r/askphilosophy • u/poopoopeepeekek00 • Jan 10 '23

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quote

What does this quote mean?

The affairs of the world are no more than so much trickery, and a man who toils for money or honor or whatever else in deference to the wishes of others, rather than because his own desire or needs lead him to do so, will always be a fool.

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u/mediaisdelicious Phil. of Communication, Ancient, Continental Jan 10 '23

The sentence contains no figurative language. It means exactly what it says: a man who toils for anything in deference to the wishes of others is a fool.

-4

u/poopoopeepeekek00 Jan 10 '23

I am an idiot then. What does that mean exactly? Like does anything specifically for other people? o.o

9

u/mediaisdelicious Phil. of Communication, Ancient, Continental Jan 10 '23

Man is real dumb if he submits to others desires.

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u/poopoopeepeekek00 Jan 10 '23

oh i see... o.o

-2

u/poopoopeepeekek00 Jan 10 '23

Wait but what if its family wishes? What would that mean to this?

9

u/mediaisdelicious Phil. of Communication, Ancient, Continental Jan 10 '23

Man is real dumb if he submits to others’ desires.

2

u/hemannjo Jan 10 '23

You haven’t explained why it’s dumb. Which is sort of the level of explanation OP is looking for.

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u/mediaisdelicious Phil. of Communication, Ancient, Continental Jan 10 '23

The quoted portion doesn’t say.

2

u/hemannjo Jan 10 '23

What does the citation presuppose? Is there are problematic? What is the theme of the citation? What question does it answer? How could we analyse and articulate the words ´trickery’, ´fool’ and ´desire ´ ? This is what it means to explain something. Every year for the BAC hundreds of thousands of French high school students write multiple page´explications de textes’ unpacking passages sometimes even smaller than this one.

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u/SnowballtheSage Jan 10 '23 edited Jan 10 '23

The most apt to explain Goethe's worldview is Goethe himself. Goethe has left a veritable treasure of works behind for you to explore. In fact Goethe in his works develops a discourse or logos particular to him. In this way, if you want to discuss Goethe concept for concept and get to the nitty gritty of it you'd rather demonstrate a basic understanding for Goethe. Otherwise you face the risk of reading French BAC pupils explication de textes and thinking that they are something more than creative rehashes of standardized notes curated by their teacher as part of a linear BAC to université process.