User:Alastair Haines

Wiki-philosophy and bio
Anekantavada • Vithoba • Nahuatl • Retiarius

Youngstown Ohio Works • Jimmy McAleer

Vampire • Lion • Iravan • each support contrib only


 * Ad fontes! Ad fontes! Ad fontes!
 * On constructive Wiki-ing:
 * Read, read, read. The future of Wiki is written in sources. Read them and be part of that future. We are scribes not authors.
 * Study the masters, not the pupils. — Niels Henrik Abel, Paris Notebook, 2:79 (margin of ms), 6 August 1826.
 * Memoirs de Mathematique, University of Oslo Library.


 * An encyclopedia entry merely gift-wraps a bibliography.
 * scire ubi aliquid possis invenire magna pars eruditionis est. — Latin proverb
 * Template:Cite journal


 * dub-sar eme-gir15 nu-mu-un-zu-a a-na-am3 nam-dub-sar-ra-ni
 * A scribe who knows not Sumerian, what kind of scribe is he?
 * — Sumerian proverb (2:47), translated by Edmund I. Gordon


 * On Wiki politics:
 * Aim for a common mind: so don't take sides! Don't vote: democracy divides, it is the enemy of con-sensus.
 * To mourn a mischief that is past and gone is the next way to draw new mischief on.
 * — William Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra III ii


 * Abuse, if you slight it, will gradually die away; but if you show yourself irritated, you will be thought to have deserved it.
 * — Publius Cornelius Tacitus


 * Honi soit qui mal y pense — Titus 1:15
 * "Those are not our leaders!" — The Day the Earth Stood Still [ John Cleese is.]

Thank you!
I am first and foremost a Wiki consumer, a reader, a beneficiary of the work so many people have contributed. Thank you to everyone who has contributed at Wiki, and opened my eyes to so many things. I hope my own small and limited contribution benefits others. And now for the serious stuff, for those of us
 * Have a good time, all of the time. — Spinal Tap
 * qui proficiendo scribunt et scribendo proficiunt.
 * — Augustine, ad Marcellinum, Epistula 143:2


 * Protagoras: No-one really knows anything.
 * Socrates: Are you sure about that?

Knowledge ends Prejudice
Ashtavakra Gita 16:10
 * My thesis in a single sentence: Solomon's Song of Songs is Mills & Boon not Playboy.
 * teologia regina scientiarum est
 * τρεῖς ἂν εἶεν φιλοσοφίαι θεωρητικαί, μαθηματική, φυσική, θεολογική ... αὕτη δὲ τῶν θεωρητικῶν
 * now these three theoretical philosophies remain—mathematics, physics and theology—and the greatest of these is theology
 * — Aristotle, Metaphysics, 6:1026a:19–24 [paraphrased by AH]


 * Christianity isn't a religion: it's the social technology introduced by the science of theology. — AH

Proudest contribution

 * Supplying a missing of to the outstanding Tiddlywinks article.

Areas of interest
I guess I'm interested in diachronic, semantic invariants (memes, perhaps) — the common legacy of our human family.
 * Ancient Near East background to the Bible
 * ancient literature (especially Sumerian and Egyptian)
 * classical literature (especially Hebrew and Greek)
 * the history, philosophy and sociology of language
 * culturally persistent conceptions of gender

Qualifications
Other: Sydney University Regiment (1985–87) & Royal Military College, Duntroon (1988–89) posted to Signals Corps.

Proverbs

 * If you understand, you will remember.
 * Success depends less on ability than opportunity; opportunities are rarely equal, and all opportunities have costs.
 * It suffices to have no more than the ability to make the most of opportunities.


 * Timing is everything.
 * People have similarities and differences:
 * similarities make communication possible;
 * differences make it necessary.


 * Mathematics is all about saying the same thing in different ways.
 * Freedom of choice is an illusion, responsibility is not.
 * Life is a sequence of mistakes and side-effects.
 * Friendship is rare, forgiveness is rarer.
 * We have not grasped justice if we are still balancing competing claims:
 * that which is good, is good for all—there is no conflict of interest.


 * There is no such thing as "rights"; there is only love.
 * We know every life matters, but we can never know why.
 * The difference between men and women:
 * the men I admire most are nearly all dead;
 * the women I admire most are nearly all living.


 * A man cannot live for something that he would not also die for:
 * living for something and dying for something are one and the same thing.


 * If you can't trust them, don't serve them!


 * The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. — Thomas Jefferson, "Notes on Virginia", 1782.
 * A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government. — Edward Abbey, paraphrasing earlier source?

Political comment
Congratulations to the British Government for recognizing two centuries of selfless Gurkha service to British interests all over the globe.

The whole world has seen the truth that the Gurkhas are the:


 * Bravest of the brave, most generous of the generous,
 * never had country more faithful friends than you.