Climbing - no-hands or hands-on

Good morning, once again, to you all! If I may address your question directly, Sydney:



I suppose that different things give different people pleasure. For example, the vast majority of people rarely listen to classical music (although they probably do listen to other music), and the (lack of) pleasure derived from such experiences is likely to vary between individuals and also within individuals. So I see it very much as horses for courses.

As for mountains, well, some people like the physical challenge of rock or ice climbing, for example, and I would put myself in that category.

In 'The Varieties of Religious Experience', William James gives the example of the mountaineer who must leap across a chasm if he is to save himself; the belief that he can do it adds to his chance of success; disbelief probably means failure. So it is with kleines c. The world continually presents options of this type, in which the confident outstrip the hesitant, Sydney. So we should.

As for the pleasure of a good walk up a mountain, without the need to use one's hands to clamber up a precipice, this is arguably less challenging, although possibly even more pleasurable. Why climb a mountain (particularly when you can walk up it instead)? Because it's there?

If you climb up the path behind the house of john ruskin you will find nice views and lots of ferns, to hide your tent in, if wild camping for the night.

Mountains, the sublime.

You know, wagner liked to walk amongst the mountains, even the snowy ones, he said it was good therapy.

Thus Spake Wagner ?, an inspiration to philosophers for all time ?

... Safer, perhaps, Sydney, but better, no! But what is good, let alone better, or even best? Prudence was considered by the ancient Greeks and later on by Christian philosophers, most notably Thomas Aquinas, as the cause, measure and form of all virtues. It is considered to be the 'auriga virtutum' or the charioteer of the virtues.

It is the cause in the sense that the virtues, which are defined to be the "perfected ability" of man as a spiritual person (spiritual personhood in the classical western understanding means having intelligence and free will), achieve their "perfection" only when they are founded upon prudence, that is to say upon the perfected ability to make right decisions. For instance, a person can live temperance when he has acquired the habit of deciding correctly the actions to take in response to his instinctual cravings.

Prudence is considered the measure of moral virtues since it provides a model of ethically good actions. "The work of art is true and real by its correspondence with the pattern of its prototype in the mind of the artist. In similar fashion, the free activity of man is good by its correspondence with the pattern of prudence." (Josef Pieper) For instance, a house buyer using his experience and all the data available to him decides that it is beneficial to sell a house in 2022 and buy a house in 2013. The content of the decision (the houses, time and means) is the product of an act of prudence, while the actual carrying out of the decision may involve other virtues like fortitude (doing it in spite of fear of failure) and justice (doing his job well out of justice to his family). The actual act's "goodness" is measured against that original decision made through prudence.

In Greek and Scholastic philosophy, "form" is the specific characteristic of a thing that makes it what it is. With this language, prudence confers upon other virtues the form of its inner essence; that is, its specific character as a virtue. For instance, not all acts of telling the truth are considered good, considered as done with the virtue of honesty. What makes telling the truth a virtue is whether it is done with prudence. Telling a competitor the professional secrets of your company is not prudent and therefore not considered good and virtuous. Clambering down a cliff to safety is ultimately a matter of judgement. Perhaps prudence can help you down to the Southern Ocean, Sydney, or even to the Celtic Sea?

I suspect that I got hold of Josef Pieper via Wikipedia, Gerard, but it is an old quote, and I have not checked my sources this morning, so I could well be mistaken!

As for art, well, I suppose that Oscar Wilde had a point! The nineteenth century German philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche, famously concluded that 'Gott ist tot[/b]'. What did he mean? God is dead, although he added that there may still be caves in which his shadow will still be shown. God's death was supposed to be a liberating event, just as Christians have always argued that Christ's resurrection on Easter Sunday is a liberating event. In the very first of his books, 'The Birth of Tragedy', Friedrich Nietzsche uses this phrase three times:



What he is saying, I think, is that the greatness of the early Greeks, before Socrates, lay in their tragedy. He never really forgave the trivialising practice of rationalising everything with Socratic argie-bargie, or indeed, Plato for setting up a hero whose main qualities are those of talking everybody else into the ground, as has occasionally been attempted by kleines c himself! Friedrich Nietzsche may be asking, as indeed Shakespeare and Goethe occasionally ask, is the whole world really to be taken seriously, or is it not a great game, a great play like 'Hamlet' or 'Faust', some kind of drama played out by we know not whom, as a spectacle for we do not know whom? Can we make sense of such an aesthetic justification for mankind, Gerard?

As for The Third's three administrators, the other two administrators will know me to be the lazy one, because I never even bother to administrate. I am more the Gladiator.

YouTube - Gladiator trailer

What we do in life, Gerard, echoes in eternity!

Kleines c - what summit is that, in your photo-graph?

How curious it is that upon looking at the Wiki-pædia page about Garmisch one finds nothing about the Wank! To me it is the chief attraction of the place. In 1935 Herr Hilter gave orders that the town should combine with its neighbour, Partenkirchen, for the sake of some "games" in which he had an interest and being German the two obeyed without question and have remained wedded ever since. But indeed the Wank must thrust itself upon the mind of any traveller since it towers right there at the station when one alights from the carriage.

The summit rises 5840 feet above sea-level, so since the station already lies at 2323 feet, a not inconsiderable ascent of 3517 feet lies ahead. Of the mountains treated thus far in this thread the Wank is evidently the second highest, behind Cozzy-osko at 7315 feet.



My first attempt was unsuccessful. After miles of zig-zags which brought me about three quarters of the way up I came to a spot where the path led across a tiny stream, and here a kind of bridge of snow had formed. The snow bore the prints of many heavy Bavarian walking-boots the wearers of which must have crossed it uneventfully - whether thinkingly or unthinkingly I could not say. For upon inspecting this snow bridge I saw that it was only about a foot from top to bottom and underneath was clear air and a chasm. No obvious way around whether with or without hand-holds, so I retreated to the station.

Later in the year I motored down from Unterpfaffenhofen and tried again. Between the zigs and the zags one passes through delightfully flower-strewn alpine meadows, upon one of which two German youths were camping in a tent. How envious I felt of their juvenility and their secret joys! It at once calls to mind Brahms does it not who in his formative years so often went out camping with his bosom friends.



As I ventured on I met a descending Bavarian gentleman attired in one of those odd costumes they wear, and sporting a funny feather in his hat. Upon sight of me he exclaimed "Auch kein Mantel!" This means something like "No coat what is more!" What was more than what I can only guess; I suppose the obvious fact of my being a foreigner may have amounted to my initial crime. Anyway I responded - too brusquely perhaps - that my choice of apparel could not possibly have been his business. He waited a few seconds until he had got himself safely onto a lower zag and then shouted up "Ja Ja!" (This is not the only time that my climbing dress has been remarked upon; when walking up Mount Takao a Japanese lady - a complete stranger who spoke excellent English - told me that I ought not to have been wearing a tie!)

Shortly after this encounter I attained the summit of the Wank, which turns out to be a grassy knob. The spectacles therefrom are remarkable; and may be recommended to members: a particularly clear view of the Zugspitze for example. In contrast to peaks that are even slightly higher (such as Pilatus at 6982 feet) I experienced here on the Wank no ill-effects due to altitude.

Sydney,

That was a lovely post and made my mind wander to summit walks, I must say that I have not been on the hills in many years, but notice that camping technology has progressed so very small but every effective inflatable mattress thingies are now available and at a good price, so may try a 'one night out' camp sometime.

To awake to birdsong is a mighty thing.