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Tag Archives: thought

Two Things Fill the Mind with Awe

01 Tuesday Dec 2015

Posted by jrbenjamin in Philosophy

≈ Comments Off on Two Things Fill the Mind with Awe

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biology, cosmology, Critique of Pure Reason, David Edmonds, Einstein Forum, Immanuel Kant, John Rawls, Moral Law, morality, neurology, Nigel Warburton, Philosophy, Philosophy Bites, reason, Susan Neiman, Susan Nieman, thought

Immanuel Kant

“Two things fill the mind with ever new and increasing admiration and awe, the oftener and the more steadily we reflect on them: the starry heavens above and the moral law within. I have not to search for them and conjecture them as though they were veiled in darkness or were in the transcendent region beyond my horizon; I see them before me and connect them directly with the consciousness of my existence. The former begins from the place I occupy in the external world of sense, and enlarges my connection therein to an unbounded extent with worlds upon worlds and systems of systems, and moreover into limitless times of their periodic motion, its beginning and continuance.

The second begins from my invisible self, my personality, and exhibits me in a world which has true infinity, but which is traceable only by the understanding, and with which I discern that I am not in a merely contingent but in a universal and necessary connection, as I am also thereby with all those visible worlds. The former view of a countless multitude of worlds annihilates as it were my importance as an animal creature, which after it has been for a short time provided with vital power, one knows not how, must again give back the matter of which it was formed to the planet it inhabits (a mere speck in the universe). The second, on the contrary, infinitely elevates my worth as an intelligence by my personality, in which the moral law reveals to me a life independent of animality and even of the whole sensible world, at least so far as may be inferred from the destination assigned to my existence by this law, a destination not restricted to conditions and limits of this life, but reaching into the infinite.”

__________

The first paragraphs of the conclusion to Immanuel Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason.

On their Philosophy Bites podcast, David Edmonds and Nigel Warburton asked an impressive array of scientists and philosophers the question “Who’s Your Favorite Philosopher?”. All of the brief responses are worth hearing, though one of my favorites comes from Susan Nieman, protégé of John Rawls and lecturer at the Einstein Forum, who riffs:

If I could only pick one, I’d pick Kant — and I’d pick him because I think he’s actually the bravest of any philosopher.

Kant’s most important insight was that there’s a huge gap between the way the world is and the way the world ought to be, and both of those have equal value. One needs to keep both of them constantly in mind.

It’s an extremely hard stance to take. It’s very modern. It means a certain amount of living on the edge. It means a certain amount of permanent frustration.

People tend to go in one direction or the other. Either they say, ‘well, the way the world is, is all there is, and any ideal is just an illusion that you ought to grow out of.’ Or they project some kind of illusion — this is where you get Stalinism and other ideologies — the way the world ought to be is the way the world is.

Living with both is extremely hard, and it means that you know you’ll never realize entirely the ideals you believe in, but I think it’s only way of being both honest and hopeful at the same time.

I apologize for the extended hiatus. Your regularly scheduled programming resumes now.

  • A classic anecdote about the great wit Sidney Morgenbesser, who once got arrested for mispronouncing “Kant”…
  • Jim Holt dissects what we mean when we say the universe arose from nothing
  • Kierkegaard’s brief, definitive statement on how tragedy and comedy arise due to the nature of time

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Our Students Are Taught to Feel but Not Think

13 Monday Jul 2015

Posted by jrbenjamin in Politics, Psychology

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American Schools, Conservativism, Diane Ravitch, education, Firing Line, Inside American Education: The Decline, Learning, Schools, Teaching, The Deception, The Dogmas, Thomas Sowell, thought, William F. Buckley

Thomas Sowell

“Science is not the only field in which American students are lacking in knowledge and — more importantly — in the ability to tie what they know together to form a coherent chain of reasoning. Many American students seem unaware of even the need for such a process. Test scores are only the tip of the iceberg. Professor Diane Ravitch, a scholar specializing in the study of American education, reports that ‘professors complain about students who arrive at college with strong convictions but not enough knowledge to argue persuasively for their beliefs.’ As Professor Ravitch concludes: ‘Having opinions without knowledge is not of much value; not knowing the difference between them is a positive indicator of ignorance.’ In short, it is not that Johnny can’t read, or even that Johnny can’t think. Johnny doesn’t know what thinking is, because thinking is so often confused with feeling in many public schools.

The phrase ‘I feel’ is so often used by American students to introduce a conclusion, rather than say ‘I think,’ or ‘I know,’ much less ‘I conclude.’ Unfortunately, ‘I feel’ is often the most accurate term — and is regarded as sufficient by many teachers, as well as students. The net result, as in mathematics, is that many students are confident incompetents, whether discussing social issues, world events, or other subjects. The emphasis is on having students express opinions on issues, and on having those opinions taken seriously (enhancing self-esteem), regardless of whether there is anything behind them…”

__________

Excerpted from Thomas Sowell’s 1993 book Inside American Education: The Decline, The Deception, The Dogmas.

