I’m growing into the idea that a good death is not so much a death where I have chosen the time and place, but where I have some level of control over the event. I used to believe the best way to die was in the setting of my making, my choosing; not necessarily suicide, […]
Recently I have been feeling a real urgency in my soul, as if now is the time to really get going, the time for change and real unparalleled progress. To a certain extent I always have this feeling around this time of the year as I’m beginning a new university year, a chance to start afresh […]
I wrote a little while ago about how I felt I was maturing in the aesthetic, this growth is coming to a head now, everything around me has taken on a slightly different colour, a slightly different façade. For example, over the summer I have developed a broader range of things which I see as valuable, and […]
I found this fantastic picture when browsing a stock photography site a little while ago:
I don’t know whether the artist intended to write ‘looser’ or ‘loser’, but I like to imagine he or she spelt it that way on purpose, rather than it just being poor spelling (although this is entirely possible, the graffiti […]
I’ve been learning about the brain over the last few days and it has helped me re-realise the magnificent complexity of the human body and the ethical issues surrounding scientific progress. Resources have been piled into brain research over the past 100 years or so, yet we are still totally clueless about how most of the […]
Continuing from last week…
What if all our goals are simulacra? Does this present any problem? Or even hold any relevance at all?
I think it’s important, especially for the agnostic, to be aware that everything around herself is in flux, isn’t constant, is (perhaps) simulacra. Things are slightly different for the theist, as they have god, a […]
A fantastic example of simulacra.
Perhaps the most powerful and obvious example of simulacra in our lives is that of “make-up”, in the widest possible sense of the word. To change your body and appearance to look like someone else who in turn is a copy, and a distorted copy at that, of someone else. It’s difficult […]
What are photos?
It's something I've written briefly about before, but after being away and having lots of photos of my travels to look through it's a thought that has come back to me. I'm talking about photos in the snapshot sense, or perhaps in the "holiday photos" sense, rather than the pictures you would find in a gallery. I […]
I'm feeling a real sensitivity to the aesthetic at the moment, a real harmony with my own thoughts and senses. Sometimes I have these periods, often only moments, when my mind really wakes up and comes into focus. It's as if everything around me takes on a subtly different form for an instant, and then […]
Another thing that hit me during my revision is that some people choose, or are compelled, to spend all or part of their life applying themselves to one specific task. For example, the genius scientist, the obsessive novelist or artist, the eccentric musician, the serial killer, the Olympic gymnast, the tireless politician. What are the […]
Just a couple of links this week:
Ask PhilosophersThey have a "Question of the day" which is normally pretty interesting; there's a lot of good stuff in the archives too.
New Scientist - Last WordA similar thing, but more science based; interesting questions about trivial things.
I've been reading some of Plato's works recently, specifically his allegory of the cave. For those who don't already know what it is about, this is the description from wikipedia, or you can read the original text at the link above.
Allegory of the cave
Imagine prisoners, who have been chained since birth deep inside a cave: not […]
Physical concepts are free creations of the human mind, and are not, however it may seem, uniquely determined by the external world. In our endeavor to understand reality we are somewhat like a man trying to understand the mechanism of a closed watch. He sees the face and the moving hands, even hears its ticking, […]
I recently read Jean-Paul Sartre's book Nausea. It was the greatest book I have read in a long long time, he writes so well and really gets to the heart of the humanity in the story, bringing out the underlying feelings of his character like no-one I have read before. His writing style (in this […]
Some quotes on modesty:
With people of only moderate ability modesty is mere honesty; but with those who possess great talent it is hypocrisy. - Arthur Schopenhauer
Modesty is the lowest of the virtues, and is a confession of the deficiency it indicates. He who undervalues himself is justly overvalued by others. - William Hazlitt
I will not […]
Sometimes I find it so hard to sit down and write. The ideas of what to type just don't materialize in my head; I can go looking for all the stimulus I know of and still I can't pin anything down that I can work into a post. You would think that only doing this […]
This week I went to see Darren Aronofsky's new film The Fountain. I don't generally look at reviews before I go to see a film, but when I saw the BBC Movies website had only given it two stars I found myself looking around to see if the film I had be so eagerly awaiting […]
I feel as though I am finally coming out of my time of reforming now; over the last few days things seem to be slotting back into place, although this could well be just another stage on the path of transition. I've got back into a lot of the things that have been dormant in […]
Over the past week or two I have been feeling my whole world is changing around me. I get this experience rarely, once every few years maybe, where my whole being takes a shift and everything looks different; It's almost as if I fly round in an orbit of my life and start looking at it […]
Time is moving on again. Christmas is approaching with all its weight; summer is a distant memory and we are right into the depths of winter. This is one of my favourite times of the year, but also one of the most emotional. I often find myself with a lot of time to think, or […]