Credit Where Credit Is Due Part Deux
Count Eckhart Tolle along with Tolstoy as an idea thief
I cannot stand hypocrisy. I cannot stand money-grubbing fake spiritualists.
Yesterday I called a couple of well-meaning writers to task for lauding Tolstoy for stealing Socrates' idea for his own. These quotes are from Socrates:
True wisdom comes to each of us when we realize how little we understand about life, ourselves, and the world around us.
One thing I know, is that I know nothing. This is the source of my wisdom.
Tolstoy said:
We can know only that we know nothing. And that is the highest degree of human wisdom.
I am willing to cut Tolstoy a break. I wrote:
Giving Tolstoy benefit of the doubt that he did not read Plato and intentionally plagiarize Socrates (in Socrates’ time I understand that knowledge was transmitted orally and that we know of Socrates’ wisdom from Plato’s writings) and mistook his archetypal knowledge (see Rebecca Romanelli’s masterpiece on the topic) for his own original thought.
