Kant (compassion):

Kant believed that reason was the source of morality, not passion or emotions.  For Kant morality cannot be based on feeling, compassion or otherwise; it can be based only on pure practical reason.  Kant's theory is a deontological moral theory (obligation as deriving from reason); the rightness or wrongness of actions is independent of their consequences or our emotions but depends solely on whether they fulfil our duty.  Kant believed that this was the supreme principle of morality, The Categorical Imperative.  In his critical & his later work, Kant recommends apathy to the moral agent faced with pathological  (irrational) phenomena.   And he rejects compassion as pathological.

 

Rousseau (Kant his pupil):

Rousseau’s most important philosophical impact was on Kant.  A portrait of Rousseau was the only image on display in Kant’s house.  He directly influenced the Categorical Imperative.  The third formulation of the imperative (in the Groundwork of the Metaphysic of Morals, 1785) the formula of the kingdom of ends recalls Rousseau’s discussion of the general will in The Social Contract.  His influence can also be seen in Kant’s moral psychology, especially in Religion Within the Limits of Reason Alone, also in Kant’s thinking about conjectural history & his writings on international justice which draw on Rousseau’s engagement with the work of the Abbé St. Pierre.

 

“Act so that…”:

a paraphrased from Kant’s initial work on ethics The Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals (1785); in this he gives the supreme principle of morality, a standard of rationality called the “Categorical Imperative”  Kant characterized it as an objective, rationally necessary & unconditional principle that we must always follow despite any natural desires or inclinations we may have to the contrary.  He gives 3 formulations of the Categorical Imperative, for each using the formula “act so that…”  The first formulation (paraphrased) commands: “Act so that you are in accordance with that maxim through which you can at the same time will that it become a universal law”   The second formulation commands: “Act so that you never treat humanity, whether in ourselves or in others, as a means only but always as an end in itself.”  The third formulation commands: “Act so that through your maxims you could be a legislator of universal laws.”

 

 “Knowledge is Virtue” (Socrates): * see EndNote<>

A quote from Plato’s dialogue Protagoras, given by Socrates in his debate with the famous Sophist.

 

“Knowledge is Power” (Bacon):

commonly attributed to Sir Francis Bacon; in his Meditationes Sacrae (1597) the expression "ipsa scientia potestas est" ('knowledge itself is power') occurs; the exact phrase "scientia potentia est" is found in the 1668 version of Leviathan by Hobbes.

 

Critique of Pure Reason:

The Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals did not attract attention & remained obscure.  In part owing to this failure, in 1788 Kant published The Critique of Practical Reason, which largely re-stated his earlier formulation on the Categorical Imperative

 

Categorical Imperative:

see above “Act so that…”:

 

mien:

air, bearing, or demeanour, as showing character or feeling

 

Deed (and work):

a comparison between Culture and Civilization; Spengler means great deeds, deeds of heroic proportion, such as the Islamic conquests 634-732 AD; he also refers to the deeds of the Vikings, the Hohenstaufen  & Crusades.  Deeds are a living course & derived from the prime symbol.  Great deeds are essentially Faustian.  Our ethics are also of deeds, not states of mind (the Apollonian attitude).  The Faustian world feeling of deed has effected all the greatest heros, from the Hohenstaufen  & the Welf  to Frederick the Great, Goethe & Napoleon.  It includes the great deeds of science, of Galileo, Kepler & Newton. Such deeds are part of Culture.  BUT with civilization, deeds mutate into something different: work.  The modern physicist dares not deeds but does scientific work.

 

dolce far niente:

Italian, meaning sweet idleness or doing nothing

 

panem et circenses:

Latin, meaning bread and circuses, a term first used by the Roman satirist Juvenal (55-127 AD).  Gaius Sempronius Gracchus (a populist) began the grain dole in 123 BC; it provided free wheat to Roman citizens & was subsequently adopted by the autocratic Roman emperors.  At the same time it also became common to provide costly circus games & other forms of entertainment.  Both techniques were used as a means of gaining political power.  Juvenal uses the phrase to identify the only remaining interest of a Roman populace who no longer cares for its historical birth right of political involvement.  It is the practise of generating public approval, by diversion, distraction or satisfying the base requirements of a populace, by offering a palliative: for example food (bread) or entertainment (circuses) rather than excellence in public service or policy. 

 

Epicurean-Stoic:

Spengler’s portmanteau word describing philosophy in the Roman Empire; like Stoicism the Epicureans were a popular philosophy in the Hellenistic age.  Founded in 307 BC based on the teachings of Epicurus, it was originally a challenge to Platonism.  It flourished in the Late Hellenistic period, its main opponent became Stoicism. The school's popularity grew & along with Stoicism, Platonism, Peripateticism & Pyrrhonism, it became a dominant school of Hellenistic philosophy in the later Roman Empire.

 

Fichte (State Socialism- right to work):

(1762-1814), German philosopher, who following Kant founded German idealism; a seminal figure in the emerging German nationalism.  In his Foundations of Natural Right (1797) Fichte’s theory of state appears to be built on “liberal” theoretical foundation, yet also contains elements not associated with liberal tradition.  These elements might be labelled communitarian statism, a policy of concentrating extensive economic & political controls within the state at the cost of individual liberty.  Fichte reflects indifference to questions of constitutional structure or public participation in government but does emphasis the “police” functions of the state.  These latter functions included security, but also social welfare.  The primary function of the state was to employ coercion to guarantee that the parties to the contract will do what they have promised to do & insure every citizen will has an opportunity to realize his own (limited) freedom. One feature of his conception of right is that every citizen is entitled to the full and productive employment of his labour; hence that the state has a duty to manage the economy accordingly.  In 1800 he wrote The Closed Commercial State, an essay on the political economy in which he propounds a blend of socialist political ideas & autarkic economic principles.