The study of philosophy is nothing but to prepare one’s self to die
Cicero
Why do you study philosophy?
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To try to make some sense out of why we live and what we are while we’re doing it. Though, I must say, Cicero has a great point. Die knowing a little more than when you lived. Kinda cool.
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Well put.
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$Amen$ 🙂
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Well said bro.
Cicero’s point is much bigger than it seems. Study of philosophy frees the mind of ghosts in the hereafter. With these fears of future torment removed, awareness that fortune favours whom it will, that calamity can happen to all of us any time, helps a person to live fully and in a sense prepare to die.
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Gotta love that Cicero. Mark Anthony didn’t like him though. I believe he had his hands cut off and nailed onto the doors to the Senate. Rough times back then.
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He was openly opposed to Mark Anthony.
It makes me sad to imagine he was killed by mercenaries, he who had defended the Republic, at least, twice.
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Yes. He was a great defender of the Republic and an even greater thinker.
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His orations are accessible and make for very interesting reading.
Some of his dialogues, like on friendship, are classics. His letters to his brother and to different personages are great too
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Such a brutal way for him to die. Bad times to live in if you pissed off the wrong guys.
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It was brutal. Though Caesar didn’t fare any differently in as much as he had become so powerful, a position he got to mainly because Pompey allowed him
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I love that period in Roman history and the one just after Caesar’s death. The rise of Augustus Caesar, and how he becomes Emperor, is fascinating to me.
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It was a great time I think.
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Because many men have had way too much time on their hands. 😛
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LOL! I likes that! 🙂
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Little sarcasm there, but seriously, when you look back in history, women were washing the skid marks from the underwear of these men who had the luxury to sit around and think. Must be nice. 😀
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I bet it was. Watched “Paul” btw. Loved it. Watching Hector and the Search For Happiness now wt Pegg. Excellent, too.
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That’s awesome. I’m glad you loved it. 🙂 Haven’t see the other movie you mentioned. I’ll put it on my list.
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I would imagine, Victoria, that these type of men didn’t bother with underpants, other than to occasionally wear them on their heads.
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Hahaha, Ark.
I think they had no time to think about underpants. Those would restrict air flow
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OK, that wins Comment of the Week Award
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I second that vote.
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This post and some of the comments reminded me of this: https://youtu.be/AukFsBv2oDY — just need to watch up to 2:10 minute marker.
Keep on thinking free. 😉
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😉 What an honor.
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Some of them were very busy people. Marcus Aurelius, Cicero, Phocion, myself 🙂 come to mind. But yes, one has to have time to contemplate nature and to philosophize
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I study philosophy to remind myself of how little I truly know. That, and I need to know what all the cool kids are doing.
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Have you been reading Socrates, or is it Plato? He of I know that I know nothing.
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I have yet to delve into the scholarship on whether Socrates was real or just a construct of Plato’s. It seems that he (Socrates) might be as real as Jesus. Tangentially, wouldn’t it be interesting if the disciples were aware of Socrates’s fictional nature and created a character of their own based on that knowledge…
At any rate, I have read a little Plato here and there, along with a smattering of Aristotle. I always found it a bit ironic that Aristotle preached moderation in all things, but he couldn’t convince Alexander the Great of that virtue.
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The question of whether Socrates lived has crossed my mind a few times. I have concluded that whichever way the evidence points us, the dialogues are great. And relevant.
Seneca was Nero’s tutor. I think the adage you can take a cow to the watering hole but you can’t force it to drink holds true in this case.
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What if I don’t study philosophy. …?
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Oh, I see what you did there! Clever 😉
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then maybe you are living through faith :-), that is without wonder lo.
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I find it to be vaporous nonsense.
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A lot of that comes outta my arse. Smells too. Guess I’m a great philosopher cause A LOT of it comes outta me. 🙂
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You can’t say that after writing a philosophy tract.
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Conraire! Let’s hope my dialogue is nothing but vaporous nonsense 🙂
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I will tell you about it.
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Excellent quote. my Nairobi brother! But prepared or not, the inevitable will happen! Much love and naked hugs! 🙂
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Oh yes, that is too true. Death comes either way
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Because knowledge is sweet! And all the sweetness in life ought to be enjoyed 🙂
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where have you been my friend?
I like your reasons
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I think the quote might actually be a paraphrase made by Montaigne. The closest I can find from Cicero is:
“Tota enim philosophorum vita, ut ait idem, commentatio mortis est.”
I would translate it as “The whole life of the philosopher consists of, as the same man said, mental preparation for death”. It has almost the same sense but I think subtly different.
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Thanks.
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It looks like the way I am thinking is being called philosophy.
It emerges from entereing a meta-level. You don’t just think about the things, but also about your thoughts about the things and about your perception of the things and about your actions in the world. This kind of meta-level or reflexive thinking develops into philosophy. I don’t want to reinvent the wheel, so I look into the thougts of others as well.
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Of course, you do a lot of philosophy Nannus and some of it pass above my head.
Reinventing the wheel would slow you down
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