A thought 26 Jun 2010 Things and actions are what they are, and consequences of them will be what they will be: why then should we desire to be deceived? [Bishop Joseph Butler, Fifteen Sermons, Sermon VII, §16.] This is widely misquoted from Isaiah Berlin’s epigram at the head of Karl Marx: His life and environment (1939) as (misquotations bolded): Things and actions are what they are, and their consequences will be what they will be: why then should we seek to be deceived? I have found it in an earlier essay, from 1937. Possibly this is where Berlin got it. Even recent historians misquote it. Ethics and Moral Philosophy Philosophy Quotes PhilosophyQuotes
Creationism and Intelligent Design John Ray 3 May 20193 May 2019 This has been submitted as an entry in the Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science, and it is offered here for your delectation and delight… Title of entry: John Ray Synonyms: John Wray; Joanne Raio, Joannis Raii [Lat.] Life John Ray (1627/8–1705, known as Wray until 1670) was an English clergyman… Read More
Academe Why philosophers should publish in science journals 16 Feb 2011 Generally my papers cause a mild reaction – like a dose of poison ivy. But i just had a paper published in Zootaxa, a mild mannered systematics journal, and as well as a two week turnaround, unheard of in philosophy (my last big paper took a year and a half),… Read More
Creationism and Intelligent Design Paper withdrawn from Synthese 30 Apr 2011 Massimo Pigliucci, head of the Philosophy Program at City University of New York, and Raphael Scholl from the Department of Philosophy at the University of Bern, have withdrawn a paper from Synthese. Here, with their permission, is the text of the letter they sent to the editors in chief: To… Read More
Earlier in the section, he writes: “Even without determining what that is which we call guilt or innocence, there is no man but would choose, after having had the pleasure or advantage of a vicious action, to be free of the guilt of it, to be in the state of an innocent man. This shows at least the disturbance and implicit dissatisfaction in vice.” At most, it shows (instead) the disturbance and implicit dissatisfaction in what one acknowledges to be (one’s own) vice – a different thing entirely. Unacknowledged, there is no need for the “hurry of business or of pleasure” to assist in any desired deception, there being an absence of the latter.
Possibly, but I couldn’t locate another edition at the time. Google Books has the original 1726 edition here, and it has the same wording. Later note: As does the 1792 edition here.
The first variation does not seem to me to signal a difference. The second (“seek” v. “desire”) makes a common implication of “desire” explicit. And I wouldn’t even be surprised to find that one of the recorded meanings of “seek” IS “desire” (esp. in contexts such as “seek to be deceived”). Must look it up when I achieve immortality. Is there much in it?