Category Archives: Philosophy

BOOKS: “Magic: A Very Short Introduction” by Owen Davies

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Magic: A Very Short IntroductionMagic: A Very Short Introduction by Owen Davies
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Publisher Site – OUP

The first thing that a potential reader should be aware of is that this book isn’t about stage magic or sleight of hand, and that form of magic — in which all parties are aware that techniques are being used to exploit perceptual limitations so as to create the illusion of a supernatural occurrence — doesn’t even really come up as an aside. This book is about magic that (at least some) people believe is a demonstration of actual supernatural happenings in the world.

The book looks at the topic largely from a historical viewpoint; though special emphasis is given to the relationship between religion and magic, in both its congruous and adversarial aspects. That said, for the most part, it’s not arranged historically but rather topically. It does have one chapter on historical perspectives (ch. 3) and one that addresses the ways and degrees to which magical thinking still exists in the modern world (ch. 6.) But it also has chapters on the anthropology of magic (ch.1,) the shifting landscape of thinking about what magic actually is (given that it’s clearly something to many people but isn’t likely the actual exploitation of loopholes in the laws governing the physical world that believers feel it to be — ch. 3,) the role of language in magic (ch. 4,) and the practices of magic (ch. 5.)

The book does focus heavily on the Abrahamic world (Judeo-Christian-Islamic) and its Janus-faced relation to magic over time, but not exclusively so. It brings in African, Chinese, Caribbean, and Native American traditions here and there as well.

I found this book interesting and thought-provoking and would highly recommend it for anyone looking to gain a better insight into how humanity has thought about magic over time and how those beliefs have aligned – or conflicted with – religious beliefs and practices.

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“The Past” by Ralph Waldo Emerson [w/ Audio]

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The debt is paid,
 The verdict said,
 The Furies laid,
 The plague is stayed,
 All fortunes made;
 Turn the key and bolt the door,
 Sweet is death forevermore.
 Nor haughty hope, nor swart chagrin,
 Nor murdering hate, can enter in.
 All is now secure and fast;
 Not the gods can shake the Past;
 Flies-to the adamantine door
 Bolted down forevermore.
 None can re-enter there, --
 No thief so politic,
 No Satan with a royal trick
 Steal in by window, chink, or hole,
 To bind or unbind, add what lacked,
 Insert a leaf, or forge a name,
 New-face or finish what is packed,
 Alter or mend eternal Fact.

Evolution [Free Verse]

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Anywhere copies are made, 
   but copies aren't exact,
      selection will take place.

Some erroneous copies will 
    be more beloved than others.
      Some errors will propagate.
      Some errors will die out.

Thus is language,
   thus is chemistry,
   and thus is life.

Raising Chaos [Free Verse]

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Raise chaos:
   That's the job of intelligent life,
      to make nice & orderly things
      so they can crack and shatter
      and eventually end up pulverized
      to dust --
   A fine, granular dust that will blow
      across the universe.

First, the bowl must be made:
   Some potter must shape and glaze
      and fire it with care,
   Turning sandwiches into art... 
      and waste heat --
         entropy slow and fast.

All so someone can crack or chip it
   (with ease and lack of intention,)
   starting it on a path to being sand
   grains a world away.

“To a Marsh Hawk in Spring” by Henry David Thoreau [w/ Audio]

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There is health in thy gray wing,
 Health of nature's furnishing.
 Say, thou modern-winged antique,
 Was thy mistress ever sick?
 In each heaving of thy wing
 Thou dost health and leisure bring,
 Thou dost waive disease and pain
 And resume new life again.

FIVE WISE LINES [January 2025]

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“Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, does not go away.”

Philip k. dick

“The Wu and the Yue peoples hate each other. But in the same boat in a storm, they work together like left and right hands.”

SunZi in The ART of War

“Travel changes you. As you move through this life and this world you change things slightly, you leave marks behind, however small. And in return, life – and travel – leaves marks on you. Most of the time, those marks – on your body or on your heart – are beautiful. Often, though, they hurt.”

anthony bourdain

What allows great kings and generals to win, more frequently than ordinary men, is foreknowledge.
Foreknowledge cannot be attained by spirits or deduced or calculated.”

Sunzi in The ART of war

“Only those who risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.”

T. S. Eliot

BOOKS: “Confucianism: A Very Short Introduction” by Daniel K. Gardner

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Confucianism: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions)Confucianism: A Very Short Introduction by Daniel K. Gardner
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Publisher Site – OUP

This is a brief guide to Confucianism from the early life of Confucius (孔子 -Kǒngzǐ) to the ups and downs the philosophy experienced in the twentieth century. It has chapters exploring the system’s thinking with respect to personal development as well as with respect to governance and also discusses how later thinkers (most notably Mencius and Xunzi) expanded on Confucius’s ideas — but also created schisms. The book examines the laudable elements of the philosophy such as its sanction of benevolence among leaders, but also its less laudable elements such as its unenlightened views on women and what they are capable of [and, of course, the many ideas in between that could be seen in varied lights.)

As with other books in this series, it has a few graphics as well as a bibliography and further reading section.

I found this book to be readable, well-organized, and of a level appropriate for its intended purpose. I’d highly recommend it for individuals looking for a concise introduction to Confucianism.

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“Song of the Open Road” (15 of 15) by Walt Whitman [w/ Audio]

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Allons! the road is before us!
 It is safe -- I have tried it -- my own feet have
   tried it well -- be not detain'd!

Let the paper remain on the desk unwritten,
   and the book on the shelf unopen'd!
 Let the tools remain in the workshop! let
   the money remain unearn'd!
 Let the school stand! mind not the cry of 
   the teacher!
 Let the preacher preach in his pulpit! let the
   lawyer plead in the court, and the judge
   expound the law.

Camerado, I give you my hand!
 I give you my love more precious than
   money,
 I give you myself before preaching or law;
 Will you give me yourself? will you come 
   travel with me?
 Shall we stick by each other as long as we
   live?

PROMPT: Favorite Animal

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Daily writing prompt
What is your favorite animal?
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I’m not sure whether the intention is to determine one’s favorite species of animal or one’s favorite particular individual animal. I’ll presume the former as the latter would turn it into a “Which of your pets (or children — for those who count humans among the animal kingdom) do you love best?” type of question — which is awkward to ask anyone with whom one is not on intimate terms.

At any rate, I’ve come to think of assigning favorites as a bad habit of lazy minds, intended to negate the need to actively observe and to see the beauty and brilliance of whatever stands before one at any given moment. [It’s part of a vast array of patterns people develop to be as cognitively disengaged as can be managed.] So, I don’t have a favorite species of animal, but aardvark does come first in the dictionary, if not in my heart.

[Incidentally, when I had multiple pets, I did have a favorite, and — perhaps tellingly — it was the one whose personality was least like my own.]

“Song of the Open Road” (14 of 15) by Walt Whitman [w/ Audio]

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Allons! through struggles and wars!
 The goal that was named cannot be
   countermanded.

Have the past struggles succeeded?
 What has succeeded? yourself? your nation?
   Nature?
 Now understand me well -- it is provided in
   the essence of things that from any
   fruition of success, no matter what, shall
   come forth something to make a greater
   struggle necessary.

My call is the call of battle, I nourish active
   rebellion,
 He going with me must go well arm'd,
 He going with me goes often with spare
   diet, poverty, angry enemies, desertions.