Currently reading Orthodoxy. Incredible book. Rich in metaphor to a degree that trumps Nietzsche and makes him look like a whiny b***h.
Why is he not ranked amongst the canon of greatest western philosophers? The stuff I read of off him is literally God tier.
How’s the prose? Is it limpid?
Have a read or Orthodoxy. One feels like weeping.
The fact he hasnt been made a saint yet…
Can u post an excerpt
‘“The man who begins to think without the proper first principles goes mad;
he begins to think at the wrong end. And for the rest of these pages
we have to try and discover what is the right end. But we may ask
in conclusion, if this be what drives men mad, what is it that keeps
them sane? ”…
“Mysticism keeps men sane. ”
“The whole secret of mysticism is this:
that man can understand everything by the help of what he does
not understand. The morbid logician seeks to make everything lucid,
and succeeds in making everything mysterious. The mystic allows
one thing to be mysterious, and everything else becomes lucid.
The determinist makes the theory of causation quite clear,
and then finds that he cannot say "if you please" to the housemaid.
The Christian permits free will to remain a sacred mystery; but because
of this his relations with the housemaid become of a sparkling and
crystal clearness. ”
This is the kind of shit I'm talking about. Very nice and poetic style that completely obfuscates any logical point he is trying to make.
Not really lad. I teach private school maths in Asia for a living so to me, I thought of this whilst reading that passage.
Imagine someone say ‘The concept of imaginary numbers seems mysteries. The square root of minus 1? A quadratic function that does not touch the x axis has no roots! The corny of I squared equal to minus one is ridiculous’
But of course if we take the square root of minus one as i… then that opens up a world of possibilities. We can take argand diagrams and work out polar form of complex numbers and come to the most beautiful equation in mathematics e^ipi + 1 = 0. Complex numbers are hugely relevant in engineering and real world problems.
Tonnes of things in maths and high level physics seem immensely counter intuitive and contradictory, but taking them as axioms we find extremely useful and correct conclusions that help us understand the world.
Same could be said of the axioms of Christian/catholic philosophy with regards to free will and other aspects.
Read the whole chapter for context for Chesterton.
I've read the whole book. None of it made any sense to me. I have no idea what your complex numbers analogy is trying to convey.
how about you read st augustine and st thomas instead of chesterton
>relations with the housemaid
>The determinist makes the theory of causation quite clear, and then finds that he cannot say "if you please" to the housemaid.
literal r*ddit tier argumentation.
Chesterton is literally the dumb person's idea of the smart person. Validating all their dumb nonsensical beliefs, shitting on academics without understanding or caring about what they do all the while having this prestige of being called an intellectual by the media.
Who are modern and intelligent thinkers?
Malcolm Gladwell, Yuval Noah Harari, Richard Dawkins, Jared Diamond, Steven Pinker, Sam Harris
Karl Popper
It's kind of got that Mark Twain look how clever I am thing going on. Not a fan.
Incredible power of the the prose.
Logically demonstrate how Christianity is better than gay nihilism.
BTFO racist eugenicists.
BRB gonna become a catholic lads.
Because in practice, liberal atheists are the ones that determine that...
Liberal atheists like Chesterton, e.g. Terry Pratchett, Neil Gaiman, Jorge Luis Borges, George Orwell, Orson Welles, Scott Alexander.
https://slatestarcodex.com/2013/06/16/can-atheists-appreciate-chesterton/
Also one of his best friends, George Bernard Shaw. Also H. G. Wells liked him.
If Chesterton had lived at the time of Aquinas or the medieval era he would be ranked as one of the greatest philosophical writers of all time.
Difference is that he came too late. His incredible defence of the Christian catholic faith does not fit into a Marxist understanding of history so he gets sidelined and ignored.
Chesterton is one of the few philosophers you can tell it would be sick to get drunk with. Very good man.
>His incredible defence of the Christian catholic faith
I've seen what you people post of him. Calling trinitarian theology too complex for Arabs is not good apologetics when your own society is on the verge of dumping its Christianity for irreligion and transforming its capital into a souk.
I like his fiction, but when it comes to apologetics, he seems to care far more about a clever turn of phrase than a clear, coherent argument. I did not enjoy reading Orthodoxy or Heretics.
