I too smell a rat. In any case, I oppose the dictum. My favourite Latin
motto is navigare necesse est vivere non necesse est (*). When H. P. Grice
died at the San Francisco Hospital -- Room 421 -- on Aug. 28, 1988, he
confided to his wife, "A life without philosophy is not life -- goodbye". If the
phrase were true, I can imagine similar bad-taste mottoes at a French bistro
("Primum manducare, deinde philosophari"), a French bakery ("Primum panem,
deinde philosophari"), a wine bar ("Primum bibere, deinde philosophare")
or a brothel (I'm sure M. Davidson may come up with further scenarios). What
we're coming to! The last but one ('bibere' is interesting, for
'symposium', the co-drinking, _is_ the place to philosophise. And it's not like they
got stoned and then they philosophised, but it was a process. Oddly, Grice
enjoyed philosophising with doctors and nurses; for one they could not hide
all the ailments he suffered in Latin/Greek terminology because he knew
them all; on occasions he would chide his wife and daughter: "You _would_
understand too what my ailments were if you had made better time of your
classics classes back at school"). In a conceptual scheme it is true that a
'pirot', to use his terminology, need first be a plant (a living thing) and
then an animal, before he can philosophise, but once the product of his
philosophy is out there, the indoctrination goes beyond death. Witness me. Also
it shows disrespect for philosophers. For surely it's up to a philosopher to
decide if something is alive or not (bio-ethics). So it's not like first
to live, and then to philosophise. For conceptually, a philosopher must be
appealed -- or his wisdom -- to decide if something is alive or dead. So I
would think it's primum philosophari, deinde vivere (Also for cases where x
does not _merit_ life: another scenario for philosophical wisdom only).
Cheers,
J. L. Speranza, The Swimming-Pool Library
(*Anche noto nelle sue variazioni navigare necesse est vivere non necesse
est o navigare necesse est, vivere non necesse tra le quali quest'ultima
appare la più corretta. È l'incitazione che, secondo Plutarco, Pompeo diede ai
suoi marinai i quali opponevano resistenza ad imbarcarsi alla volta di
Roma a causa del cattivo tempo. Venne ripresa dalla Lega anseatica, della
quale divenne il motto e da Gabriele D'Annunzio che la prese come motto di vita
eroica. È anche il titolo di un famoso articolo di Benito Mussolini su il
Popolo d'Italia il primo giorno del 1920. Nella locuzione odierna indica il
disprezzo per le necessità contingenti e l'esaltazione di ideali
ulteriori).
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