Sublime
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On Bullshit
human belief systems are good at absorbing contradictions into their thinking.
Richard Holloway • Stories We Tell Ourselves: Making Meaning in a Meaningless Universe
Berkeley summed up this strange view in Latin as ‘Esse est percipi’ – to be (or exist) is to be perceived. So the fridge light can't be on, and the tree can't make a noise when there is no mind there to experience them. That might seem the obvious conclusion to draw from Berkeley's immaterialism. But Berkeley didn't think that objects were continua
... See moreNigel Warburton • A Little History of Philosophy (Little Histories)
Sometimes doubting your doubts is the beginning of wisdom.
James K. A. Smith • On the Road with Saint Augustine: A Real-World Spirituality for Restless Hearts
“To be is to be perceived,” said the Irish philosopher George Berkeley (1685–1753). We exist and give existence by virtue of perception. Berkeley meant that God’s omniscient perception maintains all things. For a moralist—and Berkeley was a bishop—this could mean you’re never out of the sight of God, so you’d better be good! For a metaphysician, “E
... See moreJames Hillman • The Soul's Code
Another key fact is that agency isn't intrinsic to a system, but rather something we ascribe to it. It's a way of describing a system at the level of abstraction that includes goals, obstacles, motivations, etc. If you look too closely (at a sufficiently low level of abstraction), the agency might seem to disappear. A plant, for example, is 'merely
... See moremeltingasphalt.com • Neurons Gone Wild
From George Saunders, on nuance and embracing complexity:
... See morethe writer doesn't have to have a fixed firm idea, but has to be able to take the reader on a journey to remind her that the world is complicated. From the very beginning, I understood writing to be about some kind of moral or ethical imperative. Absent that, I'm not that interested in it, ac