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a20e3dc The occurrence of a highly improbable event is the equivalent of the nonoccurrence of a highly probable one philosophy Nassim Nicholas Taleb
848603c l 'ryd 'n 'fkr'w 'n 'sh`r 'w 'n 'tHrk, kl shy ytmzq wymwt, fkhTr ly `l~ sbyl l'ml 'nny s'jd ldhlk sbb `Dwy. novel philosophy Naguib Mahfouz
8950121 "Bran said, "Why should some of the Riders of the Dark be dressed all in white and the rest all in black?" "Without colour...." Will said reflectively. "I don't know. Maybe because the Dark can only reach people at extremes-- blinded by their own shining ideas, or locked up in the darkness of their own heads." inspirational philosophy susan-cooper Susan Cooper
8478231 We're living in topsy-turvy times, and I think that what causes the topsy-turvy feeling is inadequacy of old forms of thought to deal with new experiences. I've heard it said that the only real learning results from hang-ups, where instead of expanding the branches of what you already know, you have to stop and drift laterally for a while until you come across something that allows you to expand the roots of what you already know. Everyone's familiar with that. I think the same thing occurs with whole civilizations when expansion's needed at the roots. evolution expansion philosophy Robert M. Pirsig
fa66d2a Science and philosophy have for centuries been sustained by unquestioning faith in perception. Perception opens a window on to things. This means that it is directed, quasi-teleologically, towards a *truth in itself* in which the reason underlying all appearances is to be found. The tacit thesis of perception is that at every instant experience can be co-ordinated with that of the previous instant and that of the following, and my perspective with that of other consciousnesses--that all contradictions can be removed, that monadic and intersubjective experience is one unbroken text--that what is now indeterminate for me could become determinate for a more complete knowledge, which is as it were realized in advance in the thing, or rather which is the thing itself. Science has first been merely the sequel or amplification of the process which constitutes perceived things. Just as the thing is the invariant of all sensory fields and of all individual perceptual fields, so the scientific concept is the means of fixing and objectifying phenomena. Science defined a theoretical state of bodies not subject to the action of any force, and *ipso facto* defined force, reconstituting with the aid of these ideal components the processes actually observed. It established statistically the chemical properties of pure bodies, deducing from these those of empirical bodies, and seeming thus to hold the plan of creation or in any case to have found a reason immanent in the world. The notion of geometrical space, indifferent to its contents, that of pure movement which does not by itself affect the properties of the object, provided phenomena with a setting of inert existence in which each event could be related to physical conditions responsible for the changes occurring, and therefore contributed to this freezing of being which appeared to be the task of physics. In thus developing the concept of the thing, scientific knowledge was not aware that it was working on a presupposition. Precisely because perception, in its vital implications and prior to any theoretical thought, is presented as perception of a being, it was not considered necessary for reflection to undertake a genealogy of being, and it was therefore confined to seeking the conditions which make being possible. Even if one took account of the transformations of determinant consciousness, even if it were conceded that the constitution of the object is never completed, there was nothing to add to what science said of it; the natural object remained an ideal unity for us and, in the famous words of Lachelier, a network of general properties. It was no use denying any ontological value to the principles of science and leaving them with only a methodical value, for this reservation made no essential change as far as philosophy was concerned, since the sole conceivable being remained defined by scientific method. The living body, under these circumstances, could not escape the determinations which alone made the object into an object and without which it would have had no place in the system of experience. The value predicates which the reflecting judgment confers upon it had to be sustained, in being, by a foundation of physico-chemical properties. In ordinary experience we find a fittingness and a meaningful relationship between the gesture, the smile and the tone of a speaker. But this reciprocal relationship of expression which presents the human body as the outward manifestation of a certain manner of being-in-the-world, had, for mechanistic physiology, to be resolved into a series of causal relations. phenomenology philosophy Maurice Merleau-Ponty
