“…even if I were to possess all knowledge, without love I would be nothing, is not simple that with love, I am ‘something’—in love, I am also nothing but, as it were, a Nothing humbly aware of itself, a Nothing paradoxically made rich through the very awareness of its lack. Only a lacking, vulnerable being…
Category
Philosophy
A post about procrastination. Don’t wait, Read it now!
This is sometimes called present bias – being unable to grasp what you want will change over time, and what you want now isn’t the same thing you will want later. Present bias explains why you buy lettuce and bananas only to throw them out later when you forget to eat them. This is why…
A Precocious Autobiography by Yevgeny Yevtushenko
“My grandfather came into my room. I had already undressed and was lying in bed. He sat down on the edge of my bed. He had in his hands a box of liqueur-filled chocolates. His eyes, usually mischievous and smiling, that night looked at me from under his gray prickly crew-cut with a tired and…
The philosopher should not care about eating and drinking
The philosopher should not care about eating and drinking, but of course he should eat as much as is necessary; there is no suggestion of fasting. And we are told that Socrates, though indifferent to wine, could, on occasion, drink more than anybody else, without ever becoming intoxicated. It was not drinking that he condemned,…
Kierkegaard on Genius, Irony & Mysticism
September 6, 1839: Most men think, talk, and write as they sleep, eat and drink, without ever raising the question of their relation to the idea; this only happens among the very few and then that decisive moment has in the very highest degree either the power to compel (genius), or it paralyzes the individual…
The Man Who Proved God Didn’t Exist
Sometimes the thing we desire most is the very thing that prevents us from obtaining it.
Feeling the Pain
I put down the bread and the cup and get up on my knees, twisting a little. I pull up my shirt so she can see my wound. She gives it a sympathetic frown. “I can clean that.” She gets up and goes for something. When I was a kid and skinned my knee or…
Real Activism Being Replaced by Virtual Activism
But it gets worse. Gladwell’s argument, as I read it, isn’t simply the observation that Web 2.0 is ill suited for social activism. The real worry is that Web 2.0 creates an illusion of activism. That is, real world activism is being traded in for a virtual activism. And the dual meanings of the word…
Museums as Monuments to Imperialsism
Most European museums are, among other things, memorials of the rise of nationalism and imperialism. Every capital must have its own museum of painting, sculpture, etc., devoted in part to exhibiting the greatness of its artistic past, and, in other part, to exhibiting the loot gathered by its monarchs in conquest of other nations; for…
Why I am voting (and why I almost didn’t).
But there is still the delicate point of participation in elections. Should anarchists vote? If so, should they form a party? For my part, like many anarchists, I think not. To vote is to take part in the organization of the false democracy that has been set up forcefully by the middle class. No matter…