If You Can't Join Them, Eat Them

@kennethamy,

kennethamy;113306 wrote:

Right. "Lesser poets borrow. Great poets steal". (I forget who).

"Lesser poets borrow. Great poets steal".--Jebediah

@Reconstructo,

Reconstructo;113329 wrote:

True, we are punished for gullibility in certain cases, rewarded in others.--usually punished. (But "Time and chance happens to them all.") It's a good ideal to strive for, getting facts right. No argument on that. But then the aestethic spiritual questions should be considered, and these are what folks will die for, kill for, get much of their highest happiness from. The subjective-religious-artistic element is a big part of our interpretation of the world. The practical self and the spiritual self are stuffed into the same person, and they effect one another.

The more important questions are, the more important it is to get them right. It seems to me.

@Reconstructo,

How does one know that one's values are right? We feel that they're right. It's a gamble. I don't think there's an afterlife, but there could be. We can't always see the consequences of our decisions. Even picking between two books can change our future personality....

@Reconstructo,

Reconstructo;113188 wrote:

Ok, so we often disagree around here. It's my foolosophy to take what I can from another mind, eat what I can digest. The spirit is a stomach said Nietzsche. It's a good line.

I've learned bits and pieces here that I hadn't taken the trouble to study as such bits and pieces weren't my specialty. Don't we all have a self-concept to serve? But I conceive myself as a Holy Blob. I'm going to eat your ideas, assimilate them, make them "mine," fit them in with the ideas I already had.
What percentage of "our" ideas were created by us in the first place? (Not that that stops me from trying...)

Thoughts on the matter?

You pretty much nailed it. There are no ideas that are our own. They are the assimilation of many and the one at the end that turns those into utility that is useful wins the acclaim. Such as Edison and "his" light bulb. Not by a long shot. There were a few others and their ideas that led up to that.

William

@William,

Whenever the conversation turns towards cannibalism, this enigmatic saying always comes to mind.

Quote:

Jesus said, "Lucky is the lion that the human will eat, so that the lion becomes human. And foul is the human that the lion will eat, and the lion still will become human."

-Gospel of Thomas

@William,

As far as thoughts and ideas are concerned, Originality doesn't require that it have its roots in absolute emptiness. For empty space can create only further emptiness.
Originality of an idea or thought could also be attributed to the way the thought/idea was developed after an initial spark (influenced or not).

:shifty:

@Jebediah,

Jebediah;113333 wrote:

"Lesser poets borrow. Great poets steal".--Jebediah

That's good stuff, Jeb.

@xris,

xris;113227 wrote:

I hope never to take another's view as gospel and question ever accepted notion. It has caused me no end of problems and has got me evicted from lectures. There must be a clinical expression for my complaint.

Hi xris I am back, happy Xmas to you and the rest.I was also bad news in a meeting or lecture and have taken great pains to restrain my volatile nature. Like you I question everything and make up my own mind until I am convinced to change it by superior logic

@Alan McDougall,

There is anxiety of influence but there is also anxiety of theft. I'm not sure which is worse but both silence poets.

@Jebediah,

Jebediah;113333 wrote:

"Lesser poets borrow. Great poets steal".--Jebediah

Originally Posted by kennethamy

http://www.philosophyforum.com/images/PHBlue/buttons/viewpost.gif

Right. "Lesser poets borrow. Great poets steal". (I forget who). (Kennethamy)

"Lesser poets borrow. Great poets steal".--Jebediah

Is there an echo here?

Now I think of it, I think the author of that was, Ezra Pound.

@Reconstructo,

"Lesser poets borrow. Great poets steal." Thus Spake Reconstructo

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