Yes, the complexity of memory, and the difficulty in determining what the memory is providing communication with. Are we communing with the flow of emanation? Are we communing with intelligence seeded in creation? Because the land. Because the sea. Because we perceive.
This morning I was sitting at my desk and thinking about how every morning, just for a few moments as the sun rises, the sun bathes my desk and books in sunlight and it is absolutely my favorite part of the morning. Even beyond my coffee I love to be there at that moment when it feels like the world is personally telling me good morning and it's time to start the day. Thank you so much for sharing this!
Thank you! I think once Ireland had been drawn by the ruling elite into the Abrahamicised imperial orbit and Christianity had been imported, the only way for a national inclination towards mysticism could be satisfied was through a Platonist interpretation. Our greatest native philosopher, John Scotus Erigena was basically a Platonist.
A side step worthy of Ronan O’Gara. Whilst I am being irritating, here is something upon which I would like your views. I watched an IG video recently in which a young Chinese woman PhD candidate discussed Kant and his extreme racism. She was not entirely clear but seemed to suggest his (now) distasteful anthropology cannot be disentangled from his philosophy. I don’t know enough about Kant to have an opinion. I see the same phenomenon in Thomas Jefferson who was at least as much a racist as Kant. The Declaration of Independence is a highly dubious document. All men are created equal does mean men and only white men at that. Non-whites only appear as euphemism as the pursuit of happiness which is an allusion to property.
Having said that I think I can accept that in the intervening 250 years it is possible to drop out men and put in humans. You may have guessed where this is going. Your hero, Heidegger, is at least as compromised as Kant by his political views. I never really immersed myself in Heidegger. He’s a bit beyond my intellectual horsepower. However, what finished him off in my mind was the Black Notebooks, not that I read them. I might do so now.
The question for you is this: can you disentangle Heidegger from the abhorrent political web in which he enmeshed himself? Hint: Hannah Arendt must have thought she could.
I understand it is not a trivial issue and that people can feel very strongly about these things. I think it depends on what parts of the philosophy of a philosopher one focuses on and for what reason. Plato said in his seventh letter something to the effect that his written works do not contain his unalloyed thoughts or full doctrine. I think when we take what seems best from a philosopher's work while disagreeing even intensely with other parts we are doing philosophy a service. It's what tradition is all about; preserving and changing in measures.
You might say the same about my obsession with Nietzsche. It is not impossible to see why the Nazis co-opted him. My way of getting passed the potential objection is to see what he wrote as a psychology. It is therefore a great disservice to see in it a political philosophy.
Exactly! And the insistence on literal interpretations of important texts in philosophy and other areas is quite a modern obsession. I think it probably has to do with forms of biblical literalism, but it can show up in many contexts. Obviously an instruction manual for a piece of machinery is probably to be taken literally, but philosophy and spiritual writing in general is very far from that. An example would be that in his final unfinished text, "Laws", Plato's characters make some pretty extreme and uncharacteristic statements, including that the perfect city would outlaw homosexuality. This despite Plato's own history of intimacy with certain men and the homoerotic settings of his other works. But one only has to learn that some of his immediate successors in the Academy seem to have enthusiastically embraced the then very traditional practice of “eronemos and erastes" to cop that Plato cannot have been speaking absolutely or literally through his characters. Schopenhauer for his part, who remains my favourite (or at least joint favourite) said some awful things about women. Needless to say I don't agree with them. But the attitude of taking everything out of the mouth or pen of other human beings, even ones claiming or considered to be inspired by the divine, as bare and absolute truth is a really infantile mindset. It's really servile and apart from some marxist or religious fanatics, the only people I've encountered who do that are kids. And it's been a source for a lot of our worst problems in history.
I wish I could look out my window and feel as if the landscape that I look upon has marked my soul in even some small way. Perhaps it has and I am just unable to feel it?
It depends on where we are of course; I couldn't feel that way if I was in another city or even a part of this city that I don't have much connection with. I certainly don't feel it in waiting rooms! Lol 🤣
it's good to see you back and I didn't notice you were gone but I also know that whatever it was there was reasons cuz I trust you so I'm very glad to see you back and to read you and I noticed you weren't around just so you know I also haven't been good in reaching out and I should get better at that but just so nobody I missed you and I'm glad to see you and to read you
Thanks man! I've had a lot on my plate recently; I'm getting (or trying to get!) a longstanding medical issue sorted. It's an old injury and it's proving quite difficult to pin down. Lots of scans and waiting rooms lol I'll probably be in for a few more weeks of it before I can get back to some normality lol 🙏🙏
well I hope and pray for the best and you get healed quick as possible good all right now I know yeah that'll be great if you can get the help you need I know what that stuff is like man and it's not awesome so I'm glad you're seeing hopefully progress towards being healed up
Greetings Mr. Coyle, methinks we are all guessing, that makes me happy, so says I, the old wild crone at the end of town, a few steps into the forest, where the elementals live 🤗 We actually in my view, just stepped out of the cave, still a bit hairy, and hunched over, damn, we haven’t really moved the evolutionary process forward all that much, humans are still hunting humans. So good to hear from you Sir Ross, keep cool, stand tall and aim high, your fan Lady G 🦊🔥
Yes, the complexity of memory, and the difficulty in determining what the memory is providing communication with. Are we communing with the flow of emanation? Are we communing with intelligence seeded in creation? Because the land. Because the sea. Because we perceive.
