Philosophers

My interpretation is that Looks like he was a bit of an extremist that was concerned with how his culture had become a presentation of westernised beauty only and in doing this, the dark side was being suppressed and that could only lead to something terrible in the future

"The place to improve the world is first in one's own heart and head and hands, and then work outward from there."

"Programs of a political nature are important end products of social quality that can be effective only if the underlying structure of social values is right. The social values are right only if the individual values are right. The place to improve the world is first in one's heart and head and hands, and then work outward from there. "

"When one person suffers from a delusion, it is called insanity. When many people suffer from a delusion it is called a Religion."

"The only Zen you find on tops of mountains is the Zen you bring there."

"You look at where you're going and where you are and it never makes sense, but then you look back at where you've been and a pattern seems to emerge.
"

"Is it hard?'
Not if you have the right attitudes. Its having the right attitudes thats hard."

"Like those in the valley behind us, most people stand in sight of the spiritual mountains all their lives and never enter them, being content to listen to others who have been there and thus avoid the hardships."

"To live only for some future goal is shallow. It's the sides of the mountain that sustain life, not the top."

"In the high country of the mind one has to become adjusted to the thinner air of uncertainty..."

"The law of gravity and gravity itself did not exist before Isaac Newton."
...and what that means is that that law of gravity exists nowhere except in people's heads! It 's a ghost!"
Mind has no matter or energy but they cant escape its predominance over everyhting they do. Logic exist in the mind. numbers exist only in the mind. Idont get upset when scientists say that ghosts exist in the mind. its that only that gets me. science is nly in your mind too, it s just that that dosent make it bad. or ghosts either."
Laws of nature are human inventions, like ghosts. Law of logic, of mathematics are also human inventions, like ghosts."
...we see what we see because these ghosts show it to us, ghosts of Moses and Christ and the Buddha, and Plato, and Descartes, and Rousseau and Jefferson and Lincoln, on and on and on. Isac Newton is a very good ghost. One of the best. Your common sence is nothing more than the voices of thousands and thousands of these gjosts from the past."

"The test of the machine is the satisfaction it gives you. There isn't any other test. If the machine produces tranquility it's right. If it disturbs you it's wrong until either the machine or your mind is changed."

"We’re in such a hurry most of the time we never get much chance to talk. The result is a kind of endless day-to-day shallowness, a monotony that leaves a person wondering years later where all the time went and sorry that it’s all gone. "

"The result is rather typical of modern technology, an overall dullness of appearance so depressing that it must be overlaid with a veneer of "style" to make it acceptable. And that, to anyone who is sensitive to romantic Quality, just makes it all the worse. Now it's not just depressingly dull, it's also phony. Put the two together and you get a pretty accurate basic description of modern American technology: stylized cars and stylized outboard motors and stylized typewriters and stylized clothes. Stylized refrigerators filled with stylized food in stylized kitchens in stylized homes. Plastic stylized toys for stylized children, who at Christmas and birthdays are in style with their stylish parents. You have to be awfully stylish yourself not to get sick of it once in a while. It's the style that gets you; technological ugliness syruped over with romantic phoniness in an effort to produce beauty and profit by people who, though stylish, don't know where to start because no one has ever told them there's such a thing as Quality in this world and it's real, not style. Quality isn't something you lay on top of subjects and objects like tinsel on a Christmas tree. Real Quality must be the source of the subjects and objects, the cone from which the tree must start."

"And what is good, Phaedrus, and what is not good? Need we ask anyone to tell us these things?"

"Logic presumes a separation of subject from object; therefore logic is not final wisdom.This is Zen. This is my motorcycle maintenance. "

De Botton comes from a Jewish family, originating from a small Castilian town of Boton (now vanished) on the Iberian peninsula. His ancestors left in 1492 along with the rest of the Sephardic Jewish community and eventually settled in Alexandria, Egypt, where his father was born.His father, Gilbert de Botton, co-founded Global Asset Management with Jacob Rothschild, 4th Baron Rothschild and Sir Mark Weinberg. When his father died, his family was left a trust fund of over £200 million but, for his part, de Botton lives solely off the proceeds of his book sales. He has one sister, Miel, a psychologist in Paris.
De Botton lives in North London, with his wife Charlotte, whom he married in 2003, and their two sons.

