Lev Shestov, Athens and Jerusalem
"But it will be asked: What is the force and power of the blessings and curses of men, even if these men be such giants as Plato and Aristotle? Does truth become more true because Aristotle blesses it, or does it become error because Plato curses it? Is it given men to judge the truths, to decide the fate of the truths? On the contrary, it is the truths which judge men and decide their fate and not men who rule over the truths. Men, the great as well as the small, are born and die, appear and disappear - but the truth remains. When no one had as yet begun to "think" or to "search," the truths which later revealed themselves to men already existed. And when men will have finally disappeared from the face of the earth, or will have lost the faculty of thinking, the truths will not suffer therefrom."
3 Quotes
"But it will be asked: What is the force and power of the blessings and curses of men, even if these men be such giants as Plato and Aristotle? Does truth become more true because Aristotle blesses it, or does it become error because Plato curses it? Is it given men to judge the truths, to decide the fate of the truths? On the contrary, it is the truths which judge men and decide their fate and not men who rule over the truths. Men, the great as well as the small, are born and die, appear and disappear - but the truth remains. When no one had as yet begun to "think" or to "search," the truths which later revealed themselves to men already existed. And when men will have finally disappeared from the face of the earth, or will have lost the faculty of thinking, the truths will not suffer therefrom."
"لكن قد يُسأل: فما شأن قوة بركات البشر ولعناتهم، وإن كانوا قامات شامخة كأفلاطون وأرسطو؟ هل تزداد الحقيقة صدقًا بثناء أرسطو عليها، أم تتحول إلى باطل بإنكار أفلاطون لها؟ هل للبشر أن يحكموا على الحقائق، أو يقرروا مصيرها؟ بل على العكس، الحقائق هي التي تحكم على البشر وتحدد مصيرهم، لا البشر من يسودون على الحقائق. البشر، عظمائهم وصغارهم، يولدون ويفنون، يظهرون ويغيبون - أما الحقيقة فباقية. وحين لم يكن أحد قد شرع بعد في "التفكير" أو "البحث"، كانت الحقائق التي تجلت للبشر لاحقًا قائمة بالفعل. وحين يندثر البشر أخيرًا عن وجه الأرض، أو يفقدون ملكة التفكير، فلن يلحق الحقائق من ذلك أي ضرر."
Lev Shestov, Athens and Jerusalem
"Life would again have to make superhuman efforts, "as in a battle," to break open for himself a path through the truths created by the sciences which "dream of being but cannot see it in waking reality."
Lev Shestov, Athens and Jerusalem
"Herein lies the supreme wisdom, human and divine; and the task of philosophy consists in teaching men to submit joyously to Necessity which hears nothing and is indifferent to all."
Lev Shestov, Athens and Jerusalem
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