JB's new words interactive section

J-B wrote:

Quote:
The former real estate guru for Disney now calls the shots at the St. Joe Company, Florida's former paper-and-timber giant that he has transformed into one of the largest coastal developers in the nation. Rummel beat the boomers to the big 6-0 by a couple of months. Tanned, fit and with a wreath of short-cropped gray hair, he could be George C. Scott's laid-back younger brother

1. How to "beat the boomers to the big 6-0"?
2. What is, or who is "George C. Scott's laid-back younger brother"?

Thank you.

1. Means that he became 60 years old prior to the "baby boomer" generation (the large mass of people born within 20 years after the Second World War).

2. George C. Scott was an American actor. So this statement is saying that he looked something like that actor, but younger and more relaxed.

0 Replies

Walter Hinteler wrote:

As an aside, the Spanish version of this proverb is "hablar en griego", which is commonly said to be the origin of the word gringo, so somebody who is called a gringo is literally accused of speaking Greek and hence being unintelligible.

startling information Shocked

0 Replies

Quote:

Spinoza is right in saying that "Free man thinks nothing of less than death"

What's "less than death" Could you name something that is "less than death"?

Thank you!
JB Smile

0 Replies

J-B wrote:

Quote:
Spinoza is right in saying that "Free man thinks nothing of less than death"

What's "less than death" Could you name something that is "less than death"?

Thank you!
JB

Do you have the quote correct?

I am wondering if the corrrrect quote might be:

"Spinoza is right in saying that "Free man thinks of nothing less than death"" ie that death is the last thing on a free man's mind?

0 Replies

dlowan wrote:

J-B wrote:
Quote:
Spinoza is right in saying that "Free man thinks nothing of less than death"

What's "less than death" Could you name something that is "less than death"?

Thank you!
JB

Do you have the quote correct?

I am wondering if the corrrrect quote might be:

"Spinoza is right in saying that "Free man thinks of nothing less than death"" ie that death is the last thing on a free man's mind?

Dlowan:
My quote is really wrong (bad mistake), and your understanding is right.
The the magical thing is that altough I can read this sentence and although I understand what this quote is talking about from the context (this is a line from Russel's A History of Western Philosophy) I am still baffled about the bridge of these two.

0 Replies

"Bridge" meaning between freedom and thinking nothing of death?

I would suggest that, if I have your meaning correctly, the Bridge would reside in Spinoza's definition of freedom?

0 Replies

oops, sorry I think I have messed it up!

Let me (try to) get it straight:

Spinoza said :"Free man thinks of nothing less than death". From the context Russel told us that, he meant just as Dlowan understood it: "Death is not an important matter". (Spinoza was a pantheist;he believed God was everywhere; ignorance is the cause of evil; narrow passion leads to evil; he said from the point of view of individual there might be real "evil" but from the point of view of the ultimate, infinite good, the God, it's nothing; death is inevitable so thinking of it is unintelligent etc.)

And now, there is something wrong with my understand of the literal sense of this sentence.
How to understand " less than death"?

If there is someone else, say, holds an entirely different opinion against Spinoza:"Free man thinks of nothing more than death." I can understand it better, since I can understand in the same way as "Free man thinks of nothing other than death."
But "less than"?
No, I don't understand.

Language is SUCH a subtle thing!!! Rolling Eyes

And I am still not sure I have made you understand my question... And most embarrasing situation might be like this: Someday I suddenly understand it find that this question is of no question at all.....

Thank you for all the help, anyway. Smile

0 Replies

Surely it means that a free man doesn't think of death, pretends it doesn't exist.

Here is a quote from New Republic:
"A free man thinks of nothing less than of death," Spinoza declared, and the same may be said about an unfree man. The most thoughtful man dies as finally as the least thoughtful man. Yet philosophy never purported to be a solution to the problem of mortality, like religion; and the death of a thoughtful man, whether or not he is a philosopher, leaves in its wake the bequest of his example. From the fact that death is stupid it does not follow that one must have a stupid death. And what is an intelligent death, if not the conclusion of an intelligent life? One dies as one lives. These were my thoughts as I ate a condignly sour pickle on Essex Street on a scalding afternoon this week, after the funeral of the most purely philosophical person I have ever known.

0 Replies

"A free man thinks of nothing less than of death,"

As I read it it is incorrect.

Even if one thought of death very infrequently, as Stendhal advised, any intelligent adult would be bound to think of death sometimes.

Of course, Spinoza might define a "free man" as one who thinks of nothing less that death. In which case he is right for him. He is thinking about death to write it so he is admitting not being a free man or having another interpretation put on his words.

I have often said- "I have nothing less than a twenty (£20 note)."

{Clary-would you put the "£20 note" phrase inside or outside of the bunny rabbit's ears? } That's an aside.

With that interpretation Spinoza was wrong because there are an infinite number of things he would never think of at all. Well-infinity minus the things he did think of. Which is still infinite so if infinite minus the things he did think of = the infinite the things he thought of must be nothing.

Clary-Clarify!

0 Replies

J-B wrote:

oops, sorry I think I have messed it up!

Let me (try to) get it straight:

Spinoza said :"Free man thinks of nothing less than death". From the context Russel told us that, he meant just as Dlowan understood it: "Death is not an important matter". (Spinoza was a pantheist;he believed God was everywhere; ignorance is the cause of evil; narrow passion leads to evil; he said from the point of view of individual there might be real "evil" but from the point of view of the ultimate, infinite good, the God, it's nothing; death is inevitable so thinking of it is unintelligent etc.)

And now, there is something wrong with my understand of the literal sense of this sentence.
How to understand " less than death"?

If there is someone else, say, holds an entirely different opinion against Spinoza:"Free man thinks of nothing more than death." I can understand it better, since I can understand in the same way as "Free man thinks of nothing other than death."
But "less than"?
No, I don't understand.

Language is SUCH a subtle thing!!! And I am still not sure I have made you understand my question... And most embarrasing situation might be like this: Someday I suddenly understand it find that this question is of no question at all.....

Thank you for all the help, anyway.

I think the literal meaning is that the putative free man thinks of death less often than he thinks of anything else....

Or

That he thinks death the least importand thing in life.

0 Replies

The latter bunny.

0 Replies

Suddenly I have got some idea...

I think I can transform this bizarre sentence into the similar structure with the same meaning:
"Free man think nothing less than death"
=
"everything a free man think is more/other than death"

Right? But at least I can got some sense from this transformation... Rolling Eyes

0 Replies

Kilroy was here (BM)

Okay, now that I've found this thread, I'm ready to answer QUESTIONS. Cool

0 Replies

Thanks Mac.

25 gets you 12 on Chelsea to win the premiership.

What do you think?

0 Replies

What's that, 1/2? Pathetic.

The bookie must be a southern one.

0 Replies

Where do you know better?

0 Replies

£20 note, spendius? not with you old chappie!

I didn't get the drift of the New Republic thing really, just adding obfuscation to obscurity.

0 Replies

I was curious Clary about that punctuation. I have decided now that the (£20 note) expression should be outside the speech marks. Do you agree?

It wasn't a proposition-honest.

0 Replies

spendius wrote:

Where do you know better?

Dunno, mate. I'm not a betting man, but I checked....

http://www.oddschecker.com/betting/mode/o/card/england-barclayspremiership/odds/1986333x/sid/622926/mbid/14750349

0 Replies

Cripes Mac -12 to 25 is best price.

Not much use asking you questions is it? I could have looked like a skirted floozie at York on Ladies Day.

0 Replies

JB's new words interactive section

Related Topics

Quick Links

My Account

able2know