May 2012
254 posts
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Once and once only
Each second we live in a new and unique moment of the universe, a moment that never was before and will never be again. And what do we teach our children in school? We teach them that two and two make four, and that Paris is the capital of France. When will we also teach what they are? You are a marvel. You are unique. In all the world there is no other child exactly like you. In the...
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Nonsensical prepositions
This passage from Wittgenstein’s notebooks (from 1932) echoes my own philosophical concerns regarding ‘The Whole’ and the misapplication of prepositions on a meta-physical level:
Philosophers who say: “after death a timeless state will begin”, or: “at death a timeless state begins”, and do not notice that they have used the words “after” and...
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Old friends and new
Ottorino Respighi: The Pines of Rome / The Fountains of Rome / Metamorphoseon Modi XII - Jesús López-Cobos conducting the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra) [I know the two “Rome” pieces, but the last piece.]
Elizabethan Songs and Consort Music (Byrd, Tallis, et al) - The Rose Consort of Viols with Catherine King [For my early music fix.]
Walter Kaufmann: Critique of Religion and...
April 2012
151 posts
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“All things are parts of one single system, which is called Nature; the...”
– Zeno of Citium (via the-street-window)
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One final reminder
Tomorrow is the last day of National Poetry Month in the U.S. Poems are like treasures waiting to be found by you.
But why limit poetry to one month?
I think I’ll continue to post “Sunday poems” on Tumblr.
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Sunday poem: Rainer Maria Rilke
But you, divine poet, you who sang on till the end as the swarm of rejected maenads attacked you, shrieking, you overpowered their noise with harmony, and from pure destruction arose your transfigured song.
Their hatred could not destroy your head or your lyre, however they wrestled and raged; and each one of the sharp stones that they hurled, vengeance-crazed, at your heart softened while it was...
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Sunday poem: C.P. Cavafy
ITHAKA
As you set out for Ithaka hope the voyage is a long one, full of adventure, full of discovery. Laistrygonians and Cyclops, angry Poseidon—don’t be afraid of them: you’ll never find things like that on your way as long as you keep your thoughts raised high, as long as a rare excitement stirs your spirit and your body. Laistrygonians and Cyclops, wild Poseidon—you won’t encounter them unless...
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Sunday poem: Czeslaw Milosz
AND YET THE BOOKS And yet the books will be there on the shelves, separate beings, That appeared once, still wet As shining chestnuts under a tree in autumn, And, touched, coddled, began to live In spite of the fires on the horizon, castles blown up, Tribes on the march, planets in motion. “We are,” they said, even as their pages Were being torn out, or a buzzing flame Licked away...
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A few terms defined
I’ve defined three terms on my Philosophia Omnium blog. Many more to follow. Hoping it helps clarify things, but I’m also trying to be precise as well. More to come…
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Form An existent (i.e.,a thing) which is formed from the Whole (i.e., in the midst of the field of existence). Each form is identified by the rational mind though reification—i.e., conceptually...
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Men talk about Bible miracles because there is no miracle in their lives. Cease to gnaw that crust. There is ripe fruit over your head.
Henry David Thoreau, Journal, June 1850 (undated)
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I would not have any one adopt my mode of living on any account; for, beside that before he has fairly learned it I may have found out another for myself, I desire that there may be as many different persons in the world as possible; but I would have each one be careful to find out and pursue his own way, and not his father’s or his mother’s or his neighbor’s instead.
Henry...
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An odd thought...
I am the universe trying to understand itself.
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Sunday poem: Jean Follain
MUSIC OF SPHERES He was walking a frozen road in his pocket iron keys were jingling and with his pointed shoe absent-mindedly he kicked the cylinder of an old can which for a few seconds rolled its cold emptiness wobbled for a whole and stopped under a sky studded with stars. Jean Follain (translated by Czeslaw Milosz and Robert Hass)
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The value of doubt
…Their criterion, I think, was a different one: they asked themselves to what extent they would still be able to live in peace with themselves after having committed certain deeds; and they decided that it would be better to do nothing, not because the world would then be changed for the better, but simply because only on this condition could they go on living with themselves at all. ...
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Cogs and wheels
For to the answer: ‘Not I but the system did it in which I was a cog,’ the court immediately raises the next question: ‘And why, if you please, did you become a cog or continue to be a cog under such circumstances?’
Hannah Arendt, on Eichmann’s trial, from ‘Personal Responsibility Under Dictatorship’ (Responsibility and Judgment)
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Carl Sagan: Found poem, "Wanderers"
WANDERERS
We embarked on our journey to the stars with a question first framed in the childhood of our species and in each generation asked anew with undiminished wonder: What are the stars? Exploration is in our nature. We began as wanderers, and we are wanderers still. We have lingered long enough on the shores of the cosmic ocean. We are ready at last to set sail for the stars.
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[N]othing is heavy if one accepts it with a light heart.
