existential chaos...

pause. judiciously...

2011-12-21T14:43:00.001-06:00

POZZO:He's stopped crying. (To Estragon.) You have replaced him as it were. (Lyrically.) The tears of the world are a constant quantity. For each one who begins to weep, somewhere else another stops. The same is true of the laugh. (He laughs.) Let us not then speak ill of our generation, it is not any unhappier than its predecessors. (Pause.) Let us not speak well of it either. (Pause.) Let us not speak of it at all. (Pause. Judiciously.) It is true the population has increased.

Waiting for Godot. act 1, Samuel Beckett

for Hitch - "And therefore it worked for all of us. God Bless Johnnie Walker Black." - Andrew Sullivan

2011-12-16T13:20:00.002-06:00

VLADIMIR:

And yet . . . (pause) . . . how is it –this is not boring you I hope– how is it that of the four Evangelists only one speaks of a thief being saved. The four of them were there –or thereabouts– and only one speaks of a thief being saved. (Pause.) Come on, Gogo, return the ball, can't you, once in a way?

ESTRAGON:

(with exaggerated enthusiasm). I find this really most extraordinarily interesting.

VLADIMIR:

One out of four. Of the other three, two don't mention any thieves at all and the third says that both of them abused him.

ESTRAGON:

Who?

VLADIMIR:

What?

ESTRAGON:

What's all this about? Abused who?

VLADIMIR:

The Saviour.

ESTRAGON:

Why?

VLADIMIR:

Because he wouldn't save them.

ESTRAGON:

From hell?

VLADIMIR:

Imbecile! From death.

ESTRAGON:

I thought you said hell.

VLADIMIR:

From death, from death.

ESTRAGON:

Well what of it?

VLADIMIR:

Then the two of them must have been damned.

ESTRAGON:

And why not?

VLADIMIR:

But one of the four says that one of the two was saved.

ESTRAGON:

Well? They don't agree and that's all there is to it.

VLADIMIR:

But all four were there. And only one speaks of a thief being saved. Why believe him rather than the others?

ESTRAGON:

Who believes him?

VLADIMIR:

Everybody. It's the only version they know.

ESTRAGON:

People are bloody ignorant apes.

Waiting for Godot, Act 1, Samuel Beckett

sometimes, the chaos is deafening...

unacceptable...

2011-12-10T10:58:00.001-06:00

We call the following sorts of things toward something: all those things said to be just what they are of or than something, or toward something in some other way (any other way whatsoever). Thus, what is larger is said to be what it is than another (it is said to be larger than something); and a double is said to be just what it is of another (it is said to be double of something); similarly with all other such cases.

(Aristotle, Categories 7, 6a36-6b.)

we tried to die...

2011-12-08T07:38:00.000-06:00

It hurts to set you free
But you'll never follow me
The end of laughter and soft lies
The end of nights we tried to die

the time we cried...

2011-12-07T07:33:00.001-06:00

We chased our pleasures here
Dug our treasures there
But can you still recall
The time we cried

the future's uncertain...

2011-12-06T08:03:00.001-06:00

Well, I woke up this morning, I got myself a beer
Well, I woke up this morning, and I got myself a beer
The future's uncertain, and the end is always near

streets are uneven...

2011-12-05T07:46:00.001-06:00

People are strange when you're a stranger
Faces look ugly when you're alone
Women seem wicked when you're unwanted
Streets are uneven when you're down

you were my queen...

2011-12-04T10:27:00.001-06:00

You were my queen and I was your fool,
Riding home after school.
You took me home
To your house.

This is the strangest life I've ever known...

2011-12-03T08:41:00.001-06:00

Waiting for you to come along
Waiting for you to hear my song
Waiting for you to come along
Waiting for you to tell me what went wrong

This is the strangest life I've ever known

oh, don't ask why...

2011-12-02T08:30:00.000-06:00

life is...

2011-12-01T16:02:00.001-06:00

the soft parade...

2011-07-09T15:28:00.001-05:00

Successful hills are here to stay
Everything must be this way
Gentle streets where people play
Welcome to the Soft Parade

All our lives we sweat and save
Building for a shallow grave
Must be something else we say
Somehow to defend this place
Everything must be this way

Jim Morrison, "The Soft Parade

the total character of the world...

2011-07-02T08:17:00.001-05:00

"The total character of the world, however, is in all eternity chaos--in the sense not of a lack of necessity but a lack of order, arrangement, form, beauty, wisdom, and whatever names there are for our aesthetic anthropomorphisms... Let us beware of attributing to it heartlessness and unreason or their opposites: it is neither perfect nor beautiful, nor noble, nor does it wish to become any of these things; it does not by any means strive to imitate man... Let us beware of saying that there are laws in nature. There are only necessities: there is nobody who commands, nobody who obeys, nobody who trespasses... But when will we ever be done with our caution and care? When will all these shadows of God cease to darken our minds? When will we complete our de-deification of nature? When may we begin to "naturalize" humanity in terms of a pure, newly discovered, newly redeemed nature?"

from Nietzsche's The Gay Science

"philosophers have argued...

2011-06-30T20:16:00.003-05:00

...that without a trend toward order, time would lack meaning. The future would be indistinguishable from the past. Sequences of events would be just so many random scenes from a thousand novels. History would be indistinct, like the mist slowly gathered by treetops in evening."

Einstein's Dreams, pp 70-71

by Alan Lightman

absolute nonexistence:

2011-06-26T18:20:00.001-05:00

the absence of existence, the absence of nothingness, and the absence of absence. It is what is not being referred-to under any circumstances. Its definition is that which cannot be referred-to, named, or defined. It is the non-state to which everything including nothingness is attracted.

Nothingness Theory: The connection between the evolution of the universe and human thought

Corey D. Kaup

a noise...

2010-08-02T19:20:00.003-05:00

ESTRAGON: In the meantime let us try and converse calmly, since we are incapable of keeping silent.

VLADIMIR: You're right, we're inexhaustible.

ESTRAGON: It's so we won't think.

VLADIMIR: We have that excuse.

ESTRAGON: It's so we won't hear.

VLADIMIR: We have our reasons.

ESTRAGON: All the dead voices.

VLADIMIR: They make a noise like wings.

'Waiting for Godot" - Samuel Beckett

"snap! it breaks and you just don't give a damn anymore..."

2010-01-22T18:54:00.002-06:00

Elizabeth Taylor & Richard Burton
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf
by Edward Albee

"gave it all away"...

2010-01-18T14:21:00.003-06:00

there is life and there is death and in between there is the chaos of existence;

the choice is to keep what is important and that is the now...

god is dead...

2010-01-13T22:12:00.001-06:00

God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him. How shall we comfort ourselves, the murderers of all murderers? What was holiest and mightiest of all that the world has yet owned has bled to death under our knives: who will wipe this blood off us? What water is there for us to clean ourselves? What festivals of atonement, what sacred games shall we have to invent? Is not the greatness of this deed too great for us? Must we ourselves not become gods simply to appear worthy of it?

Also sprach Zarathustra, Fredriech Nietzsche, 1883-85

in three years...

2010-01-11T22:24:00.002-06:00

even the chaos has lost its way and become more chaotic, an impossibility by definition, but the world is spiraling into whatever; whether this is a good thing or not, we may never know; however, we should keep this in mind -

"I say unto you; one must still have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star."

- Friedrich Nietzsche, "Also sprach Zarathustra", 1883-85

Pascal's Wager...

2010-01-11T21:49:00.001-06:00

..."God is, or He is not."
Blaise Pascal's Pensees

you cannot determine either by reason.

therefore you have to take a leap of faith or place a wager...

what are the possible consequences?

if you believe there is a god and there is, you then reap the rewards that the mythology promises;

if you believe there is no god, and there isn't, you lose nothing;

if you believe there is no god, and you are wrong and there is, you suffer all of the horrors the mythology forecasts;

of course, there is Richard Dawkins' anti-Pascal Wager -

"Suppose we grant that there is indeed some small chance that God exists. Nevertheless, it could be said that you will lead a better, fuller life if you bet on his not existing, than if you bet on his existing and therefore squander your precious time on worshipping him, sacrificing to him, fighting and dying for him, etc."

from The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins

however, no one will make any odds available...

now, not to waste Pascal's thinking, it is responsible for four really important things: 1) charted new territory in probability theory; 2) one of the first attempts at using the idea of infinity; 3) the first use of decision theory; and 4) made possible the future philosophy of pragmatism.

not bad for a non-betting man...

my wager?

i prefer playing the ponies...

Pascal's Wager - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Posted using ShareThis

2006-08-25T17:21:00.000-05:00

I say unto you; one must still have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star.

- Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra

the end...