De Botton spent the first eight years of his life in Switzerland where he learned to speak French and German. He was sent to the Dragon School, a boarding school in Oxford, where he learned to speak English. He subsequently boarded at Harrow School. He achieved a double starred first in history at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge (1988–1991) and completed his master's degree in philosophy at King's College London (1991–1992). He began a PhD in French philosophy at Harvard University, but gave up research to write books for a general public. He had also been a PhD candidate at King's College London.

"I think that life would suddenly seem wonderful to us if we were threatened to die as you say. Just think of how many projects, love affairs, studies, it, our life from us.
Made invisible by our laziness which certain of a future delays them incessantly. But let all this threaten to become impossible for forever, how beautiful it would become again. Ahh... if only the cataclysm doesn't happen this time, we won't miss visiting the new galleries of the Louvre throwing ourselves at the feet of Ms. X, making a trip to India. The cataclysm doesn't happen, we don't do any of it becauss we find ourselves back in the heart of normal life, where negligence deadens desire. And yet we shouldn't have needed the cataclysm to love life today. It would have been enough to think that we are humans, and that death may come this evening." Proust

I entirely abandoned the study of letters. Resolving to seek no knowledge other than that of which could be found in myself or else in the great book of the world, I spent the rest of my youth traveling, visiting courts and armies, mixing with people of diverse temperaments and ranks, gathering various experiences, testing myself in the situations which fortune offered me, and at all times reflecting upon whatever came my way so as to derive some profit from it. (Descartes, Discourse on the Method)

In the treatise Passions of the Soul (Les passions de l'âme), the last of Descartes' published work, completed in 1649 and dedicated to Princess Elizabeth of Bohemia, the author contributes to a long tradition of theorizing "the passions." The passions were experiences often equated with or labeled as precursors to what are commonly called "emotions" in the Modern period. However, significant differences exist between what a passion putatively was and what an emotion allegedly is. For example, the passions, as suggested by the etymology of the word, were passive in nature; that is to say the experience of a passion was always caused by an object external to the subject. An emotion, as it is commonly rendered in both contemporary psychological discourse as well as popular culture, is usually explained as an event internal to, or taking place within, a subject. Therefore, an emotion is produced by the subject while a passion is suffered by the subject.

In the Passions of the Soul, Descartes defines these phenomena as follows: "Perceptions or sensations or excitations of the soul which are referred to it in particular and which are caused, maintained, and strengthened by some movement of the spirits." The "spirits" mentioned here are the "animal spirits" central to Descartes's account of physiology. They function similarly to how the medical establishment now understands the nervous system. Descartes explains that the animal spirits are produced by the blood and are responsible for stimulating the body's movement. By affecting the muscles, for example, the animal spirits "move the body in all the different ways in which it can be moved."

Notable precursors to Descartes that articulated their own theories of the passions include St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas.

“These two great terrestrial Chinese learned beings then had recourse for their elucidatory experiments to every kind of what are called mechanical, physical and chemical experiments and they gradually formed one very complicated and in the highest degree edifying experimental apparatus. By means of the apparatus Alla-ttapan, they then clearly proved to themselves and to others that in the very essence of all the three transitory results of cosmic processes, and namely in the Polormedektian (there are transformed in their evolutionary or involutionary processes those cosmic crystallizations or active elements which obtain their arising from the substances of that planet or sun and solar systems of our common Megalocosmos) product, called opium, in the white ray and in sound there are the same properties and namely there are in all these three outwardly quite different cosmic phenomena precisely the same what are called ‘actualizing constructions’ that is to say, for their manifestness there are in them precisely the same ‘mutually-acting-law-comfortablenesses’ have precisely the same action on each other as they have in their own manifestations, that is to say, the Dooczako of any one result acts on the corresponding Doocko of another precisely the same as it functions in that Dooczako which is one of the seven aspects of this whole cosmic result.

