Fuck Yeah Philosophy!

"Life in itself is neither good nor evil. It is the place of good and evil, according to what you..."

Wed, 16 Dec 2009 17:02:18 +0100

“Life in itself is neither good nor evil. It is the place of good and evil, according to what you make it.”

- Michel de Montaigne: Essays

"For it is one thing to know, and another to love; one thing to understand, and another to will. I..."

Tue, 15 Dec 2009 17:00:29 +0100

“For it is one thing to know, and another to love; one thing to understand, and another to will. I don’t deny that [Aristotle] teaches us the nature of virtue. But reading him offers us none of those exhortations, or only a very few, that goad and inflame our minds to love virtue and hate vice […] What good is there in knowing what virtue is, if this knowledge doesn’t make us love it? What point is there in knowing vice, if this knowledge doesn’t make us shun it? By heaven, if the will is corrupt, an idle and irresolute mind will take the wrong path when it discovers the difficulty of the virtues and the alluring ease of the vices.”

- Francesco Petrarca: De sui ipsius et multorum aliorum ignorantia

"There are scholars for whom the history of philosophy (ancient as well as modern) is itself their..."

Mon, 14 Dec 2009 19:34:34 +0100

“There are scholars for whom the history of philosophy (ancient as well as modern) is itself their philosophy; the present prolegomena have not been written for them. They must wait until those who endeavour to draw from the wellsprings of reason itself have finished their business, and then it will be their turn to bring news of these events to the world. Otherwise, in their opinion nothing can be said that has not already been said before; and in fact this opinion can stand for all time as an infallible prediction, for since the human understanding has wandered over countless subjects in various ways through many centuries, it can hardly fail that for anything new something old should be found that has some similarity with it.”

- Immanuel Kant: Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics That Will be Able to Come Forward as Science

Maurice Merleau-Ponty: By definition, it seems that there cannot be any consciousness of ambiguity without ambiguity of consciousness […] From the moment you assume that consciousness of ambiguity is perfectly clear […] and ambiguity is perfectly ambiguous, there is no more consciousness of ambiguity. You see ambiguity as an omnipotent thought might see it. In your eyes it’s no longer ambiguity […].

Sun, 13 Dec 2009 17:08:43 +0100

Maurice Merleau-Ponty: By definition, it seems that there cannot be any consciousness of ambiguity without ambiguity of consciousness […] From the moment you assume that consciousness of ambiguity is perfectly clear […] and ambiguity is perfectly ambiguous, there is no more consciousness of ambiguity. You see ambiguity as an omnipotent thought might see it. In your eyes it’s no longer ambiguity […].
Umberto Campagnolo: Is there a notion of ambiguity which isn’t ambiguous?
Maurice Merleau-Ponty: I said that if one could conceive ambiguity with total clarity, it would no longer be ambiguous. Consequently, you’re right.

"Almost all our discoveries are due to our violence, to the exacerbation of our instability. Even..."

Sat, 12 Dec 2009 17:06:45 +0100

“Almost all our discoveries are due to our violence, to the exacerbation of our instability. Even God, insofar as He interests us – it is not in our innermost selves that we discern God, but at the extreme limits of our fever, at the very point where, our rage confronting His, a shock results, an encounter as ruinous for Him as for us.”

- Émile Michel Cioran: ‘Thinking Against Oneself’

"The notion that truths external to the human mind may be known by intuition or consciousness,..."

Fri, 11 Dec 2009 17:05:21 +0100

“The notion that truths external to the human mind may be known by intuition or consciousness, independently of observation and experience, is, I am persuaded, in these times, the great intellectual support of false doctrines and bad institutions.”

- John Stuart Mill: Autobiography

Ernst Bloch, photographed by Ernst Bloch

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 19:34:01 +0100

Ernst Bloch, photographed by Ernst Bloch

"Oh! I see my life clearly now […] a passionate, frantic search. […] I didn’t know that one could..."

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 16:46:47 +0100

“Oh! I see my life clearly now […] a passionate, frantic search. […] I didn’t know that one could dream of death by metaphysical despair; sacrifice everything to the desire to know. […] I didn’t know that every system is an ardent, tormented thing, an effort of life, of being, a drama in the full sense of the word, and that it does not engage only the abstract intelligence. But I know it now, and that I can no longer do anything else.”

