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willow
coming against this again in a not so fun way
willowMar 16, 2025
pretty sure aging is just learning to exercise discretion in sources of stimulation
willow
i want to be a blacksmith and a miniature painter but unfortunately i’m not cinny
above statement is a reference to Utopian thought between words and action: Seminar with Raymond Geuss and the related lecture https://youtube.com/watch?v=k1PfXIEWG4k https://youtube.com/watch?v=s1AyVXKkt7s Berlin quite correctly noted that the main line of philosophy since Plato had tended to hold that the good was unitary in the sense that it was in principle possible for a state of affairs to exist which was maximally good in all respects. Thus the society described in Plato's Re public is to be maximally self-restrained; also maximally just, wise, manly, and so on. It is, however, a commonsensical observation that in many realms of human life, although not in all, there exist values which cannot be comaximised. To have an exuberant, vital, and spontaneous personality may be a good thing. To have a reflective, sober, and self -controlled personality may also be a good thing. It may be impossible for the same person to have both in the highest degree; realistically one might have to choose which to try to cultivate. Berlin claims that with regard to at least a wide variety of positive human properties and ideals - strength and sensitivity, equity and mercy, passion and asceticism - it is impossible to imagine a co-instantiation at the highest level, and the choice between them is in some sense a choice between incommensurables. The tension between conflicting demands is not something which could in general be abolished. There are, however, two distinct versions of pluralism, one liberal and one rather more existentialist. The liberal version states that there is a plurality of different goods among which one must choose without there being any single clear criterion for judging one good to be uniquely best. The tacit image of the world presupposed by the liberal version is of a place full of goodies with plenty for everyone: let all enter into the banquet of life and take their pick. There are limits to how much any one person can eat, and so eating some things c…