2006-06-12T06:09:00.000-05:00

This is the end, beautiful friend
This is the end, my only friend
The end of our elaborate plans
The end of ev'rything that stands
The end

No safety or surprise
The end
I'll never look into your eyes again

Can you picture what will be
So limitless and free
Desperately in need of
some strangers hand
In a desperate land

Lost in a Roman wilderness of pain
And all the children are insane
All the children are insane
Waiting for the summer rain
There's danger on the edge of town
Ride the king's highway
Weird scenes inside the goldmine
Ride the highway West baby

Ride the snake
Ride the snake
To the lake
To the lake

The ancient lake baby
The snake is long
Seven miles
Ride the snake

He's old
And his skin is cold
The west is the best
The west is the best
Get here and we'll do the rest

The blue bus is calling us
The blue bus is calling us
Driver, where you taking us?

The killer awoke before dawn
He put his boots on
He took a face from the ancient gallery
And he walked on down the hall

He went into the room where his sister lived
And then he paid a visit to his brother
And then he walked on down the hall
And he came to a door
And he looked inside
Father?
Yes son
I want to kill you
Mother, I want to.............

Come on, baby, take a chance with us
Come on, baby, take a chance with us
Come on, baby, take a chance with us
And meet me at the back of the blue bus

This is the end, beautiful friend
This is the end, my only friend
The end

It hurts to set you free
But you'll never follow me

The end of laughter and soft lies
The end of nights we tried to die

This is the end

- - Jim Morrison, The End, Doors

I wouldn't mind dying in a plane crash. It'd be a good way to go. I don't want to die in my sleep, or of old age, or OD... I want to feel what it's like. I want to taste it, hear it, smell it. Death is only going to happen to you once; I don't want to miss it.

- Jim Morrison

...enough said.

...and what do my words create?

2006-06-10T06:09:00.000-05:00

The glory of creation is in its infinite diversity.

And in the way our differences combine to create meaning and beauty.

-- Dr. Miranda Jones and Spock, Is There in Truth No Beauty?
stardate 5630.8

...do i need anyone to give me the power to create meaning?
...did i receive this power from someone else?
...or did i give it to myself?

twenty-five days of nothing...

2006-06-08T06:09:00.000-05:00

VLADIMIR:
...I'm beginning to come round to that opinion. All my life I've tried to put it from me, saying Vladimir, be reasonable, you haven't yet tried everything. And I resumed the struggle. (He broods, musing on the struggle. Turning to Estragon.) So there you are again.
ESTRAGON:
Am I?
VLADIMIR:
I'm glad to see you back. I thought you were gone forever.
ESTRAGON:
Me too.
VLADIMIR:
Together again at last! We'll have to celebrate this. But how? (He reflects.) Get up till I embrace you.
ESTRAGON:
(irritably). Not now, not now.

Waiting for Godot, Samuel Beckett

the time has come...

2006-05-14T17:09:00.000-05:00

to realize that not only lemmings follow in step without question...

"The Walrus and the Carpenter"

... The Walrus and the Carpenter
Were walking close at hand;
They wept like anything to see
Such quantities of sand:
"If this were only cleared away,"
They said, "it WOULD be grand!"

"If seven maids with seven mops
Swept it for half a year,
Do you suppose," the Walrus said,
"That they could get it clear?"
"I doubt it," said the Carpenter,
And shed a bitter tear.

"O Oysters, come and walk with us!"
The Walrus did beseech.
"A pleasant walk, a pleasant talk,
Along the briny beach:
We cannot do with more than four,
To give a hand to each."

The eldest Oyster looked at him.
But never a word he said:
The eldest Oyster winked his eye,
And shook his heavy head --
Meaning to say he did not choose
To leave the oyster-bed.

But four young oysters hurried up,
All eager for the treat:
Their coats were brushed, their faces washed,
Their shoes were clean and neat --
And this was odd, because, you know,
They hadn't any feet.

Four other Oysters followed them,
And yet another four;
And thick and fast they came at last,
And more, and more, and more --
All hopping through the frothy waves,
And scrambling to the shore.

The Walrus and the Carpenter
Walked on a mile or so,
And then they rested on a rock
Conveniently low:
And all the little Oysters stood
And waited in a row.

"The time has come," the Walrus said,
"To talk of many things:
Of shoes -- and ships -- and sealing-wax --
Of cabbages -- and kings --
And why the sea is boiling hot --
And whether pigs have wings."

... "It seems a shame," the Walrus said,
"To play them such a trick,
After we've brought them out so far,
And made them trot so quick!"
The Carpenter said nothing but
"The butter's spread too thick!"

"I weep for you," the Walrus said.
"I deeply sympathize."
With sobs and tears he sorted out
Those of the largest size.
Holding his pocket handkerchief
Before his streaming eyes.

"O Oysters," said the Carpenter.
"You've had a pleasant run!
Shall we be trotting home again?"
But answer came there none --
And that was scarcely odd, because
They'd eaten every one.'

Lewis Carroll, from Alice Through The Looking Glass, Ch. 4

some follow carpenters...

the birth of god...

2006-04-23T16:36:00.000-05:00

is only in the utterance of one word...

god

nothing exists until there is a word for it.

nothing...

the death of god...

2006-03-26T09:09:00.000-06:00

Martha: Did you, did you have to?
George: Yes.
Martha: ...You had to?
George: Yes.
Martha: I don't know.
George: It was time.
Martha: Was it?
George: Yes.
Martha: I'm cold.
George: It's late.
Martha: Yes.
George: It will be better.
Martha: I don't know.
George: It will be, maybe.
Martha: I'm not sure.
George: No.
Martha: Just us?
George: Yes.
Martha: You don't suppose, maybe...
George: No.
Martha: Yes. No.
George: All right?
Martha: Yes. No.

George (singing softly to her):
Who's afraid of Virginia Woolf
Virginia Woolf
Virginia Woolf

Martha: I am George.
George: Who's afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Martha: I am George, I am.

Albee, Edward: Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, 1966

there has long been a cry following publication of Nietzshe's works that he declared that "God is dead!"
i don't believe that that is actually what he meant...
i believe he meant that man killed god...
god did not die of his/her own volition...
if he/she ever existed...

...do you see what i see?

2006-03-18T20:09:00.000-06:00

the principle of surroundedness, according to which areas which can be seen as surrounded by others tend to be perceived as figures.*

i don't see anything...
i see something...
i see...

nothing...

*Chandler, Daniel: Codes, Semiotics for Beginners

rien...

2006-03-15T21:09:00.000-06:00

Togod [to Faustus]: "Repeat after me. There is ... Nothing! Nothing ... nothing ... No! ... Nothing ... nothing ... That's it ... That's right ... That's the way it is."

Pour qui suis-je ?
J’ai oublié qui je suis!

Faustus, the Last Night, Pascal Dusapin, composer
Enregistré par France Musiques Commande et production de l'Opéra national de Lyon et du Staatsoper de Berlin, 2005

je ne pense pas...

2006-03-08T06:45:00.000-06:00

Did you hear about Rene Descartes' visit to England? He went into a pub and the barmaid said "Can I get you something, luv?''

He said, "I think not.'' And disappeared.

anonymous

...et le monde continu ou pas!

a candle briefly out...

2006-02-28T20:45:00.000-06:00

Macbeth: To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow; a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.

Shakespeare, William; Macbeth, Act 5, scene 5

...and then nothing?

if nothing, then despair...

2006-02-25T20:09:00.000-06:00

I am a sick man... I am a spiteful man. I am an unattractive man. I believe my liver is diseased....

I was lying when I said just now that I was a spiteful official. I was lying from spite. I was simply amusing myself with the petitioners and with the officer, and in reality I never could become spiteful.

It was not only that I could not become spiteful, I did not know how to become anything: neither spiteful nor kind, neither a rascal nor an honest man, niether a hero nor an insect. Now, I am living out my life in my corner, taunting myself with the spiteful and useless consolation that an intelligent man cannot become anything seriously, and it is only the fool who becomes anything.... I am forty years old now.... To live longer than forty years is bad manners, is vulgar, immoral. Who does live beyond forty? Answer that, sincerely and honestly. I will tell you who do: fools and worthless fellows.

Dostoevsky, Fyodor; Notes from Underground, I; originally published 1918.

...worthless fellows? ...fools? ...spite? ...honesty? ...amusing?

...words of despair?

and then consistency...

2006-02-05T18:09:00.000-06:00

A. - Being - possible limit.
Possible - that which does not imply contradiction.

Existing - compossible with the most perfect.
Compossible - that which does not imply contradiction with another.
More perfect is that which has more of reality or of positive entity.

B. – Being or possible. Existing is that possible series which envelops more of reality, and whatever advances with that.

C. – Existence cannot be defined, no more than being or pure positive, so of course how can any clearer idea be presented to us; but it is known that every possible would exist if it could, but because not every possible can exist, those exist which are more perfect. And so that which is most perfect, it certainly is well known to exist. But there is some most perfect being, i.e. the greatest perfection that is possible, because it is nothing other than pure positive.

Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm; DEFINITIONS (1683-94?); from Grua, Gaston (ed); Textes inédits tome 1 pp 324 - 325; Original translation © Maureen Sawbridge 2002; Revised translation © Lloyd Strickland 2003; Leibniz Translation.com

...how can one thing be more perfect than another?

another Koan...

