Friedrich Schiller, In his Aesthetic Education of Man, writes that, “Man is never so authentically himself as when at play." Play is what we do to be free. The chief source of play is through the productions of art. Take a fly fisherman for example. His attention focuses, time is arrested, and he can stave … Continue reading The Idea of Play
That night, while Daedalus rested, he was visited by a cloaked man. The man leaned over Daedalus and put two fingers on his eyes, and suddenly Daedalus’ mind awakened. Waves of emotions came crashing over him, heavily hitting him hard. The booming, buzzing confusion arrested him. Then the gears in his brain started to move … Continue reading The Four Winds
Beat... beat... beat... her heart beats as I watch her bare back expand with every breath. From time to time rare individuals arise in history who express love as easily as the sun gives out heat. Daniel awakened just moments ago on his birthday. He never mentioned his birthdays, he never wanted to be the … Continue reading The Bifurcating Path
There is something wrong with America today when a Jordan Peterson, A psychology professor in Toronto, is the leading academic in North America. He rose to fame when a Youtube went viral of him bluntly telling his students in class that he would not call a student by their own preferred gender pronoun, and instead … Continue reading Jordan Peterson: The Symptom of Chaos
Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) was a German philosopher who was born and lived in Königsberg, Prussia. He grew up in a Lutheran Protestant household that focused on the literal interpretation of the Bible. This religious upbringing is taught through the lens of humility and devotion. He enrolled into the University of Königsberg at the age of … Continue reading Immanuel Kant: The Critique of Pure Reason
When we're young of age we begin to take in information from our parents without question. It's the principle of credulity we cling to as a child. We believe everything. As we get older, with the bricks of knowledge we've already laid to construct a foundation, we strengthen our beliefs with friendly facts. The wall … Continue reading The Brick Wall Effect
Alfred Lord Tennyson (1809-1892), a Victorian poet, completed his In Memoriam in 1849 where he wrestled with the contradictions between the idea of a providential god with the evolutionary and materialistic science of the day after the death of his best friend. The poem is divided into 133 cantos. He was son to a clergy … Continue reading Tennyson’s In Memoriam A.H.H.
"The stakes of philosophy are often high. How we answer the three fundamental problems of philosophy: the problem of knowledge, conduct, and governance governs our way of life for those that live according to their own philosophy. Aristotle began his treatise titled Metaphysics with this: All men by nature desire to know. An indication of … Continue reading Thomas Reid: Common Sense (revised)
What kind of fabric is reality woven from? I remember my youth reading a physics book by Brian Greene who popularized string theory with its many and varied dimensions, and the super-cooled higgs field that was the precondition for the big bang. My early mind was shaped by science. However, once I made contact with … Continue reading Pan Psychism’s Fitness
A dear friend of mine told me, categorically, that philosophy is a neurosis. A devastating conclusion. To this person I say that one will never rise above the mores of one's time if he does not ask the tough questions. The unexamined life one may choose to blindly follow results in being a product of … Continue reading A Defense of Philosophy
What it means to be human is to have a set of limitations and potentialities and somewhere therein our short life is rooted. In there the trials and tribulations of social life happens. With social life language evolved. This natural language, of which all other artificially contrived languages arise from, comes in the form … Continue reading All Too Human
On freewill and determinism, Voltaire wrote: “It would be very singular that all nature, all the planets, should obey fixed eternal laws, and that there should be a little animal five feet high, who, in contempt of these laws, could act as he pleased, solely according to his caprice.” This captures the enlightenment's thoughts and … Continue reading Freewill and Determinism
In the beginning was the logos, the reason for it all… In the vast, emptiness of space, arose a single point, a divine soul which named itself Chaos. It contemplated for eons in solitude. However, once Chaos opened its onyx eyes, only to realize and see the wonderment of it all, it felt the pull … Continue reading In the Beginning
Great nations write their autobiographies in three manuscripts, the book of their deeds, the book of their words and the book of their art. Not one of these books can be understood unless we read the two others, but of the three the only trustworthy one is the last. -JOHN RUSKIN The History of Venice, … Continue reading Psychology and its Artistic Counterparts.
Romantic poet and painter William Blake (1757-1827). His Songs of Innocence and Experience were a contrast of the ordinary mechanistic world to the vibrant imaginative world which could see the world anew, perhaps even as it really is. He recognized man as struggling between the imaginative naivete' and the realism of what old age imposes … Continue reading William Blake Unshackled