>chesterton
>philosopher
Just embarrassing. Yes he was a very good writer and even poet, that does not mean he is on the level of Homer or Aristotle. Even in Catholic history he's a far cry from any Medieval theologian.
The way Catholics talk about him is like how a child talks about their father. It's just embarrassingly ignorant and one big LARP. Try reading books outside of Catholic Conservatism.
Chesterton is definitely up there with medieval theologians.
More precisely, his era is closer to ours so he can more acutely challenge atheism.
You're confusing the sentimental (not to say that's a bad thing) effect of his works with serious philosophy.
>Try reading books outside of Catholic Conservatism.
No, I don't think I will.
Then you are born to LARP, to get your views from paper instead of the life around you.
>to get your views from paper instead of the life around you.
this doesn't make much sense in the context of you recommending books to read to change someones view, and them rejecting you
It makes perfect sense, because reading is a part of life, and if you don't read broadly you're not being truly exposed to life. You're not looking at it directly, you're hiding and being coerced like baby.
Which way Western man—Piano Crate Catholicism or Gay Science?
Anything a fat man says is refuted by the single fact that he has chosen to be a fat disgusting slob.
Chesterton was an Englishman and had the intellect of a genius but the spirit of Norf FC.
>ate eugenics
>ate Nietzsche
>ate atheism
>ate nihilism
>ate bad writing
>Luv Jesus
>luv me Catholic Church
>luv me metaphors
Simple as.
no true englishman converts to the irish church
This.
The English King Henry VIII made a grave mistake in 1534.
My ancestors fought for Bonnie Prince Charlie at Culloden in 1746.
For so long British politics was determined by Catholic vs Protestant. Now it is almost irrelevant given how degenerate and fricked everything is.
>Now it is almost irrelevant given how degenerate and fricked everything is.
True, it's almost irrelevant whether you even are a Christian now, let alone what type of Christian.
Why would you ever say that this fat dysgenics-promoting militarist scumbag had the intellect of a genius? He was obviously dumb.
>Why is he not ranked amongst the canon of greatest western philosophers?
I'll submit your request to the Worldwide Council of Philosophy and Education, they're currently having a symposium on "Why are LGBT folx the greatest thinkers in history?" followed by "The economics of sodomy: a weapon against capitalism."
Once they're finished they'll get back to you.
Doesn't matter how much you hate trannies it won't make your foreskin-devouring volcano demon real
But I don't hate anyone.
Nice webm. That dog is in paradise with the saints at this very moment.
>That dog is in paradise with the saints at this very moment.
My mom constantly shills this guy and tells me to read his books but in reality he is
>dumb
>fat
>explicitly and ardently pro dysgenics
>pro militarism
>promoted and encouraged the disastrous WW1
>abrahamic religion promoter
>antisemitic
Take for example this quote:
> Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead. Tradition refuses to submit to the small and arrogant oligarchy of those who merely happen to be walking about.
This is as dumb as a normie parody of EAists. This guy is clearly incapable of thought.
Chesterton's fence is one of the dumbest arguments constantly repeated by clueless conservatives. If you see a fallen tree on the road will you not move it out of your way because someone might have had a good reason to fell it there?
>This is as dumb as a normie parody of EAists. This guy is clearly incapable of thought.
Based insulter
>Chesterton's fence is one of the dumbest arguments constantly repeated by clueless conservatives.
For some reason I've only seen LessWrong atheists talking about.
>If you see a fallen tree on the road will you not move it out of your way because someone might have had a good reason to fell it there?
Wow. I can't believe Chesterton actually thinks this.
Extremely evil and dishonest person
Hilaire Belloc is the superior catholic author and you would be far better off reading him instead
Because he's obese and not rigorous.
He was an ardent Christian. That’s why.
So was Dosto. Stop coping. He's shit.
All too common to excuse mediocre art/performance by hiding behind your identity.
Sure, a lot of people dislike christianity. But the fact is, people dislike christian rap/christian rock not because they're christian but because they're shit. Same with chesterton. He's just a very low quality thinker.
This.
