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PhotographyLink of the day: a (pretty much complete) taxonomy of logical fallacies. Very much recommended!
July 13th, 2013
philosophy Category
The “Prince of Nothing” trilogy by Scott Bakker, consisting of “The darkness that comes before”, “The warrior prophet”, and “The thousandfold thought”, is fantasy unlike I’ve ever read it. The story and storytelling are outstanding, but what makes the book series so special is the constant philosophical/psychological discourse about freedom of choice, and consequences thereof (e.g., religion, beliefs, and biases).
To give you an impression, some quotations below. Overall: highly recommended reading!
The Darkness that comes before
The thoughts of all men arise from the darkness. If you are the movements of your soul, and the cause of that movement precedes you, then how can you ever call your thoughts your own? How could you be anything other than a slave to the darkness that comes before?
Because they cannot see what comes before them, they assume nothing comes before them. They are numb to the hammers of circumstance, blind to their conditioning. What is branded into them, they think freely chosen.
Volition is one more thing moved in the soul, and not the mover we take it to be. While few dispute this, the absurdities that follow escape comprehension altogether.
There were two pasts, he understood that now. There was the past that men remembered, and there was the past that determined, and rarely if ever were they the same. All men stood in thrall of the latter. And knowing this made them insane.
I am my thoughts, but the sources of my thoughts exceed me. I do not own myself, because the darkness comes before me.
By definition, the future cannot anticipate the present. What comes after cannot come before.
May 26th, 2013
“Whenever I take off for somewhere new, I feel I’d like to keep moving forever. But there are other wonderful selves that nestle in routine – I try to remember that too.”
April 7th, 2013
“Jeder Mensch erfindet sich eine Geschichte, die er für sein Leben hält.”
– Max Frisch
March 24th, 2013
“I hope that you are a disaster. I’m sorry, but I do. I hope that you are thunder and lightning. I hope you are a forest fire, I hope you kill the dead wood and burn off the rotting leaves. With the canopy gone, the sun can get in. You need new growth. I hope you’re terrible and broken and perfect.”
– Joey Comeau
March 16th, 2013
“The greatest mystery is not that we have been flung at random among the profusion of the earth and the galaxy of the stars, but that in this prison we can fashion images of ourselves sufficiently powerful to deny our nothingness.”
– André Malraux
March 11th, 2013
“Man is but a reed, the most feeble thing in nature, but he is a thinking reed. A vapor, a drop of water, is enough to kill a human being. But even if the universe should crush him, man would still be more noble than that which destroys him, because he knows that he dies, and he realizes the advantage that the universe possesses over him; the universe knows nothing of this.”
– Blaise Pascal
March 11th, 2013
“If we are to have another contest in our national existence I predict that the dividing line will not be Mason and Dixons, but between patriotism & intelligence on the one side, & superstition, ambition, & ignorance on the other [...] Resolve that either the state or Nation, or both combined, shall support institutions of learning [...] sufficient to afford to every child growing up in the land the opportunity of a good common school education.
[...] Leave the matter of religion to the family altar, the church, and private schools entirely supported by private contributions. Keep the church and state forever separate.”
– Ulysses S. Grant, 1822 – 1885, 18th president of the United States of America
(via spacegirl)
March 8th, 2013
Inspiring 10 minutes about philosophy of thought and language:
“I believe one learns to talk well only when one has renounced life for a while. Speech is another life from when one does not speak.”
“To live in speech one must pass through the death of life without speech.”
“A subtle lie is little different from an error.”
“Love is a solution on the condition that it is true.”
February 14th, 2013
