August 2012
1 post
4 tags
“There is nothing more necessary than truth, and in comparison with it everything...”
– Nietzsche
May 2012
1 post
4 tags
“We are like butterflies who flutter for a day and think it is forever.”
– Carl Sagan
April 2012
8 posts
“The first progressive step for a mind overwhelmed by the strangeness of things...”
– Albert Camus (via fuckyeahexistentialism)
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“The question of love is one that cannot be evaded. Whether or not you claim to...”
– Thomas Merton
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“God either wants to eliminate bad things and cannot, or can but does not want...”
– Epicurus
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Plato on Friendship and Eros →
In the Phaedrus we find a more detailed account of the psychology and art of love than in the Symposium. This account will be our exclusive focus. The soul, whether divine or human, Socrates claims, is like “the natural union of a team of winged horses and their charioteer” (246a6–7). But whereas in a divine soul all three elements are “good and come from good stock,” in a human soul the white...
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“Life must be understood backward. But it must be lived forward.”
– Søren Kierkegaard
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“It was previously a question of finding out whether or not life had to have a...”
– Albert Camus
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“Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in...”
– Siddhārtha Gautama (via faoiseamh)
March 2012
10 posts
7 tags
“The highest activity a human being can attain is learning for understanding,...”
– Baruch Spinoza
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“Truth, says instrumentalism, is what works out, that which does what you expect...”
– from An Introduction to Philosophy by Holly Estil Cunningham
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“When any person harms you, or speaks badly of you, remember that he acts or...”
– Epictetus
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“Diogenes did not want anything, so he did not lack anything.”
– Doubt by Jennifer Michael Hecht
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“People will tell us that without the consolations of religion they would be...”
– Bertrand Russell
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“How did I get into the world? Why was I not asked about it and why was I not...”
– Søren Kierkegaard
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“Courage is a kind of salvation.”
– Plato
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“In the end these things matter most: How well did you love? How fully did you...”
– Siddhartha Gautama
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“Every one of us is, in the cosmic perspective, precious. If a human disagrees...”
– Carl Sagan (via faoiseamh)
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“It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without...”
– Aristotle
July 2011
1 post
8 tags
“A fool’s paradise is a wise man’s hell.”
– Thomas Fuller
May 2011
6 posts
5 tags
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“If you can approach the world’s complexities, both its glories and its...”
– Daniel Dennett, “Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon”
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“Then there is the further question of what is the relationship of thinking to...”
– David Bohm, “Wholeness and the Implicate Order”, 1980.
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The Future of Humanity →
Nick Bostrom never ceases to amaze me.
“The future of humanity is often viewed as a topic for idle speculation. Yet our beliefs and assumptions on this subject matter shape decisions in both our personal lives and public policy – decisions that have very real and sometimes unfortunate consequences. It is therefore practically important to try to develop a realistic mode of...
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“The stream of thought flows on; but most of its segments fall into the...”
– William James
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“Losing an illusion makes you wiser than finding a truth.”
– Ludwig Börne
April 2011
14 posts
8 tags
“All that is needed for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.”
– Edmund Burke
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“Man can will nothing unless he has first understood that he must count on no one...”
– Jean-Paul Sartre
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“How does a newness come into the world? How is it born? Of what fusions,...”
– Salman Rushdie, “The Satanic Verses”
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“The notion that all these fragments is separately existent is evidently an...”
– David Bohm, “Wholeness and the Implicate Order”
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“A young man contemplating marriage sought advice from Diogenes. “Should I...”
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“Love is something more stern and splendid than mere kindness.”
– CS Lewis
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“I believe that when I die I shall rot, and nothing of my ego will survive. I am...”
– Bertrand Russell
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“The question of love is one that cannot be evaded. Whether or not you claim to...”
– Thomas Merton
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“Fables should be taught as fables, myths as myths, and miracles as poetic...”
– Hypatia
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“Enlightenment is man’s leaving his self-caused immaturity. Immaturity is the...”
– Immanuel Kant, Critique of Pure Reason
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“Learn from me, if not by my precepts, then by my example, how dangerous is the...”
– Mary Wollstonecraft
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“Only the dead have seen the end of war.”
– Plato
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Are you living in a computer simulation? →
On the off-chance that someone might find this interesting:
This paper argues that at least one of the following propositions is true: (1) the human species is very likely to go extinct before reaching a “posthuman” stage; (2) any posthuman civilization is extremely unlikely to run a significant number of simulations of their evolutionary history (or variations...
March 2011
22 posts
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“We readily inquire, ‘Does he know Greek or Latin?’ ‘Can he write poetry and...”
– Michel De Montaigne
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“Get used to believing that death is nothing to us. For all good and bad consists...”
– Epicurus - Letter to Menoeceus (via allseeingeye444)
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“Human consciousness is just about the last surviving mystery. A mystery is a...”
– Daniel C. Dennett, Consciousness Explained
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“To be a philosopher is not merely to have subtle thoughts, nor even to found a...”
– Thoreau
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“Nonviolence is the greatest force at the disposal of mankind. It is mightier...”
– Gandhi
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Death, Nothingness, and Subjectivity →
The topic of our fate after death is a touchy subject, but nevertheless the error of anticipating nothingness needs rectifying. This misconception is so widespread and so psychologically debilitating for those facing death (all of us, sooner or later) it is worth a careful look at the faulty, rather subliminal logic which persuades us that dying leads us into “the void.”
Here,...
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“Here we are in this wholly fantastic Universe with scarcely a clue as to whether...”
– Fred Hoyle
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“A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little...”
– Ralph Waldo Emerson 