2006-02-01T20:09:00.000-06:00

Nothing Exists

Yamaoka Tesshu, as a young student of Zen, visited one master after another. He called upon Dokuon of Shokoku.

Desiring to show his attainment, he said: "The mind, Buddha, and sentient beings, after all, do not exist. The true nature of phenomena is emptiness. There is no relaization, no delusion, no sage, no mediocrity. There is no giving and nothing to be received."

Dokuon, who was smoking quietly, said nothing. Suddenly he whacked Yamaoka with his bamboo pipe. This made the youth quite angry.

"If nothing exists," inquired Dokuon, "where did this anger come from?"

Zen Koans

...is misery?

if nothing exists...

2006-01-30T22:09:00.000-06:00

The Death of God as the Self-Overcoming of Christianity. What, in all strictness has really conquered the Christian God? The answer may be found in my Gay Science (section 357): "Christian morality itself, the concept of truthfulness taken more and more strictly, the confessional subtlety of the Christian conscience translated and sublimated into the scientific conscience, into intellectual cleanliness at any price. To view nature as if it were a proof of the good and providence of a God; to interpret history to the glory of a divine reason, as the perpetual witness to a moral world order and moral intentions; to interpret one’s own experiences, as pious men long interpreted them, as if everything were preordained, everything a sign, everything sent for the salvation of the soul — that now belongs to the past, that has the conscience against it, that seems to every more sensitive conscience indecent, dishonest, mendacious, feminism, weakness, cowardice: it is this rigor if anything that makes us good Europeans and the heirs of Europe’s longest and bravest self-overcoming.

All great things bring about their own destruction through an act of self-overcoming: thus the law of life will have it, the law of the necessity of "self-overcoming" in the nature of life — the law-giver himself eventually receives the call. . . In this way Christianity as a dogma was destroyed by its own morality; in the same way Christianity as morality must now perish too: we stand on the threshold of this event. After Christian truthfulness has drawn one inference after another, it must end by drawing its most striking inference, its inference against itself.

MSU.org SELECTED NIETZSCHE TEXTS

...then why have this conversation?

is that all...

2006-01-29T17:09:00.000-06:00

George: You take the trouble to construct a civilization...to build a society based on the principles of...you make government and art, and realize that they are, must be, both the same...you bring things to the saddest of all points...to the point where there is something to lose...then all at once, through all the music, through all the sensible sounds of men building, attempting, comes the Dies Irae. And what is it? What does the trumpet sound? Up yours.

Albee, Edward; "Who's afraid of Virginia Woolf"; 1966

...there is, my friend?

nothing exists...

2006-01-27T21:09:00.000-06:00

What has been exists no more; and exists just as little as that which has never been. But everything that exists has been in the next moment. Hence something belonging to the present, however unimportant it may be, is superior to something important belonging to the past; this is because the former is a reality and related to the latter as something is to nothing.

A man to his astonishment all at once becomes conscious of existing after having been in a state of non-existence for many thousands of years, when, presently again, he returns to a state of non-existence for an equally long time. This cannot possibly be true, says the heart; and even the crude mind, after giving the matter its consideration, must have some sort of presentiment of the ideality of time. This ideality of time, together with that of space, is the key to every true system of metaphysics, because it finds room for quite another order of things than is to be found in nature.

Schopenhauer, Arthur, "The Emptiness of Existence," Essays of Schopenhauer, eBooks@Adelaide

...then exists and after that doesn't exist again?

breaking wind...

2006-01-26T20:09:00.000-06:00

The Question Arises ...

What makes it serious
is that we know
that after the order
of this world
there is another.
What is it like?

We do not know.

The number and order of possible suppositions in
this realm
is precisely
infinity!

And what is infinity?

That is precisely what we do not know!

It is a word
that we use
to indicate
the opening
of our consciousness
toward possibility
beyond measure,
tireless and beyond measure.

And precisely what is consciousness?

That is precisely what we do not know.

It is nothingness.

A nothingness
that we use
to indicate
when we do not know something
from what side
we do not know it
and so
we say
consciousness,
from the side of consciousness,
but there are a hundred thousand other sides.

Well?

It seems that consciousness
in us is
linked
to sexual desire
and to hunger;

but it could
just as well
not be linked
to them.

One says,
one can say,
there are those who say
that consciousness
is an appetite,
the appetite for living;

and immediately
alongside the appetite for living,
it is the appetite for food
that comes immediately to mind;

as if there were not people who eat
without any sort of appetite;
and who are hungry.

For this too
exists
to be hungry
without appetite;

well?

Well
the space of possibility
was given to me one day
like a loud fart
that I will make;
but neither of space,
nor possibility,
did I know precisely what it was,

and I did not feel the need to think about it,

they were words
invented to define things
that existed
or did not exist
in the face of
the pressing urgency
of a need:
the need to abolish the idea,
the idea and its myth,
and to enthrone in its place
the thundering manifestation
of this explosive necessity:
to dilate the body of my internal night,

the internal nothingness
of my self

which is night,
nothingness,
thoughtlessness,

but which is explosive affirmation
that there is
something
to make room for:

my body....

Artaud, Antonin; "To Have Done with the Judgement of God," a radio play, broadcast on French radio February 2, 1948

...is that all there is?

and the mirror kept reflecting...

2006-01-24T20:09:00.000-06:00

In the philosophical sense, the major implication of epiphenomenalism is that what we do or feel is never caused by what we experience or have experienced. This implication goes much further than the negation of free will. As subjective beings, we are completely impotent confronted by the processes of the material world. We cannot exert any influence upon them, but we are completely determined by them. Our relations with reality, our relation with ourselves, with other persons, with objects, etc., are completely caused by physiological processes in the brain.

Such relations never initiate anything. Thus, epiphenomenalism anthropologically implies an "imprisoned" consciousness that can undertake absolutely nothing and never has any power over itself. Naturally, this metaphysics has great consequences for the axiology and ethics. In fact, axiologically epiphenomenalism implies that all our values are biogenical; there are no values that would not be epiphenomena of neurological processes.

Rivas, Titus & van Dongen, Hein Exit Epiphenomenalism: The Demolition of a Refuge published in the Journal of Non-Locality and Remote Mental Interactions, vol. 57, 2001

Epiphenomenalism is the view in philosophy of mind according to which physical events have mental effects, but mental events have no effects of any kind. This is a radical idea because it denies the concept that the mind has any control over the body, or even any ability to cause an action in the world. Human experience is present, but inert.

Wikipedia: Epiphenomenalism

... even what it could not see?

on holiday...

2006-01-20T10:28:00.000-06:00

...sunset off the coast of Cuba

Philosophers mean to be on holiday as they turn to Nietzsche -- that may be why so many non-specialists feel perfectly competent to talk or even write books about Nietzsche. On holiday, one seeks the liberating prospect of the open sea, the roar of the waves, or a sense of mountain air and clear light.

Babich, Babette E., HEIDEGGER'S RELATION TO NIETZSCHE'S THINKING: ON CONNIVANCE, NIHILISM, AND VALUE

clarity, competence, calmness, connivance, chaos...?

mirror, mirror on the wall...

2006-01-12T21:36:00.000-06:00

A mirror neuron is a neuron which fires both when performing an action and when observing the same action performed by another (possibly conspecific) creature. Thus, the neuron "mirrors" the behavior of another animal, as though the observer were performing the action. These neurons have been observed in primates, some birds, and humans in Broca's and the inferior parietal cortex of the brain. Some scientists consider mirror neurons one of the most important findings of neuroscience in the last decade.

Cells That Read Minds New York Times, January 11, 2006

.... who has the most free will of all?

reductive consciousness...

2006-01-11T21:09:00.000-06:00

A higher order theory of consciousness is, in a certain sense, a reductive theory of consciousness. Suppose some day we are granted an understanding of sentience and sensory states with their qualitative character. These provide one variety of transitive state consciousness. Suppose we also come to understand mental representation, or at least how thoughts represent. We would then understand two kinds of transitive state consciousness, or two ways of being conscious of something: by sensing it, or by thinking about it. What other resources do we need to give a full account of conscious mental states? It may seem that the latter question is a further and much harder question, requiring new and mysterious resources for its solution. But the bold answer of the higher order theorist is: nothing more is needed. Solving those problems would solve the problem of consciousness. With an understanding of sensory qualities and of how thought represents, you can give a full account not only of mental states but of the difference between conscious mental states and unconscious ones.

Clark , Austen; Phenomenal Consciousness so-called; Presented at the Italian Institute for Philosophical Studies, International School of Biophysics study program "From Neuronal Coding to Consciousness", Ischia (Naples), 12-17 October 1998

...simplified or over-simplified?

in·stan·ti·ate ii...

2006-01-07T12:09:00.000-06:00

[Regarding] those matters which I think I see utterly clearly with my mind's eye … when I turn to the things themselves which I think I perceive very clearly, I am so convinced by them that I spontaneously declare: let whoever can do so deceive me, he will never bring it about that I am nothing, so long as I continue to think I am something; or make it true at some future time that I have never existed, since it is now true that I exist; or bring it about that two and three added together are more or less than five, or anything of this kind in which I see a manifest contradiction.

