“In the academic setting, you take (typically) lonely, interesting middle-aged men and beautiful, intelligent young women, and everybody's motivations for display and conquest are engaged to the max. Sublimated, this can be a powerful force for the good - Plato had a lot to say about that - but acted upon it can bring evils without end.” MenEndsBeautifulYoungMotivationEvilForceInterestingPowerfulMiddleLonelyIntelligentSettingSettingsEngagedAcademicDisplayYoung WomenPlatoConquestMaxMiddle Aged Author:Catherine Wilson
“Some critics thought the ontology and theory of qualities absurd. No one had ever seen these little atoms, and furthermore, how could their mere arrangement produce a noisy, colourful, world in which day followed night and animals generated their own kind? Instead of a world created, cared, for and supervised by supernatural persons, the Epicureans appeared to the theologians to be assigning everything to chance. The latter were appalled by Lucretius's view of religion as cruel and oppressive and by the Epicurean insistence that death is the end of all experience.” WorldKindLittlesPersonsEndsNightChanceAnimalViewsQualityProduceTheoryMereCriticsAbsurdLatterAtomsArrangementsTheologianNoisyInsistenceOntologyColourfulEpicurean Author:Catherine Wilson
“Highly unequal societies are morally defective because they get to be that way through the exploitation by the clever and well-positioned ones of the vulnerabilities and weaknesses of others. The well-off then use their acquired political power to refuse to make sacrifices for others. This system brings us a wonderful range of products and experiences for consumers at the top of the privilege scale, but it also degrades and benumbs the workers at the lower end, as Adam Smith and Marx both said.” WayWellsSaidEndsUsePoliticalWonderfulSacrificeProductsWeaknessWorkersPrivilegeRefuseScalesCleverConsumersRangeVulnerabilityAdamExploitationPolitical PowerDegradeSacrifice For OthersDefective Author:Catherine Wilson
“Human courtship has some wild extremes. At one end of the spectrum, there is harassment, pestering, blackmail, and an abuse of institutional power, which its targets rightly fear and loathe. At the other end is love, which as Nietzsche said, is beyond good and evil and always deserves our respect and compassion even when it is doomed or destructive. In the wide middle of the spectrum are all the ambiguous and tragi-comic goings-on of our species.” HumansSaidEndsEvilCompassionMiddleDeserveAbuseSpeciesExtremesWideComicDestructiveGood And EvilTargetDoomedSpectrumHarassmentAmbiguousCourtshipLoatheBlackmailBeyond Good And Evil Author:Catherine Wilson