“The famous experimental apparatus Alla-Attapn consisted of three independent parts. And each of these three parts consisted of several special and separate adaptations. The first part which was named Loosochepana had a special cone shaped pipe, the wide end of which was hermetically fitted into a frame of the sole window of that room where the experiments were made, and the other end was a small chinklike aperture with what is called a ‘colleting disk,’ passing through which what are called the rays of ‘daylight’ coming from the window were transformed into as your favorites would say, a ‘concentrated-white-ray.’
This concentrated white ray thereupon passing through a crystal of a special form was broken up into seven different ‘colored rays’ which, as is said, fell upon a small slab made of ivory and called ‘Piriniel.’
This slab Piriniel was so constructed and regulated that the colored rays falling on it were again concentrated, but this time otherwise, and, proceeding through the second crystal, also of a special form, fell o another but larger slab, also made of ivory and called “Polorishboorda.’
Opposite this Polorishboorda was a small apparatus of a special construction through which, on its being shifted in a certain way, any chosen colored ray there could be directed further from this Polorishboorda on to the third part of the All attapan called “Riank-Pokhortarz.

“Here by the way might as well also be told that the knowledge relating to the construction of the first crystal of this part of the apparatus all attapan also reached down to your contemporary favorites and they now call this crystal prism. Through this prism contemporary terrestrial learned beings also obtain seven colored rays from the white ray and they also fancy that through this the can learn about certain other cosmic phenomena.
But of course, from these fancies of theirs and from all kinds of other forms of their scientific titillation nothing is obtained, only because through this prism of theirs they obtain from the white ray only what are called negative colored rays, and in order to understand any other cosmic phenomena connected with the transitory changes of this white ray they must obligatorily have its what are called positive colored rays.

Your contemporary favorites however imagine that the colored rays which they obtain by means of this child’s toy of theirs, called by them prism, are just those same positive rays which the great scientists obtained; and according to their naivete they think that the, as they call it, spectrum, which they obtain from the white rays gives just that order of the arisings of the rays in which they issue form their sources.
And so, thanks to these two crystals, these great learned being obtained from the white ray its positive colored rays and afterwards, with the help of the slab Polorishboorda which was a part of the Loosochepana, any one o these colored rays was directed to the third and principal demonstrating part of this astonishing apparatus, namely to the Riank-Pokhortarz.
This principle part consisted however of an ordinary three legged stand, on the top of which two balls, also of ivory, were fitted one upon the other in a certain way, the upper ball being much larger than the lower one. On the lower, smaller all just opposite that part of the Loosohepana through which the positive colored rays had already passed, a cavity of a special form was make, into which either the whole o the said Polormedekhtian product named opium or single active elements required for the experiments were placed during the experiments.

Now the upper ball was bored right through diametrically, horizontal to the Loosochepana, and on this larger ball there was also radially perpendicular to this large bore drilled right through, yet another smaller bore, reaching only to the center and which was just opposite the Loosochepan.

This second bore, drilled halfway through, was made in such a way that the colored rays could be directed as desired either directly from the Loosochepana or reflected from the said cavity of the lower smaller ball. Through the open bore of the large ball, a what is called ‘bamboo’ previously prepared in a special manner, could be freely moved. A long time before the experiments many of these bamboos were soaked together in absolute darkness, or in, as is said there on the Earth, orange light obtained from the burning of “Simkalash’ which was obtained from a certain kind of what is called clay deposited in the soil of your planet, and the deposits of which are usually found near accumulations of “salounilovian acids, which in their turn are formed from Mamzolin or as your favorites call it, naphtha.
These bamboos were soaked in liquid consisting of: the white of the eggs of the bird then called “Amersamarskana. The juice of the plant call “ Chiltoonakh. The excretion of a quadruped being bearing the name Kesmaral. And specially prepared what is called mercury amalgam. When these bamboos had been thoroughly soaked, they were inserted one by one into other thicker bamboos which had not been prepared in the said manner, and the ends of which were hermetically sealed.

