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Sunday Philosophy Club (aka Isabel Dalhousie Mysteries): Book 3
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Description edit
The delectable new installment in the best-selling and beloved adventures of Isabel Dalhousie. When Mimi, Isabel’s cousin from Dallas, arrives in Edinburgh with her husband, Joe, several confounding situations unfurl. First, Mimi and Joe introduce Isabel to Tom Bruce–a bigwig back home in... read more
Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit
Characters/People edit
- Isabel Dalhousie: Isabel, about whom the story is centred, lives in Edinburgh and edits a philosophy journal.
- Jamie: Add a description of this character.
- Mimi
- Angie
- Tom
- Grace
- Eddie
- Patrick
- Joe
- Miranda
- Mrs. Paterson
- Robin
- Peebles
- Mary
- John Liamor
- Richard
- Auden
- Darnley
- Cynthia
- Brother Fox
- Toby
- Seamus
- Simon
- Florence Macreadie
Quotes edit
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“… our human pretensions, our sense that we were what mattered: all of this was put in its proper place by simply looking up at the sky and realizing how very tiny and insignificant we were. Our biggest cities, our most elaborate symphonies, the Brittanica, the smartest gadgets, were nothing really, just a momentary arrangement of the tiny number of atoms we had in our miniscule patch of space. Nothing.”
- Popular Highlights from Kindle Customers
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To be able to imagine the other, and the experience of the other, was what wisdom was all about; but nobody talked about wisdom very much any more, nor virtue, perhaps because wisdom was not appreciated in a world of glitz and effect.
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By looking into the eyes of another, one established a form of connection that had moral implications.
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with revealing something about oneself there always comes a sense of lightening of the load that we all carry: the load of being ourselves.
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To look at another thus was to acknowledge one’s shared humanity with him, and that meant one owed him something, no matter how small that thing might be. That was why the executioner was traditionally spared the duty of looking into the eyes of the condemned; he observed him by stealth, approached from behind, was allowed a mask, and so on. If he looked into the eyes, then the moral bond would be established, and that moral bond would prevent him from doing what the state required: the carrying out of its act of murder.
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Character, she had written, is a term that almost requires explanation today. It means little to the psychologist, who talks about personality, but to the philosopher it is more than that. You may not be able to create a personality, but you can create a character for yourself.
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Love is not a virtue, she thought; not in itself. But it helps us to be virtuous, to do good for those whom we love, and in that sense it can never be wrong, wherever it alights, whatever direction it takes.
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Self-knowledge required more than an understanding of how things work as a narrative; it required an understanding of the character traits that lead to the narrative being what it is. And for this, she concluded, we might attempt to mould our character in the future. I can be better, she thought, if I know what’s wrong with me now.
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If one derived pleasure from the giving of something even if the recipient never knows who gave it—and it was a pleasure to give anonymously, as Isabel knew—then could not the giving of love be satisfying even if the person one loved never knew that he or she was loved?
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“One should always listen to mermaids,” said Isabel. “They address one so infrequently that anything they have to say must be important.”
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How many of us are happy to be exactly where we are at any moment? Auden said something about that, she remembered, in his mountains poem. He had said that the child unhappy on one side of the Alps might wish himself on the other. Well, he was right; only the completely happy think that they are in the correct place.
Highlighted by 8 Kindle customers
Series & Lists edit
This is book 3 of 9 in Sunday Philosophy Club (aka Isabel Dalhousie Mysteries). (standard series)
Preceded by Friends, Lovers, Chocolate, and followed by The Careful Use of Compliments.
Authors & Contributors edit
- Alexander McCall Smith (Author)
Classification edit
- Library of Congress: Add the Library of Congress Classification.
- Dewey: 823.914
Subjects edit
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