Stoicism, a school of thought that flourished in Greek and Roman history of Classical antiquity. It was one of the loftiest and most sublime philosophies in the record of Western civilization. In urging participation in human affairs, Stoics have always believed that the goal of all inquiry is to provide a mode of conduct characterized by tranquillity of mind and certainty of moral worth.

For the early Stoic philosopher, as for all the post-Aristotelian schools, knowledge and its pursuit are no longer held to be ends in themselves. The Hellenistic Age was a time of transition, and the Stoic philosopher was perhaps its most influential representative. A new culture was in the making. The heritage of an earlier period, with Athens as its intellectual leader, was to continue, but to undergo many changes. If, as with Socrates, to know is to know oneself, rationality as the sole means by which something outside of the self might be achieved may be said to be the hallmark of Stoic belief. As a Hellenistic philosophy, Stoicism presented an ars vitae, a way of accommodation for people to whom the human condition no longer appeared as the mirror of a uniform, calm, and ordered cosmos. Reason alone could reveal the constancy of cosmic order and the originative source of unyielding value; thus, reason became the true model for human existence. To the Stoic, virtue is an inherent feature of the world, no less inexorable in relation to humans than are the laws of nature.

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Stoicism

=====================

Jean-Paul Sartre (born June 21, 1905, Paris, France—died April 15, 1980, Paris) was a French philosopher, novelist, and playwright, best known as the leading exponent of existentialism in the 20th century. In 1964 he declined the Nobel Prize for Literature, which had been awarded to him “for his work which, rich in ideas and filled with the spirit of freedom and the quest for truth, has exerted a far-reaching influence on our age.”

......

During his years of teaching in Le Havre, Sartre published La Nausée (1938; Nausea). This philosophical novel, written in the form of a diary, narrates the feeling of revulsion that a certain Roquentin undergoes when confronted with the world of matter—not merely the world of other people but the very awareness of his own body. According to some critics, La Nausée must be viewed as a pathological case, a form of neurotic escape. Most probably it must be appreciated also as a most original, fiercely individualistic, antisocial piece of work, containing in its pages many of the philosophical themes that Sartre later developed.

Sartre took over the phenomenological method, which proposes careful, unprejudiced description of the phenomena of conscious experience, from the German philosopher Edmund Husserl and used it with great skill in three successive publications: L’Imagination (1936; Imagination: A Psychological Critique), Esquisse d’une théorie des émotions (1939; Sketch for a Theory of the Emotions), and L’Imaginaire: Psychologie phénoménologique de l’imagination(1940; The Psychology of Imagination). But it was above all in L’Être et le néant (1943; Being and Nothingness) that Sartre revealed himself as a philosopher of remarkable originality and depth. Sartre places human consciousness, or no-thingness (néant), in opposition to being, or thingness (être). Consciousness is not-matter and by the same token escapes all determinism. The message, with all the implications it contains, is a hopeful one; yet the incessant reminder that human endeavour is and remains useless makes the book tragic as well.

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jean-Paul-Sartre

========================

When his disciple Zigong asked him what is humaneness, Confucius replied, “Do not impose on others what you do not want [others to impose on you]” (Analects, 15:24). A humane man is someone who is able “to make analogies from what is close at hand” (Analects, 6:30).

He uses this knowledge to imagine the humanity in others, and he relies on his learning of rites and music to hold him to the right measure. Confucius was often asked whether someone was humane, and in response he always gave a careful assessment of the person’s strengths.

He would say, for example, that the man “did his best” in fulfilling his public duty, “had administrative talents,” or “wanted nothing to defile him”—but such virtue, he would add, did not imply that the man was humane (Analects, 5:8; 5:19).

In fact, Confucius claimed that he had never met anyone who was truly humane. This, however, did not mean that humaneness was beyond reach.

“As soon as I desire humaneness, it is here,” he said, and everyone he had come across had sufficient strength “to devote all his effort to the practice of humaneness” (Analects, 7:30; 4:6). Humaneness “is beautiful (mei),” and most people are drawn to it, yet, Confucius observed, few will choose to pursue it (Analects, 4:1; 4:6).

That resistance suggests a rich and more complex notion of human nature, without which morality could not come into play. 

And, as his disciple Zengzi (505–436 BCE) said, only the strong and resolute are game for the quest, because “the road is long” and “ends only with death.”

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Confucius

========================

TRONKS

A lying dog was looking at a brick wall 

And I was looking at a lying dog looking at a brick wall. 

The dog got bored and looked at coloured balls

May have thought of licking his own two balls 

Though he went into a flat slumber 

Possibly thinking of his next tucker 

That would stop the pain from his hunger 

Unless he remembered the soapy water 

From the annoying poodle parlour 

Turning his torpor into a sad stupor 

Not even disrupted by the silly cat next door. 

Watching Tronks, fluffy like an old mop-stand, 

I was in pain from trying to understand 

The dead-live naughty cat from Schrödinger 

Which taunts us, us the students brainier

Of all relative quantum mechanics 

That do not thrill us for their contrary statistics. 

POEM "acquired" and revised by Robert Urbanoski...….

==================

READ FROM TOP.

YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT — SINCE 2005.

         Gus Leonisky

         POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.