These later preparations were of course also made in absolute darkness, or in the orange light of Simkalash. Later, when these soaked bamboos were necessary for the experiment, one end of the thicker unsoaked bamboo was inserted in a special way into the mentioned bore drilled right through the large ball of the Riank-Pokhortarz and opened by a small hook fixed to a thin stick by means of which the soaked bamboo could be moved at any speed desired.
Now the action of the said liquid in which the bamboo was soaked was such that the part of the soaked bamboo on which the colored ray coming directly from the Loosochepna or after being reflected from the cavity of the lower smaller ball, fell, was instantly permanently dyed the same color as that ray which had fallen onto it. The uncovered places of these bamboos soaked in the said manner were dyed the colors also corresponding to the sound vibrations which touched them, and which were obtained fro what are called strings which were on the middle part of the apparatus called Dzendvokh.

This Dzendvokh consisted of a very strong frame of special form made from the tusks of mammoths, on which there were stretched many strings of various lengths and thicknesses, made partly from the twisted what are called goats’ intestines, and partly from the tail hairs of beings there of various exterior forms.
And so the astonishing apparatus Alla-attapan demonstrated that all the three mentioned ‘transitory results’ of cosmic processes not only manifest themselves alike in their inner manifestations, but that they also formed from the same factors.
By means of this apparatus it was possible to verify and be convinced that in each of the mentioned three transitory results ensuing from common cosmic processes, and which have nothing in common outwardly with each other, there not only proceeds exactly similar what are called ‘mutual actions ensuing one from the other and forming one common functioning’, and that, in the sense of the evolutionary and involutionary particularities of the sacred cosmic law of Heptaparaparshinokh, the action of each separate intermediary stage in one general functioning influences the action of each separate intermediary stage in another, exactly a sin its own, but also that according to the particularities of the properties of the vibrations which compose their aggregate, these transitory cosmic results have complete affinity.

These complete affinity in the inner mutual relations of these three transitory results which have outwardly nothing in common with each other was proved into eh following way. For instance, a corresponding colored ray directed upon any active element of opium transformed it into another active element which corresponded in its newly acquired vibrations to the vibrations of the colored ray which had acted on the given active element.
The same result was obtained if instead of these colored rays, corresponding sound vibrations of the strings of the Dzendvokh were directed upon this same active element.
Further, if any colored ray were made to pass through any active element of opium, then, passing through it, this same ray took on another color, namely, that color the vibrations of which corresponded to the vibrations of this active element, or if any colored ray were made to pass thought the manifested what are called ‘wave of sound vibrations’ still acting oat that given moment from any corresponding string of the Dzendvokh, hen, passing through this wave, it took on another color corresponding to the vibrations manifested by means of the given string.

Or finally, if a definite colored ray and definite string vibrations from the strings were simultaneously directed upon any active element of opium from among those composing this Plormedekhtian product and which ha a smaller number of vibrations than the totality of vibrations of the colored ray and of this said sound, then this active element was transformed into such another active element of opium the number of vibrations exactly corresponding to the totality of the numbers of the said tow differently caused by vibrations and so on and so forth. This incomparable experimental apparatus likewise demonstrated that all the higher vibrations of one result always give the direction to all the lower vibrations of the transitory cosmic results.’”

His introduction of the evil demon concept was to consider the possibility that human thoughts were being deceived

So then when assessing all held beleifs for doubts, the concept of the evil demon holds up as the strictest test to see if the belief is a worthy one or not

What is also interesting is that people must first be lured or tricked into giving consent to be deceived or mislead.
That's because only if we had the choice can we be made responsible

THE GOLDEN VERSES OF PYTHAGORAS

1. First worship the Immortal Gods, as they are established and ordained by the Law.

2. Reverence the Oath, and next the Heroes, full of goodness and light.

3. Honour likewise the Terrestrial Dæmons by rendering them the worship lawfully due to them.

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4. Honour likewise thy parents, and those most nearly related to thee.

5. Of all the rest of mankind, make him thy friend who distinguishes himself by his virtue.

6. Always give ear to his mild exhortations, and take example from his virtuous and useful actions.

7. Avoid as much as possible hating thy friend for a slight fault.

8. [And understand that] power is a near neighbour to necessity.

