Friday, December 10, 2010

Paean to Toadery

...The Greek word which designates the Sage belongs etymologically to sapio, I taste, sapiens, the tasting one, sisyphos, the person of the most delicate taste; the peculiar art of the philosopher therefore consists, according to the opinion of the people, in a delicate selective judgment by taste, by discernment, by significant differentiation. He is not prudent, if one calls him prudent, who in his own affairs finds out the good; Aristotle rightly says: "That which Thales and Anaxagoras know, people will call unusual, astounding, difficult, divine but -- useless, since human possessions were of no concern to those two." Through thus selecting and precipitating the unusual, astounding, difficult, and divine, Philosophy marks the boundary lines dividing her from Science in the same way as she does it from Prudence by the emphasizing of the useless. Science without thus selecting, without such delicate taste, pounces upon everything knowable, in the blind covetousness to know all at any price; philosophical thinking however is always on the track of the things worth knowing, on the track of the great and most important discernments...
-Nietzsche, "On Thales"

...and on a lighter note, discerning western values suffered yet another blow as certain comic poets persist in throwing dates and nuts to the spectators...

5 comments:

  1. ...lol. Where is the part one?

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  2. Regarding the pole dancing....too bad those women didn't engage in legitimate sports at an earlier age. I think they'd be called gymnasts and have a good shot at a REAL Olympic medal if they had.

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  3. They are certainly well trained athletes, I'll grant them that.

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