Seneca, Epistulae, CXXIII
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None of us goes deep below the surface. We skim the top only, and we regard the smattering of time spent in the search for wisdom as enough and to spare for a busy man. What hinders us most of all is that we are too readily satisfied with ourselves…
Seneca, Epistulae, LIX
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Poetry and questions
From something I wrote many moons ago about poetry:
How many people are taught the habit of reading the poem as if it were a riddle with one correct response? How many people have, as a result of such habit, abandoned the poem in exchange for a prosaic world that makes no demands except passivity, a desire for single answers, and clichés for wisdom? Is it possible to truly survive without at...
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National Poetry Month: A reminder
In the U.S., April is National Poetry Month, though this designation is one that should surely be international as well. There are thousands of poems waiting for you to discover them… and for them to discover you. Go find them.
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Sunday poem: Emily Dickinson
Not “Revelation”—’tis—that waits, But our unfurnished eyes— ~ Emily Dickinson
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Sunday poem: R.S. Thomas
CHILDREN’S SONG We live in our own world, A world that is too small For you to stoop and enter Even on hands and knees, The adult subterfuge. And though you probe and pry With analytic eye, And eavesdrop all our talk With an amused look, You cannot find the centre Where we dance, where we play, Where life is still asleep Under the closed flower, Under the smooth shell Of eggs in the cupped nest...
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Sunday poem: Yevgeny Yevtushenko
I would like to be born in every country, have a passport for them all to throw all foreign offices into panic, be every fish in every ocean and every dog in the streets of the world. I don’t want to bow down...
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Sunday poem: Margaret Atwood
YOU BEGIN
You begin this way: this is your hand, this is your eye, that is a fish, blue and flat on the paper, almost the shape of an eye. This is your mouth, this is an O or a moon, whichever you like. This is yellow. Outside the window is the rain, green because it is summer, and beyond that the trees and then the world, which is round and has only the colors of these nine crayons. This is the...
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Old friends
I ought to be packing for my trip, but here I am tonight digging through boxes and more boxes of books I haven’t read or even looked at in a couple years.
I dislike clutter and I prefer living with a little material things as possible—no furniture, except a mattress on the floor and a desk and chair. And yet I still think I have too much stuff! Thoreau has always been a hero of mine...
wastedseductions asked: Well met! Your space here is tremendous... you and I have very, very similar tastes and enjoyments in regards to thought and sound. I haven't seen Wings of Desire before, but that youtube clip you posted was intensely beautiful - I am downloading it now. Anyway, thanks so much for sharing all of this and a big pre-thanks for the future beauty on my dash... cheers to you and yours!
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For Thucydides
On March 23, 1987, a leaf in the evergreen ivy climbing the side of a house on the Felsenberg seemed wilted. When a man’s shadow fell on the leaf, it rose up, spreading wings infinitely yellower underneath—the strongest color seen in a long time. Then, a second brimstone butterfly flew around the corner of the house, a twitching shadow on the wall. The butterflies alit, revealing a...
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Hannah Arendt on 'dangerous thoughts'
What we commonly call nihilism—and are tempted to date historically, decry politically, and ascribe to thinkers who allegedly dared to think “dangerous thoughts”—is actually a danger inherent in the thinking activity itself. There are no dangerous thoughts; thinking itself is dangerous, but nihilism is not its product. Nihilism is but the other side of conventionalism;...
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…I have sold myself to no man; I bear the name of no master. I give much credit to the judgment of great men; but I claim something also for my own.
Seneca, Epistulae, XLV
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Philosophy neither rejects nor selects anyone; its light shines for all.
Seneca, Epistulae, XLIV
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Your greatest difficulty is with yourself; for you are your own stumbling-block.
Seneca, Epistulae, XXI
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Nothing, Lucilius, is ours, except time. We were entrusted by nature with the ownership of this single thing…
Seneca, Epistulae, I
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The logic of Raskolnikov
From a hastily thrown together letter (a rant really) that I wrote my mother this morning, in response to this article we both read about a young man in the U.S. who sees Anders Breivik a hero:
In the article there is mention of a psychologist who says that the letters Breivik has received all contain the same kind of language (jargon) and, though she doesn’t state it, I bet the same kind...
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Glossary in the works
I’ve added a new page to my philosophy website, Philosophia Omnium, though it is blank for the moment. I plan to add some brief glossary entries on the new page which (I hope) will help provide a bit more clarity—both to myself, as well as any readers. I will add new terms as I go along— I have some general ideas that haven’t yet been addressed, and so those terms...
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My Bach obsession
I confess I’ve got a serious obsession with Bach’s Cello Suites—I currently own 12 (or 13?) different recordings of the Suites (including one arrangement for viola and also Pandolfo’s version performed on viola da gamba). Looking at the ones I tend to listen to more than others, I’d say these are my top picks: 1. Jaap Ter Linden 2. Yo-Yo Ma...