That's it 🙏🙏
This morning I was sitting at my desk and thinking about how every morning, just for a few moments as the sun rises, the sun bathes my desk and books in sunlight and it is absolutely my favorite part of the morning. Even beyond my coffee I love to be there at that moment when it feels like the world is personally telling me good morning and it's time to start the day. Thank you so much for sharing this!
And thank you for that lovely comment! 🙏
Is Platonism peculiarly well received in Ireland because of its mysticism? Of is it more because it lends itself so well to monotheism?
A little provocation to welcome you back. I assume the treatment is working now.
Thank you! I think once Ireland had been drawn by the ruling elite into the Abrahamicised imperial orbit and Christianity had been imported, the only way for a national inclination towards mysticism could be satisfied was through a Platonist interpretation. Our greatest native philosopher, John Scotus Erigena was basically a Platonist.
A side step worthy of Ronan O’Gara. Whilst I am being irritating, here is something upon which I would like your views. I watched an IG video recently in which a young Chinese woman PhD candidate discussed Kant and his extreme racism. She was not entirely clear but seemed to suggest his (now) distasteful anthropology cannot be disentangled from his philosophy. I don’t know enough about Kant to have an opinion. I see the same phenomenon in Thomas Jefferson who was at least as much a racist as Kant. The Declaration of Independence is a highly dubious document. All men are created equal does mean men and only white men at that. Non-whites only appear as euphemism as the pursuit of happiness which is an allusion to property.
Having said that I think I can accept that in the intervening 250 years it is possible to drop out men and put in humans. You may have guessed where this is going. Your hero, Heidegger, is at least as compromised as Kant by his political views. I never really immersed myself in Heidegger. He’s a bit beyond my intellectual horsepower. However, what finished him off in my mind was the Black Notebooks, not that I read them. I might do so now.
The question for you is this: can you disentangle Heidegger from the abhorrent political web in which he enmeshed himself? Hint: Hannah Arendt must have thought she could.
I understand it is not a trivial issue and that people can feel very strongly about these things. I think it depends on what parts of the philosophy of a philosopher one focuses on and for what reason. Plato said in his seventh letter something to the effect that his written works do not contain his unalloyed thoughts or full doctrine. I think when we take what seems best from a philosopher's work while disagreeing even intensely with other parts we are doing philosophy a service. It's what tradition is all about; preserving and changing in measures.
You might say the same about my obsession with Nietzsche. It is not impossible to see why the Nazis co-opted him. My way of getting passed the potential objection is to see what he wrote as a psychology. It is therefore a great disservice to see in it a political philosophy.
Exactly! And the insistence on literal interpretations of important texts in philosophy and other areas is quite a modern obsession. I think it probably has to do with forms of biblical literalism, but it can show up in many contexts. Obviously an instruction manual for a piece of machinery is probably to be taken literally, but philosophy and spiritual writing in general is very far from that. An example would be that in his final unfinished text, "Laws", Plato's characters make some pretty extreme and uncharacteristic statements, including that the perfect city would outlaw homosexuality. This despite Plato's own history of intimacy with certain men and the homoerotic settings of his other works. But one only has to learn that some of his immediate successors in the Academy seem to have enthusiastically embraced the then very traditional practice of “eronemos and erastes" to cop that Plato cannot have been speaking absolutely or literally through his characters. Schopenhauer for his part, who remains my favourite (or at least joint favourite) said some awful things about women. Needless to say I don't agree with them. But the attitude of taking everything out of the mouth or pen of other human beings, even ones claiming or considered to be inspired by the divine, as bare and absolute truth is a really infantile mindset. It's really servile and apart from some marxist or religious fanatics, the only people I've encountered who do that are kids. And it's been a source for a lot of our worst problems in history.
I wish I could look out my window and feel as if the landscape that I look upon has marked my soul in even some small way. Perhaps it has and I am just unable to feel it?
It depends on where we are of course; I couldn't feel that way if I was in another city or even a part of this city that I don't have much connection with. I certainly don't feel it in waiting rooms! Lol 🤣
🩷
Thanks Daniel!🙏🍀💚
it's good to see you back and I didn't notice you were gone but I also know that whatever it was there was reasons cuz I trust you so I'm very glad to see you back and to read you and I noticed you weren't around just so you know I also haven't been good in reaching out and I should get better at that but just so nobody I missed you and I'm glad to see you and to read you
Thanks man! I've had a lot on my plate recently; I'm getting (or trying to get!) a longstanding medical issue sorted. It's an old injury and it's proving quite difficult to pin down. Lots of scans and waiting rooms lol I'll probably be in for a few more weeks of it before I can get back to some normality lol 🙏🙏
well I hope and pray for the best and you get healed quick as possible good all right now I know yeah that'll be great if you can get the help you need I know what that stuff is like man and it's not awesome so I'm glad you're seeing hopefully progress towards being healed up
Really appreciate that mate 🙏🙏🙏🙏🍀
Greetings Mr. Coyle, methinks we are all guessing, that makes me happy, so says I, the old wild crone at the end of town, a few steps into the forest, where the elementals live 🤗 We actually in my view, just stepped out of the cave, still a bit hairy, and hunched over, damn, we haven’t really moved the evolutionary process forward all that much, humans are still hunting humans. So good to hear from you Sir Ross, keep cool, stand tall and aim high, your fan Lady G 🦊🔥
Thank you Geraldine!🙏🙏❤️🍀