Philosophy Now Forum

How about

"Wisdom is good reasoning that leads to thriving or flourishing."
- Aristotle

What do we think of this quote?

"Wisdom is good reasoning that leads to happiness."
- Aristotle

Here's an interesting quote from Plato: Poetry is something more philosophic and serious than history; for poetry speaks of what is universal, history of what is particular.

Allow me to translate:

"The wise person does not speak through riddles or complex theories. The wise person speaks simply to the mind about the art of living."

Dude, don't be a pseudo-intellectual.

That's what I mean by sophisticated. I'm pretty sure bacteria doesn't experience happiness.

Thoughts on this quote?


"Wisdom does not speak through riddles or complex theories. Wisdom speaks simply to the mind about the art of living."

Was his response rational or emotional? If emotion should replace reason, what emotion? (Clearly, not that one.)

My response (the first paragraph) was measured, as opposed to purely rational. By that I mean it was a mixture of emotional and rational. This second paragraph is purely rational.

Sounds like "good sense" is intuition.

Wait, what's the difference between pessimism and cynicism? Is cynicism a specific kind of pessimism?

Is it possible to be too rational? The illustrative example that comes to mind is iRobot, when the machine claims that her logic is undeniable, that humans need to have certain freedoms given up in order to preserve humanity. The one thing I'd point out is that this is law, and the machine could hav...

Yeah, but clearly survival is not the end all be all. Who cares about survival when you're starving? Clearly the end all be all is the ability to be happy. Their ability to survive is undeniably a strength. The question is whether it is worth much. It is when threatened (staying with the simplicity...

I don't doubt pessimists can experience pleasure, but surely, it is tainted by the pessimism.

At first I backed up Jaded S. by doubting that a pessimist can enjoy anything at all. Should he not imagine the worst (pessimo) happening after or during the meal ? Then I offered a solution: a pessimist can be a selective one: while eating he is a realist and thus can enjoy food or even fly in a p...

Shit. I always get you two mixed up. The D's don't play well with my dyslexia. Thanks to the one who tried to help. To the other: I'm still waiting for an explanation, or an admission of being wrong.