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Nietzsche said that he wanted to say in a sentence what others could only say in a book. Perhaps he wrote in epigrams because he had so many books inside him

Isn't there a psychological aspect to the question in terms of a need to believe in free will? Is it what Nietzsche called a 'useful fiction' and is something that might have psychosocial...

If you're interested in the philosophy of science then of course, without wanting to sound fatuous, you can google it to find authors who tickle your curiosity. Personally, it's not really a...

I haven't read the book but it sounds worth reading. I wanted to contribute because I've just been reading about the dictum 'speech is silver and silence is golden' and I came across the idea that...

Peace does not exist but in theory at least we can create it, which I think would have more to do with self preservation than self loathing. Perhaps this connects to the pursuit of God and Truth...

I guess we people living in this "dead place" can be thankful that you're not King then. Does your monarchical fantasy embrace any other stupid ideas?

there are no happy hunting grounds for minds that have lost their balance. Joyce would know that better than many, I suspect, as his daughter was schizophrenic. Perhaps Joyce had an extremely...

Two quotes that often occur to me are by the Scottish psychiatrist R D Laing. The first one sounds like it might have been crafted by an emo, the second is the final couplet of a poem
"Life is a...

perhaps there's a sort of paradox, he's playing with Alyosha by suggesting he might have told celibate monks about girls (no doubt in a salacious way) but if wet, at least in English, has a sexual...

Is it necessary for Yalash to do all this reading? As for Tolstoy, at least according to a John Bayley introduction to 'Anna Karenina,' he came to conclude that his two great novels were worthless...

Not Hegel's 'Phenomenology of Spirit' which I'm reading at the moment but his 'Philosophy of History' which I'm also reading is far more accessible

one way of explicating the meaning of 'free will' would be to talk of 'unimpeded will' or will free from impediment. We think of coercion in 'external' terms so to speak but could we think of...

yes i accept that, one may encounter poetry in a 'private' way and 'perform' it for oneself so to speak. Of course one can read Dylan divested of the music and find that to be a valuable aesthetic...

poetry is a performance art and, of course, one can go to poetry readings. The only thing I can think to contribute about Dylan is that the performance includes musical instruments. Actually...

it strikes me that Schopenhaurer's argument could equally be applied to pubs, with their alcoholic inducement to vent spleen. This reminds me actually of 'the citizen' section of 'Ulysses' by James...

It seems to me that both the 'God hypothesis' (and one may, say, accept Dawkin's framing of this in the God Delusion-he is not an 'igtheist') and the atheist hypothesis are competing philosophical...

you talk of integrating someone else's behaviour. Does this involve taking 'something' that is literally 'outside' you (this may be said to be outside the boundaries of your body though if you mean...

i have just read a couple of sentences by Arthur Schopenhauer (19th century German philosopher) and I thought they might serve as a stimulus for a thread...for those who are interested of course...
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perhaps the rise of (possessive) individualism and a decline in a 'culture of deference' in the UK is connected to a decline in 'church going' christianity (and if people are less deferential maybe...

good review there kev 67. I think as you point to the novel reveals an account of society at the time and it also reveals a character, who among other things is anti authoritarian and at times a...

the scandal around Lady Chatterley's lover was that a lady of a considerably higher social status would have relations with a gamekeeper. Famously at the trial in 63 concerning the lifting of the...

another adjective that occurs to me is 'relentless.' One of my thoughts about the book was that it reflected time desperately grasping for eternity. That the volcanic nature of life craves the...

you do appear to be making an appeal to some universal standard of rationality. To my mind the idea of divine providence is not irrational (it may not be a true idea) and it is perfectly rational it...

like me, malcom lowry was a 'squirrel', that is from the wirral (north west of england). I thought the book was morbid, difficult and brilliant...think it definitely merits a second round, that's if...

If God is perfect this suggests that 'He' lacks for nothing and this may at least appear to suggest that 'His' creation is superfluous...in other words 'what's the point?' ...on the other hand the...