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On Age

Philosophy Book Notes

Books used 

Cicero - Selected Works (Penguin)

Fyodor Dostoevsky - Memorias de um subsolo (Editora 34)

Saint Augustine - Confessions (Oxford)

Diogenes the Cyinic - Sayings and Anecdotes (Oxford)

Aristotle The art of Rhetoric (Oxford)

Kurgast - Herman Hesse

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Not wanting to slow down

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The same applies to the pleasure of sex: young people who look on them at close quarters, may well find them mare exciting, but old people to obtain as much satisfaction as they need by viewing them from far. (Cicero - Selected Works - Penguin - p.232)

A selection of notes to understand the old. 

The Old

The Formula

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“You’re an old man and ought to take things easy from now on”. he replied. “What, if I were running in a long-distance race, would I ease up when approaching the finishing line, rather than strain all the harder?” (Diogenes - Oxford p. 79)

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Bion said that old age is the dregs of life. (Diogenes - Oxford p. 113)

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Young people who look on them at close quarters, may well find them mare exciting, but old people to obtain as much satisfaction as they need by viewing them from far. (Cicero - Selected Works - Penguin - p.232)I actually fell grateful to old age, because this has increased my enthusiasm for conversation but eliminated the desire for food and drink. (Cicero - Selected Works - Penguin - p.231)The particular harvest of old age, I repeat, is its abundant recollection of blessing acquired in earlier years. (Cicero - Selected Works - Penguin - p.241)

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Every stage in life has its own characteristic: boys are feeble, youths in their prime are aggressive, middle-aged men are dignified, old people are matured. (Cicero - Selected Works - Penguin - p.226)

Justice

Charachteristics

A selection of notes to understand the young.

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Follow the leads of desire. They are passionate, quick-tempered, and likely to act on their anger, incapable of resisting anger. They take it badly if they think they are being wronged, although they desire distinction, it is not as important to them as getting the better of others. They care for money less than distinction or victory. They are guileless rather than cynical, because as they have not come across much wickedness. They are trusting because as yet they have rarely been lied to. They are optimistic because they are warmed by their nature. Hope plays a very large part in their lives because hope is for the future and memory is of the past and young people have little in the way of a past. Their hopes are easily excited. They are high-minded. They are more attracted to friends and companions than members of their own age-groups. Their mistakes are always due to a lack of moderation and taking things too far. If they do wrong it is because of abusiveness, not malice. They are readily moved to piety because they everyone to be good or at any rate better than themselves for they measure others by standard of their own innocence, and so see them as suffering undeservedly. (Aristotle The art of Rhetoric Oxford p. 87)

Charachteristic

Why is old age seen as unhappy?

Not wanting to slow down

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They have lived for many years, they have often been lied to, they have made many mistakes, and most things that have happened to them have been bad, so they affirm nothing with confidence and are always overly different. They have opinions but know nothing, and because they are uncertain they always add “perhaps” and “maybe”. They qualify everything they say along these lines. They are cynical. Lack of trust makes them suspicious. They never love or hate strongly. Instead, they follow Bias advice: they love as though they will someday hate and hate as though they will someday love. They are a small mind. They are stingy because money is one of these necessities, but at some time their experiences have thought them that money is hard to get and easy to lose. And this means that old age prepares the way to cowardice because fear is a kind of chill. They cling to life, especially when they are at death's door, because the object of all desire is what is absent, and men particularly desire what they miss. Their goal in life is expediency rather than finest, more than it should be. They do not care what people think of them. They have been made pessimistic by their experience (for much of life is bad, or at rate things generally turn out worse than expected and by their cowardice too. Memory plays a large part in their lives than hope, because they have little in the way of the future, while memory is for the past. This also explains their, talkativeness enjoy reminiscing. They get angry quickly but their outbursts lack force. Their desires have either failed or wounded. Hence people of this age are taken to be moderate, but in fact, it is just that their desires have lost their force and they are ruled by the profit motive. Their lives are guided more calculation than by character, because calculation aims at expediency, while character aims at virtue. If they do wrong, it is due to malice, not abusiveness. The young are moved to piety by empathy, but the old by weakness. (Aristotle The art of Rhetoric Oxford p. 88)

Pleasure

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No one else could do that except you, the one from whom every kind of being is derived. The supreme beauty, you give distinct form to all things and by your law impose order on everything. This period of my life, Lord I do not remember having lived, but I have believed what others have told me and have assumed how I behaved from observing other infants. (Saint Augustine - Confessions (Oxford) p.10)

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Why this regarded as an unhappy life. First, because it takes us away from active work secondly because it weakens the body. Thirdly, because it derives us from piratically all physical pleasure. And fourthly, because it is not fear of death. (Cicero - Selected Works - Penguin - p.219)

Old age in Drama

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Like a sea lion across the alley. (Kurgast - Herman Hesse)

Old age in Drama

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Living beyond forty is indecent, vulgar, immoral. (Fyodor Dostoyevsky - Memorias de um subsolo (Editora 34) p.17)But what to do, if the unique and direct destiny of every intelligent man is only chatter, an intentional transfer from the hollow to the void.(Fyodor Dostoyevsky - Memorias de um subsolo (Editora 34) p.31)

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Every stage in life has its own characteristic: boys are feeble, youths in their prime are aggressive, middle-aged men are dignified, old people are matured. (Cicero - Selected Works - Penguin - p.226)

