Dec 4 2008 8:59 pm
more Kantian eloquence
Enough of t-shirts and fishing. It is cold. And time for another bracing dose of the ever eloquent Immanuel Kant.
From the Prolegomena, section 271.
"So metaphysics floated to the surface, like foam, which dissolved the moment it was scooped off."
Nov 21 2008 10:10 pm
who says Kant wasn't eloquent?
From the "Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics" (1783).
"Human reason so delights in constructions that it has several times built up a tower and then razed it to examine the nature of the foundation. It is never too late to become reasonable and wise; but if the insight comes late, there is always more difficulty in starting the change." (section 256)
"The question whether science be possible presupposes a doubt as to its actuality. But such a doubt offends the man whose entire good may perhaps consist in this supposed jewel; hence he who raises the doubt must expect opposition form all sides." (section 256)
"But Hume suffered the usual misfortune of metaphysicians, of not being understood." (section 258)
Nov 20 2008 9:54 am
Thomas Wolfe on this great beverage
From "Look Homeward, Angel" first published in 1929.
"The summer came down blazing hot. Gant arrived for a few days, bringing Daisy with him. One night they drank beer at the Delmar Gardens. In the hot air, at a little table, he gazed thirstily at the beaded foaming stein: he would thrust his face, he thought, in that chill foam and drink deep of happiness. Eliza gave him a taste; they all shrieked at his bitter surprised face.
Years later he remembered Gant, his mustache flecked with foam, quaffing mightily at the glass: the magnificent gusto, the beautiful thirst inspired in him the desire for emulation, and he wondered if all the beer were bitter, if there were not a period of initiation into the pleasures of this great beverage."
Oct 31 2008 10:40 am
I own it: there is no such thing as an intense real heat
Descartes was just kidding when he doubted everything. Psych! Berkeley, on the other, is pretty serious.
This is him just getting warmed (!) up kicking secondary qualities to the curb. Wait till he hits his stride with primary qualities! DAY-UM!
"Hylas: It is undeniable; and to speak the truth, I begin to suspect a very great heat cannot exist but in a mind perceiving it.
Philonous: What! Are you then in that sceptical state of suspence, between affirming and denying?
Hylas: I think I may be positive in the point. A very violent and painful heat cannot exist without the mind.
Philonous: It has not therefore, according to you, any real being.
Hylas: I own it.
Philonous: Is it therefore certain, that there is no real body in nature really hot?
Hylas: I have not denied there is any real heat in bodies. I only say, there is no such thing as an intense real heat."
Philosophy is so great. "We spend our lives in doubting of those things which other men evidently know, and beliveing those things which they laugh at, and despise."
Sep 26 2008 8:07 am
Descartes was a bad ass
That's right folks. Because the Socrates post was so popular, we're now offerring Descartes, half off, for a limited time. He was into dueling, late parties, not Sweden, and some of the continent's very finest hopped beer! Get him while he lasts!
That's not all! Act now and he will apply himself "earnestly and unreservedly to this general demolition of [his] opinions." Meditations I 18
He's not crazy! "Unless perhaps I were to liken myself to the insane, whose brains are impaired by such an unrelenting vapor of black bile that they steadfastly insist that they are kings when they are utter paupers, or that they are arrayed in purple robes when they are naked, or that they have heads made of clay, or that they are gourds, or that they are made of glass." Meditations I 19
(the gourd video is from Rocketboom which was down this morning so I had to upload the video myself, sorry Rocketboom)