When he says the life of the philosopher is a meditation on death?
What does Cicero mean
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When he says the life of the philosopher is a meditation on death?
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I don’t know and would like to be enlightened, but I’ll take a wild guess. Since the purpose of philosophy is rational contemplation of the unknown, and what humans actually know pales in comparison to what they do not know, then the philosopher must be dedicated to the grand metaphysical realm of life and death where death is the final arbiter. Therefore, it would be logical to see the philosopher’s life as a meditation on death.
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this is a good way to look at it.
the philosophers of the east talk about detachment from desire. a life free of desire is almost a meditation on death and Cicero talks of being free from bodily bonds or fetters and sees this present life as death itself
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I like Robert’s explanation. When I first contemplated this statement, I was perhaps thinking from somewhat of a longer arc of knowledge in the sense that philosophy aims first to venture into that unknown, in the hopes that these questions are then answered by scientists, which then leads to new questions perhaps. But as knowledge advances there is a sort of life and death cycle to ideas that occurs in which certain questions are eventually laid to rest while new ones come to life. A philosophers life is thus the beginning of the process that eventually leads to death…thus a sort of meditation on how answers could be found to our questions. Robert’s is perhaps more likely but that’s just what I initially thought.
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I like your thinking, Swarn, though I also think Robert’s answer is closer to what Cicero had in mind. I have added just a few observations to his comment.
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I believe it is that the true philosopher is never content with any rationality, and always lives for seeking the inbetween. A never ending cascade of word gaming e.g. “what is the meaning of meaning?” Such that it is an inescapable swirling toilet of crap until death.
Or maybe that’s just my personal take on much of philosophy… ๐
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Hahaha. Indeed that is part of the philosopher’s work. To ask questions such as what is explanation?
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Oh, man, I hate to break this to you, bro, but you’re misquoting what Cicero actually said. Here’s the corrected quote: “Philosophy is a meditation on Dave.” Now, the big question here is, who the fuck is Dave? For centuries, this question has baffled thinkers far wiser and more learned than I, so I’m not even going to attempt to answer it.
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Cheech and Chong: “Dave’s not here.”
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Hahahaha.
You might have a point.
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Existential Death Anxiety.
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I think he dealt with anxiety of death in his previous work, Consolation, following the death of his daughter
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Existential Death Anxiety is the obsession about ones own death, though.
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There are days I am anxious about mine but I am not obsessed yet. When it comes, it comes
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There are some very strong arguments presented by anthropologists that it, and it alone, has driven all human endeavour. We are, after all, the only animal capable of seeing it’s own mortality (mortality salience), and as the poet says: Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
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If there’s any evidence that human beings are irrational, this is it, we know of our immortality but live off killing one another
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and everything else
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