Maverick Philosopher

Footnotes to Plato from the foothills of the Superstition Mountains

Category: Aphorisms and Observations

  • A Reason to Take Care of Oneself

    It may be that moral and intellectual progress is possible only here.  After death it may be too late, either because one no longer exists, or because one continues to exist but in a state that does not permit further progress. It is foolish to think that believers in post-mortem survival could have no reason…

  • The Afterlife of Habit upon the Death of Desire

    Desire leads to the gratification of desire, which in turn leads to the repetition of the gratification.  Repeated gratification in turn leads to the formation of an intensely pleasurable habit, one that persists even after the desire wanes and  disappears, the very desire without whose gratification the  habit wouldn't exist in the first place.  Memories…

  • Transhumanism

    The hubris of humanism achieves its apotheosis in the absurdity of transhumanism. Related articles Up or Out!

  • The State Under Leftism

    Although the state under leftism is totalitarian and demands conformity and submission in matters of moment, it tolerates and indeed encourages the cultivation of a politically inconsequential individualism of private self-absorption.  A people given bread (food stamps and other forms of infantilizing dependency), circuses (mass sporting events), dope (legalization of marijuana), pornography, politically correct propaganda,…

  • On Taking Pleasure at the Death of an Enemy

    Schadenfreude at the death of an enemy presupposes that being dead is an evil state of affairs. The decedent, however, might express, if he could, Schadenfreude of his own:  "I have been released from all evils while you remain trapped." Is being dead an evil?  See article below. Related articles Is Death an Evil or…

  • Seeker and Finder

    "Seek, and ye shall find." (Matthew 7:7)  But better to be a perpetual seeker than a premature finder.

  • Grace

    One cannot count on it, but one ought not discount it. "The wind bloweth where it listeth." (John 3:8)

  • LINOs

    Contemporary liberals are LINOs, liberals in name only.

  • Introvert or Extrovert?

    Do you need solitude to recover from society or society to recover from solitude?

  • The Night Life

    The night life ain't no good life, nor is it my life.  Morning is to night as virtue to vice. Addendum This bit of substantiation just swam into view.

  • Man and God

    To believe in Man is to believe in what is necessarily nothing; to believe in God is to believe in what is at least possibly something.  …………. See this post for explanation and exfoliation.

  • Of Meaning and Meat

    No matter how you squeeze and beat, you won't get meaning from a hunk of meat. ………………. Addendum (12/27).  It occurred to me that the above aphorism can be read in two ways.  I intend that it be read in the first way! Related articles Thinking Meat? Matter Thinks? Memory and the Operations of Reason

  • Sexuality and Sex Organs

    Can one learn all about human sexuality by studying the human organs of generation?  The very notion is risible.  Can one learn all about human affectivity by studying that most reliable and indefatigable of pumps, the human heart?  Risible again.  It is similarly risible  to think that one can learn all about the mind by…

  • Benefits of Belief

    The benefits of belief accrue whether or not what is believed is true.

  • Human Predicament

    Standing on the corner of Flesh and Spirit, deciding which  way to go . . . .