9. Know that all these things are as I have told thee; and accustom thyself to overcome and vanquish these passions:--

10. First gluttony, sloth, sensuality, and anger.

11. Do nothing evil, neither in the presence of others, nor privately;

12. But above all things respect thyself.

13. In the next place, observe justice in thy actions and in thy words.

14. And accustom not thyself to behave thyself in any thing without rule, and without reason.

15. But always make this reflection, that it is ordained by destiny that all men shall die.

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16. And that the goods of fortune are uncertain; and that as they may be acquired, so may they likewise be lost.

17. Concerning all the calamities that men suffer by divine fortune,

18. Support with patience thy lot, be it what it may, and never repine at it.

19. But endeavour what thou canst to remedy it.

20. And consider that fate does not send the greatest portion of these misfortunes to good men.

21. There are among men many sorts of reasonings, good and bad;

22. Admire them not too easily, nor reject them.

23. But if falsehoods be advanced, hear them with mildness, and arm thyself with patience.

24. Observe well, on every occasion, what I am going to tell thee:--

25. Let no man either by his words, or by his deeds, ever seduce thee.

26. Nor entice thee to say or to do what is not profitable for thyself.

27. Consult and deliberate before thou act, that thou mayest not commit foolish actions.

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28. For it is the part of a miserable man to speak and to act without reflection.

29. But do that which will not afflict thee afterwards, nor oblige thee to repentance.

30. Never do anything which thou dost not understand.

31. But learn all thou ought'st to know, and by that means thou wilt lead a very pleasant life.

32. in no wise neglect the health of thy body;

33. But give it drink and meat in due measure, and also the exercise of which it has need.

34. Now by measure I mean what will not incommode thee.

35. Accustom thyself to a way of living that is neat and decent without luxury.

36. Avoid all things that will occasion envy.

37. And be not prodigal out of season, like one who knows not what is decent and honourable.

38. Neither be covetous nor niggardly; a due measure is excellent in these things.

39. Do only the things that cannot hurt thee, and deliberate before thou dost them.

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40. Never suffer sleep to close thy eyelids, after thy going to bed,

41. Till thou hast examined by thy reason all thy actions of the day.

42. Wherein have I done amiss? What have I done? What have I omitted that I ought to have done?

43. If in this examination thou find that thou hast done amiss, reprimand thyself severely for it;

44. And if thou hast done any good, rejoice.

45. Practise thoroughly all these things; meditate on them well; thou oughtest to love them with all thy heart.

46. 'Tis they that will put thee in the way of divine virtue.

47. I swear it by him who has transmitted into our souls the Sacred Quaternion, the source of nature, whose cause is eternal.

48. But never begin to set thy hand to any work, till thou hast first prayed the gods to accomplish what thou art going to begin.

49. When thou hast made this habit familiar to thee,

50. Thou wilt know the constitution of the Immortal Gods and of men.

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51. Even how far the different beings extend, and what contains and binds them together.

52. Thou shalt likewise know that according to Law, the nature of this universe is in all things alike,

53. So that thou shalt not hope what thou ought'st not to hope; and nothing in this world shall be hid from thee.

54. Thou wilt likewise know, that men draw upon themselves their own misfortunes voluntarily, and of their own free choice.

55. Unhappy that they are! They neither see nor understand that their good is near them.

56. Few know how to deliver themselves out of their misfortunes.

57. Such is the fate that blinds mankind, and takes away his senses.

58. Like huge cylinders they roll to and fro, and always oppressed with ills innumerable.

59. For fatal strife, innate, pursues them everywhere, tossing them up and down; nor do they perceive it.

60. Instead of provoking and stirring it up, they ought, by yielding, to avoid it.

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61. Oh! Jupiter, our Father! if Thou would'st deliver men from all the evils that oppress them,

62. Show them of what dæmon they make use.

63. But take courage; the race of man is divine.

64. Sacred nature reveals to them the most hidden mysteries.

65. If she impart to thee her secrets, thou wilt easily perform all the things which I have ordained thee.

66. And by the healing of thy soul, thou wilt deliver it from all evils, from all afflictions.

67. But abstain thou from the meats, which we have forbidden in the purifications and in the deliverance of the soul;

68. Make a just distinction of them, and examine all things well.

69. Leaving thyself always to be guided and directed by the understanding that comes from above, and that ought to hold the reins.

