Re: CHAT: Against stupidity

Quoting HCLE Quernheim <mail@...>:

> > P.S.
> > "kämpfen mit" can also mean something like "to
> > struggle with".
> >
> > HCLE
> > <<>>
>
> so one interpretation could be that the gods
> themselves have to deal with their own stupidity ( and
> they fail ) ?
> <<>>
>
> Right. At least that's how I myself interprete that Schiller line.
> What other interpretation could you imagine? That they have to deal with
> others' stupidity?
Of course.  That they would have to deal with others'
stupidity is how I immediately interpreted it, because
IIRC Schiller never underwent the period of religious
doubt and agnosticism that Goethe did. (Indeed, the
only reason he did not become a clergyman was that his
father forced him to enter a military academy.) Contempt
for religion did not anyways become openly expressed
much even in Europe until the late 19th and 20th centuries.

 =========================================================================
Thomas Wier            "I find it useful to meet my subjects personally,
Dept. of Linguistics    because our secret police don't get it right
University of Chicago   half the time." -- octogenarian Sheikh Zayed of
1010 E. 59th Street     Abu Dhabi, to a French reporter.
Chicago, IL 60637

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