- Simone de Beauvoir: The Coming of Age (translated by Patrick O’Brian)

"Structuralism’s basic ontological assumptions are as follows: (1) There are scientific..."

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 15:35:00 +0100

“

Structuralism’s basic ontological assumptions are as follows:

(1) There are scientific theories (in at least three different senses of the term ‘theory’).

(2) Scientific theories are cultural objects of a rather abstract kind in the sense that they are not spatiotemporally localized the way macroscopic physical objects are. Their ontological status is similar to that of other abstract cultural objects like languages [..], symphonies, computer programs, and the like.

(3) In a way similar to other abstract cultural objects, scientific theories have a ‘deep structure’. This means that their identity criteria and essential components cannot be detected in a straightforward manner by just ‘looking at’ the surface appearance of the concrete objects (e.g scientific texts) instantiating them. To display them is a non-trivial task.

(4) Scientific theories are genidentical entities. They have a ‘life’ of their own, like persons or nations do.

(5) Scientific theories are not ‘monads’. They are essentially related to things outside themselves. At least part of this outside world consists of other scientific theories. This means that there are intertheoretical relations and that they belong to the ‘essence’ of scientific theories.

As for structuralism’s specific methodology, its choice is, in part, prompted by the previous ontological assumptions.

(6) The best way to reveal the deep structure of a scientific theory as an abstract entity is by means of formal analysis. As far as possible, formal techniques of analysis and reconstruction should be preferred to explications in ordinary language. […]

(7) More specifically, given the kind of conceptual analysis required by structuralism, the most adequate formal tool, because of its universal character, appears to be set theory. […]

”

- Carlos Ulises Moulines: ‘Structuralism: The Basic Ideas’

Philippe Nemo: In the face of the Other you say there is an ‘elevation’, a ‘height’. The Other is higher than I am. What do you mean by that?

Mon, 07 Dec 2009 16:54:06 +0100

Philippe Nemo: In the face of the Other you say there is an ‘elevation’, a ‘height’. The Other is higher than I am. What do you mean by that?
Emmanuel Levinas: The first word of the face is the ‘Thou shalt not Kill.’ It is an order. There is a commandment in the appearance of the face, as if a master spoke to me. However, at the same time, the face of the Other is destitute; it is the poor for whom I can do all and to whom I owe all. And me, whoever I may be, but as a ‘first person’, I am he who finds the resources to respond to the call.
Philippe Nemo: One is tempted to say to you: yes, in certain cases. But in other cases, to the contrary, the encounter with the Other occurs in the mode of violence, hate and disdain.
Emmanuel Levinas: To be sure. But I think that whatever the motivation which explains this inversion, the analysis of the face such as I have just made, with the mastery of the Other and his poverty, with my submission and my wealth, is primary. It is the presupposed in all human relationships. If it were not that, we would not even say, before an open door, ‘after you, sir!’ It is an original ‘After you, sir!’ that I have tried to describe.

"And what we expect with certainty is essential to our whole life."

Sun, 06 Dec 2009 20:49:04 +0100

“And what we expect with certainty is essential to our whole life.”

- Ludwig Wittgenstein: Remarks on the Foundations of Mathematics (translated by G.E.M. Anscombe)

"[W]e can […] come to know the human soul’s mode of existence, on the basis of its activity...."

Sat, 05 Dec 2009 16:47:00 +0100

“[W]e can […] come to know the human soul’s mode of existence, on the basis of its activity. For insofar as it has an activity [viz., intellective cognition] that transcends material things, its existence, too, is raised above the body and does not depend on it. On the other hand, insofar as it is naturally suited to acquire immaterial cognition from what is material, the fulfilment of its nature clearly cannot occur without union with the body; for something is complete in its nature only if it has [in itself] the things that are required for the activity that is proper to its nature. Therefore, since the human soul, insofar as it is united to the body as a form, also has its existence raised above the body and does not depend on it, it is clear that the soul is established on the borderline between corporeal and separate [i.e., purely spiritual] substances.”