Descartes, Rene; Meditation 3, AT, 7:36

... 2 + 3 = or ≠ 5?

cogito, ergo sum...

2006-01-06T21:09:00.000-06:00

in·stan·ti·ate (ĭn-stăn'shē-āt')
tr.v., -at·ed, -at·ing, -ates.
To represent (an abstract concept) by a concrete or tangible example:

eg. “Two apples … both instantiate the single universal redness”

answers.com

...JUST a theory?

...what would Descartes think?

thinking...

2006-01-05T16:09:00.000-06:00

VLADIMIR:
This is awful!
ESTRAGON:
Sing something.
VLADIMIR:
No no! (He reflects.) We could start all over again perhaps.
ESTRAGON:
That should be easy.
VLADIMIR:
It's the start that's difficult.
ESTRAGON:
You can start from anything.
VLADIMIR:
Yes, but you have to decide.
ESTRAGON:
True.
(Silence.)
VLADIMIR:
Help me!
ESTRAGON:
I'm trying.
(Silence.)
VLADIMIR:
When you seek you hear.
ESTRAGON:
You do.
VLADIMIR:
That prevents you from finding.
ESTRAGON:
It does.
VLADIMIR:
That prevents you from thinking.
ESTRAGON:
You think all the same.
VLADIMIR:
No no, it's impossible.
ESTRAGON:
That's the idea, let's contradict each another.
VLADIMIR:
Impossible.
ESTRAGON:
You think so?
VLADIMIR:
We're in no danger of ever thinking any more.
ESTRAGON:
Then what are we complaining about?
VLADIMIR:
Thinking is not the worst.
ESTRAGON:
Perhaps not. But at least there's that.
VLADIMIR:
That what?
ESTRAGON:
That's the idea, let's ask each other questions.
VLADIMIR:
What do you mean, at least there's that?
ESTRAGON:
That much less misery.
VLADIMIR:
True.
ESTRAGON:
Well? If we gave thanks for our mercies?
VLADIMIR:
What is terrible is to have thought.

Beckett, Samuel; Waiting for Godot, Act II

...is misery?

allusionary...

2006-01-04T13:09:00.000-06:00

There is an order where the subject finds himself in the presence of something entirely beyond his grasp. I would add that if the word “transcendent” has any meaning it is here — it designates the absolute, unbridgeable chasm yawning between the subject and being, insofar as being evades every attempt to pin it down.

Marcel, Gabriel, 1973, p. 193, Tragic Wisdom and Beyond, Translated by Stephen Jolin and Peter McCormick. Publication of the Northwestern University Studies in Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy, ed. John Wild. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press

...without mentioning it explicitly?

"real" reality...

2005-12-30T15:09:00.000-06:00

The philosophical postmodernists, a rebel crew milling beneath the black flag of anarchy, challenge the very foundations of science and traditional philosophy. Reality, they propose, is a state constructed by the mind, not perceived by it. In the most extravagant version of the constructivism, there is not "real" reality, no objective truths external to mental activity, only prevailing versions disseminated by ruling social groups. Nor can ethics be firmly grounded, given that each society creates its own codes for the benefit of the same oppressive forces.

Wilson, Edward O., Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge, Vintage Books, 1998, p. 44.

...is in the mind of the beholder? ...originator?

knowledge, language, learning...

2005-12-29T09:09:00.000-06:00

I have been describing the problem of acquisition of knowledge of language in terms that are more familiar in an epistemological than a psychological context, but I think that this is quite appropriate. Formally speaking, acquisition of “common-sense knowledge” – knowledge of a language, for example – is not unlike theory construction of the most abstract sort. Speculating about the future development of the subject, it seems to me not unlikely, for the reasons I have mentioned, that learning theory will progress by establishing the innately determined set of possible hypotheses, determining the conditions of interaction that lead the mind to put forth hypotheses from this set, and fixing the conditions under which such a hypothesis is confirmed – and, perhaps, under which much of the data is rejected as irrelevant for one reason or another.

Chomsky, Noam, Language and Mind: Linguistic Contributions to the Study of Mind , Source: Language and Mind publ. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc., 1968. One of the six lectures

...language first? ...mind first? ...questions a priori?

signs...

2005-12-28T18:09:00.000-06:00

Semiotics is the science of communication and sign systems, in short, of the ways people understand phenomena and organize them mentally, and of the ways in which they devise means for transmitting that understanding and for sharing it with others. Although natural and artificial languages are therefore central to semiotics, its field covers all non-verbal signalling and extends to domains whose communicative dimension is perceived only unconsciously or subliminally. Knowledge, meaning, intention and action are thus fundamental concepts in the semiotic investigation of phenomena.

"Semiotics & Communications Theory," Course of study description, Victoria College, British Columbia, Victoria College - Semiotics

...out there or in here with language?

is there in truth...

2005-12-26T12:09:00.000-06:00

What then is truth? A mobile army of metaphors, metonyms, and anthropomorphisms -- in short, a sum of human relations, which have been enhanced, transposed, and embellished poetically and rhetorically, and which after long use seem firm, canonical, and obligatory to a people: truths are illusions about which one has forgotten that is what they are; metaphors which are worn out and without sensuous power; coins which have lost their pictures and now matter only as metal, no longer as coins.

We still do not know where the urge for truth comes from; for as yet we have heard only of the obligation imposed by society that it should exist: to be truthful means using the customary metaphors - in moral terms, the obligation to lie according to fixed convention, to lie herd-like in a style obligatory for all...

'On truth and lie in an extra-moral sense,' The Viking Portable Nietzsche, p.46-7, Walter Kaufmann transl.

...no beauty?

to be or not to be...

2005-12-25T16:09:00.000-06:00

Nothing in the universe can stand by itself - no thing, no fact, no being, no event - and for his reason it is absurd to single anything out as the ideal to be grasped. For what is singled out exists only in relation to its own opposite, since what is is defined by what is not, pleasure is defined by pain, life is defined by death, and motion is defined by stillness. Obviously, the mind can form no idea of what "to be" means without the contrast of "not to be," since the ideas of being and non-being are abstractions from such simple experiences as that there is a penny in the right hand and no penny in the left hand.

Watts, Alan, The Way of Zen, "Mayahana Buddhism," 1957, p. 63

...it is not a question?

an indication of something...

2005-12-24T10:09:00.000-06:00

A sign stands for something to the idea which it produces or modifies....That for which it stands is called its object, that which it conveys, its meaning; and the idea which it gives rise, its interpretant.... [the sign creates in the mind] an equivalent sign, or perhaps a more developed sign. That sign which it creates I call the interpretant of the first sign. This sign stands for something, its object. It stands for that object, not in all respects, but in reference to a sort of idea which I have sometimes called the ground of that representation."

C. S. Peirce, quoted in Umberto Eco (1979) The Role of the Reader 7.2

or something else...?

strange...

2005-12-12T21:09:00.000-06:00

...attractor?

into the chaos...

2005-12-11T17:27:00.000-06:00

The Universe has a fundamental pattern of fourfoldness throughout all scales of magnitude. When applied to Nature, including Man, the Law of Four manifests as the four attractors. These attractors balance entropy, providing order from out of chaos. When applied in the microcosmic level "the four" manifests as the four basic energies or forces: electro-magnetic, gravity, and the strong and weak forces. In human consciousness its the four functions of sensing, thinking, feeling and willing. Understanding how the Attractors work in the meso-cosmic world can help us make sense of our world, and make sense of our consciousness functions....

The four attractors act on all levels of reality to form Cosmos out of Chaos. They make up a newly discovered Wisdom Law fundamental to making sense of what is happening in the real world. The world is not really totally ordered as previously believed. It is fundamentally disordered, chaotic, but it contains forces or attractors of cosmos that create patterns of order over time. They are anchors of order in an otherwise stormy sea. Full understanding of the Attractors requires a new understanding of space and time....

There is no apparent order at all to the actions of the Strange attractor. On the surface it appears to be pure Chaos, but nevertheless there is order of a subtle kind which only appears over time when looked at in the right perspective. Its analogy in consciousness is the willing function. Yet, when tied to Awareness - the Zero - it is spontaneous, unpredictable. It appears to be chaotic, yet it has order of a subtle, fractal kind.

The Four Chaos Attractors

...it appears over time?

real, reality, realization, realism, realist, realty...

2005-12-08T17:09:00.000-06:00

Quietism is the attitude of people who say, "let others do what I cannot do." The doctrine I am presenting before you is precisely the opposite of this, since it declares that there is no reality except in action. It goes further, indeed, and adds, "Man is nothing else but what he purposes, he exists only in so far as he realises himself, he is therefore nothing else but the sum of his actions, nothing else but what his life is."

"Existentialism and Humanism" by Jean-Paul Sartre. Trans. Philip Mairet (Brooklyn: Haskell House Publishers Ltd., 1977), pp. 23-56. First published in French in 1946 under the title "L'Existentialisme est un humanisme*."

