Posted by Diarmuid on January 31, 2002 at 04:02:07:
In Reply to: Re: Philosophies posted by TiresomeSolipsist on January 30, 2002 at 20:33:03:
: Very few have the discipline to organize thier life around a philosophy but they are the ones who matter, and who end up controling most of the activities of everyone else.
Ah, but I suggest they don't organize their lives around a philosophy: they organize their philosophy around their lives. Or in Isaac's case: they choose a philosophy which was invented by a person very similar to them in personality structure, i.e: a five.
Also, Buddhist monks are fairly sucessful in living their lives according to a strict philosophy, but they are not particularly powerful. Very few non-Buddhists think they matter.
This tends to disprove your point and kind of diminishes mine. I call this Diarmuid's Law: "Every generally valid principle in human affairs will have at least one exception."
Y'know, it's a generally valid principle that humans don't like to hammer nails into their own genitals. But you could probably find a website with people who do just that. But generally, that maxim holds true for everybody you meet in the course of a typical day.
: Another point - to say philosophy does not matter is self cancelling.
"All generalizations are dangerous, even this one." -- Alexandre Dumas