/lit/ - Literature

Whenever someone says something like this about any historic figure I imagine a 13 year old faggot little boy in ancient times, having his first class with the great master and saying "omg ur so stoopid jesus christ aristotle, ur worthless! why do i need to lrn this for? damn ur so dumb imma smartest dang fuk u old man!" and then the master tells him to get out and that's it. I bet at one point something like that happened. And that kid would be you.

>>3282636

But Aristotle was wrong about nearly everything.

>>3282651
Who says? And why?

>>3282651
Pretty much yeah.
Predicted that Rabbits could get double pregnant though, which we only just recently confirmed.

>>3282657

Says me.

For one, his knowledge of geography was that of a pre-schooler.

>>3282651
>wrong

>epistemology

That word does not make sense in this context.

>>3282662
>Says me.

Well, great. Have a good life, you just proved the most influential philosopher of all time wrong on all counts, I hope people immediately grasp your depth of insight and wisdom wherever you go.

>>3282686

Are you implying that one should only believe what is spoon fed to them?

I'll tell you what, give Aristotle a ticket to some place slightly more foreign to him and 20 more years of life, perhaps a good student to continue his biology studies and we would have the theory of evolution before the middle ages even started.

I bet ten bucks on this hypothesis. If only we could see it...

This thread is my least favourite kind of conversation.

It goes like this:
X *prolific genius* was *wrong* about *almost* everything.
Implication:
(I the author am more enlightened than X)
(I the author have a firm grasp of what really is the case in everything the writer wrote about)
(I have read all X's work, since I know he was 'right' about some things)

Yeah, pretty much dude.
(I too am better, more informed, and generally too wise to gain anything from X's work.)

It's circle-jerking of the worst kind. Lazy, boring, and pointless.

>>3282714

Are you implying there's any threads on 4chan that aren't circle jerks?

>>3282694
No. But it's a better and more productive approach to try as hard as you can, whenever you hear something you want to reject, to listen very hard to see if anything in it is interesting or appeals to you, and further, to try and see why people believed in it, to see it from the inside like a true believer without any lazy explanations, like 'they were stupid'.

Saying 'Aristotle was wrong' is like saying 'humans are meat'. Both are true and totally useless - they tell you nothing about Aristotle or humans.

>>3282651
>>3282659
>>3282662
>But Aristotle was wrong about nearly everything.
>Pretty much yeah.
>Says me.
>height of arrogance

Ah, kids these days...

Implying Aristotle wasn't the greatest philosopher.

Heidegger knew it.

James Joyce knew it.

/lit/ doesn't.

>>3282768

James Joyce was just an average guy with aspergers. Why does his view on philosophy matter?

>>3282788
This is some of the weakest, most uninspired trolling I've ever witnessed.

What a shame.

>>3282805

>>3282662
Wasn't everyone's knowledge of geography that of a preschooler?

>>3282765
Something about which he also spoke, and was wrong about.

>>3282838
Yes.

>>3282863
>mfw

>>3282651
>Aristotle was wrong about nearly everything.
>>3282657
Why?
>>3282662
>For one...

No matter what the referent of "For one," your argument will always be total shit.

>>3282788
See pic.

"In reading any important philosopher, but most of all in reading Aristotle, it is necessary to study him in two ways: with reference to his predecessors, and with reference to his successors. In the former aspect, Aristotle's merits are enormous ; in the latter, his demerits are equally enormous...Ever since the beginning of the seventeenth century, almost every serious intellectual advance has had to begin with an attack on some Aristotelian doctrine; in logic, this is still true at the present day. But it would have been at least as disastrous if any of his predecessors (except perhaps Democritus) had acquired equal authority. To do him justice, we must, to begin with, forget his excessive posthumous fame, and the equally excessive posthumous condemnation to which it led."

- Bertrand Russell

>>3283048
Bertrand always seems a little too happy about how thousands of years and several intellectual revolutions have made ancient dead guys look silly. "HAHAHAHAHAHAHA HE DOESN'T KNOW WHAT GRAVITY IS! FUCKING STUPID GREEK ASSHOLE!" I can't stop reading him that way. Especially after hearing his hilarious supercilious voice.