- Thomas Aquinas: Quaestiones disputatae de anima

"The investigation of the truth is in one way hard, in another easy. An indication of this is found..."

Fri, 04 Dec 2009 16:10:22 +0100

“The investigation of the truth is in one way hard, in another easy. An indication of this is found in the fact that no one is able to attain the truth adequately, while, on the other hand, no one fails entirely, but everyone says something true about the nature of things, and while individually they contribute little or nothing to the truth, by the union of all a considerable amount is amassed.”

- Aristotle: Metaphysics (translated by W. D. Ross)

"Apparently [the value-based aestheticist] lacks qualifications: he does not have the authority, or..."

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 16:26:00 +0100

“Apparently [the value-based aestheticist] lacks qualifications: he does not have the authority, or the suggestive strength, or the capacity to contaminate others with his feeling. And he is overfilled with the will to rule. Thus, he tries to convince the victim that if this victim feels the same things he does, the victim will be right, he will be somehow objectively correct; and he will be wrong if he dares otherwise.”

- Henryk Elzenberg, unsourced as it seems nearly impossible to find English translations of texts by Elzenberg, be it online or in printed form.

It is a shame that there is not even a stub page on the English Wikipedia about him while the Polish Wikipedia page is rather extensive.

"If there is some point to everything we do, something we want for its own sake and which explains..."

Wed, 02 Dec 2009 15:51:34 +0100

“If there is some point to everything we do, something we want for its own sake and which explains why we do everything else, then obviously this has to be the good, the best of all. And there has to be some such point, otherwise everything would be chosen for the sake of something else and we would have an infinite regress, with the result that it would be futile and pointless to want anything at all.”

- Aristotle: Nicomachaean Ethics

Hunter Rawlings III: According to Ancient Greeks, You’re...

Tue, 01 Dec 2009 16:43:51 +0100

Hunter Rawlings III: According to Ancient Greeks, You’re Not Free

"There is no man (if he listen to himselfe) that doth not discover in himselfe a peculiar forme, a..."

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 15:10:48 +0100

“There is no man (if he listen to himselfe) that doth not discover in himselfe a peculiar forme, a swaying forme, that wrestleth against the institution, and against the tempests of passions which are contrary unto him.”

- Michel de Montaigne: The Essayes of Montaigne (translated by John Florio)

"If moral choice is ultimately non-rational, how can its existence be autonomous? But to this it may..."

Sun, 29 Nov 2009 17:52:43 +0100

“If moral choice is ultimately non-rational, how can its existence be autonomous? But to this it may be countered: if moral judgement is ultimately rational, how can it be a matter of choice?”

- Steven Lukes: Individualism

"The first procedure of a philosophy ought to be to expel things from consciousness and to..."

Sat, 28 Nov 2009 17:04:00 +0100

“The first procedure of a philosophy ought to be to expel things from consciousness and to reestablish its true connection to the world, to know that consciousness is a positional consciousness of the world.”

- Jean-Paul Sartre: Being and Nothingness

"Labour is the activity which corresponds to the biological process of the human body, whose..."

Fri, 27 Nov 2009 16:54:00 +0100

“Labour is the activity which corresponds to the biological process of the human body, whose spontaneous growth, metabolism, and eventual decay are bound to the vital necessities produced and fed into the life process by labour. The human condition of labour is life itself. Work is the activity which corresponds to the unnaturalness of human existence, which is not imbedded in, and whose mortality is not compensated by, the species’ ever-recurring life cycle. Work provides an ‘artificial’ world of things, distinctly different from all natural surroundings. Within its borders each individual life is housed, while this world itself is meant to outlast and transcend them all. The human condition of work is worldliness. Action, the only activity that goes on directly between men without the intermediary of things or matter, corresponds to the human condition of plurality, to the fact that men, not Man, live on the earth and inhabit the world. […] Plurality is the condition of human action because we are all the same, that is human, in such a way that nobody is ever the same as anyone else who ever lived, lives, or will live. All three activities and their corresponding conditions are intimately connected with the most general condition of human existence: birth and death, natality and mortality.”

- Hannah Arendt: The Human Condition