In a chess game as in a philosophical debate, the outcome remains uncertain until the end is reached. What distinguishes the philosophical debate is that the outcome remains uncertain even when the end is reached.
Category: Aphorisms and Observations
Another Reason to Distinguish Sentences from Propositions
The ratio of sentences to thoughts in Kierkegaard's writing is quite poor. Compare the title of Concluding Scientific Postscript with the monstrous 'postscript' itself.
Nietzsche
It is ironic that Nietzsche, an ascetic of sorts, died of the disease of a libertine.
Suffering and Evil
All gratuitous suffering is evil, but not all evil involves suffering. The wanton destruction of an anaesthetized healthy but ownerless cat or dog is evil but causes no suffering.
Whisky
Our most refined pleasures grow from the soil of conquered aversions.
Religion as a Drug
Not all drugs are narcotics; some are stimulants. Philosophers of religion take note.
Troubled
Troubled people are often trouble. Do you need more? Avoid the troubled, avoid trouble.
Eyes in the Mirror
The eyes you see in the mirror when you look at yourself are not seeing eyes, but seen eyes. It is strange but true: your seeing eyes are and must remain invisible.
Mirror Meditation
Neither admire the handsome face that looks back at you, nor be troubled by the inevitable signs of aging as the face gives way to a meatless, brainless skull.
The Psalms
I find in the Psalms too much praising of a tribal god and not enough seeking of the hidden God. But both are there.
How Ambitious Ought One Be?
Ambitious enough to secure the platform from which to reach beyond ambition.
Private Life
Lost in her private life, she woke up one morning to find that the private life was no more.
Abdication of Authority
Time was, when university faculty and administrators stood in loco parentis. Now their posture is supine while the students go loco.
Hyperbole
Every word they write is a lie, and every syllable they speak. Their mendacity extends even unto the syntax of their sentences. Their periods prevaricate and their dashes dissemble.
Revolutionaries Honoring Revolutionaries
To show honor and respect is a conservative practice. There is therefore something paradoxical about leftists erecting icons to iconoclasts. Or is there? Once in power, revolutionaries become conservative, conservative of their power, their unequal power.