Creativity amazes me. What gives a piece the presence we call “art?” What distinguishes the casual snap from the considered image? Playful rhyme from memorable verse? Innocent dance from living choreography? What is it about how the author threw themselves into the piece, heart and everything, that makes it breathe and live…some undeniable there, there…?
Archive for the ‘Philosophy’ Category
Posted in Philosophy on November 4, 2013| Leave a Comment »
Posted in Philosophy on October 13, 2013| Leave a Comment »
If we are still bothered by the dialectics of freedom, continuity, the infinite, the necessary or just beginnings and endings, might we also ask ourselves if we believe that the basic particles that make up our bodies differ fundamentally from the basic particles that make up a rock or a star? Apparently assuming a dialectic of life, why are we then so surprised that it returns again and again in the spoken wanderings of a tortured people?
Posted in Philosophy on September 21, 2013| Leave a Comment »
When someone dies, who is it who leaves? From our perspective it may be the other. But from their perspective, perhaps it is us.
Posted in Philosophy on September 14, 2013| Leave a Comment »
Time seems to mark nothing substantial, which is absurd to contemplate.
Because a sum of nothings is nothing.
So if it doesn’t exist, nothing is possible.
But if time existed, was something, it could be divided, and would be infinitely divisible.
Because anything can be divided, given enough time.
So if time existed, it would be infinite.
But if time were infinite, everything would be impossible, and nothing would exist, which is also absurd.
If you think about it, time really is the strangest phenomenon.
Even if you don’t.
Which makes smart people just people, who use words in ways no one else has.
Posted in Philosophy on September 10, 2013| Leave a Comment »
Different lives, different words. Is your life somehow right, and mine wrong?
Posted in Philosophy on September 10, 2013| Leave a Comment »
I think Sartre is correct: when we ask for advice, we’ve already made a decision. And in the most difficult ones, we are alone.
Posted in Philosophy, Poetry on September 9, 2013| Leave a Comment »
a poem for me is frequently a response to a strong emotion, often involving grief. it is important for me to process the emotion, to fully express it in the poem, without regard to irrelevant factors or consequences. to fully validate the experience. to be able to learn from it.
Posted in Philosophy on September 8, 2013| Leave a Comment »
When Beethoven wrote revolutionary pieces like the Op. 13 sonata, he certainly was misunderstood by his contemporaries. Was he trying to be misunderstood? He clearly refused the pieties of his generation, and corrupted the youth of his community. Was that, his intent?
Posted in Philosophy on September 4, 2013| Leave a Comment »
It seems to me that the question of whether we can step in the same river twice goes to the question of how we relate to our own “reason.” The capacity in question is what contemporary psychology calls executive function – the ability to plan, prioritize, categorize, critique, abstract, reflect, remember, shape emotion, etc, etc. It seems clear that these capacities helped certain of our ancestors pass on more copies of their genes to subsequent generations, which is “why” we think this way. However, the question “do these capacities correspond to some objective reality?” is a question that is impossible to answer. So: take your pick. Or: tailor your answer to your goals.
Posted in Philosophy on August 31, 2013| Leave a Comment »
Plato it seems to me wanted to found a community of philosopher mathematicians just as Nietzsche wanted a community of philosopher poets. And whether we embrace the rationalism of art, religion or science, the positivist urge remains the same. On the other hand I believe Kierkegaard and Wittgenstein saw the problemitization of living as part of the question of community itself. Rather than striving to step outside it once again, they tried to speak through their own suffering with a more personal honesty, of demonstration.
metonymy4u 