Tag Archives: existentialism

Japan’s earthquake and tsunami: there was a terrible noise. There was a terrible silence. There was a terrible noise. There was a terrible silence. There was a terrible noise.

Posted on March 15, 2011 by

The most heart-breaking and arresting sentence (or, rather, portion of a larger sentence) I’ve encountered on the Japan earthquake and tsunami was penned at Salon this morning by Matt Zoller Seitz: [W]omen and children walking and in some cases swimming through … Continue reading →

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Chance v. Conspiracy Theory Watch: Ezra Klein’s Contingency Observations v. Matt Damon’s “The Adjustment Bureau”

Posted on March 5, 2011 by

At the Washington Post’s website, Ezra Klein shares why he can’t bring himself to sit through the conspiracy-themed Matt Damon film, The Adjustment Bureau: I can’t believe in guys in suits with the ability to plan things. And why can’t he believe … Continue reading →

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That’s a Huge Weltanschauung You’ve Got There, Thomas Jefferson! Does It Ever Get in Your Way?

Posted on January 25, 2011 by

What’s your Weltanschauung—your worldview? In other words, what do you think you know about the world (your metaphysics)? How do you think you know it (your epistemology)? What ought you be doing and valuing as an individual (your ethical and … Continue reading →

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Andre Glucksmann One More Time

Posted on January 1, 2011 by

I think this is a great quote. It comes from the French philosopher, Andre Glucksmann: Socrates’s uncertainty revealed a rupture that gave birth to philosophy. The divine word is a mystery; it can mean everything or nothing. Zeus neither speaks nor … Continue reading →

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What’s the Right Rhythm for the Weekend, for Life?

Posted on October 14, 2010 by

If you think that life is worth living, are you? And what’s it worth living for, anyway? Maybe the hint is in this video. Or maybe not. What do you think?

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A Gorgeous View of the Thames from the Tate Modern

Posted on October 12, 2010 by

An English professor colleague (and friend) sent me a gorgeous image that he took this afternoon from the Members’ Lounge of the Tate Modern. He’s teaching a semester in London:                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               . The English professor’s name is Charles Hood and he … Continue reading →

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In a word, I hate all the gods?

Posted on September 28, 2010 by

In introducing his new book, To Set Prometheus Free, philosopher A C Grayling explains his choice of title by referring to Aeschylus’s play, Prometheus Bound, and quoting from it: As so often, the Greeks themselves understood with a preternatural clarity … Continue reading →

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Quick Thought for the Day: Atheists are Like Frogs

Posted on September 22, 2010 by

Atheists are like frogs in the proverbial pot of hot water. They look through their glass across the stove at the hell realms of religion, critiquing them as psychologically warping, but have conveniently forgotten that they themselves are in a … Continue reading →

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The Theist’s Hell vs. The Atheist’s Hell: Which is Worse for Children to Learn About?

Posted on September 22, 2010 by

Startling the mind of a child (or a vulnerable adult) with threats of hell is manipulative and, yes, even abusive. I see no sense in denying it. But there is a premise that underlies the condemnation of hell preaching that deserves scrutiny: … Continue reading →

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The Two Trees: Darwin’s and that Mesopotamian One

Posted on September 9, 2010 by

Visually echoing Charles Darwin’s famous description of life as a great interconnected tree, below is the image of a trunk and branches in which an artist has carved animals. And beside it is a more traditional depiction of the Tree of Life, … Continue reading →

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Atheist universes without end: Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow’s ironically titled new book, “The Grand Design”

Posted on September 6, 2010 by

In a recent Washington Post review of Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow’s new book, The Grand Design  (Bantam 2010), physicist James Trefil summarizes how the authors answer this question: Where did our lawful universe come from?: Our current best description of the physics … Continue reading →

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Ontario Lacus: How Does It Feel to Live in an Alien World in Which Everything That Is Does Not Have to Be?

Posted on August 4, 2010 by

In a recent science article at the New York Times, the unpredictable blendings and contingencies of history jumped out at me in the way that Titan’s methane lake, “Ontario Lacus,” came to be named: In 2004 a camera known as the Imaging Science Subsystem on … Continue reading →

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Living and Dying with Purpose and Heroism: Christopher Hitchens and Enkidu

Posted on August 3, 2010 by

In a recent interview with Hugh Hewitt, Christopher Hitchens contrasts dying in a heroic cause with dying from a terminal disease (which, via Hitchens’s esophageal cancer, he may be doing): But it [dying in a good cause] avoids the boring thought that one is … Continue reading →

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Something to keep life in perspective

Posted on July 25, 2010 by

Old film footage of Santa Monica Pier, 1954. No sound. Like the moments in this footage, we too are fast becoming the ghosts of time.

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Are We the Low Energy State of a Hidden Symmetry?

Posted on July 20, 2010 by

Who are we? Where are we? Here’s my current answer. I think I can put it in a four line stanza. And I suppose it’s what I might tell my children the next time one of them asks me: At turns beautiful … Continue reading →

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Ferris Club: Cameron Fights His Demons

Posted on July 17, 2010 by

Ah, young Hamlet!

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3-D for Real: Do We Live in a Holographic Universe?

Posted on July 16, 2010 by

Earlier this week, there was a mind-bending New York Times article on gravity that also touched on the possibility that we live in a holographic universe. Here is one of the key passages from the New York Times article explaining the so-called … Continue reading →

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Is Life’s Meaning to Be Found in the Myth of Sisyphus, Bunyan’s Pilgrim, Voltaire’s Candide, Cervantes’ Don Quixote, Shakespeare’s Stage—or Something Else?

Posted on July 1, 2010 by

Albert Camus famously said that the first question of philosophy is suicide: is life’s game worth the candle? Camus thought that it was. Yes, the universe appears to be absurd (without meaning, unity, or purpose), and yes, Sisyphus was Camus’s chosen symbol for the … Continue reading →

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Proposal Fail

Posted on June 23, 2010 by

This guy is clearly not a lawyer (as in “Never ask a question that you don’t already know what the answer will be”).

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Life, liberty, and the pursuit of $60,000 a year?

Posted on June 5, 2010 by

It appears that if your goal in life is to experience a pretty consistent sense of present “happiness,” then you should try to work your way into the top 20% of income earners in the United States and make $60,000 … Continue reading →

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