Concept
Aphorism
Overview
An aphorism (from Greek ἀφορισμός: aphorismos, denoting 'delimitation', 'distinction', and 'definition') is a concise, terse, laconic, or memorable expression of a general truth or principle. Aphorisms are often handed down by tradition from generation to generation.
The concept is generally distinct from those of an adage, brocard, chiasmus, epigram, maxim (legal or philosophical), principle, proverb, and saying; although some of these concepts could be construed as types of aphorism.
Often aphorisms are distinguished from other short sayings by the need for interpretation to make sense of them. In A Theory of the Aphorism, Andrew Hui defined an aphorism as "a short saying that requires interpretation".
A famous example is:
You cannot step into the same river twice.
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
Possible passages
Found by search and not yet checked by a person; they may only mention the idea in passing.
LII. Let this suffice as to the respective dignity of prerogatives of instances. But it must be noted, that in this our organ, we treat of logic, and not of philosophy. Seeing, however, that our logic instructs and informs the understanding, in order that it may not, with the small hooks, as it were, of the mind, catch at, and grasp mere abstractions, but rather actually penetrate…
Francis Bacon, Novum organum
The chapter “APHORISMS--BOOK II” is titled for Aphorism; states what Aphorism is.
In other cases the aphoristic form produces difficulty, but this is only because this form is treated _too casually_. An aphorism properly coined and cast into its final mould is far from being "deciphered" as soon as it has been read; on the contrary, it is then that it first requires _to be expounded_--of course for that purpose an art of exposition is necessary. The third essay in this book provides an example of…
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, The Genealogy of Morals The Complete Works, Volume Thirteen, edited by Dr. Oscar Levy.
States what Aphorism is; the author is tied to Aphorism in the knowledge graph.
The =Thing= in itself which underlies this phaenomenon is outside of Time and Space, consequently free from all succession and plurality, one, and changeless. Its constitution in itself is the =intelligible character=, which is equally present in all the acts of the individual, and stamped on every one of them, like the impress of a signet on a thousand seals. The empirical character of the phaenomenon--the…
Arthur Schopenhauer, The Basis of Morality
States what Aphorism is; the author is tied to Aphorism in the knowledge graph.
Philosophers who discussed Aphorism
- Friedrich Nietzsche
- Heraclitus
- Lev Shestov
- Mircea Eliade
- Giambattista Vico
- George Santayana
- Marshall McLuhan
- Paul Valéry
- Emil Cioran
- Søren Kierkegaard
- Confucius
- George Gurdjieff
- Alan Musgrave
- Vasily Rozanov
- Samayasāra
- Eric Hoffer
- Nicolás Gómez Dávila
- Moses of Narbonne
- Ernst Platner
Related ideas
- Epigram
- Erasmus
- Friedrich Nietzsche
- Franz Kafka
- Francis Bacon
- Gustave Flaubert
- Hippocrates
- Philosophy
- Heraclitus
- Lev Shestov
- Ancient Greek
- Vedas
- Wisdom literature
- George Santayana
- Literature
- Georges Bataille
- Oscar Wilde
- Jean Baudrillard
- Parmenides
- Patanjali
- Emil Cioran
- Maxim (philosophy)
- Robert A. Heinlein
- Works and Days
Place in the tradition
Part of American philosophy.