Welcome JN1!

"? this freedom will be the freedom of all. It will loosen both the master and slave from their chains. For by a divine paradox, wherever there is one slave there are two. So in the wonderful reciprocities of being, we can never reach the higher levels until all our fellows ascend with us.There is no true liberty for the individual except as he finds it in the liberty of all. There is no true security for the individual except as he finds it in the security of all."

Gotta love Edward Markham. It probably means that "freedom" is a matter of pure equality. I would think that the divine paradox means that the fact that one man would be held in bondage by another underlines the notion that both suffer in an essential way. The slave suffers imprisonment while the master suffers the divine ethical violation. Until we look at freedom in terms of pure equality? we can never move forward. Or so I think.

Interestingly enough, the implication of "divine paradox" is used a lot in philosophy. Democritus for example used "by divine paradox" is his conception of atoms and the void (implicitly, not explicitly). Maybe Markham borrowed the notion.

But still welcome! I'm sure the forum will benefit from all of the questions you have collected over the years. As to your struggle with religious and scientific notions? good luck. I wouldn't touch that with a ten foot pole. LOL!

Welcome to the forums.

Hi JN, welcome.


The remark is credited to Friedrich Nietzsche, who theorizes that a slave can only exist by the existence of a master. The slave needing to do all of the masters bidding creates a weakness for the master. The slave will get better and better at doing what needs be done and the master worse and worse. At a certain point the master will be dependent on the slave in such a great manner that he, in effect, has become the slave.

In reality the master became a slave the moment he took one because of the fact that at that moment someone else was doing what he would have doen himself before the fact. So, where one slave exists, by a divine paradox, there exist two.

Nietzsche suggests that a 'superman' (?bermensch) is one who will not use slaves and who will not be a slave, thus being his own master, only limited by his actual limits instead of imagined limits. This may be superfluous though.

Hope this helps.

Arjen

Warm welcome to the forum JN1!



The above is actually in my signature and was quoted by Edwin Markham. I'm not exactly sure of the history of it but for me it was something that struck the right chord.

I interpret the above quote as a much deeper meaning of life and that one man cannot rise alone or transcend to a higher level of consciousness by him or herself. It can also be looked upon as a rule of the sort and applied to ones life and business.

Anyway, welcome to the forums and please make yourself at home and enjoy the community.