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Epictetus:
Epictetus:
Epictetus:
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“Marvel not that the animals other than man have furnished them, ready prepared by nature, what pertains to their bodily needs—not merely food and drink, but also a bed to lie on,—and that they have no need of shoes, or bedding, or clothing, while we are in need of all these things…
"But as it is, we first forbear to give thanks for these beasts, because we do not have to bestow
Epictetus:
Epictetus:
upon them the same care as we require for ourselves, and then proceed to complain against God on our own account! Yet, by Zeus and the gods, one single gift of nature would suffice to make a man who is reverent and grateful perceive the providence of God.
"Do not talk to me now of great matters: take the mere fact that milk is produced from grass, and cheese from milk, and that wool grows from skin.
Who is it that has created or devised
these things?
'No one,' somebody says.
Oh, the depth of man's stupidity
and shamelessness!”
David Stove:
“There is nothing at all puzzling about the questions
'Is p possible?’
and
'Is p possible given q?’
…But it is otherwise with the 'Kantian questions,’
'How is p possible?’
and
'How is p possible given q?’
Some people simply adore these questions: Nozick is so much an enthusiast for them that he would have philosophers ask (near enough) no other kind. But such questions have one disadvantage:
it is not at all clear what they mean. When a philosopher asks, not 'Is p possible given q?’ but 'How is p possible given q?’ what does he mean? In some cases we know what he means only too well, and to our shame. He means:
'Well, of course, p is not possible given q, but you surely don’t expect me to give up either p or q on that account! Far from that, I am going to keep on insinuating, in public, that p is possible given q, by publishing countless pages about what I call the problem of reconciling p with q.' "