*collaborated with Taylor Williams (p.1-120); Haley Stowe (p.121-241); Haley Kestler (p.242-354); Megan Stevens (p.355-488); Imanie Patel (p.489-683); Elizabeth Smith (p.684-783); Judith Lee (p.891-1016); Shailynn Joseph (p.1017-1133); Sierra Sanchez (p.1134-1206); Hannah Hurd (p.1207-1269)
Book II: 26-37
I:26 On thumbs
- anecdote- story of barbarian kings making treaties by pressing right thumbs together, pricking, then sucking each other's blood.
- thumb=master finger according to doctors
- French word=pouce from Latin verb pollere=to excel in strength; Greek=anticheir- "another hand"
- Romans didnt have to serve in army if they had an injured thumb (couldn't hold weapons)
- Augustus took away property of Roman knight who cut off his sons' thumbs so ...^
- Cauis V cut off L thumb to not fight and punnished to life imrisonment
- General cut off thumbs of defeated enemies
- Athenians cut off Aeginan men's thumbs to deprive of "naval superiority"
- schoolmaster punnished by biting thumbs
II:27 On cowardice, the mother of cruelty
- he's experienced that the worst people have a "womanish weakness" [patriarchal society, women percieved as weak, an insult to men]
- frivolous= little of value/trivial; silly/light minded
- crying is a weakness
- "valour stops short when it sees the enemy at its mercy"= loss of courage/bravery/honor when there's an open target in battle
- pusillanimity(cowardly) to murder someone
- he questions why all arguments have to end in death and killing. Says cowardice is the cause.
- revenge must be felt by both parties to enjoy on one side and to learn from on the other(he cant leanr if he dies)
- he says battle scome from men too scared to duel on their own
- different views on fencing; art/craft
- not liking how gentlemen act as soldiers in all affairs
- tyrants "fearing all, he strikes at all"- cowardly to exterminate those w/the potential to do harm to you
- torture-sucks
II:28 There is a season for everything
- ^including good- "the wise man sets limits even to things which are good"
- "'Youth should make provisions: Old Age should enjoy them,' say the wise"- how human nature is always wanting youth
- always wanting to learn and start new again, even if old
- He likes closure in his own life and doesn't do anything for more than a year; he starts new and says goodbye
- for him, old age just seccures the worries he has about everything in life
- "we can always continue our studies, but not our school-work"
- study something suitable to our circumstances-study to happily leave it behind you when you die
- Young Cato- killed himself- why?; he died to stop the wondering,is anyone ever ready to go? even when they're still learning?
II:29 On virtue
- "There is nothing we cannot do"
- once ideas are planted in one's mind and the person is determined, anything can happen
- Pyrrho-philosopher, adiaphora(not required in the church but still allowed); perserverent and consistent
- one man chopped off body parts because his wife was annoying
- another man cut off his penis because he was the one failing in the relationship
- a woman jumped off a bridge becaue she gossipped(planned it in one day); although in
- God forsees, but is seeing at present bc of his existence outside of time- "we see things because they happen, they do not happen because we see them"
- causes (fortuitious [like chance] and voluntary [we choose]) from free will given by God
- we don't have the power to change fate
- two assassins, one is caught and the other isn't. The one caught is "ready"- "fate"
II:30 On a monster child
- "monsters" believed to be portents of God's will
- portent= sign/warning that something will happen
- joined twin boys- one perfect, the other missing head into smomach of other (looks like a 'k' bc one is perpindicular and dangling) ; a whole body
- metaphor- all limbs work under one head^, king keeps order of state under his laws
- interpreting things into prophesies
- "monsters" show the infinite possibilities of God's creation
- people see things as the usual and dont wonder where they come from, but when something is abnormal they see is as a portent
- whatever is against the norm is said to be against nature, but nothing really can be
II:31 On anger
- he doesnt like the way parent beat and yell at their children; he realises that children are the future of the state
- "No passion disturbs the soundness of our judgement as anger does"- Reflection on how i can be a completely different person
- punishments out of anger are unfair
- "saying is one thing;doing is another"- he hsows how men have not practiced what they preach (some litterally)
- anger isnt always visible (as seen in Plutarch)
- if i wasnt so angry i'd ... (threat still use today)
- so many times we get all worked up for a dumb reason then find a way to defend/excuse it but in reality we're so wrong
- says that women get angry only to make men mad
- this man masks himself of imperfections and is "eating his insides out"- relatable; by hiding what we feel, it stays and builds inside
- choler= one of four bodily humors (anger)
- rodomontades= boastful in talk/behavior
- his anger spells are short and sweet
- once a person is mad, there's no stopping it so you might as wee be polite and accept it
II:32 In defense of Seneca and Plutarch
- Seneca-philosopher, several people have differing viewpoints about him (Dion the historian wrong) Executive decision on him by Michel from reading his work
- Plutarch- biographer/writer
- stories- pride and honor (?) reason why people would let bad things happen to themselves (like turture, which always sucks)
- ^endurance, obsinate resistance, stubborness common
- dont judge what's possible/impossible by what seems cridible/incredible in your own mind
- defends Plutarch's comparrisons of Romans and Greeks- obviosly one has to be the victor, but he's (Bodin) making a general criticism that the Greeks are being favored. What Bodin doesnt understand is that it's carefully planned; he's choosing an irrevelent factor- relates to how many people dont see the big picture