2e1859a But the ones who go posing as moralists are the worst. Cost-free morals. Full of great ways for others to improve without any expense to themselves. There's an ego thing in there, too. They use the morals to make someone else look inferior and that way look better themselves. It doesn't matter what the moral code is -- religious morals, political morals, racist morals, capitalist morals, feminist morals, hippie morals -- they're all the same. The moral codes change but the meanness and the egotism stay the same. philosophy psychology zen Robert M. Pirsig
0865c94 The job of the terrorists was to penetrate into our subconscious. This had always been the aim of writers, but the terrorists took it a step further. They were the writers of our age. Don DeLillo said this many years before 9/11. The images they created spread around the globe, colonising our our subconscious minds. The tangible outcome of the attack, the numbers of dead and injured, the material destruction, meant nothing. It was the images that were important. The more iconic the images they managed to create, the more successful their actions. The attack on the World Trade Centre was the most successful of all time. There weren't that many dead, only a couple of thousand, as against the six hundred thousand who died in the first two days of the Battle Of Flanders in the autumn of 1914, yet the images were so iconic and powerful that the effect on us was just as devastating, perhaps more so, since we lived in a culture of images. Planes and skyscrapers. Icarus and Babel. They wanted into our dreams. Everyone did. Our inner beings were the final market. Once they were conquered, we would be sold. images philosophy subconcious terrorism world-war-one Karl Ove Knausgaard
18ba3be So when the ruling ideology enjoins us to enjoy sex, not to feel guilty about it, since we are not bound by any prohibitions whose violations should make us feel guilty, the price we pay for this absence of guilt is anxiety. nonfiction philosophy philosophy-of-life psychology theology Slavoj Žižek
1dcdd83 She wasn't sure what she wanted to do, except that she knew that if she fooled around for long enough, without fretting, or nagging herself, she'd find out. knowledge life-lessons mary-malone philosophy Philip Pullman
8433a07 "You must convince your chiefs that what you're telling 'em is important, which ain't difficult, since they want to believe you, having chiefs of their own to satisfy; make as much mystery of your methods as you can; hint what a thoroughgoing ruffian you can be in a good cause, but never forget that innocence shines brighter than any virtue, "Flashman? Extraordinary fellow - kicks 'em in the crotch with the heart of a child"; remember that silence frequently passes for shrewdness, and that while suppressio veri is a damned good servant, suggestio falsi is a perilous master." experience hedonism human-nature knowledge-of-self philosophy the-way-the-world-works wisdom George MacDonald Fraser
d979d81 "For the grace of bearing life's inevitable evils is itself a good life philosophy A.C. Grayling
231af36 "Despite my deep unease about animal advocates working for things we don't want and asking for changes we don't believe in, I am not an "abolitionist." First, the abolition of animal slavery will no more end speciesism by itself than the abolition of American slavery ended racism. To change the world, I think we should aim higher. Second, I'm increasingly convinced that no matter who uses the term, it hides a slur. When used to refer to others, it connotes zealotry and obstructionism, and when taken as self-definition, it is seen as an attack by anyone who does not apply it to herself. Yes, it's a highly defensible moral philosophy, right up there with Peter Singer's application of Utilitarianism to animal liberation, and Tom Regan's Theory of Rights, but like those other intellectual concepts, it's useful only so far as it engenders right action." advocacy animal-rights grassroots philosophy veganism Sarahjane Blum
ff93de4 "There's the claim that the only progress made is in posing problems that scientists can answer. That philosophy never has the means to answer problems--it's just biding its time till the scientists arrive on the scene. You hear this quite often. There is, among some scientists, a real anti-philosophical bias. The sense that philosophy will eventually disappear. But there's a lot of philosophical progress, it's just a progress that's very hard to see. It's very hard to see because we see animal-rights bigotry human-rights philosophy prejudice progress science thinking thought Rebecca Newberger Goldstein
