More a-philosophy

 More a-philosophy 

A few days ago, I wrote about the pessimist, Palladas of Alexandria, noting (here) how much I appreciated philosophers like him that, as far as we know, “don’t know shit about metaphysics” and “so have to talk about one thing at a time.”  I appreciated such philosophers, I wrote, not just because one thing at a time is all that I can absorb but also because one thing at a time is, I believe, all we ever know. We go on connecting the dots anyway, but why? Because someone told us we could. (And: “Go ahead,” I say. “Keep connecting them. Only, if you want a true picture, don’t follow the order of the numbers: try 7 – 11 – 4 – 1 – 9 – 8 -12 – 5, leaving out 3, 6, 7, and 10. You’ll get a more accurate picture of what is actually on the page.”)

Today’s antick wise man is Bion of Borysthenes, according to whose own account was the son of a fishmonger and a retired streetwalker. These parents, to pay off a debt, sold young Bion - “not an ungraceful youngster” he described himself – to a certain rhetorician likely looking for just such a student. The rhetorician soon enough died with Bion as his sole beneficiary; and the wise heir, he alleges, after burning this master’s books, “scraped everything [else] together, [went] to Athens, and turned philosopher” - by declaring he was one.

The first bit of philosophy Diogenes Laertius gives Bion credit for is today’s bit of antick wisdom – and wise it is! “You can’t catch a piece of soft cheese with a fish hook.”

Wise I might have been simply to have left it there, but – damn metaphysics, damn those dots! – I figured there must be a story behind it.

     Bion apparently said of Socrates that if he desired Alcibiades and abstained, he was a fool; if the philosopher did not desire the graceful young man, then his conduct in abstaining was in no way extraordinary. The soft cheese and fish hook comment came when he, Bion, was asked why he hadn’t paid court to another Alcibiades.

So, there! – if you need a story, there is one. Or if, as I hope, you don’t, just contemplate the wisdom of the saying itself: 

“You can’t catch a piece of soft cheese with a fish hook.”

Once again, let me say –

     You can find this kind of one-off, antick wisdom most days on my Facebook page or Twitter feed. Tech services says you can get to either by clicking somewhere over in that ➠➠ direction. (See: where it says "follow on Facebook or Twitter.")

05.10.17