Below, watch Sowell debating American schools in a 1981 episode from Buckley’s Firing Line.

More:

  • More people now have smart phones than clean water
  • Chomsky riffs on education and the value of work
  • Another hot take from Sowell — on the problem with a ‘living wage’

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Thinking Hard about the Everyday

30 Thursday Apr 2015

Posted by jrbenjamin in Philosophy

≈ Comments Off on Thinking Hard about the Everyday

Tags

friendship, letter, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Norman Malcolm, Philosophy, thought, World War I

Ludwig Wittgenstein, Swansea, Wales, September 1947

“Whenever I thought of you I couldn’t help thinking of a particular incident which seemed to me very important. You & I were walking along the river towards the railway bridge & we had a heated discussion in which you made a remark about ‘national character’ that shocked me by its primitiveness. I then thought: what is the use of studying philosophy if all that it does for you is to enable you to talk with some plausibility about some abstruse questions of logic, etc., & if it does not improve your thinking about the important questions of everyday life, if it does not make you more conscientious than any… journalist in the use of the dangerous phrases such people use for their own ends. You see, I know it’s difficult to think well about ‘certainty’, ‘probability’, ‘perception’, etc. But it is, if possible, still more difficult to think, or try to think, really honestly about your life & other peoples lives. And the trouble is that thinking about these things is not thrilling, but often downright nasty. And when it’s nasty then it’s most important…”

__________

Ludwig Wittgenstein, writing in a note to his friend Norman Malcolm on November 16th, 1944. You’ll find it in Malcolm’s Ludwig Wittgenstein: A Memoir as well as Wittgenstein in Cambridge: Letters and Documents 1911-1951.

The context of this note, which can be found in Malcolm’s intimate biography of his Cambridge advisor, is rooted in a casual interaction between the men which had taken place five years earlier, in 1939. That autumn, Malcolm and Wittgenstein were walking along the Cam river when they saw a newspaper vendor’s sign plastered with the headline “Germans accuse Brits of trying to assassinate Hitler!”. Wittgenstein shrugged, saying he wouldn’t be surprised if the accusation were true. Malcolm bristled, claiming such a scheme would be against the “national character” of England. “The British [are] too civilized and decent to attempt anything so underhand,” he remarked. Even years later, Wittgenstein thought the remark an enormous betrayal of logic which, to his mind, we owe loyalty above all else — especially something as dubious as nationalism.

Keep reading:

  • How Wittgenstein, an insanely brave soldier, wrote a masterpiece in the trenches
  • Socrates’s approach to friendship
  • Christopher Hitchens reflects on a lifetime of friends

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Your Mind Is All You Have

14 Wednesday May 2014

Posted by jrbenjamin in Psychology, Speeches

≈ Comments Off on Your Mind Is All You Have

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Death and the Present, dreams, Fulfillment, happiness, mindfulness, neurology, neuroscience, Philosophy, psychology, Sam Harris, Speeches, thought, Waking, Your Mind Is All You Have

Sam Harris

“Whatever you can possibly notice – in your body, in your mind, in the world – has only one place to appear: in your conscious experience.

Now I’m not saying this is all just a dream, but as a neurological matter it is very much like a dream. It is a dream that is constrained by inputs from the external world. And the dreams we call dreams at night are dreams that are not constrained by the external world — and that’s why you seem to be able to get away with everything.

But your mind is all you have. It’s all you’ve ever had. It’s all you have to offer other people. And this might sound calloused to say when there are maybe many other aspects of your life that seem in need of being addressed… But it’s still true. If you are perpetually angry and depressed and confused and unloving, it doesn’t matter how much success you have or who’s in your life, you’re not going to enjoy any of it.

I suspect you could all make a list of things you want to accomplish – of things that really need to be changed about your life. What is the significance of everything on that list? Each thing on that list seems to promise that if you could only do it, you would have reason to just be happy in the present moment. We are all trying to find a path back to the present moment, and good enough reason to just be happy here…

And again, I’m not saying that everything on your list is absurd, or not worth accomplishing. But how dissatisfied with the present do you have to be in order to prepare a satisfying future? If you’re constantly ruminating on what you just did, or what you should have done, or what you would have done if you only had the chance, you will miss your life. You’ll fail to connect with it. You’ll fail to connect with other people.”

__________

Sam Harris, speaking in a section from his heavy and highly persuasive speech Death and the Present Moment.

I apologize for the record-breaking hiatus: I have been under-the-weather, and traveling, and just plain busy.

Read on:

  • Harris reflects on why exactly it’s so tragic that we waste our time
  • From his TED Talk: Sam argues about what societies get wrong about female sexuality
  • As a non-theist, Harris wonders about whether there is a deeper, more spiritual way to find fulfillment

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