50f8f3d "I asked, "You mean, you might as well spend your life going upward, through the happy places, since heaven and hell - the destinations - are the same thing anyway?" "Same - same," he said. "Same in end, so better to be happy on journey." I said, "So, if heaven is love, then hell is..." "Love, too," he said." hell life philosophy spirituality Elizabeth Gilbert
83f29e8 Nothing in the Grimmerie on how to depose a tyrant - nothing useful... Nothing there that described why men and women could turn out so horrible. Or so wonderful - if that ever happens anymore. philosophy Gregory Maguire
44744da At hun er i live er bra, men det er ikke det det handler om. philosophy suicide suicide-attempt Nick Hornby
9d85e1d "Well," Harry said, "look at it this way: Suppose you were an intelligent bacterium floating in space, and you came upon one of our communication satellites, in orbit around the Earth. You would think, What a strange, alien object this is, let's explore it. Suppose you opened it up and crawled inside. You would find it very interesting in there, with lots of huge things to puzzle over. But eventually you might climb into one of the fuel cells, and the hydrogen would kill you. intelligence life-lessons misapprehension philosophy Michael Crichton
b1d7de3 And if the earth Gods wreak vengeance on the sinless and the sinful alike, then this further destruction cannot be punishment for sins, but is in the way of all nature. paganism philosophy Marion Zimmer Bradley
5750431 To argue against abortion on the grounds that it prevents beings of high intrinsic value coming into the world is implicitly to condemn practices that reduce the future human population: contraception, whether by 'artificial' means or by 'natural' means such as abstinence on days when the woman is likely to be fertile, and also celibacy. This argument does not provide any reason for thinking abortion worse than any other means of population control. If the world is already overpopulated, the argument provides no reason at all against abortion. ethics morality philosophy Peter Singer
ade43df One contradiction of the human heart is this: God refuses to see any one person as unique in his or her relationship to Him, and yet we humans see each other as bottomless wells of creativity and uniqueness. god-s-love philosophy philosophy-of-life philosophy-of-religion religion Douglas Coupland
6dd79f2 In fact, the Nazis did not have a euthanasia program, in the proper sense of the word. Their so-called euthanasia program was not motivated by concern for the suffering of those killed. If it had been, they would not have kept their operations secret, deceived relatives about the cause of death of those killed, or exempted from the program certain privileged classes, such as veterans of the armed services or relatives of the euthanasia staff. Nazi 'euthanasia' was never voluntary and often was involuntary rather than nonvoluntary. 'Doing away with useless mouths' - a phrase used by those in charge - gives a better idea of the objectives of the program than 'mercy-killing'. Both racial origin and ability to work were among the factors considered in the selection of patients to be killed. It was the Nazi belief in the importance of maintaining a pure Aryan Volk - a quasi-mystical racist concept that was thought of as more important than mere individuals' lives - that made both the so-called euthanasia program and later the entire holocaust possible. Proposals for the legalization of euthanasia, on the other hand, are based on respect for autonomy and the goal of avoiding pointless suffering. euthanasia morality nazi philosophy Peter Singer
0906c77 To explain our conventional ethical attitudes, is not to justify them. morality philosophy Peter Singer
657c8f9 We spend most of our lives with unfulfilled desires, and the occasional satisfactions that are all most of us can achieve are insufficient to outweigh these prolonged negative states. If we think that this is a tolerable state of affairs it is because we are, in Benatar's view, victims of the illusion of pollyannaism. This illusion may have evolved because it helped our ancestors survive, but it is an illusion nonetheless. If we could see our lives objectively, we would see that they are not something we should inflict on anyone. philosophy Peter singer
1f602bf "No I do not like blaming. Because for me it's enough if someone is other than bad--not too much out of hand, conscious at least of the justice that helps the city, a healthy man. No I shall not lay blame. Because fools are a species that never ends. greek philosophy poetry translation Simonides of Ceos
02c2980 Jo knew nothing about philosophy or metaphysics of any sort, but a curious excitement, half pleasurable, half painful, came over her, as she listened with a sense of being turned adrift into time and space, like a young balloon out on a holiday. philosophy Louisa May Alcott
