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The great disillusionist
How did the heroes of the past do what they did, he wondered? How did anyone find the will to achieve anything? Illusion. They were driven by beliefs that were demonstrably vain, by the very errors that Leopardi had trained himself to smell out and deconstruct. On the other hand, how wonderful to believe in such things and to act with energy and intention.
by das monde on Thu Nov 15th, 2018 at 02:05:54 PM EST
A barrel of laughs. I will definitely check him out.

However. Any thinker is heavily inluenced by personal experience. Ill health, unhappy family, body odour...

...

No sooner had Leopardi undergone his philosophical, essentially nihilist conversion than his thinking began to revolve around this central paradox: one studied and educated oneself under an imperative to find the truth, yet to live a happy life, which necessarily meant a purposeful active life, one needed to be impelled by illusion, not truth - or certainly not ultimate, philosophical truths.

A more happily socialised thinker might draw more positive conclusions.

It is rightly acknowledged that people of faith have no monopoly of virtue - Queen Elizabeth II

by eurogreen on Thu Nov 15th, 2018 at 04:47:18 PM EST
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