Foreword to Alain Renaut, The Era of the Individual (1999), p. xi.
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All we are now concerned with is the search for “new and improved” version of whatever means are already available for attaining goals such means make possible. The value of the goals themselves is irrelevant … What counts is doing things better than before. Whether such things are worth doing in the first place is no longer a question.

— Alexander Nehamas

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "All we are now concerned with is the search for “new and improved” version of whatever means are already available for attaining goals such means make possible. The value of the goals themselves is irrelevant … What counts is doing things better than before. Whether such things are worth doing in the first place is no longer a question." in the context of "Foreword to Alain Renaut, The Era of the Individual (1999), p. xi." to mean that wisdom is timeless.

Source: Wikiquote: "Alexander Nehamas" (Quotes) The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app
Alexander Nehamas

About Alexander Nehamas

Alexander Nehamas (born 22 March 1946 in Athens, Greece) is Professor of philosophy and Edmund N. Carpenter, II Class of 1943 Professor in the Humanities at Princeton University and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. He works on Greek philosophy, aesthetics, Nietzsche, Foucault, and literary theory.