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Tag Archives: chance
Half Dome On Fire–Or Maybe Just Clouds? And Is The Photographer Who Caught The Image Skillful, Or Just Lucky?
Half Dome in Yosemite isn’t really on fire here, it’s just a cloud being hit by sunlight, but I like this photo because it: (1) illustrates aspect seeing (as in psychology textbooks, where the eye can’t decide if it’s looking … Continue reading
Embrace Chance?
In a collection of art essays by Roger Kimball titled Art’s Prospect (Ivan R. Dee 2003) is an essay on a Matisse exhibit in which Kimball writes the following (151): [Matisse] arrived [in Morocco in 1912] in the rainy season, … Continue reading
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Tagged Alan Ginsberg, art, chance, contingency, creative writing, existentialism, Freud, literature, Matisse, Neal Cassady
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From Lemons to Lemonade: Two Cool Examples of Contingency Turned to Art (One a Painting, One a Poem)
In a collection of art essays by Roger Kimball titled Art’s Prospect (Ivan R. Dee 2003) is an essay on a Matisse exhibit in which Kimball writes the following (151): [Matisse] arrived [in Morocco in 1912] in the rainy season, and his … Continue reading
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Tagged chance, contingency, existentialism, life, Matisse, new historicism, poetry, Richard Blanco
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Chance v. Conspiracy Theory Watch: Ezra Klein’s Contingency Observations v. Matt Damon’s “The Adjustment Bureau”
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
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged atheism, central planning, chance, conspiracy theory, contingency, determinism, End Times, existentialism, film, God, literature, matt damon
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From the Annals (Anals?) of “How did that get there?”
This at The Smoking Gun this past weekend: A Florida man arrested Wednesday on drug charges told cops that a bag of cocaine found hidden inside his buttocks did not belong to him. I can see how that could happen. … Continue reading
Atheist universes without end: Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow’s ironically titled new book, “The Grand Design”
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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Tagged agnosticism, apologetics, atheism, atheist, chance, contingency, existentialism, Genesis, God, Stephen Hawking, the big bang, the multiverse
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Is a Fortunate and Highly Improbable Energy Resonance (that Makes Carbon Atoms—and Us—Possible) a Coincidence or a “Put-Up Job”?
Physicist John Polkinghorne thinks it’s a put-up job, and explains:
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Tagged anthropic principle, apologetics, astronomy, carbon, chance, contingency, God, john polkinghorne, physics, probability, religion, star stuff
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Contingency vs. Conspiracy
A recent set of studies reminds us that we use telos and conspiracy theories to control our anxiety over what really seems to rule the world: contingency. This at Miller-McCune: A research team led by social psychologist Daniel Sullivan of the … Continue reading
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Tagged bilderbergers, chance, conspiracy, contingency, free will, God, hell mouth, history, nihilism, responsibility, social psychology, telos
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Contingency for Beginners
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Tagged chance, contingency, life, talking heads, the butterfly effect
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On Entropy, the Goddess Fortuna, and the Malice of Others: My Favorite Arthur Schopenhauer Quote
Arthur Schopenhauer wrote this in his “The World as Will and Representation” (Dover Edition, vol. 1, p. 88): “For whenever a man in any way loses self-control, or is struck down by a misfortune, or grows angry, or loses heart, … Continue reading
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Tagged athur schopenhauer, bad fortune, chance, Ecclesiastes, existentialism, fortune, good fortune, pessimism, philosophy, psychology, stoicism, time
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Prometheus Unbound 