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Sometimes as our small black and white cat, Missy, wonders around sometimes I get the impression that she is lost and aimless. She doesn't particularly want to be fussed or played with, nor does she seem to want anything in particular. She wonders slowly and hesitatingly in and out, here and there... I can't help thinking that she pains over what the point of life is. Why, ever, would you want to wake up, in this world? I know my answer: To improve it. But what is Missy's raison d'être? Tags: development, existentialism, life, philosophy
Current Location: Mönchengladbach, Germany
Listening To: "War & Peace" by Solitary Experiments
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New Page: "The Four Dimensions and the Immutability of God" by Vexen Crabtree (2007) - Two, Three and Four Dimensional Objects
- Existing Outside of Time
- The Immutability of God
I haven't got access to any of my physics books (like John Gribbon's books) that no doubt have some commentary on issues like these... so for now this page is merely a bit of a rant. Tags: 2d, 3d, 4d, dimensions, eternity, everlasting, fourth dimension, god, omniscience, philosophy, physics, theology, time
Current Location: Starbucks, Hammersmith, London, UK
Current Mood:  tired
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I first started studying philosophy (freelance) in the same way that I later learned that R. D. Laing did: Reading through the books in the local library in alphabetical order. What it lacked in thematic coherency it made up for in definitiveness. Why philosophy is important: All the great leaders and theorists of the past have been versed in philosophy; politics, democracy, social theory, theologians and the founding scientists were all largely philosophers. It enables people to think critically, widely, sensibly and cautiously. Epistemology teaches us about the dangers of assumption and how we cannot trust what we think we know (neurology and psychology now backs this up in a more modern way - check out Prof. Elizabeth Loftus' experiments on memory!). What people today discover by watching The Truman Show, Matrix, the Thirteenth Floor and other similar films, philosophers wrote about thousands of years ago. Unfortunately, this useful study of meta-truth is plagued by a serious problem. Nearly all philosophy courses concentrate wholeheartedly on the philosophers themselves. It's like studying physics by examining every argument Einstein had with anyone; on subjects such as society, politics, education and government. Why would someone who wants to learn physics spend much time on studying Einstein as a person? Theories and theorists should be largely seperate, and in this way science has massively overtaken philosophy as a useful tool. Critical thinking can be learnt anywhere, but in philosophy class you are most likely to learn the history, rather than any useful cognitive skills. Philosophy was useful, but unless it drops the concentration it has on philosophers, it is going to dwindle into history remembered as an off-smelling residue rather than the filling it once was. No-one in philosophy needs to know about Plato's forms any more than Geneticists need to know about Lamark. Philosophy has become almost a history of error. Having said that, there are many highly valued philosophers; such university professors often have multifarious talents in all academic areas. Sociologists, physicists, evolutionists and psychologists all require some philosophical knowledge (just like philosophers need science in order to inject some Earthbound epiricism into their ballooning imaginations). I'm thinking about doing a page. Any comments? Tags: epistemology, knowledge, philosophers, philosophy, science, truth
Current Location: Mönchengladbach, Germany
Listening To: "Kingdom" by L'Ame Immortelle
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New: "Devotion to the Beautiful Universe We Live In" by Vexen Crabtree: "That maths is both an artform, and a beautiful enterprise, is something that is often-repeated by those in-the-know. Likewise, it is a common theme that those who enjoy the sciences - the challenges of scientific theory - often have greater feelings towards their chosen fields than the cold experience of technical number-crunching pitted with moments of inspiration. The ongoing search for truth bestows upons its adherents a glowing satisfaction and awe at the wonder of the universe. Reality is simultaneously complex and simple, engaging and passive, black and white and colourful. Out of simple laws comes complexity, and out of the chaos of experimentation slowly comes understanding. The scientific methods of understanding the world can involve a person completely and fully; the intellectual and rational commitment to hard work and truth are obvious. Not so obvious is the emotional wonder and adoration that arises within those who seek the truth. Philosophers and scientists, as Dawkins' points out, have had a tendency towards an almost mystical and pantheistic love of the fabrics of reality." Tags: beauty, complexity, inspiration, love, pantheism, philosophy, reality, richard dawkins, science, universal, universe
