Aphorism

Not to be confused with Aphorismus.

"Aphorisms" redirects here. For the Red Sparowes album, see Aphorisms (album).

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. They 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 may be construed as types of aphorism.

History

The word was first used in the Aphorisms of Hippocrates, a long series of propositions concerning the symptoms and diagnosis of disease and the art of healing and medicine. The often cited first sentence of this work is: "Ὁ βίος βραχύς, δὲ τέχνη μακρή" - "life is short, art is long", usually reversed in order (see Ars longa, vita brevis).

This aphorism was later applied or adapted to physical science and then morphed into multifarious aphorisms of philosophy, morality, and literature. Currently an aphorism is generally understood to be a concise and eloquent statement of truth.

Aphorisms are distinct from axioms: aphorisms generally originate from experience and custom, whereas axioms are self-evident truths and therefore require no additional proof. Aphorisms have been especially used in subjects to which no methodical or scientific treatment was originally applied, such as agriculture, medicine, jurisprudence and politics.

A famous example is:

Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

— Lord Acton

Literature

Aphoristic collections, sometimes known as wisdom literature, have a prominent place in the canons of several ancient societies, such as the Sutra literature of India, the Biblical Ecclesiastes, Islamic hadiths, the golden verses of Pythagoras, Hesiod's Works and Days, the Delphic maxims, and Epictetus' Handbook. Aphoristic collections also make up an important part of the work of some modern authors. A 1559 oil–on–oak-panel painting, Netherlandish Proverbs (also called The Blue Cloak or The Topsy Turvy World) by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, artfully depicts a land populated with literal renditions of Flemish aphorisms (proverbs) of the day.

The first noted published collection of aphorisms is Adagia by Erasmus. Other important early aphorists were Baltasar Gracián, François de La Rochefoucauld and Blaise Pascal.

Two influential collections of aphorisms published in the twentieth century were The Uncombed Thoughts by Stanisław Jerzy Lec (in Polish), and Itch of Wisdom by Mikhail Turovsky (in Russian and English).

Society

Many societies have traditional sages or culture heroes to whom aphorisms are commonly attributed, such as the Seven Sages of Greece, Confucius or King Solomon.

Misquoted or misadvised aphorisms are frequently used as a source of humour; for instance, wordplays of aphorisms appear in the works of P. G. Wodehouse, Terry Pratchett and Douglas Adams. Aphorisms being misquoted by sports players, coaches, and commentators form the basis of Private Eye's Colemanballs section.

Philosophy

Throughout the history of philosophy, aphorisms have been employed by foundational thinkers including from the ancient to the modern era. Many of the earliest texts in philosophy were aphoristic. Some of the earliest texts in the western philosophical canon feature short statements requiring interpretation, as seen in the Pre-Socratics like Heraclitus and Parmenides. In the early Hindu literature, the Vedas featured aphoristic writing as well. Likewise, in early Chinese philosophy, Taoist texts like the Tao Te Ching and the Confucian Analects relied on a style which could be called aphoristic. Francis Bacon, Blaise Pascal, Desiderius Erasmus, and Friedrich Nietzsche rank among some of the most notable philosophers who employed the aphoristic style in the modern era.

Professor of Humanities Andrew Hui offered the following definition of an aphorism: "a short saying that requires interpretation." In his book, A Theory of the Aphorism, Hui argued that the history of philosophy can be understood as a dynamic relationship between aphoristic styles and more sustained argumentative styles. For example, the Platonic Dialogues served as a response to the difficult to interpret fragments and phrases which Pre-Socratic philosophers were famous for. In this view of the history of philosophy and ideas, Hui proposes that aphorisms often arrive before, after, or in response to more systematic argumentative philosophy. For example, aphorisms may come before a systematic philosophy, because the systematic philosophy consists of the attempt to interpret and explain the aphorisms, as he argues is the case with Confucianism. Alternately, aphorisms may be written against systematic philosophy, as a form of challenge or irreverence, as Hui sees the case was with Nietzsche. Lastly, aphorisms may come after or following systematic philosophy, as was the case with Francis Bacon, who sought to debunk and lay to rest old ways of thinking.

Aphorists

Main page: Category:Aphorists

• Theodor W. Adorno: his Minima Moralia: Reflections from Damaged Life (German: Minima Moralia: Reflexionen aus dem beschädigten Leben) is a collection of aphorisms and reflections written while in exile in the United States during World War II.
• Georges Bataille
• Jean Baudrillard
• Ambrose Bierce: The Devil's Dictionary.
• F. H. Bradley
• Emil Cioran
• Arkady Davidowitz
• Nicolás Gómez Dávila
• Malcolm de Chazal
• Desiderius Erasmus
• Gustave Flaubert: Dictionary of Received Ideas.
• Benjamin Franklin
• Robert A. Heinlein: The Notebooks of Lazarus Long.
• Edmond Jabès
• Joseph Joubert
• Franz Kafka
• Karl Kraus
• François de La Rochefoucauld
• Stanisław Jerzy Lec
• Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
• Andrzej Majewski
• Juan Manuel: Prince of Villena (Spain) and mediaeval author; the second, third and fourth parts of his famous work El Conde Lucanor are collections of aphorisms.
• Friedrich Nietzsche
• Oiva Paloheimo
• Dorothy Parker
• Patanjali
• Petar II Petrović-Njegoš
• Faina Ranevskaya
• Arthur Schopenhauer
• Seneca the Younger: Roman Stoic philosopher.
• George Bernard Shaw
• Lev Shestov
• Nassim Nicholas Taleb: The Bed of Procrustes
• Mikhail Turovsky
• Lao Tze
• Voltaire
• Wasif Ali Wasif: A Pakistani writer, poet and Sufi intellectual, known as master of Aphorism
• Oscar Wilde
• George Santayana
• Alexander Woollcott
• Burchard of Worms: mediaeval Catholic priest and canonist.
• Cheng Yen: Jing Si Aphorism. (Buddhism)

See also

• Adage
• Adagia by Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus
• Brocard
• Chiasmus
• Cliché
• Epigram
• Epitaph
• French moralists
• Gospel of Thomas
• Greguería
• Legal maxim
• Mahavakya
• Maxim
• Proverb
• Pseudo-Phocylides
• Sacred Scripture:
  • Book of Proverbs
  • Ecclesiastes
  • Hidden Words
  • Wisdom of Sirach
• Saying
• Sūtra
• The Triads of Ireland, and the Welsh Triads

Further reading

• Geary, James (2005). The World in a Phrase: A Brief History of the Aphorism, November 2, 2005. New York: Bloomsbury USA. p. 240. ISBN 9781608197620.
• Gopnik, Adam, "Brevity, Soul, Wit: The art of the aphorism" (includes discussion of Andrew Hui, A Theory of the Aphorism: From Confucius to Twitter, Princeton, 2019), The New Yorker, 22 July 2019, pp. 67–69. "The aphorism [...] is [...] always an epitome, and seeks an essence. The ability to elide the extraneous is what makes the aphorism bite, but the possibility of inferring backward to a missing text is what makes the aphorism poetic." (p.69.)
• John Morley (1887), Aphorisms: an address delivered before the Edinburgh Philosophical Institution, November 11, 1887 (1st ed.), London: Macmillan Publishers, Wikidata Q19045853

External links

• (in English and Arabic) Commentary on Hippocrates' Aphorisms