I'm grateful for the influence he's had on other minds. But
here's how I see the movement of concepts through history:
Some people believe you need to go to the source. I agree that
it's good to go to the sources for reference and inspiration.
However, I find it more powerful to observe the INFLUENCE that
person's ideas/wors have had on others through the years,
decades, centuries. To me, ALL of those lifetimes have had those
ideas filtered through them. There's an unbelievable wealth of
data when ideas are put through living people's lifetimes,
families, organizations, societies, civilizations.
So for example, when somebody "goes to the text" and tries to
start from scratch something that has influenced the VERY
SOCIETY they're in... they're going to fail in their
neo-Orthodoxy unless they ALSO see the existing influence the
ideas have already had on the society they're in and most
importantly, on themselves.
What makes someone attracted to a philosopher or an ideal?
We're raised with ideas. We get them from parents 'til the age
of 6/7. Then friends. Entertainment. Books. Maybe even school.
Maybe.
Later on, we pick up a book or hear about somebody and go, "Oh,
that guy thinks like me!"
Well, it's backwards. It's WE who think like THEM because _THEY_
influenced all the messages we received growing up and what
we've discovered is one of the sources of that knowledge.
So, full circle.
But then people sometimes try to reject the RECEIVED wisdom
filtered through the generations of people who were ALSO
inspired by those ideas and try to throw it away and start over.
