Picked this up thinking it would be a nice and short exploration of or treatise on art or what motivates artists or the effect it has on us. The first couple of pages certainly gave me that impression. Like when Jerry Saltz wants you to “look at this painting” and explains what’s going on. But it…
fourteen things tagged “philosophy”

Heretic
(2024)
Saw with the wife. Phenomenal cinematography, set and costume design, and suspense-building. Hugh Grant and Chloe East are just excellent. Very promising plot that was underserved by ill-informed, incomplete, and sophomoric arguments against Abrahamic traditions and religion writ large. Made me th…
On Wealth and Accomplishment
I gave all my Apple wealth away because wealth and power are not what I live for. I have a lot of fun and happiness. I funded a lot of important museums and arts groups in San Jose, the city of my birth, and they named a street after me for being good. I now speak publicly and have risen to the t…
On Nothingness (Kinda)
An electron is a particular type of regularity that appears among measurements and observations that we make. It is more pattern than a substance. It is order… Thus we arrive at a strange place. We break things down into smaller and smaller pieces, but then the pieces, when examined, are not the…
On Non-Being
Thirty spokes share the hub of a wheel; yet it is its center that makes it useful. You can mould clay into a vessel; yet, it is its emptiness that makes it useful. Cut doors and windows from the walls of a house; but the ultimate use of the house will depend on that part where nothing exists.…
On Morals versus Ethics
What is the difference between ethics and morality? A morality functions according to principle, while an ethics functions according to experimentation. A morality presupposes a discontinuity between principle and action, while an ethics presupposes a continuity of action and character. A moralit…
On Doing Nothing At All
As far as Indian Gurus go, I find this guy more illumined and full of practical, actionable advice than, say, this guy, less full of shit than this one, and definitely less batshit crazy than this one. Via LT 🙏 Update The creator of the video is Masood Boomga…
“Rigor and Proof in Mathematics: A Historical Perspective” (math-proof-history.pdf)
“Calling Bullshit” is a free online course that helps you “detect and defuse” Bullshit when you encounter it. (callingbullshit.org)
Our learning objectives are straightforward. After taking the course, you should be able to: Remain vigilant for bullshit contaminating your information diet. Recognize said bullshit whenever and wherever you encounter it. Figure out for yourself precisely why a particular bit of bullshit is b…
Ayn Rand the Philosopher
by samiiRedditBot
Ayn Rand is to philosophy what Twilight is to horror fiction - being that the only people who like it have absolutely no experience of what the subject is really about and as a result have nothing to compare it to. Her influence only extends to the general public and she is pretty much ignored by a…
On What to Live For
Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind. These passions, like great winds, have blown me hither and thither, in a wayward course, over a great ocean of anguish, reachi…
Love, Knowledge, and Compassion
Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind. These passions, like great winds, have blown me hither and thither, in a wayward course, over a great ocean of anguish, reachin…
Happy Popper
I slipped in a final question: Why in his autobiography did Popper say that he is the happiest philosopher he knows? “Most philosophers are really deeply depressed,” he replied, “because they can’t produce anything worthwhile.” Looking pleased with himself, Popper glanced over at Mrs. Mew, who wo…