Childhood (nothingness)

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I feel no sense of responsibility now for a time of which I recall not a single trace (baby) (Saint Augustine - Confessions (Oxford) p.10)

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Text Version:

1 The Old 

1.1 Charachteristic
They have lived for many years, they have often been lied to, they have made many mistakes, and most things that have happened to them have been bad, so they affirm nothing with confidence and are always overly different. They have opinions but know nothing, and because they are uncertain they always add “perhaps” and “maybe”. They qualify everything they say along these lines. They are cynical. Lack of trust makes them suspicious. They never love or hate strongly. Instead, they follow Bias advice: they love as though they will someday hate and hate as though they will someday love. They are a small mind. They are stingy because money is one of these necessities, but at some time their experiences have thought them that money is hard to get and easy to lose. And this means that old age prepares the way to cowardice because fear is a kind of chill. They cling to life, especially when they are at death's door, because the object of all desire is what is absent, and men particularly desire what they miss. Their goal in life is expediency rather than finest, more than it should be. They do not care what people think of them. They have been made pessimistic by their experience (for much of life is bad, or at rate things generally turn out worse than expected and by their cowardice too. Memory plays a large part in their lives than hope, because they have little in the way of the future, while memory is for the past. This also explains their, talkativeness enjoy reminiscing. They get angry quickly but their outbursts lack force. Their desires have either failed or wounded. Hence people of this age are taken to be moderate, but in fact, it is just that their desires have lost their force and they are ruled by the profit motive. Their lives are guided more calculation than by character, because calculation aims at expediency, while character aims at virtue. If they do wrong, it is due to malice, not abusiveness. The young are moved to piety by empathy, but the old by weakness. (Aristotle The art of Rhetoric Oxford p. 88)

Every stage in life has its own characteristic: boys are feeble, youths in their prime are aggressive, middle-aged men are dignified, old people are matured. (Cicero - Selected Works - Penguin - p.226)

Bion said that old age is the dregs of life. (Diogenes - Oxford p. 113)

1.2 Not wanting to slow down
“You’re an old man and ought to take things easy from now on”. he replied. “What, if I were running in a long-distance race, would I ease up when approaching the finishing line, rather than strain all the harder?” (Diogenes - Oxford p. 79)

The same applies to the pleasure of sex: young people who look on them at close quarters, may well find them mare exciting, but old people to obtain as much satisfaction as they need by viewing them from far. (Cicero - Selected Works - Penguin - p.232)

1.3 Pleasure
Young people who look on them at close quarters, may well find them mare exciting, but old people to obtain as much satisfaction as they need by viewing them from far. (Cicero - Selected Works - Penguin - p.232)

I actually fell grateful to old age, because this has increased my enthusiasm for conversation but eliminated the desire for food and drink. (Cicero - Selected Works - Penguin - p.231)

The particular harvest of old age, I repeat, is its abundant recollection of blessing acquired in earlier years. (Cicero - Selected Works - Penguin - p.241)

1.4 Why is old age seen as unhappy 
Why this regarded as an unhappy life. First, because it takes us away from active work secondly because it weakens the body. Thirdly, because it derives us from piratically all physical pleasure. And fourthly, because it is not fear of death. (Cicero - Selected Works - Penguin - p.219)

1.5 Old age seen in Drama
Like a sea lion across the alley. (Kurgast - Herman Hesse)
Living beyond forty is indecent, vulgar, immoral. (Fyodor Dostoyevsky - Memorias de um subsolo (Editora 34) p.17)
But what to do, if the unique and direct destiny of every intelligent man is only chatter, an intentional transfer from the hollow to the void.(Fyodor Dostoyevsky - Memorias de um subsolo (Editora 34) p.31)

2 The Young 

2.1 Charachteristic
Follow the leads of desire. They are passionate, quick-tempered, and likely to act on their anger, incapable of resisting anger. They take it badly if they think they are being wronged, although they desire distinction, it is not as important to them as getting the better of others. They care for money less than distinction or victory. They are guileless rather than cynical, because as they have not come across much wickedness. They are trusting because as yet they have rarely been lied to. They are optimistic because they are warmed by their nature. Hope plays a very large part in their lives because hope is for the future and memory is of the past and young people have little in the way of a past. Their hopes are easily excited. They are high-minded. They are more attracted to friends and companions than members of their own age-groups. Their mistakes are always due to a lack of moderation and taking things too far. If they do wrong it is because of abusiveness, not malice. They are readily moved to piety because they everyone to be good or at any rate better than themselves for they measure others by standard of their own innocence, and so see them as suffering undeservedly. (Aristotle The art of Rhetoric Oxford p. 87)

Every stage in life has its own characteristic: boys are feeble, youths in their prime are aggressive, middle-aged men are dignified, old people are matured. (Cicero - Selected Works - Penguin - p.226)

2.2 Childhood (nothingness)
No one else could do that except you, the one from whom every kind of being is derived. The supreme beauty, you give distinct form to all things and by your law impose order on everything. This period of my life, Lord I do not remember having lived, but I have believed what others have told me and have assumed how I behaved from observing other infants. (Saint Augustine - Confessions (Oxford) p.10)

I feel no sense of responsibility now for a time of which I recall not a single trace (baby) (Saint Augustine - Confessions (Oxford) p.10)

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