating more of the whole plane stuff and metaphysics in D&D.
One thing that it would curb even in social structure is philosophical differences. One school maintaining that souls are imprisoned in matter as punishment -- one school holding that souls are created with the bodies that they animate -- one school holding to reincarnation as a punishment or reward according to situation you are born into, and another that it is a way to give every soul a chance at every situation, so that no soul, in the end, will be able to complain of not being given the same chances as other souls. If you have the planes, all the other schools are just being stupid.
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One thing that it would curb even in social structure is philosophical differences. One school maintaining that souls are imprisoned in matter as punishment -- one school holding that souls are created with the bodies that they animate -- one school holding to reincarnation as a punishment or reward according to situation you are born into, and another that it is a way to give every soul a chance at every situation, so that no soul, in the end, will be able to complain of not being given the same chances as other souls. If you have the planes, all the other schools are just being stupid.
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Plotting out a story. The superheroine is going to hear something wise about superpowers.
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metaphysical reflections
Jan. 12th, 2016 10:23 pmIt's often a mistake to get down into the metaphysical principles of a fictional world.
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My heroine needs some advice. Fortunately, I have it to hand, having read it a while back, not in the original Spanish Renaissance advice book, but quoted in a book about that era: a young woman who has fallen in love with an unsuitable young man and wants to fall out of love should engage in reading and horseback riding to occupy herself with other things, and if she does happen to think of him, to dwell on his faults.
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He who learns
Aug. 8th, 2013 07:40 pmHe who learns must suffer. And even in our sleep pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, and in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom to us by the awful grace of God.
Aeschylus
Aeschylus
Philosophy
Feb. 1st, 2013 12:29 pmThere's a difference between a philosophy and a bumper sticker.
Charles M. Schulz
Charles M. Schulz
Inspired by a post observing how rarely works of fiction describe philosophy as good. . . .
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For, dear me, why abandon a belief
Merely because it ceases to be true.
Cling to it long enough, and not a doubt
It will turn true again, for so it goes.
Most of the change we think we see in life
Is due to truths being in and out of favour.
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Merely because it ceases to be true.
Cling to it long enough, and not a doubt
It will turn true again, for so it goes.
Most of the change we think we see in life
Is due to truths being in and out of favour.
( Read more... )
preaching in fiction
Jul. 29th, 2012 01:23 amRecently read -- I remember not where -- an account of a panel where someone said that you should not preach in fiction, and an editor who declared when better?
To which I must respond, quite possibly, Never.
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To which I must respond, quite possibly, Never.
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poetry and proverbs
Jun. 18th, 2012 11:40 pmTo expand from the comments on the allusions post. . . .
Sometimes you want your characters to quote proverbs and recite poetry. This can be a problem.
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Sometimes you want your characters to quote proverbs and recite poetry. This can be a problem.
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philosophical pondering of escapism
May. 16th, 2012 10:33 pmWhy should a man be scorned if, finding himself in prison, he tries to get out and go home? Or if, when he cannot do so, he thinks and talks about other topics than jailers and prison-walls? — J. R. R. Tolkien
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to expand -- though not to transcedence
May. 14th, 2012 10:14 pmOne of the problems of the settings - brought up by ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
rhinemouse-- is that such locations ought to be superlative, as ought their inhabitants. Angels and devils tend to be quite inadequate.
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rhinemouse-- is that such locations ought to be superlative, as ought their inhabitants. Angels and devils tend to be quite inadequate.( Read more... )