f711471 First mountains are mountains and rivers are rivers. Than mountains are no longer mountains and rivers are no longer rivers. Finally mountains are mountains and rivers are rivers. mountain philosophy river Dan Millman
e24a95d Take this moment right here, and ask yourself, What is now lacking? philosophy Kim Stanley Robinson
7be6a2d "...This singular reversal may perhaps proceed from the fact that for us the "subject" (since Christianity) is the one who suffers: where there is a wound, there is a subject: die Wunde! die Wunde! says Parsifal, thereby becoming "himself"; and the deeper the wound, at the body's center (at the "heart"), the more the subject becomes a subject: for the subject is intimacy ("The wound...is of a frightful intimacy"). Such is love's wound: a radical chasm (at the "roots" of being), which cannot be closed, and out of which the subject drains, constituting himself as a subject in this very draining." --from_A Lover's Discourse: Fragments_. Translated by Richard Howard, p. 189" -- philosophy Roland Barthes
d7e47cb Honor,' he said firmly. 'I have great honor. So will you. But you will find that that is not the same as power. philosophy power wisdom Lois Lowry
c51f8e8 How they Agree; how temp'ratly they Feed; How curiously they Build; how chastly Breed; How seriously their Bus'ness they intend; How stoutly they their Common-good defend; How timely their Provisions are provided; How orderly their Labors are divided; What Vertues patterns, and what grounds of Art; What Pleasures, and what Profits they impart; When these, with all those other things I mind Which in this Book, concerning Bees, I finde: Me thinkes, there is not half that worth in Mee, Which I have apprehended in a Bee. And that the Pismere, and these Hony-flies, Instruct us better to Philosophize, Than all those tedious Volumes, which, as yet, Are least unto us by meere Humane-wit. For, whereas those but only Rules doe give; These by Examples teach how to live. nature philosophy Charles Butler
b7712f3 Let's practice a little philosophy now; that is, let's shut up, lie on our stomachs, and think. philosophy Hermann Hesse
d14d6d6 "There appears to be a fifth way, that of eminence. According to this I argue that it is incompatible with the idea of a most perfect being that anything should excel it in perfection (from the corollary to the fourth conclusion of the third chapter) . Now there is nothing incompatible about a finite thing being excelled in perfection; therefore, etc. The minor is proved from this, that to be infinite is not incompatible with being; but the infinite is greater than any finite being. Another formulation of the same is this. That to which intensive infinity is not repugnant is not all perfect unless it be infinite, for if it is finite, it can be surpassed, since infinity is not repugnant to it. But infinity is not repugnant to being, therefore the most perfect being is infinite. infinite infinity metaphysics ontology philosophy theology John Duns Scotus
5978971 There is more in the world than is dreamt of in your philosophy, Doctor - or in the Merck Manual. pendergast philosophy shakespeare Douglas Preston
9c7cb9f "The conventional term is "mystical experience," meaning something that by its very nature lies beyond the reach of language, except for some vague verbal hand-wavings about "mystery" and "transcendence." As far as I was concerned - as a rationalist, an atheist, a scientist by training - this was the realm of gods and fairies and of no use to the great human project of trying to retain a foothold on the planet for future generations." mysticism philosophy Barbara Ehrenreich
995a912 Pjesnik ciji nas stihovi ushicuju mozda je bio tuzan usamljenik a glazbenik neki sjetan sanjar, ali i tada njegovo djelo dijeli vedrinu bogova i zvijezda. Ono sto nam umjetnik daje, to vise nije njegov mrak, njegova patnja ili tjeskoba, to je kaplja cisste svjetlosti, vjecite vedrine. Kad i cijeli narodi i jezici pokusavaju doprijeti do dubine svijeta, u mitovima, kozmologiji i raznim religijama, ono posljednje i najvise sto mogu dostici, to je ta vedrina. Sjecas li se starih Indijaca, nas je stari waldzellski ucitelj jednom o njima pricao: svijt patnje, razmisljanja, pokore, askeze; ali posljednja velika otkrica njegova duha bila su svijetla i vedra, vedar je smjesak onih koji su preboljeli svijet i smjesak Buddhe, vedri su likovi njegove dubokoumne mitologije. inspirational philosophy Hermann Hesse
7bd0c43 Zsoronga, Sorweel was beginning to realize, possessed the enviable ability to yoke his conviction to his need -- to believe, absolutely, whatever his heart required. For Sorweel, belief and want always seemed like ropes too short to bind together, forcing him to play the knot as a result. philosophy R. Scott Bakker
