"Every great virtue kindles a new greatness."
Friedrich Nietzsche
"Homer's Contest", 1872
Monday, June 12, 2006
Retro Jealousy
"Even a dead man can still spur a live one to consuming jealousy."
Friedrich Nietzsche
"Homer's Contest", 1872
Friedrich Nietzsche
"Homer's Contest", 1872
Wednesday, June 07, 2006
You Owe! You Ought! You Must!
"What the philosophers call character is an incurable disease. An imperative ethics is one that deals with the symptoms of the disease, having the faith while it fights them that it is getting rid of the real origin, the basic evil."
-Friedrich Nietzsche
"On Ethics", 1868
-Friedrich Nietzsche
"On Ethics", 1868
Sunday, June 04, 2006
Pleasure and Inquiry
Faith does not offer the least support for a proof of objective truth. Here the ways of humans part. If you want to work for peace of soul and pleasure, then believe. If you want to be a devotee of truth, then inquire.
-Friedrich Nietzsche
In a letter to his sister
Bonn, 1865
-Friedrich Nietzsche
In a letter to his sister
Bonn, 1865
In A Letter To My Sister
"As for your principle that truth is always on the side of the more difficult, I partly agree.
But it's hard to believe that 2 times 2 is not 4. Does that make it true?
Is it really so difficult to just accept everything you've been brought up on, and what really comforts and elevates humanity?
Is that more difficult than to strike new paths, fighting the habitual, experiencing the insecurity of independence and the frequent wavering of one's feelings and even one's conscience, proceeding often without any consolation, but always with the eternal goal of the good, the true, and the beautiful?
After all, do we have to have a view of God and the world that makes us feel the most comfortable? Do we seek rest, peace,and pleasure in our inquiries?
No. Only truth. Even if it's the most repulsive and ugly truth."
Friedrich Nietzsche
In a letter to his sister
Bonn, 1865
But it's hard to believe that 2 times 2 is not 4. Does that make it true?
Is it really so difficult to just accept everything you've been brought up on, and what really comforts and elevates humanity?
Is that more difficult than to strike new paths, fighting the habitual, experiencing the insecurity of independence and the frequent wavering of one's feelings and even one's conscience, proceeding often without any consolation, but always with the eternal goal of the good, the true, and the beautiful?
After all, do we have to have a view of God and the world that makes us feel the most comfortable? Do we seek rest, peace,and pleasure in our inquiries?
No. Only truth. Even if it's the most repulsive and ugly truth."
Friedrich Nietzsche
In a letter to his sister
Bonn, 1865
Wednesday, May 17, 2006
Nominally Yours
1280-1349
William of Ockham advocated nominalism. It's a variety of conceptualism known as terminism:
A universal is an intention of the mind. And the objects of science are statements, not things. Only the term has universality. Knowledge of things must be intuitive, and in understanding things you must not use more concepts than necessary. This is Ockham's Razor, which cuts off superfluous things. Also, the limitations of human reason implies that the principles of morality cannot be proven to be necessary. Both are matters of faith. (See his Commentary on the Books of Sentences)
William of Ockham advocated nominalism. It's a variety of conceptualism known as terminism:
A universal is an intention of the mind. And the objects of science are statements, not things. Only the term has universality. Knowledge of things must be intuitive, and in understanding things you must not use more concepts than necessary. This is Ockham's Razor, which cuts off superfluous things. Also, the limitations of human reason implies that the principles of morality cannot be proven to be necessary. Both are matters of faith. (See his Commentary on the Books of Sentences)
Saturday, May 13, 2006
Survival System
To have an sensible world-view through which I can act, predict and communicate to live even the most mundane life, I have to look at the world as somewhat stable and regular, with regular and predictable connections between different situations, And as a perceiver and communicator I have to be able to distinguish between different things in shared experience, to identify those items, and to generally refer to them and describing them.
Any perceptual judgment is inside this system and assumes it. In saying 'This is a table', I am implicitly claiming that here in my perceptual environment is a spatio-temoral continuant, with all that that implies, and that I have perceptual access to it.
I am explicitly claiming that this object is to be classified according to the everyday procedures for sorting objects based on my interest. And this would be impossible without assuming the system.
Any perceptual judgment is inside this system and assumes it. In saying 'This is a table', I am implicitly claiming that here in my perceptual environment is a spatio-temoral continuant, with all that that implies, and that I have perceptual access to it.
I am explicitly claiming that this object is to be classified according to the everyday procedures for sorting objects based on my interest. And this would be impossible without assuming the system.