3 ms·

Ideas are dead--it's all been thought before. Man is vain.

• curi 19y ago
  lol? And if you're serious, I happen to have some already-thought-of ideas that are very important and not well known. Do those make you smile?
  • yters 19y ago
    Ok, ok, I'll bite, again. What are these ideas you speak of?
    • curi 19y ago
      For example of already-thought-of important ideas, William Godwin is very neglected. In part due to sexual scandal -- basically just sex outside marriage which was a lot worse then (1800ish). In part due to honest memoirs about his dead wife Mary Wollstonecraft (the first feminist). Partly due to the getting lumped in with French Revolution supporters. But in the long run, mostly because his ideas are not popular. Of the few people who've heard of him, most only care because they like the history of England or anarchist political philosophy (he's sometimes called the first anarchist, but I don't think that's true). Most neglect one of his top 2 books: The Enquirer: Reflections on Education, Manners, and Literature (His other best book is called Political Justice, and the subject matter is the reason that it's better known.) BTW, his books are out of copyright, so you can legally download them for free. See here: http://curi.us/main/godwin_download http://curi.us/main/godwin_download Here's a quote: Let us consider the effect that coercion produces upon the mind of him against whom it is employed. It cannot begin with convincing; it is no argument. It begins with producing the sensation of pain, and the sentiment of distaste. It begins with violently alienating the mind from the truth with which we wish it to be impressed. It includes in it a tacit confession of imbecility. If he who employs coercion against me could mould me to his purposes by argument, no doubt he would. He pretends to punish me because his argument is strong; but he really punishes me because his argument is weak. Consider the consequences of this insight not only for spanking children, but also for ordering them about or punishing them. Restrict your reflections to children over age 6 if you want, just to make the situation more clear. There's lots more where that came from.
      • yters 19y ago
        Good stuff. Yeah, I think calling children unreasonable is taking the easy way out and a way of avoiding hard questions. But, I'm not a parent, I've only been a child.
        • curi 19y ago
          The theory that you have to be a parent to make comments about parenting is really annoying. It's not a serious, logical position, it's just a way to shut people up. BTW Godwin was a parent, so one can't say it about his stuff anyway.
          • yters 19y ago
            True. I think there is something to be said for experience giving weight to opinion, but people use it to monopolize opinion too much. Plus, there's always the fact that it is hard to be objective about something you are experiencing. I think experience is valid when means are being discussed, but much less significant when ends are being discussed. BTW, I don't know if you've noticed, but I use upmods as a way of keeping threads alive. I know I always check my threads when my points increase, and I assume others do the same.
            • curi 19y ago
              One thing about experience is if you learned something important from it, you can say so, and make it part of the discussion. I've done the same thing with upmods. :) But I periodically skim my whole threads page for replies, anyway.