Current Location: Mönchengladbach, Germany
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"God and Pronouns: God has no gender" by Vexen Crabtree (2006) Tags: english, female, feminine, gender, god, male, masculine, philosophy, pronouns, religion, semantics, theology, tradition
Current Location: Germany
Current Mood:  busy
Listening To: "Country" by Synthetic
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" The AntiChrist" by Friedrich Nietzsche, I think, is the last Nietzsche book I've to read. Nietzsche is an idol of mine, he is the most poetical genius writer ever to attempt to teach mankind. Twilight of the Idols and Zarathustra are up there amongst the best books I've ever read. But... The AntiChrist was a bit of a let down. It is basically a compendium of all his anti-Christian arguments and comments, in one huge, almost immature, rant. The arguments are obfuscated by his constant intense negativity. In the second half of the short book, the arguments are more clear, although in typical Nietzsche style there are so many offshoots that you have to read several pages to understand the larger-scale arguments. Which is part of his excellence, because his style is very readable: You can read a few sentences, and get one argument, a paragraph and get the feel for a general trend of arguments, or a few pages and realize that the total is even greater than all the individual offshoots, and realize some wonderfully poetic argument comprised of a dozen fluid parts, all summarized (occasionally) with beautiful and genius-like key paragraphs and built-up phrases. Nietzsche writes, therefore, like music... a sentence per beat, with versus and choruses which are all worthy on their own, but the total is so much more. However, The AntiChrist was perhaps limited by it's limited scope. It is a final "And just in case you ever doubted what the greatest expression of decadence is, just in case you somehow missed the rest of my text, here is it ugly and bold: Christianity sucks". The best threads in this book are of the "psychological types" and history of Christianity, in particular, the gospels versus Paul, and Jesus versus Paul. He credits the Gospels with some genuine worth and good news, although he relegates this "worth" to not quite as bad as the rest of the attempts of the unhealthy, crap masses at the bottom of humanity, which was still a pretty unhealthy and destructive attempt at rising to power. As a result of typical Nietzsche writing, I found myself quoting once from the middle of a paragraph that was over two complete pages long. I love Nietzsche :-) He had a unique writing style, completely fluid and wonderous, if the writing world were as intelligent at Nietzsche, his writing style would catch on. However as most writers are not, it is probably best not to try to copy his tangled, synthetic (yet not simplisticly modern) style! OK... anyone have any thoughts on The AntiChrist, perhaps some slightly more positive ones? Tags: book reviews, nietzsche, philosophy
Current Mood:  hyper
Listening To: "Immolation" by Ultraviolence
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Nietzsche: Twilight of the Idols ...is fast becoming my favorite non-fiction book. It's subtitle should be: Nietzsche kicks everyone's arse with the utmost style, humour, grace and art. Nietzsche is the only philosophy author, except LaVey, who makes me stop and laugh out loud when they drop their jokes. The jokes are just as amazingly worded and set up as all the arguments, the follow-ons and strength of it all is divine. I didn't understand Twilight of the Idols first time I read it, I didn't understand all the things it was debunking or all the cultures and concepts it mentioned. I didn't even get the humour. I just want to quote it at length. I already have one page that is a pure Nietzsche quote ( http://www.vexen.co.uk/human/humour.html), I could easily do several more! I want to quote all of his chapter "The Four Great Errors", texts 5 and 7. I thought Thus Spake Zarathustra was good, which it is, it is an amazing and inspiring book, pretentious and prophetic, just as I like it, I would call it "The" book of Humanism. But Twilight Of The Idols destroys everything (and with such style!), whereas the character of TSZ comes and shows us new ways to replace the old, broken and misguided ways. Written at a later date I finally agree with the critics that Twilight Of The Idols is Nietzsche's best, Thus Spake Zarathustra has been relegated to a mere 2nd place. Tags: nietzsche, philosophy, religion, thus spake zarathustra, twilight of the idols
Current Mood: inspired
Listening To: "The Sage" by Vampire State Building
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