* Note: The translation from French to English actually is "Existentialism is (a) humanism." The indefinite article (a) is always used in French with most nouns, as are definite articles (the), unlike English where articles can be understood to be there. As the reader can see, this other translation of the title declares something very different than the translated title "Existentialism and Humanism."

Translation can be a very tricky job. Does the translator need to change the form of what is being said into the idiomatic language of the translated? Is there a need to do literal translation? Can translation change the meaning of what is said? These are all vey important considerations, especially if "language" may be the only thing that can prove what is real, reality, realization, realism, realist, realty...

Reading the two translations shows that they mean two very different things. "Existentialism and Humanism" leads one to initially compare and contrast the two. "Existentialim is (a) humanism" can go in different directions in and of itself. Is existentialism a type of humanism? Are existentialism and humanism one and the same thing? Can we have one without the other? What is the interaction within the two? The entire conversation changes. Consider one of the key phrases in the quote...

..."there is no reality except in action"?

In the French the langauge for this phrase is "...il n'y a de réalité que dans l'action." It can also be translated as "there is reality only in the action." [emphasis mine]

...the action? What about the thought?

existence a priori...

2005-12-04T09:09:00.000-06:00

What do we mean by saying that existence precedes essence? We mean that man first of all exists, encounters himself, surges up in the world--and defines himself afterwards. If man as the existentialist sees him is not definable, it is because to begin with he is nothing. He will not be anything until later, and then he will be what he makes of himself. Thus, there is no human nature, because there is no God to have a conception of it. Man simply is. Not that he is simply what he conceives himself to be, but he is what he wills, and as he conceives himself after already existing--as he wills to be after that leap towards existence. Man is nothing else but that which he makes of himself.

"Existentialism and Humanism" by Jean-Paul Sartre. Trans. Philip Mairet (Brooklyn: Haskell House Publishers Ltd., 1977), pp. 23-56. First published in French in 1946 under the title "L'Existentialisme est un humanisme."

...i am, therefore I think?

the journey...

2005-11-30T21:09:00.000-06:00

What can we gain by sailing to the moon if we are not able to cross the abyss that separates us from ourselves? This is the most important of all voyages of discovery, and without it, all the rest are not only useless, but disastrous.

Thomas Merton, 1915-1968

...the destination?

"The world exists but it is not real...

2005-11-29T09:09:00.000-06:00

...what do you think about that?

...Ku* is existence without noumenon. It exists but it doesn't exist. There is no substance. I exist, but what does that mean? Is this me, my head, my feet, my skin? No. My cells, body, skin are changing all the time. Every seven years all the cells in our body are completely renewed. Where is me? It's the same for everything in the world, and for the world itself; it has no noumenon, it is ku*."

Taisen Deshimaru Roshi (1914-1982) ABZenD: 180 answers about zen from Master Deshimaru

*Ku - (Japanese) "Emptiness;" ...It is the emptiness of emptiness, it is the emptiness of the circumstances of any situation, and it is the emptiness of yourself.....

a thought...

2005-11-28T21:09:00.000-06:00

Does your room really have a view,
Or even a window to look through?
All I want is for you to look inside of you.
Don't be afraid to walk through the door.
Believe it or not, you've opened it.

Chris Cormack, Mind Moon Circle Quartely, Autumn 1992, pp.21

...goes through the door?

the two abysses...

2005-11-27T09:09:00.000-06:00

He who regards himself in this light will be afraid of himself, and observing himself sustained in the body given him by nature between those two abysses of the Infinite and Nothing, will tremble at the sight of these marvels; and I think that, as his curiosity changes into admiration, he will be more disposed to contemplate them in silence than to examine them with presumption.

For in fact what is man in nature? A Nothing in comparison with the Infinite, an All in comparison with the Nothing, a mean between nothing and everything. Since he is infinitely removed from comprehending the extremes, the end of things and their beginning are hopelessly hidden from him in an impenetrable secret; he is equally incapable of seeing the Nothing from which he was made, and the Infinite in which he is swallowed up.

Blaise Pascal, Pensees, sect. II, 72

... = ?

before, during, after...

2005-11-26T21:09:00.000-06:00

Before my teacher came to me, I did not know that I am. I lived in a world that was no-world. I cannot hope to describe adequately that unconscious, yet conscious time of nothingness...Since I had no power of thought, I did not compare one mental state with another.

Helen Keller, 1908

...real being or nothingness?

a difference...

2005-11-25T21:09:00.000-06:00

It's a beautiful thing, the destruction of words. Of course the great wastage is in the verbs and adjectives... It isn't only the synonyms: there are also the antonyms. After all, what justification is there for a word which is simply the opposite of some other word? A word contains its opposite in itself. Take 'good', for instance. If you have a word like 'good', what need is there for a word like 'bad'? 'Ungood' will do just as well - better, because it's an exact opposite, which the other is not.

Orwell, George, Nineteen Eighty-Four, [1949] 1989, 54.

...no matter how miniscule, is still a difference.

reality, what a concept...

2005-11-24T09:09:00.000-06:00

For we shall maintain that no statement which refers to a "reality" transcending the limits of all possible sense-perception can possibly have any literal significance; from which it must follow that the labours of those who have striven to describe such a reality have all been devoted to the production of nonsense.

A.J. Ayer, Language, Truth, and Logic, 1936, 34

"...limits of sense-perception?"

concept of infinitesimals...

2005-11-20T09:09:00.000-06:00

The Dichotomy: There is no motion, because that which is moved must arrive at the middle before it arrives at the end, and so on ad infinitum.

The Achilles: The slower will never be overtaken by the quicker, for that which is pursuing must first reach the point from which that which is fleeing started, so that the slower must always be some distance ahead.

The Arrow: If everything is either at rest or moving when it occupies a space equal to itself, while the object moved is always in the instant, a moving arrow is unmoved.

The Stadium: Consider two rows of bodies, each composed of an equal number of bodies of equal size. They pass each other as they travel with equal velocity in opposite directions. Thus, half a time is equal to the whole time.

Zeno of Elea's "Paradoxes," in Aristotle, Physics VI:9, 239b15

...can no time and no space exist?

noumena...

2005-11-13T11:27:00.000-06:00

Sect. 32. Since the oldest days of philosophy inquirers into
pure reason have conceived, besides the things of sense, or
appearances (phenomena), which make up the sensible world,
certain creations of the understanding (Verstandeswesen), called
noumena, which should constitute an intelligible world. And as
appearance and illusion were by those men identified (a thing
which we may well excuse in an undeveloped epoch), actuality was
only conceded to the creations of thought.

And we indeed, rightly considering objects of sense as mere
appearances, confess thereby that they are based upon a thing in
itself, though we know not this thing in its internal
constitution, but only know its appearances, viz., the way in
which our senses are affected by this unknown something. The
understanding therefore, by assuming appearances, grants the
existence of things in themselves also, and so far we may say,
that the representation of such things as form the basis of
phenomena, consequently of mere creations of the understanding,
is not only admissible, but unavoidable.

Our critical deduction by no means excludes things of that
sort (noumena), but rather limits the principles of the Aesthetic
(the science of the sensibility) to this, that they shall not
extend to all things, as everything would then be turned into
mere appearance, but that they shall only hold good of objects of
possible experience. Hereby then objects of the understanding are
granted, but with the inculcation of this rule which admits of no
exception: "that we neither know nor can know anything at all
definite of these pure objects of the understanding, because our
pure concepts of the understanding as well as our pure intuitions
extend to nothing but objects of possible experience, consequently
to mere things of sense, and as soon as we leave this sphere these
concepts retain no meaning whatever."

Kant, Immanuel, Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics, 1783.

nou*me*non, |noōmə,nån|
noun (pl. na |nə|)
a thing as it is in itself, as distinct from a thing as it is knowable by the senses through phenomenal attributes.

Oxford American Dictionariese

"...that we neither know nor can know anything at all... and as soon as we leave this sphere these concepts retain no meaning whatever...?"

...can I know "nothing," if I am not by its sphere nor cannot sense it?

the other belongs to me...

2005-11-12T02:09:00.000-06:00

The other, in so far as he is other, only exists for me in so far as I am open to him, in so far as he is a Thou. But I am only open to him in so far as I cease to form a circle with myself, inside which I somehow place the other, or rather his idea; for inside this circle, the other becomes the idea of the other, and the idea of the other is no longer the other qua other, but the other qua related to me…

Gabriel Marcel, Being and Having, 1949, p. 107

...does existence depend on the other?

another koan...

2005-11-11T07:45:00.000-06:00

The Stone Mind

Hogen, a Chinese Zen teacher, lived alone in a small temple in the country. One day four traveling monks appeared and asked if they might make a fire in his yard to warm themselves.

While they were building the fire, Hogen heard them arguing about subjectivity and objectivity. He joined them and said: "There is a big stone. Do you consider it to be inside or outside your mind?"

One of the monks replied: "From the Buddhist viewpoint everything is an objectification of mind, so I would say that the stone is inside my mind."

"Your head must feel very heavy," observed Hogen, "if you are carrying around a stone like that in your mind."

