Epictetus' Enchiridion 51-52

How long will you wait to think yourself worthy of the highest and transgress in nothing the clear pronouncement of reason? You have received the precepts which you ought to accept, and you have accepted them. Why then do you still wait for a master, that you may delay the amendment of yourself till he comes? You are a youth no longer; you are now a full-grown man. If now you are careless and indolent and are always putting off, fixing one day after another as the limit when you mean to begin attending to yourself, then, living or dying, you will make no progress but will continue unawares in ignorance. Therefore make up your mind before it is too late to live as one who is mature and proficient, and let all that seems best to you be a law that you cannot transgress. And if you encounter anything troublesome or pleasant or glorious or inglorious, remember that the hour of struggle is come, the Olympic contest is here and you may put off no longer, and that one day one action determines whether the progress you have achieved is lost or maintained.

This was how Socrates attained perfection, paying heed to nothing but reason, in all that he encountered. And if you are not yet Socrates, yet ought you to live as one who would wish to be a Socrates.

Brutus was the son of Ceaser

Brutus is Orestes

"Manly"

I've realized that the phrase "manly" often makes more sense if you take it to mean "having qualities associated with a good human" rather than "having qualities associated with a good male". That is, if you use the word "man" to mean the human race.

At any rate, an adjective that means "having qualities associated with a good human" really ought to exist.

The Renaissance

 Everyone knows that the dawning of the Renaissance lifted the Europeans out of a long dark age, and that the Enlightenment followed the Renaissance. But much of the story is left out in contemporary school boooks.

 There were two events that together triggered the Renaissance of Western Europe. In 1347, the Black Death spread to Constantinople. In 1453, the Ottoman Turks captured the city and renamed it Istanbul.

 The mainstream view is that Arabian philosophers such as Ibn Rushd (or Averroes) preserved philosophy's spark. After the fall of the Roman empire, the Byzantine Empire lasted another 1,000 years. Although staunchly Christian, the proximity of Constantinople and Athens enabled the Byzantine empire to become the torch holder of ancient wisdom.

 After Constantinople was captured by the invading Muslims, the intellectuals of the city fled. They crossed the Adriatic and reached Italy. By this time the Black Death had killed off so many that wealth was redistributed across Europe. A youthful rising power in Italy led by nouveau riche elites welcomed these intellectuals and became their patrons. They flourished, and created the Renaissance.

The Eternal and Immutable

Ancient people believed the heavens were eternal. Farmers and sailors relied on them. The stars followed a predictable path.

But eventually we discovered they are physical objects and are not eternal nor immutable.

The truths of mathematics, and eventually logic and the a priori took their place.

Gambling

Slaves from Rome to China used to spend their lives gambling, as do stock brokers and hedge fund managers do today. The difference is that the slaves would throw small bones and dice, objects that are orders of magnitude smaller than they were. The hedge fund managers gamble with objects and processes that are orders of magnitude larger than they are. They roll really big dice.

first post test

this is the first post. it's a test.