Category Archives: Thoughts

Five Wise Lines [April 2024]

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Diogenes Sitting in His Tub by Jean-Leon Gerome (1860)

Of what use for us is a man who, although he has long practiced philosophy, has never upset anyone?

Diogenes of sinope on Plato, according to themistius

The superstition that we must drive from the Earth is that which, making a tyrant of God, invites men to become tyrants.

Voltaire in On Superstition

The progress of an artist is a continual self-sacrifice, a continual extinction of personality.

T.S. Eliot in Tradition and the Individual talent

What’s the difference between a king and a poor man if they would both end the same bundle of white bones.

Zhuangzi

The absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence.

Carl sagan (Note: There are variations on this quote that long predate Sagan’s)

HONORABLE MENTIONS:

You live off the crumbs that fall from the festive table of my genius.

Kurban Said in Ali and Nino [Not so much wisdom as a wicked burn]

To roam Giddily and be everywhere, but at home, Such freedom doth a banishment become.

John donne in a Poetic letter to rowland woodward

Lions are not the slaves of those who feed them, it is the feeders, rather, who are the lion’s slaves. For fear is the mark of a slave, and wild beasts make men fearful.

Diogenes the cynic

PROMPT: Negative Feelings

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Daily writing prompt
What strategies do you use to cope with negative feelings?
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A practice of feeling gratitude is extremely beneficial in that regard. Simple meditative practices help one become aware of thoughts and feelings more quickly, before they are fed through rumination, making the down-spiral cycle easier to disrupt.

And, sometimes, I rant. This usually veers quickly into comedic territory and I’m reminded of the ridiculousness of taking human life too seriously, given the absurdity of being primates in pants who love shiny things. (It would be unimaginable if human life weren’t absurd.)

Mind Storm [Free Verse]

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A loose shard of thought
   Flips and twists about in
     My brain,
 Poking sensitive tissue,
    And sending firestorms
     Riffling through my circuitry.
 I can't really say I feel each 
    Prickle or pierce, but they 
     Do make me wince, sometimes.

PROMPT: Patriotic

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Are you patriotic? What does being patriotic mean to you?

I certainly was as a young man, but increasingly I have shifted towards a more “citizen of the world” worldview. I’m no doubt influenced by my admiration for the life of Socrates (such as we know it,) who was said to have been a valiant and fearsome hoplite warrior in his youth but came to call himself a Citizen of the World. As one becomes governed less by passions and more by reason, it becomes easier to have a logically consistent ethics by doing so.

Consider the question: “Is it wrong to stab a person in the back without warning, a person who you do not know, a person who doesn’t know a thing about you and has never done you any personal wrong, a person who to your knowledge has always lived a good and virtuous life?”

Of course, the immediate impulse is to say that that act is clearly wrong. Really, the only case we can attempt to successfully counter argue would be a soldier in war or a military action acting on lawful orders against an enemy combatant. But everything becomes messy. Is it enough that the soldier is operating on “lawful orders?” In that case, is the soldier a moral individual, if he lacks agency? To what degree can a infantryman or spec ops soldier know that it is – in fact – a lawful order? Can a lawful order be morally and ethically reprehensible and indefensible? The questions abound, and that’s why I suspect Socrates – lover of questions as he might have been – had a shift in philosophy about the matter over the course of his life.

It may seem I’m arguing that this is growth or betterment, but maybe it’s just the natural progression of a life. Maybe we need more passion in our youth and more agency as we age.

Of course, in those elder / “citizen of the world years,” the Athenians straight up murdered their onetime hero, so maybe I have not picked the best role model.

BOOKS: “Great Minds on Small Things” by Matthew Qvortrup

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Great Minds on Small Things: The Philosophers' Guide to Everyday LifeGreat Minds on Small Things: The Philosophers’ Guide to Everyday Life by Matthew Qvortrup
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Amazon.in Page

This book was inspired by Voltaire’s Philosophical Dictionary, a collection of essays by the French polymath put out in several editions and which covered topics such as: “Adultery,” “Free Will,” “Kissing,” and “Nakedness.” In some ways, the inevitable comparison that results from such a “reboot” as this proves the connection between the books to be apt. But in at least one sense, the comparison is unfortunate.