fa91c91 If we're only going to eat the prime cuts of young animals, we're going to have to raise & kill a great many more of them. And indeed, this has become the rule with disastrous results for both the animals & the land... If we are going to eat animals, it behooves us to waste as few and as little as we possibly can. Something that the humble cook-pot allows us to do. ethics food philosophy Michael Pollan
862f0a6 Life can be compared to a piece of embroidered material of which, every-one in the first half of his time, comes to see the top side, but in the second half, the reverse side. The latter is not so beautiful but it is more instructive because it enables one to see how the threads are connected together. philosophy Irvin D. Yalom
3bdf0b9 The life of our bodies is only a constantly prevented dying, an ever deferred death...Every breath we draw wards off death that constantly impinges on us, in this way we struggle with it every second...Death is far more familiar than we generally think. Not only have we a taste of death daily in our sleep or in states of unconsciousness, but we have all passed through an eternity of nonbeing before we existed. philosophy Irvin D. Yalom
9d63c2f In the end he wore me down. Always asking. And the answer I give him is still the only one I have. What do I want? Peace. And it actually shut him up. He didn't niggle me about it. It was like he got it straight off. I don't just want quiet, neither. I want peace. peace philosophy Tim Winton
6a93157 El muchacho le explico, como pronunciando un sermon, que el mundo de los hombres era vil y estaba lleno de mentiras. En el, solo el arte conducia a la vida verdadera y eterna, y el mismo era grande porque sabia lo que se encontraba mas alla de las puertas del arte. La muchacha no podia dudar de la nobleza de sus palabras. life love philosophy Jun'ichirō Tanizaki
edf6aeb Un genio conversa con otro genio cara a cara, lo que no solo supone una alegria reciproca, sino tambien una dicha para el universo entero. Esa alegria existe y el universo existe tambien. El dia que los genios no se reconozcan unos a otros, el mundo se oscurecera y la Tierra dejara de dar vueltas sobre su eje knolwedge philosophy Jun'ichirō Tanizaki
0ae3623 "As I listened to him describing the scene of the procurer seducing the young girl, I found myself torn between two conflicting emotions, between a powerful desire to laugh and an overwhelming surge of indignation. I was in agony. Again and again a roar of laughter prevented my rage bursting forth; again and again the rage rising in my heart became a roar of laughter. I was dumbfounded by such shrewdness and such depravity; by such soundness of ideas alternating with such falseness; by so general a perversity of feeling, so total a corruption, and so exceptional a candour. He saw how agitated I was. 'What's the matter?' he asked. ME: Nothing. HIM: I think you're upset. ME: Indeed I am. HIM: So what do you think I should do? ME: Talk about something else. What a wretched fate, to have been born and to have fallen so low! HIM: I agree. But don't let my state affect you too much. In opening my heart to you, it was not my intention to upset you. I've managed to save a little, while I was with those people. Remember I wanted for nothing, nothing whatsoever, and they also made me a small allowance for incidentals. [Here he began to strike himself on the forehead with his fist, bite his lips, and roll his eyes like a lunatic, then he said:] What's done is done. I've put a bit aside. Time's passed, so I'm that much to the good. philosophy scoundrel Denis Diderot
1825384 Human beings, Lucretius thought, must not drink in the poisonous belief that their souls are only part of the world temporarily and they are heading somewhere else. That belief will only spawn in them a destructive relation to the environment in which they live the only lives they have. philosophy science Stephen Greenblatt
d2680aa Together we'll make magic... Who had conjured whom? She seemed to remember Oliver suggesting this once before, but she hadn't really appreciated the importance of his question. Was she the dream? Was Nao the one writing her into being? Agency is a tricky business, Muriel had said. Ruth had always felt substantial enough, but maybe she wasn't. Maybe she was as absent as her name indicated, a homeless and ghostly composite of words that the girl had assembled. She'd never had any cause to doubt her senses. Her empirical experience of herself, seemed trustworthy enough, but now in the dark, at four in the morning, she wasn't so sure. philosophy Ruth Ozeki
