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Tag Archives: man

Tocqueville’s Take on the Nature of Man

16 Thursday Jan 2014

Posted by jrbenjamin in Philosophy

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Alexis de Tocqueville, Blaise Pascal, Democracy in America, General Philosophy, Human Life, Life, man, Marcus Aurelius, Robert Ingersoll, The Nature of Man, Time, Vladimir Nabokov

Alexis de Tocqueville

“There is no need to traverse earth and sky to find a wondrous object full of contrasts of infinite greatness and littleness, of deep gloom and amazing brightness, capable at the same time of arousing piety, wonder, scorn, and terror. I have only to contemplate myself; man comes from nothing, passes through time, and disappears forever in the bosom of God. He is seen but for a moment wandering on the verge of two abysses, and then is lost.

If man were wholly ignorant of himself he would have no poetry in him, for one cannot describe what one does not conceive. If he saw himself clearly, his imagination would remain idle and would have nothing to add to the picture. But the nature of man is sufficiently revealed for him to know something of himself and sufficiently veiled to leave much in impenetrable darkness, a darkness in which he ever gropes, forever in vain, trying to understand himself.”

__________

From Alexis de Tocqueville’s seminal Democracy in America.

Some other writers who grazed these same ideas and used some of these same images (life on the verge of two eternal abysses, etc.):

“The cradle rocks above an abyss, and common sense tells us that our existence is but a brief crack of light between two eternities of darkness. Although the two are identical twins, man, as a rule, views the prenatal abyss with more calm than the one he is heading for (at some forty-five hundred heartbeats an hour).”

Vladimir Nabokov, writing the introduction to his memoir Speak, Memory (1951)

“Men seek retreats for themselves, houses in the country, at the seashore… But this is a characteristic of the most common sort of men, for it is in your power whenever you will to choose to retreat into yourself… and I affirm that tranquillity is nothing other than the proper ordering of the mind.”

Marcus Aurelius, reflecting in book four of his Meditations (167)

“Life is a narrow vale between the cold and barren peaks of two eternities. We strive in vain to look beyond the heights. We cry aloud, and the only answer is the echo of our wailing cry…”

Robert Ingersoll, speaking in the eulogy for his brother (1879)

“When I consider the brief span of my life absorbed into the eternity which precedes and will succeed it… I take fright and am amazed to see myself here rather than there: there is no reason for me to be here rather than there, now rather than then. Who put me here? By whose command and act were this place and time allotted to me?”

Blaise Pascal, writing in a section of his Pensées (1662)

More Democracy in America:

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Tocqueville on Church and State

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What Else Distinguishes Us?

26 Tuesday Mar 2013

Posted by jrbenjamin in Philosophy, Religion

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

artificial intelligence, Deep Blue, Gary Kasparov, God, human nature, humanity, intelligence, man, Ravi Zacharias, Who Are You Really?

Ravi Zacharias

“When Gary Kasparov was playing chess, years ago, against IBM’s Deep Blue, and he was asked why he was so nervous about playing the match with the computer, he said, ‘Because I’m afraid that, if I lose, we would lose human dignity.’

I lost my dignity when they came out with calculators; he’s talking about computers.

So before he played Deep Blue, he decided to just prepare and prepare and prepare. And Dr. David Gelernter — who was one-time professor of Computer Science at Yale — he wrote this article in Time magazine.

He said, ‘The idea that Deep Blue has a mind is absurd. How can an object that wants nothing, fears nothing, enjoys nothing, needs nothing and cares about nothing have a mind? It can win at chess, but not because it wants to.

It isn’t happy when it wins or sad when it loses. What are its after-the-match plans if it beats Kasparov? Is it hoping to take Deep Pink out for a night on the town? It doesn’t care about chess or anything else. It plays the game for the same reason a calculator adds or a toaster toasts: because it is a machine designed for that purpose.

No matter what amazing feats they perform, inside they will always be the same absolute zero. No computer can achieve artificial thought without achieving artificial emotion too…

In the long run I doubt if there is any kind of human behavior computers can’t fake, any kind of performance they can’t put on. It is conceivable that one day, computers will be better than humans at nearly everything. I can imagine that a person might someday have a computer for a best friend. But that will be sad — like having a dog for your best friend, only sadder.

The gap between human and surrogate is permanent and will never be closed. Machines will continue to make life easier, healthier, richer and more puzzling…’

Now listen to this line. He couldn’t resist it:

‘And human beings will continue to care, ultimately, about the same things they always have: about one another and, many of them, about God.’

You know, unwittingly he picked the two greatest commandments. To love the Lord your God with all your heart, and all your soul, and all your strength, and all your mind, and to love your neighbor as yourself — on these two hang all of the laws of the prophets.

What else distinguishes us?

What else distinguishes us?

You know we talk so much about sexuality, which is a symptom, an expression. You will never be able to answer what’s right about sex until we answer the question what does it mean to be human.

What does it mean to be human?

We must answer that first.

And, ladies and gentlemen, we are living in a world so bereft of wisdom. We desperately need young men, young women with wisdom.

Wisdom in marriage. Wisdom in raising children. Wisdom in how we organize our time. Wisdom to keep the body in the best shape we can keep it in. All these things demand wisdom.”

__________

From the only pastor (and one of the few people) I always enjoy learning from and listening to: Ravi Zacharias.

Watch this excerpt, and Zacharias’s transition to the topic of wisdom, in his sermon “Who Are You, Really?” posted below.

 

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