On a superficial level, comparison is apt. Not only does this book expound upon a range of alphabetized topics, often of an “everyday” nature, but it uses many of Voltaire’s topics. It should be noted that Qvortrup’s book also includes many topics that Voltaire didn’t address, notably topics such as “cars” that didn’t exist in Voltaire’s day. One difference that benefits the book greatly is that (as the title suggests,) Qvortrup’s book draws on ideas of a wide range of thinkers, mostly philosophers but also artists of a philosophical bent. [Whereas, Voltaire’s book is a single-point of view, his own.] The “great minds” in this book range from the ancient world to that of the present. While it is (by the author’s admission) Western-centric, it does reference Eastern thinkers (e.g. Taoists and Buddhists) more than many books I’ve read that weren’t as self-aware of their own Eurocentrism.

Where the comparison to Voltaire’s dictionary is not so apt is that Qvortrup’s book rarely mixes wit and stimulation in the way for which Voltaire had a genius. This doesn’t mean Qvortrup’s book isn’t witty or thought-provoking, but just that it’s rarely both, simultaneously. In dealing with a topic like flatulence it can be witty but trivial, in expounding on the ideas of Kant it is intriguing but not usually amusing. That said, the book is laden with interesting ideas and insights into seminal thinkers that most people will find unexpected, if quirky. It is also the case that the overall tone of this book is lighter and more aimed at amusement than is Voltaire.

I found this book to be compelling, readable, and well worth the time, and would recommend it for readers of pop philosophy.

View all my reviews

PROMPT: Differently

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What could you do differently?

Literally, everything. That’s the gift and curse of being human.

PROMPT: Billboard

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If you had a freeway billboard, what would it say?

“If you think there’s a Hell, you’re already there.”

I think it works on two levels… at least.

PROMPT: Nostalgic

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What makes you feel nostalgic?

In order of frequency: 1.) music; 2.) some random memory; 3.) a pattern of colors.

PROMPT: Political Views

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How have your political views changed over time?

While pretty much the same place on the spectrum, they have softened with the realization that abstract principles may have value for understanding, but for a system of governance to work it must be in tune with human nature ( which is far too messy for dogmatic principles.) In short, my political views have become more pragmatic.

Most importantly, I have come to believe that the governance we get comes of a dialectical battle of ideas, and – therefore – a wide diversity of views in the fray is beneficial. Far from wishing our political opponents would go away, we should hope they force us to do our best by putting their best argument out there in the most astute and persuasive way. It will always be messy, with some cover hog temporarily stealing the warmth, but ultimately it’s better (less bleak and cold) than sleeping alone.

It does require sound and strong rule of law, select depoliticized domains (i.e. the military and judiciary,) a willingness of people to accept that ideas they hate can only be defeated by engagement and persuasion (not by silencing or canceling – i.e. intellectual courage is essential,) but it will yield something better (if often messier) than any political ideology.

Skittish Dreams [Free Verse]

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I don't remember my dreams --
     not in the middle of the night 
     and not in the morning.

But, sometimes, I catch a glimpse
     at a random instant:
          composing a poem,
          reflecting on a passage
               from a book,
          eating a cracker...

 But my dreams are like
     frightened animals,
          turning my attention
          directly upon them, 
          makes them skitter off..., 

     vanishing into the thicket.

My dreams vanish like they 
     were never really there,
     and I am left wondering
          just what I saw.

The harder I try to remember,
     the more severely I scrub
          my mental hard drive,
     purging all shapes and motions,
          until my recollection is nothing
          but a vague residue of feeling.

I don't KNOW that it was a dream.

I couldn't swear to it.

All I know is that it's an image 
     that I can't tie to my waking life, 
          can't tie to any person, place,
          or thing I know to be real. 

(And, often enough, it's an image
     that couldn't exist in the real world.)

I couldn't remember it as a dream,
     but - somehow - I intensely FEEL
          that it was a dream,

but the Dream is deep down in its hole,
     shaking like a critter that
          was almost snatched up by 
     a monster too awful to 
          contemplate....

and, somehow, I am that monster.