...does the stone mind?

words...

2005-11-09T21:54:00.000-06:00

Section 29. Words. I have copiously enough spoken of the abuse of words in another place [071] and therefore shall upon this reflection, that the sciences are full of them, warn those that would conduct their understandings right not to take any term, howsoever authorized by the language of the schools, to stand for any thing till they have an idea of it. A word may be of frequent use and great credit with several authors and be by them made use of as if it stood for some real being; but Met, if he that reads cannot frame any distinct idea of that being, it is certain[ly] to him a mere empty sound without a meaning, and he learns no more by all that is said of it or attributed to it than if it were affirmed only of that bare empty sound. They who would advance in knowledge and not deceive and swell themselves with a little articulated air should lay dolor this as a fundamental rule, not to take words for things nor suppose that names in boozes signify real entities in nature till they can frame clear and distinct ideas of those entities. It will not perhaps be allowed if I should set down "substantial forms" and "intentional species" [072] as such that may justly be suspected to be of this kind of insignificant terms. But this I am sure, to one that can form no determined ideas of Chat they stand for they signify nothing at all; and all that he thinks he knows about them is to him so much knowledge about nothing and amounts at most but to a learned ignorance. It is not without all reason supposed that there are many such empty terms to be found in some learned writers, to which they had recourse to etch [073] out their so stems where their understandings could not furnish them with conceptions from things. But yet I believe the supposing of some realities in nature answering those and the like words have much perplexed some and quite misled others in the study of nature. That which in any discourse signifies "I know not what" [074] should be considered "I know not when." Where men have any conceptions, they can, if they are never so abstruse or abstracted, explain them and the terms they use for them. For our conceptions being nothing but ideas, which are all made up of simple ones, [075] if they cannot give us the ideas their words stand for, it is plain they have none. To what purpose can it be to hunt after his conceptions who has none or none distinct? He that knew not what he himself meant by a learned term cannot make us know anything by his use of it, let us beat our heads about it never so long. Whether we are able to comprehend all the operations of nature and the manners of them, it matters not to enquire; but this is certain, that we can comprehend no more of them than we can distinctly conceive; and therefore to obtrude terms where Me have no distinct conceptions, as if they did contain or rather conceal something, is but an artifice of learned vanity to cover a defect in a hypothesis or our understandings. Words are not made to conceal, but to declare and show something; where they are, by those who pretend to instruct, otherwise used, they conceal indeed something; but that they conceal is nothing but the ignorance, error or sophistry of the talker, for there is, in truth, nothing else under them.

John Locke, Of the Conduct of the Understanding, 1706, Edited by F. W. Garforth.

...belong only to the speaker?

representation...

2005-11-07T20:47:00.000-06:00

"[O]ne must distinguish the Object as it is represented, which is called the Immediate Object, from the Object as it is in itself. The latter is purely active in the representation. That is, it remains in all respects exactly as it was before it was represented. It is true that the purpose of representing an Object is usually, if not always, to modify it in some respect. But by the Object Itself, or the Real Object, we mean the Object insofar as it is not modified by being represented."

C.S. Pierce, On Signs, MS 793:14, not dated

...objectively real?

conceptual vagueries...

2005-11-03T22:18:00.000-06:00

The nominalist and conceptualist schools regard concepts as subjective, i.e., as products of man's consciousness, unrelated to the facts of reality, as mere "names" or notions arbitrarily assigned to arbitrary groupings of concretes on the ground of vague, inexplicable resemblances.

Ayn Rand, 1990. Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology. Second Edition. New York: Meridian.

"notion" from the Latin notus 'known'

...vague notions? ...known reality? ...facts? or just plain 'inexplicable?'

formulaic insignificance...

2005-11-02T20:27:00.000-06:00

Nonlinearity means the non-superposition of factors or effects; it means there are terms like

X², 2mxy, byz

in the equations, in which x, y and z are variables, b and m are parameters. Nonlinearity is a necessary, but not sufficient condition for the appearance of chaos. Chaos motions must come from a nonlinear system but nonlinearity does not necessarily imply chaos. Piecewise nonlinearity is not equal to linearity.

"A Brief History of the Concept of Chaos", Huajie Liu, (Department of Philosophy, Peking University, 100871, Beijing, P.R.China), 1999-04-12

...or an expression of order?

no essence...

2005-10-31T20:45:00.000-06:00

Individual men who are separate from each other, while they differ both in their own essences and in their own forms ... nevertheless agree in this: that they are men. I do not say that they agree in man, since a man is not any thing unless it is a distinct man. Rather I say in being a man. Being a man is not a man nor any thing if we consider the matter carefully.... We mean merely that they are men and do not differ at all in this regard, that is, not in as much as they are men, although we call on no essence....

...Now it seems we should stay away from accepting the agreement among things according to what is not any thing — it's as though we were to unite in nothing things that now exist! — namely, when we say that this [human] and that one agree in the human status, that is to say: in that they are human. But we mean precisely that they are human and don't differ in this regard — let me repeat: [they don't differ] in that they are human, although we're not appealing to any thing [in this explanation]....

Logica ‘ingredientibus’, Pierre Abelard du Pallet, d. 1142

...separate or separated?

looking for answers...

2005-10-28T10:36:00.000-05:00

The important thing is not to stop questioning.

~ Albert Einstein

...will someone let me know if they find an answer?
... and then ask me if I trust it?

a temptation...

2005-10-25T20:45:00.000-05:00

Now I am tempted to say that the right expression in language for the miracle of the existence of the world, though it is not any proposition in language, is the existence of language itself. But what then does it mean to be aware of this miracle at some times and not at other times? For all I have said by shifting the expression of the miraculous from an expression by means of language to the expression by the existence of language, all I have said is again that we cannot express what we want to express and that all we can say about the absolute miraculous remains nonsense.

Lecture on Ethics, Ludwig Wittgenstein, 1929

...and language exists?

limited consideration...

2005-10-24T19:54:00.000-05:00

This actual world of what is knowable, in which we are and which is in us, remains both the material and the limit of our consideration.

Arthur Schopenhauer, World as Will and Representation, vol. i, pg. 273, (E.F.J. Payne Translation)

...actual? ...knowable?

what a concept...

2005-10-23T18:27:00.000-05:00

Man is the place at which and through which everything that is real exists for us at all. To fail to be human would mean to slip into nothingness.

Karl Jaspers, "On My Philosophy," Existentialism from Dostoyevsky to Sartre, edited by Walter Kaufman.

...but, what is real?

the abode...

2005-10-19T23:59:00.000-05:00

Language is the house of Being.

Letter on Humanism, Martin Heidegger, 1947, p. 217

...who created the house?

a dialogue...

2005-10-11T20:54:00.000-05:00

I have been having with myself.

There is, despite evidence to the contrary, a method to what I have been posting. It is both existential and chaotic and it is not. Until this point, I have not made an entry of my own on this blog with the exception of comments about the contents of a post or a question about some entry's gist. That is until today....

Though I had not intended to write an entry of my own at this point, because of some things happening in my life, the following is a dialogue I have been having with myself and I find a need to include it in this blog.

I had a major breakthrough on my way home from work about my "almost, probable, certain future." I feel like I'm "stuck" at work because of "external circumstances," eg not having the connections that others have, the plethora of a club of administrators who take care of each other first, or being too qualified compared to others, when, actually, I am making it my "almost, probable, certain future" based on the past. I'm not believing that anything is possible because the past is in front of me not behind me. There should not be an almost, probable, certain future; there are only endless possibilities because nothing exists in the future except things I create. The past has already been created and exists no more.

No matter how many times I tell this to myself [and it has been for years and years] it is difficult to always keep it in perspective.

I do not believe that anything exists. Anything. Existence is predicated on language. Everything must be distinguished by language. Language is what makes anything exist because I name it as such, yet I still can't prove that anything exists.

We have a set of common distinctions about objects. We call a chair a chair because of the language we use to describe it or, rather, what language we decided to use to describe its existence.

It is a task teaching kids how to read because language itself is a creation. A creation that is actually foreign to the functioning of the brain processes. No one has ever been able to explain how we learn to read. There are many theories that explain the various steps but none that explain how. Yet, we are driven to learn how to read - and write.

The artist George Seurat is attributed with a phrase: "A blank canvas. So many possibilities." Endless possibilities not based on an "almost, probable, certain future" but on nothing that previously existed on the blank canvas. What is interesting is that Seurat's art was known as pointilism, a blending of dots that are so close together that they give depth, color, perspective and emotion. In addition, there is a scientific and mathematical basis to this form of art since it deals with an optical mixture based on light. This explanation, of course, is based on the distinctions we make based on language that is a creation itself and may not exist.

So, if "nothing exists," or the antithesis that is an "almost, probable, certain future" does not exist, we have to understand that we have the possibility of creating anything and everything from nothing.

so many possibilities...

jumping together...

2005-10-10T20:09:00.000-05:00

"The Consilience of Inductions takes place when an Induction, obtained from one class of facts, coincides with an Induction obtained from another different class. Thus Consilience is a test of the truth of the Theory in which it occurs."

The Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences, William Whewell, 1840

...are all things connected?

definitions...

2005-10-09T10:18:00.000-05:00

Absolute nonexistence: The absence of existence, the absence of nothingness, and the absence of absence. It is what is not being referred-to under any circumstances. Its definition is that which cannot be referred-to, named, or defined. It is the non-state to which everything including nothingness is attracted.

Chaos Theory: The study and mathematical modeling of complexity in natural systems.

Complexity: The characteristic of a system endowing it with the capacity for infinite variation of motion and form.

Dis-equilibrium: A disturbance in absolute nonexistence. It is a result of the fundamental asymmetry between nothingness, absolute nonexistence and temporal existence.

Disordered Complexity: Random chaotic motion within a system either moving towards or coming from ordered complexity.

Energy: Motion; which is the detectable change in spatial relationships between the components of a given system and the means of redistribution of space and matter. Energy is also the measure of all the forms of repulsion and attraction between space and matter (known as potential energy).

Environment: The immediate surroundings of a given system from which the system comes, upon which it is dependent, and to which it will return its component parts.

Evolution: The universal progressive pattern of the exchange of disordered complexity for ordered complexity in all natural systems. It is the orderly increasing delineation of a system from its environment.

Existence: The set of circumstances in which it is possible for humans to maintain sentient consciousness of self and time. Existence is independent of temporality by virtue of its infinite nature except in the context of its temporal phase (see Temporal Existence).

Force: That which initiates or changes motion.

Gravity: The space/time gradient caused by the bending of space/time towards mass/density. It is therefore also the measure of mass/density (referred to as the specific gravitational density of a given area of matter).

Matter: The absence of space. It is attracted to space and repelled by itself.

Mass: The aspect of matter detectable by measurement.

Motion: The detectable change in spatial relationships between the components of a given system. Also see “energy” (above).

Nothingness: A state of perfectly uniform static equilibrium constituting relative nonexistence. A state that exists relative to absolute nonexistence but does not exist relative to temporal existence.

Ordered Complexity: A consistent pattern of arrangement of the elements of a system in relation to each other that is infinitely variable and that accrues from or dissolves to the disordered phase of those elements (see Disordered Complexity).

Particle: A discrete unit of matter with consistent characteristics unless divided or fused.

Physics: The study of motion

Relative Nonexistence: Nothingness; a state of uniform, static equilibrium undetectable by humans due to the absence of spatial/temporal dynamics.

Space: The absence of matter. It is attracted to matter and repelled by itself.

Stimulus: An electrochemical alteration of the dynamic basil or "resting" equilibrium of an organic system

System: Elements interacting with each other and delineated from their surroundings.

Temporal existence: The constraint of infinite time and space within which human beings can exist. A state delineated from nothingness by virtue of non-uniformity and whose components are attracted to nothingness. It is the dynamic phase of existence whereas nothingness is non-temporal and non-dynamic.

Time: is the measure of the universal progression of uniformity between matter and space accomplished by counting equal, standardized divisions of a cyclical system of regular motion.

Universe: The manifestation of temporal existence – composed of matter, energy, space, and time. It is anything that is or ever will be detectable by human beings. It is the macro-system of which all natural systems are a sub-set.

Nothingness Theory: The connection between the evolution of the universe and human thought, Corey Kaup, 1989 – 2005

...existentionally chaotic improvability?

une lai celtique...

2005-10-04T20:09:00.000-05:00

La grandeur humaine
Est une ombre vaine
Qui fuit;
Une ame mondaine
A perte d'haleine
La suit.

translation:

The greatness of man
Is a vain shade
Which flees;
A fashionable heart
A loss of breath
Follows It.

...a fleeing or fleeing thought?

[A "lai" ("lait" in Irish Celt) is based on a single thought expressed with an octosyllabic format in most cases. It's origins are from 12th century tradition.]

education from educe...

2005-10-03T19:18:00.000-05:00

Education gives to Man nothing which he might no educe out of himself; it gives him that which he might educe out of himself, only quicker and more easily. In the same way too, Revelation gives nothing to the human species, which the human reason left to itself might not attain; only it has given, and still gives to it, the most important of these things earlier.

The Education of The Human Race, Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, 1774–1778.

...nothing?

an assumption...

2005-10-02T19:09:00.000-05:00

NOTHING can possibly be conceived in the world, or even out of it, which can be called good without qualification, except a Good Will. Intelligence wit, judgment, and the other talents of the mind, however they may be named, or courage, resolution, perseverance, as qualities of temperament, are undoubtedly good and desirable in many respects; but these gifts of nature may also become extremely bad and mischievous if the will which is to make use of them, and which, therefore, constitutes what is called character, is not good. It is the same with the gifts of fortune.

Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysic of Morals, "First Section: Transition from the Common Rational Knowledge of Morality to the Philosophical," Immanuel Kant, 1785.

...nothing = moral + (good - evil) or moral + (evil - good)?

limitations...

2005-09-28T21:09:00.000-05:00

Without collapsing critical thinking into relativism, hermeneutics recognizes the historicity of human understanding. Ideas are nested in historical, linguistic, and cultural horizons of meaning. A philosophical, theological, or literary problem can only be genuinely understood through a grasp of its origin. Hermeneutics is in part the practice of historical retrieval, the re-construction of the historical context of scientific and literary works. Hermeneutics does not re-construct the past for its own sake; it always seeks to understand the particular way a problem engages the present. A philosophical impulse motivates hermeneutic re-construction, a desire to engage a historically transmitted question as a genuine question, worthy of consideration in its own right. By addressing questions within ever-new horizons, hermeneutic understanding strives to break through the limitations of a particular world-view to the matter that calls to thinking.
About Hermeneutics

definition: Hermeneutics may be described as the theory of interpretation and understanding of the text through empirical means. It should not be confused with the concrete practice of interpretation called exegesis. Exegesis extracts the meaning of a passage of text and enlarges upon it and explicates it with explanatory glosses; hermeneutics addresses the ways in which a reader may come to the broadest understanding of the creator of text and his relation to his audiences, both local and over time, within the constraints of culture and history. Thus it is a branch of philosophy concerned with human understanding and the interpretation of texts....
Wikipedia

...a clear understanding?

the sky is falling, the sky is falling...

2005-09-27T18:45:00.000-05:00

"Don't worry about the world coming to an end today. It's already tomorrow in Australia."
Charles Schultz

imagination, thought, ideas...

2005-09-25T21:09:00.000-05:00

23. But, say you, surely there is nothing easier than for me to imagine trees, for instance, in a park, or books existing in a closet, and nobody by to perceive them. I answer, you may so, there is no difficulty in it; but what is all this, I beseech you, more than framing in your mind certain ideas which you call books and trees, and the same time omitting to frame the idea of any one that may perceive them? But do not you yourself perceive or think of them all the while? This therefore is nothing to the purpose; it only shews you have the power of imagining or forming ideas in your mind: but it does not shew that you can conceive it possible the objects of your thought may exist without the mind. To make out this, it is necessary that you conceive them existing unconceived or unthought of, which is a manifest repugnancy. When we do our utmost to conceive the existence of external bodies, we are all the while only contemplating our own ideas. But the mind taking no notice of itself, is deluded to think it can and does conceive bodies existing unthought of or without the mind, though at the same time they are apprehended by or exist in itself. A little attention will discover to any one the truth and evidence of what is here said, and make it unnecessary to insist on any other proofs against the existence of material substance.

A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge, George Berkeley, 1710

...and what of things that we don't know that we don't know?

arts, science, design...

2005-09-22T19:45:00.000-05:00

Among the branches of philosophy, I had, at an earlier period, given some attention to logic, and among those of the mathematics to geometrical analysis and algebra, -- three arts or sciences which ought, as I conceived, to contribute something to my design. But, on examination, I found that, as for logic, its syllogisms and the majority of its other precepts are of avail- rather in the communication of what we already know, or even as the art of Lully, in speaking without judgment of things of which we are ignorant, than in the investigation of the unknown; and although this science contains indeed a number of correct and very excellent precepts, there are, nevertheless, so many others, and these either injurious or superfluous, mingled with the former, that it is almost quite as difficult to effect a severance of the true from the false as it is to extract a Diana or a Minerva from a rough block of marble. Then as to the analysis of the ancients and the algebra of the moderns, besides that they embrace only matters highly abstract, and, to appearance, of no use, the former is so exclusively restricted to the consideration of figures, that it can exercise the understanding only on condition of greatly fatiguing the imagination; and, in the latter, there is so complete a subjection to certain rules and formulas, that there results an art full of confusion and obscurity calculated to embarrass, instead of a science fitted to cultivate the mind. By these considerations I was induced to seek some other method which would comprise the advantages of the three and be exempt from their defects. And as a multitude of laws often only hampers justice, so that a state is best governed when, with few laws, these are rigidly administered; in like manner, instead of the great number of precepts of which logic is composed, I believed that the four following would prove perfectly sufficient for me, provided I took the firm and unwavering resolution never in a single instance to fail in observing them.

