[MD] The Courtship and Marriage of Sophie and Phil

[John Carl]

Royce lays out an argument for the basis of ethics in "the striving to be
both humane and reasonable at once".  This struck me as fresh, somehow. I've
always been beguiled by an English interpretation of Philo-Sophia, as the
"Love of Wisdom."  This interpretation made sense to me as the striving for
wisdom, the getting of smartness, making intellectual attainment the goal.
What you value (love) is what is most important - thus wisdom is the point
of philosophy.


But really, is lonely wisdom all that great?  Isn't that the cold ghost of
reason that Phaedrus pursued (in himself) and thrashed (with some help) and
we all recognize.

What then has been missing from my normal understanding of Love of Wisdom,
my PhiloSophy?

I've missed out on the the marriage of the two.  Both together creating a
new entity that transcends both.   The marriage of wisdom and Love produce
the Good - a healthy little family triad.

So... what does that mean to me in experience?  Well for the future, I'll
have to wait and see.  For the present... all it means is I'm writing words
to the world from a certain ethical impetus to make sense and to make love
simultaneously.

Maybe this is what y'all meant by equating Quality with Love as being too
"Hallmarky"  I think it was dmb, who pointed me that one, so yeah, I get it
now what is meant.  Love without wisdom is mushy, with no real structure or
"spine", in the same way wisdom without love is too stern and pointed and
angular.  You gotta have both for a realization of the good.

When I apply this wisdom to my past experience, I see a pattern of
disturbances where the harmonic unity was not maintained.  Was I lacking
wisdom?  Or was it love that was lacking?   A combination of both, I
suppose.  If I'd only cared more, I would have known better.  If I'd known
better, I would have cared more.

I've gone through so many friendships in my life,  friendships that I didn't
want to lose, friendships that broke apart for reasons I continually
explore.  Seeking where the choices lay, working out what it means and why.
Intellectual understanding of why love goes.

An impossible task.

But since when has that ever stopped us?