70. And when, after having divested thyself of thy mortal body, thou arrivest at the most pure Æther,

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71. Thou shalt be a God, immortal, incorruptible, and Death shall have no more dominion over thee.

Even though the Pythagoreans insist that the universe is a pentagonic structure..
timereading by their 5'er system would be a pain in the ass.. if not impossible

What say thee to that ?

And who needs a Zero number

Perhaps the most amazing aspect of the Babylonian's calculating skills was their construction of tables to aid calculation. Two tablets found at Senkerah on the Euphrates in 1854 date from 2000 BC. They give squares of the numbers up to 59 and cubes of the numbers up to 32. The table gives 82 = 1,4 which stands for

82 = 1, 4 = 1 cross 60 + 4 = 64

and so on up to 592 = 58, 1 (= 58 cross 60 +1 = 3481).

The Babylonians used the formula

ab = [(a + b)2 - a2 - b2]/2

to make multiplication easier. Even better is their formula

ab = [(a + b)2 - (a - b)2]/4

which shows that a table of squares is all that is necessary to multiply numbers, simply taking the difference of the two squares that were looked up in the table then taking a quarter of the answer.

Division is a harder process. The Babylonians did not have an algorithm for long division. Instead they based their method on the fact that

a/b = a cross (1/b)

so all that was necessary was a table of reciprocals. We still have their reciprocal tables going up to the reciprocals of numbers up to several billion. Of course these tables are written in their sexagesimal numerals.

The Babylonians had an advanced number system, in some ways more advanced than our present systems. It was a positional system with a base of 60 rather than the system base 10 in use today.

The babylonian system uses a unary base 10 system up until 60

Irony wrote:There is no way to count the hours of the day by deviding them in 5'er units.

You cant, that's why the Pythagorean claim that the universe is comprised of 5'er units is wrong.

The leap year is a minor problem in comparisson to what trouble you would get if you were to try Pythagoras system to count time through the 5.

There are 366 sunrises in a year, and the precise grades in a compass are 366°

But undoubtly it were the BABYLONIANS baby that found the best solution and calculation through their sexagesimal timekeeping.

Forget Pythagorean dogma, it just doesn't live up to it's hype. It's simply not practical
and it surely does not explain the universe.
If it wasnt for pythagoras theorems, the world would be much less understood that it even is today
Time could very easily be counted through a system of 5, who said anything about trying to reproduce an already innaccurate solar reference , The seasons alone mess up any day night proportions psychologically speaking .
So what would be the reference point ? stick with one sunrise if you must , everything can be broken down into 5 segments of a day , each of which is broken into 5 segments , each of which is broken down again into 5 segments as far divisible as you wish to represent
YOu could even wear a pentagram shaped watch which was sub divided into lesser pentagrams for your precious divisions of time to keep u ticking over in synch
What about years ? who needs years , forget them, time would just go on and on , there would be no illusory circle of repetition to restrict peoples growth

The babylonian system uses a unary base 10 system up until 60

Wrong, each number up to 59 has it's own punctuation mark for correct interpretation.
Like I said, they had a system with a base of 60.
You know how much I love to instist on issues when I know I am right about them.

The babylonian system uses marks to represent the numbers 1 to 9
It then uses different symbols to represent the numbers 10,20,30,40,50
Are you starting to see the unary base 10 connection ?
Their number 60 is represented by 1 as is their number 1 , can you see the possible confusion ?
A true base 60 system has to use a "Zero" which they did not have mein friend
Keep up the language skills your getting there slowly but surely

You also know how much I love to instist on issues when I know I am right about them.

If it wasnt for pythagoras theorems, the world would be much less understood that it even is today

Time could very easily be counted through a system of 5

who needs years , forget them, time would just go on and on , there would be no illusory circle of repetition to restrict peoples growth

A true base 60 system has to use a "Zero" which they did not have mein friend

Keep up the language skills your getting there slowly but surely