tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5200276.post8510700502206130..comments2023-12-28T06:30:48.808-05:00Comments on The Rule of Reason: How to Throw the Fight for FreedomUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5200276.post-52241985291874886752009-01-07T08:24:00.000-05:002009-01-07T08:24:00.000-05:00Ed, thank you. Your portrait of Nock is clear and ...Ed, thank you. Your portrait of Nock is clear and concise and revealing.<BR/><BR/>Nock was indeed a scholar in the field of classics. I am currently reading E. R. Dodds, <I>The Greeks and the Irrational</I> (1951, published only a few years after Nock died). Dodds cites Nock on several points of interpretation of Greek religious culture.<BR/><BR/>On "pessimism," it should be noted that, like many words (terms), it can label various ideas. You have neatly defined it one way: a dark conclusion about the future, based on present facts. This is the "common sense" meaning.<BR/><BR/>The term "pessimism" (like the term "optimism") can have another meaning in traditional history of philosophy. It is the opposite of Optimism, which is the belief that we live in the best of all "possible" worlds <I>because</I> God is good and he designed the world. Pessimism is the belief that the world is somehow designed for the victory of evil. So, in this philosophical sense, pessimism <I>is</I> fatalism.<BR/><BR/>As you noted, the connection (philosophical and psychological) to the notion of Original Sin is clear.Burgess Laughlinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13865479709475171678noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5200276.post-74917997150232551382009-01-06T21:57:00.000-05:002009-01-06T21:57:00.000-05:00I have encountered more than a few conservatives w...I have encountered more than a few conservatives who espoused the same fatalism. They probably have never heard of Nock, even though in all likelihood he is the source of their fatalism.<BR/><BR/>Nock's approach, which denies the importance of ideas, would appeal to their anti-intellectalism, just as his determinism would appeal to their belief that human affairs are in the hands of God.Galileo Blogshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02592692929747610846noreply@blogger.com