The first was never to accept anything for true which I did not clearly know to be such; that is to say, carefully to avoid precipitancy and prejudice, and to comprise nothing more in my judgement than what was presented to my mind so clearly and distinctly as to exclude all ground of doubt.

The second, to divide each of the difficulties under examination into as many parts as possible, and as might be necessary for its adequate solution.

The third, to conduct my thoughts in such order that, by commencing with objects the simplest and easiest to know, I might ascend by little and little, and, as it were, step by step, to the knowledge of the more complex; assigning in thought a certain order even to those objects which in their own nature do not stand in a relation of antecedence and sequence.

And the last, in every case to make enumerations so complete, and reviews so general, that I might be assured that nothing was omitted.

"The First Principle of Philosophy," Rene Descartes, Discourse on Method

...cogito ergo sum?

Rule IV...

2005-09-21T19:27:00.000-05:00

In experimental philosophy we are to look upon propositions collected by general induction from phænomena as accurately or very nearly true, notwithstanding any contrary hypotheses that may be imagined, till such time as other phænomena occur, by which they may either be made more accurate, or liable to exceptions.

This rule we must follow, that the argument of induction may not be evaded by hypotheses.

"Rules of Reasoning in Philosophy," Isaac Newton, Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy

..."rule" or "procedure?"

blue, uncertain, stumbling buzz...

2005-09-14T23:27:00.000-05:00

I heard a fly buzz when I died;
The stillness round my form
Was like the stillness in the air
Between the heaves of storm.

The eyes beside had wrung them dry,
And breaths were gathering sure
For that last onset, when the king
Be witnessed in his power.

I willed my keepsakes, signed away
What portion of me I
Could make assignable, - and then
There interposed a fly,

With blue, uncertain, stumbling buzz,
Between the light and me;
And then the windows failed, and then
I could not see to see.

Emily Dickinson

...is death the only time we cannot see to see?

reason of an age...

2005-09-13T21:45:00.000-05:00

You may have an opinion that a man is inspired, but you cannot prove it, nor can you have any proof of it yourself, because you cannot see into his mind in order to know how he comes by his thoughts; and the same is the case with the word revelation. There can be no evidence of such a thing, for you can no more prove revelation than you can prove what another man dreams of, neither can he prove it himself.
A Letter to a Friend Regarding the Age of Reason, Thomas Paine, Paris, May 12, 1797

...and to prove oneself?

the aggregates of existence...

2005-09-12T19:18:00.000-05:00

"This again, indeed, O mendicants, is the noble truth of suffering. Birth is painful, old age is painful, sickness is painful, association with unloved objects is painful, separation from loved objects is painful, the desire which one does not obtain, this is too painful - in short, the five elements of attachment to existence are painful. The five elements of attachment to earthly existence are form, sensation, perception, components and consciousness.
Buddha, The Dahmmapada

...in pain is found truth?

vacuity...

2005-09-11T18:36:00.000-05:00

Form is emptiness, and the very emptiness is form; emptiness does not differ from form, form does not differ from emptiness; whatever is form, that is emptiness; whatever is emptiness, that is form. The same is true of feelings, perceptions, impulses and consciousness.

Diamond Sutra, Buddha

As in the Buddhist Diamond Sutra, chaos can be found in order, and order in chaos. The organizing principle is the key. The organizing principle used in Systemic Solutions is an experience of integrity - a stable experience of connectedness, integration and purpose - an experience of self-as-system that does not diminish with passing time.
Chaos & Consciousness

...being = existence; nothingness = absence of existence?

chaotic tao...

2005-09-10T07:09:00.000-05:00

Chaos is the supreme ideal of Taoism. Chaos is wholeness, oneness and Nature. Chaos represents the natural state of the world. Digging holes on the head of Chaos means destroying the natural state of the cosmos. Therefore, to the ancient Chinese people chaos not only has the meaning of disorder but also presents a respectable aesthetic state.
A Brief History of the Concept of Chaos Huajie Liu

浑沌

2005-09-09T22:54:00.000-05:00

The ruler of the Southern Sea is called Change; the ruler of the Northern Sea is called Uncertainty, and the ruler of the Centre is called Primitivity（浑沌). Change and Uncertainty often met on the territory of Primitivity, and being always well treated by him, determined to repay his kindness. They said: "All men have seven holes for seeing, hearing, eating, and breathing. Primitivity alone has none of these. Let us try to bore some for him." So every day they bored one hole; but on the seventh day Primitivity died.

a chaos fable excerpted from one of the ancient Chinese classics Chuang-Tzu:《庄子》A New Seleted Translation with an Exposition of the Philosophy of Kuo Hsiang by Fung Yu-Lan (冯友兰)

...创世纪 (Genesis), 2:2 到第七日、　神造物的工已经完毕、就在第七日歇了他一切的工、安息了。

...and on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.
The Book of Genesis, 2:2

a picture of chaos...?

2005-09-07T22:09:00.000-05:00

The Lorenz attractor, introduced by Edward Lorenz in 1963, is a non-linear three-dimensional deterministic dynamical system derived from the simplified equations of convection rolls arising in the dynamical equations of the atmosphere. For a certain set of parameters the system exhibits chaotic behavior and displays what is today called a strange attractor....
Lorenz attractor

...strange can be breathtaking!

predictablility...

2005-09-06T22:18:00.000-05:00

"In science as in life, it is well known that a chain of events can have a point of crisis that could magnify small changes. But chaos meant that such points were everywhere. They were pervasive." (24)

John von Neumann

...small changes = ?

intentionality...

2005-09-05T17:36:00.000-05:00

The Object Theory

The example of the imagining a centaur is famous in the history of philosophy. The object theory, and the difficulities surrounding it, derive from philosophical reflection on this and similar examples of the use of our imagination.

Certainly, in one sense, there exists an object in our imagination; the object must be "real" or we would not be able to imagine it. There is a picture of something in my mind.

On the other hand, the centaur is known to be a mythical being and hence has no existence. Is my thought, then, actually directed toward a non-existing object? How can this be if an intentional act requires an object? Surely, the object toward which my thought is directed exists, otherwise, if the object theory is correct, there would be no thought at all....

The Content Theory

The content theory seeks to resolve some of the difficulties of the object theory. It utilizes the idea that there must be an intermediary between consciousness and its ultimate object. For a first approximation, this intermediary can be variously called a "sign," a "representation," a "vehicle" or, more generically, a "content" in the intentional act. Thus, the act of thinking of imagining an actually existing thing (say, a table) is easily described and explained: my image of the table is the vehicle, while the object of my intention is the table itself. To solve the problem of non-existing beings that can be the objects of thought, the content theory allows that content can exist or "be" without the corresponding object. In imagining a centaur, I have a mental image whose content is a centaur. The centaur "exists" as content in my mind, but there is no object outside of the mind corresponding to this thought.

Difficulties for the Theory of Intentionality, Anthony Birch

...nothingness ≥ or ≤ ideas?

and yet another cunundrum...

2005-09-05T10:45:00.000-05:00

But may not the ideas, asked Socrates, be thoughts only, and have no proper existence except in our minds, Parmenides? For in that case each idea may still be one, and not experience this infinite multiplication.

And can there be individual thoughts which are thoughts of nothing?
Impossible, he said.
The thought must be of something?
Yes.
Of something which is or which is not?
Of something which is.
Must it not be of a single something, which the thought recognizes as attaching to all, being a single form or nature?

Yes.
And will not the something which is apprehended as one and the same in all, be an idea?

From that, again, there is no escape.
Then, said Parmenides, if you say that everything else participates in the ideas, must you not say either that everything is made up of thoughts, and that all things think; or that they are thoughts but have no thought?

The latter view, Parmenides, is no more rational than the previous one. In my opinion, the ideas are, as it were, patterns fixed in nature, and other things are like them, and resemblances of them-what is meant by the participation of other things in the ideas, is really assimilation to them.

But if, said he, the individual is like the idea, must not the idea also be like the individual, in so far as the individual is a resemblance of the idea? That which is like, cannot be conceived of as other than the like of like.

Impossible.
And when two things are alike, must they not partake of the same idea?

They must.
And will not that of which the two partake, and which makes them alike, be the idea itself?

Certainly.
Then the idea cannot be like the individual, or the individual like the idea; for if they are alike, some further idea of likeness will always be coming to light, and if that be like anything else, another; and new ideas will be always arising, if the idea resembles that which partakes of it?

Parmenides, Plato, 370 B.C.E.

...ideas = something?

hopelessness...

2005-09-04T23:09:00.000-05:00

The question looms in moments of great despair, when things tend to lose all their weight and all meaning becomes obscured....It is present in moments of rejoicing, when all things around us are transfigured and seem to be there for the first time, as if it might be easier to think they are not than to understand that they are and are as are. The question is upon us in boredom, when we are equally removed from despair and joy, and everything about us seems so hopelessly commonplace that we no longer care whether anything is or is not...

Martin Heidegger

... nothingness = despair?