II:33 the tale of Spurina
- 2 apetites- of the mind/soul (ambiton, covetousness...) and of the body (lust)
- pretty much talking up Julius Caesar: ladies' man- many lovers (including Cleopatra); very ambitios- orator, writer; kind to those who werent on his side-rare; even to men who spoke bad about him-gracious
- but, ambition got the best of him and let himself be worshiped, his owrds into laws, overthrew the State
- rare to "damn" your own beauty for making others "arouse"; Spurina- made so beautifully, slashed his own face to no longer loathe himself. Michel's viewon ^- good intentions but actions lack wisdom= duhhhh
- moderation- good virtue, balance in life
II:34 Observation on Julius Caesar's methods of waging war
- Caesar (C.)- MM's opinion is that his style is uncomparable
- C. told his troops that the enemy was much greater than they believed. Better to find the enemy weaker than sronger than expected
- C. told his men just to do as they're told
- C. seized oppotunities at the right moments and acted w/speed
- he let his men have some reward; good looking armor built confidence; they were companions in
- eloquent, his own speaking style , speeches wriiten
- "preffered his victories to be won by thought than by might"
- risked his life for others, yada yada yada
- "boldness, insane confidence"
- as time passed, he was slow and deliberate
- "emotion dominates us more vigorously than reason" Reflection- impulsive actions
- his soldiers granted life to captured, but when they were captured they'd rather kill themselves than fight against
II:35 On three good wives
- fathers dont show love to their sons in order to be honored and respected- is that how it still is today?
- women do the same to their husbamds, Michel doesnt like it- it's better to laugh w/her husband alive than dead
- (low class woman) tied herself to her husband and jumped into ocean so his pain (which caused her pain) could end together
- rich woman (rare virtue bc rich) w/a husband taken away to be sentenced to death couldn’t go w/him so she was determined to kill herself, but family wouldnt let her. When she saw him again he was to kill himself-she stabbed herself first ("see it doesn’t hurt") then he did (shameful bc he had his wife die first and he learned a lesson)
- Seneca sentenced to death by Nero, he was welcoming death w/a little joy-he's leaving everyone w/his actions and memories; Paulina (wife,young) wants to die w/him. They’re dying when Nero has Paulina saved for his reputation- she's lost a certain life
- they'd die because their loved ones will die
- why are these fictious tales of women sacrificing? Why aren’t the men killing themselves for the women?
II:36 On the most excellent of men
- 3 men he puts above all others
- Homer- created lasting gods;Virgil's teacher; no other poets can compare; big names have Homer's works, an insult if they dont; created common ground for several nations' origins
- Alexander the Great- done so much by 33, said he "owed his virtues to Nature, his vices to Fortune", admits that he was lucky, so accomplished
- makes a case that Caesar v. Alexander made him do a double take
- Epaminondad- Michel likes the best; wisdom and reason; unanimously votes first man among the Greeks (huge deal, like best on earth); knoew much and spoke sparingly; morals (right/wrong) greater than everyone's; humane
II:37 On the resemblance of children to their fathers
- he recalls all that he's written up to this point (this was the ending before book 3)
- colic= abdominal pain, paroxysm=sudden attack of disease; he has a
- kidney stone
- prodigious= wonderful
- he thinks it's kind of crazy that sperm can pass on not only physical
- traits but "ways of thinking and their slant of mind"- thinking of the
- characteristics i have from other family members
- he wonders how he has a kidney stone like his father did- not modern
- medicine or genetics yet
- "the art of medicine is built from examples and experience. So are my
- opinions."< i thought this was written pretty well, an intro into medicine
- nothing can really be enjoyed without good health
- he talks about his ancestors refusing to use medicine and he doesn't
- like it either; many examples of healthy people w/o using medicine/doctors
- medicine for every little thing isn't good; he compares it to sorcery
- w/crazy ingredients
- he thinks doctors are concerned about their reputations and do more
- harm than good; he wished that they'd specialize and be more informed on
- one thing
- criticizes doctors' advice on healthy living, it's good to do this,
- but it's bad bc..., there is always a counterargument for the advice
- salubrious= healthful, wholesome
- inimical= hostile/unfriendly; in opposition/adverse
- big change in tone- he says he has nothing against doctors, only
- against their art
- he calls doctors and lets them see him (WTF?!) total change since he'd
- been against them for the past 20 pages
- he understands that there are arguments made for medicine and he
- doesn't not like that there are opposing opinions (he's ok with it)
- "In the whole world there has never been two identical opinions, anymore than two identical hairs or seeds. Their most universal characteristic is diversity."
- this chapter was full of his opinion, it ended book 2 and really showed how he put his own opinion throughout the essays. He is a very smart man with an education and knowledge that is very impressive. He valued his own thoughts and backed them up with a lot of outside information, as in the plethora of anecdotes that he used throughout the chapters. This book is still relevant because his thoughts that he writes down are personal and the topics still pertain to us, as individuals and as a society, hundreds of years later than they were written- even if a few things have changed along the way.
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