|
Not Ranked
:
+0 / -0
0 score
Re: Language in Emerson's Self-reliance essay
The correct quote from Emerson is:
Quote:
|
The other terror that scares us from self-trust is our consistency; a reverence for our past act or word because the eyes of others have no other data for computing our orbit than our past acts, and we are loath to disappoint them.
|
Edmond Halley and other astronomers were computing the orbits of planets and comets nearly TWO centuries before Emerson lived. They did so entirely with paper and pencil. So, "computing an orbit" is not a 20th Century anachronism.
Basically this "translates" as: ...because other people have no way of predicting our future behavior than from judging our past behavior...
----------------
Hypography Forums Moderator
-- - - - - -
What concerns me is not the way things are, but rather the way people think things are.
Epictetus, Greek Philosopher
The map is NOT the territory.
Korzybski, Polish-American Philosopher
Last edited by Pyrotex; 01-21-2009 at 01:11 PM..
|
