Psychology and its Artistic Counterparts.

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, …

William Blake Unshackled

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 …

Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s Biographia Literaria

The Lyrical Ballads were written in 1798 as a joint project between Wordsworth and Coleridge. In 1800 Coleridge said the new preface, contains our joint opinions on Poetry however by 1802 things took a wrong turn and Coleridge proclaimed he knew Wordsworth better than he knew himself. Coleridge believed Wordsworth was brilliant, but as time …

The Lyrical Ballads: Wordsworth and Coleridge

The Lyrical Ballads, first published in 1798, were a collection of poems collected and collaborated by William Wordsworth (1770-1850) and Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834). This pair of writers made one feel and wonder in different ways. Coleridge would take the mysterious and wondrous, and bring them down to ordinary life. Wordsworth had the opposite effect, …

The Philosophical Toolbox

There is no public or absolute perspective by which to study reality and our place there within. The freshmen philosopher, still trying to get his sea legs, will enounter countless philosophical methods, each with their own set of conclusions. Instead of the false belief that all of them are inferior to one single method, consider …

The Problems of AI Consciousness

In 1996 a chess program named Deep Blue was set against Garry Kasparov, the world chess champion. Garry won 4-2. However, the next year Deep Blue was mightily upgraded and Garry lost. The question I want to pose to you is this: did Deep Blue ever actually play a game of chess? I mean, did …

Mary, Quite Contrary: Consciousness Unexplained

What is the ultimate nature of reality? In Philosophy of mind, there are many positions regarding what has real being. On a commonsense level, dualism seems to be the reality. Thoughts, beliefs, and qualia really do seem to be different from tables, apples, and automobiles; therefore, according to dualists, there are two types of stuff …

A Gloss on Fichte’s Way Towards a Blessed Life

Only when one abandons individuality, which is materiality itself, can there be an eternal life. As an individual entity you’re a material particular entity, and it is in abandoning that, and surrendering oneself to the good of the whole that the possibility of a life that transcends mere materiality becomes possible -Daniel Robinson

Traversing the Twisted Seas of Philosophy

I once heard a philosophy peer say that reality is a strange fiction. I questioned how he ever made it to the market and back, surely he must have great friends who take good care of him. When entering the shipyard of philosophy we have eyes of innocence. We have principles that have gone unquestioned …

Beauty Beyond a Percipient

When G.E. Moore, in his Principia Ethica, argues for the existence of Beauty he gives us a pragmatic conclusion for its existence. He writes: If it be once admitted that the beautiful world in itself is better than the ugly, then it follows, that however many beings may enjoy it, and however much better their …

Aristotle on Virtue

Virtue too is distinguished into kinds in accordance with this difference; for we say that some of the virtues are intellectual and others moral, philosophical wisdom and understanding and [prudence] being intellectual, liberality and temperance moral.” (Book I, Chapter 13, 1103a 4-7) “The wise individual personifies,” Daniel said, “the intellectual virtues, whereas the self-restrained, moderate …

William James: The Mind-Stuff Theory

Principles of Psychology: The Mind-Stuff Theory Evolutionary Psychology Demands a Mind-Dust.   In a general theory of evolution the inorganic comes first, then the lowest forms of animal and vegetable life, then forms of life that possess mentality, and finally those like ourselves that possess it in a high degree. As long as we keep …

Frankenstein’s Creature

The monster tells him of the horrors of alienation and isolation as he unintentionally scared men, women, and children. He tells Frankenstein of one family whom he had admired and tried to gain their love. The creature found a space on the side of the house that was hidden from sight. There he listened and …

Aristotle on Friendship

“[Friendship] is a virtue or implies virtue, and is besides most necessary with a view of living. For without friends no one would choose to live, though he had all other goods; even rich men and those in possession of office and of dominating power are thought to opportunity of beneficence, which is exercised chiefly …

Aristotle’s Eudaimonia (Happiness)

Happiness [Eudaimonia] above all else seems to be of this character, or we always choose it on the account of itself and never on account of something else.” (Robert C. Bartlett and Susan D. Collins, Book I, Chapter 7, 1097b 0-1) The English word “happiness” here,” John said, “doesn’t get to what the Greek definition …