Modern neuroscience, in describing the way our brain processes our sensory inputs, has transformed the way we see ourselves in relation to the world. This demands a radical reevaluation of traditional philosophical topics. In this text I attempt to outline a modern methodology which emphasizes the importance of theory in our lives. Theorizing is a liberating concept that allows us to articulate ourselves more carefully and more fully than ever before. It connects us with every living and non-living thing in the world, and emphasizes in particular our connections with other humans via empathy...
Modern neuroscience, in describing the way our brain processes our sensory inputs, has transformed the way we see ourselves in relation to the world. ...
Of all egotists, Montaigne, if not the greatest, was the most fascinating, because, perhaps, he was the least affected and most truthful. What he did, and what he had professed to do, was to dissect his mind, and show us, as best he could, how it was made, and what relation it bore to external objects. He investigated his mental structure as a schoolboy pulls his watch to pieces, to examine the mechanism of the works; and the result, accompanied by illustrations abounding with originality and force, he delivered to his fellow men in a book. Eloquence, rhetorical effect, poetry, were alike...
Of all egotists, Montaigne, if not the greatest, was the most fascinating, because, perhaps, he was the least affected and most truthful. What he did,...
Vaihinger... shows that thought is primarily a biological function turned into a conscious art. It is an art of adjustment, whose chief instrument is the construction of fictions by which men may manage to live. Thought is to be tested not by correspondence to an objective reality (that fiction is neatly disposed of) nor by its mirroring in consciousness an objective external world. Thought is to be tested by its fruits. The constructions of thought are not copies of or transcripts of reality; they are programs, guess-work plans; possible programs for operation. Their validity is to be...
Vaihinger... shows that thought is primarily a biological function turned into a conscious art. It is an art of adjustment, whose chief instrument is ...
Of all egotists, Montaigne, if not the greatest, was the most fascinating, because, perhaps, he was the least affected and most truthful. What he did, and what he had professed to do, was to dissect his mind, and show us, as best he could, how it was made, and what relation it bore to external objects. He investigated his mental structure as a schoolboy pulls his watch to pieces, to examine the mechanism of the works; and the result, accompanied by illustrations abounding with originality and force, he delivered to his fellow men in a book. Eloquence, rhetorical effect, poetry, were alike...
Of all egotists, Montaigne, if not the greatest, was the most fascinating, because, perhaps, he was the least affected and most truthful. What he did,...
"Everything that could blossom upon Earth has blossomed, each in its due season and its proper sphere; it has withered away and will blossom again when its time arrives." So says Herder of civilizations, using one of his favorite metaphors. His pre-Darwin Hegelian teleology sounds quaint at times, but at the same time allows him to hold some amazingly modern sentiments. For example, he repudiates slavery and the mistreatment of different races, and makes an appeal to understand them without filtering them through our own conceptual schemes; he realizes the genetic source of all changes and...
"Everything that could blossom upon Earth has blossomed, each in its due season and its proper sphere; it has withered away and will blossom again whe...
Edmund Burke's A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful is one of the most enduring analyses of our aesthetic concepts of the Beautiful and the Sublime, which he separates into completely different states. The sublime, says Burke, elicits feelings of terror and awe, while the beautiful elicits pleasure and serenity. He gives a phenomenological account of how these states arise and their relation to art of various sorts, in particular poetry.
Edmund Burke's A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful is one of the most enduring analyses of our aesthetic...
In these lectures I propose to consider the four principal tragedies of Shakespeare from a single point of view. Nothing will be said of Shakespeare's place in the history either of English literature or of the drama in general. No attempt will be made to compare him with other writers. I shall leave untouched, or merely glanced at, questions regarding his life and character, the development of his genius and art, the genuineness, sources, texts, interrelations of his various works. Even what may be called, in a restricted sense, the 'poetry' of the four tragedies - the beauties of style,...
In these lectures I propose to consider the four principal tragedies of Shakespeare from a single point of view. Nothing will be said of Shakespeare's...