790b6d8 "Jack Reed, whom The New York Times had labeled "the Bolshevik agitator," hesitated and then equivocated on the stand. But by then the defense of The Masses was plain: criticism of the government didn't amount to a desire to overthrow it. If all hostile opinion were suppressed, how could Americans believe they lived in a free country? Dissent was a safeguard to freedom, not an impediment." -- independence liberty philosophy politics war Nancy Milford
a8cd439 Plato dramatically puts the detachment of the philosopher from his time this way: to philosophize is to prepare to die. perspective philosophy Rebecca Goldstein
7df9ae6 It is often said that we live in a youth culture. It's a lie. We live in an old culture. We idolize youth because we are old. We are tired and bored. Ancient cultures respected the old because those cultures were young. They were not bored. culture philosophy youth Peter Kreeft
0a641dc "Zabuna o odnosu izmedu poimanja osobe i covjeka moze uzrokovati golemu stetu. Americki Vrhovni sud dvaput je pokazao da mu je prijeko potrebna lekcija iz filozofije jer ne shvaca da ljudska bica spadaju pod osobe, a ne obrnuto, da su ljudska bica osobe te kao takve posjeduju temeljna ljudska prava. Dred Scott proglasio je crnce nepotpunim osobama opravdavsi tako ropstvo i provodeci povratak odbjeglih robova kao da se radi o vlasnistvu, a ne o osobama. Time im je oduzeo drugo temeljno ljudsko pravo, pravo na slobodu. Jedno stoljece kasnije slucaj oduzeo je nerodenoj djeci prvo osnovno pravo svake osobe, pravo na zivot. Ovo se temelji na filozofiji koja je zapravo identicna nacistickoj: drzava uzima sebi moc da proglasi jednu vrstu ljudskih bica ne-osobama [bilo crnce, bilo Zidove, bilo nerodene]. Osim sto je rijec o prestrasnu moralu, radi se i o jako losoj logici. Naime, smatra "osobe" uzom kategorijom od "ljudskih bica". Postojanje andela pokazuje da se zapravo radi o visoj kategoriji." christianity philosophy pro-life unborn-child Peter Kreeft
73fe1e6 <> disse , guardandoci. <> donna-tartt greek human-nature philosophy philosophy-of-life philosophy-quotes the-secret-history tragedy Donna Tartt
e1aa8fd We thus have three levels of antagonism: the Two are never two, the One is never one, the Nothing is never nothing. Sinthome--the signifier of the barred Other--registers the antagonism of the Two, their non-relationship. The object a registers the antagonism of the One, its inability to be one. $ registers the antagonism of Nothing, its inability to be the Void at peace with itself, to annul all struggles. The position of Wisdom is that the Void brings ultimate peace, a state in which all differences are obliterated; the position of dialectical materialism is that there is no peace even in the Void. lacan philosophy struggle Slavoj Žižek
822c82b If I could, I would begin this book by telling you what Life is. But unfortunately I do not know what Life is. The only consolation I can find is in the fact that nobody else knows either. philosophy Upton Sinclair
c80a4a3 There are so many shady things happening in this country, they're happening all around us all the time, and we just accept them. corruption country crime evil mystery philosophy truth united-states Rebecca McNutt
1c6458d Who is happier, those who are aware, and doubt, or those who are sure of what they believe in, and have never doubted or questioned it? The answer, she had concluded, was that this had nothing to do with happiness, which came upon you like the weather, determined by your personlaity. deep-thoughts happiness personality philosophical-musings philosophy weather Alexander McCall Smith
8e3c326 "Giddy with each other and the wine, they strolled outside through the Presidio, the old fort now housing restaurants and galleries. Jess explained that she wanted to devise a matrix for scarcity and abundance, frugality and profligacy. She thought that sweetness represented, and in some periods misrepresented, a sense of surplus and shared pleasure. "I don't think taste is purely biological," she said. "I think it's economically, historically, and culturally constructed as well. Sweetness means different things depending on availability, custom, farming, trade..." She was shivering, and George took off his jacket. "Here, sweetness." He helped her into it and laughed at the way her hands disappeared inside the sleeves. "Context is key- so the question is, What carries over? What can we still know about sweet and sour? Bitterness. What persists from generation to generation? Do we taste the same things?" He kissed her, sucking her lower lip and then her tongue. "I think so," he said. "Yes." philosophy sweetness tastes true-love Allegra Goodman
1cd2c88 Some ideas are dangerous. philosophy thinking women Donna Woolfolk Cross
82b6345 Ako s'dbata ne te razsmiva, ti prosto ne skhvashchash shegata. philosophy quotes Gregory David Roberts
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