It’s fiction where he is truly underrated. His work is basically magical realism 40 years before that was a thing. Like many writers around his time(from Dunsany to Tolkien) he wanted write mystical romances that re-enchanted the world. But where’s most writers had to go to the past to find magic, Chesterton saw magic in the contemporary. This puts him above those other great writers. He’s also the best writer of philosophical novels. Not that his philosophy is the best, but that he is able to write philosophical mouth pieces that still have character and wit. The Ball and the Cross is a masterpiece of this type of novel.
Chesterton is very based indeed. Not god tier, like Aquinas and Dante, but his essays are the sorts of things that compare with Seneca's letters or Montaigne--sharp, and wise.
In addition, one should savor his work in context. It's not just the apologetics, which are an exceptional combination of canny logic in defense of fundamentally existential points, but there are his novels, poetry, and the Father Brown stories. This is one of the few very fine writers whose prose makes one feel like one is visiting a friend. And then there's the context of him being one person in the Edwardian Trinity: him, Wells, and Shaw. One should know and study them all.
A word on Chesterton's 'antisemitism': it's a subtle point to grasp in a world of /misc/ and anti-Zionist israelite-bashing, but his criticism of israelites is nuanced and serious, but humane. This is what 'genteel' antisemitism was, before Nazism and the Protocols rotted the brain. Sensible.
I despise his prose style. Every example of his writing I've seen reads like he paused after each sentence to congratulate himself on being so clever. "Ho hum, ho hum. Well done, G.K., old boy. I daresay they'll quote that one in the newspaper. Now, on to the next delightlfully paradoxical aphorism..." Both him and C.S. Lewis are so infused with smug self-satisfaction that they constantly undermine any good points they happen to make.
Chesterton was the greatest “man of letters” of the 20th century. By that I mean that no writer could write so brilliantly or competently in so many different literary styles and forms than Chesterton. There were better 20th century novelists, poets, short story writers, journalists, apologists, etc. but no one could write all of it as effectively as Chesterton.
I think that’s a big reason why he’s not more widely regarded. His novels are good, but not as good as Joyce or Faulkner. His short stories are great, but not as great as Flannery O’Connor or Borges. His poetry is fantastic, but lacks the modernist sensibilities of Eliot or Yeats. His apologetics is influential, but lacks the visibility of someone like Lewis.
Still, as far as influence, I’d venture to say that a good portion of highly regarded post ww2 writers were influenced by him, especially the major Catholic/christian writers. He’s been cited and referenced as a major influence on people like Borges, Wolfe, O’Connor, Tolkien, Lafferty, Mervyn Peake, and many more.
He was also a reactionary traditionalist who advocated for third way distributism, so Marxists and ancaps hate him in equal measure.
You are dim.
And you’re a homosexual.
All true, and your critic is a homosexual. But one might also add that by hitching his star to the Catholic Church, Chesterton achieved literary immortality. Mother Church may burn heretical manuscripts, but she always preserves her own. Chesterton will continue to be read when all other 20th Century writers are (mercifully) long gone.
Well-read Catholics love him. Everyone else is busy being moronic.
>Rich in metaphor to a degree that trumps Nietzsche and makes him look like a whiny b***h.
LOL, lmao even
I like Chesterton but I understand that regardless of his talent he is going to be hated merely for the fact that he was a Catholic author; their reading of his work (or angry skimming to be able to shitpost about it as soon as possible) is going to be influenced by that first negative impression, and that includes a large amount of people, namely everyone from Atheists to Protestants, or the disproportionate amount of Nietzschean Overmen who have graced us with their presence on IQfy.
Nobody hates him because he was a catholic. People hate him because he was lazy, dishonest and dumb. Unless you're saying one always implies the other?
>Lazy
>80 books
>Hundreds of short stories and poems
>Literally thousands of articles
>A couple plays
Chesterton wrote more than almost the entirety of prominent 20th century writers alone. He certainly wrote more than you ever did and he will be remembered forever while your gay ass will rot and fester and no one will ever remember your name.
You can be a prolific writer and a lazy thinker.
>le witty aphorism man
He was a Catholic proto-redditor, there's nothing deep about his work. Only Catholarpers worship him.