Tag Archives: William Blake

Who Is William Blake, Really?

Posted on November 9, 2014 by

William Blake is a poet, not a metaphysician. When someone writes with aphorism, irony, and wild and flamboyant system building (as Blake and Nietzsche did), they are mocking essentialism; they’re showing that language is infinite; that there are a gazillion … Continue reading →

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The Tao of Emily, the Calm of Lao Tzu, and Trouble from Blake

Posted on May 14, 2013 by

Below are two couplets of flower power yin-yang from Emily Dickinson’s poem, “Awake ye muses nine, sing me a strain divine,” written in 1850 when she was aged nineteen. Insofar as anybody knows, it’s the first poem she’d ever written … Continue reading →

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Wrestling with God’s Existence on a Sunday

Posted on February 3, 2013 by

From the third chapter of William Blake’s poem, Jerusalem: The Emanation of the Giant Albion (plate 60, lines 52-64): O Lord & Savior, have the Gods of the Heathen pierced thee? Or hast thou been pierced in the House of thy Friends? Art … Continue reading →

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The Moon’s Origin (And Why Genesis Cannot Be Right About It)

Posted on October 18, 2012 by

Concerning the moon’s origin, the Los Angeles Times today tells the basic scientific story with admirable clarity: The Earth and moon formed after the proto-Earth collided with another huge planetary body, sometimes referred to as Theia. […] Two planets, one Earth-sized … Continue reading →

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What the Lightning Said: My Definition of Art

Posted on April 1, 2012 by

Art, by my definition, is a report of what the lightning said. It’s bound up with the ontological mystery (the mystery of being itself); an artist’s attempt to represent to others an experience of that mystery (what it feels like … 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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Thinking about Symmetry via Stuart Kauffman, William Blake, AR Ammons, Johann Gottlieb Fichte, Robert Frost—and My Wife

Posted on July 26, 2010 by

Biologist Stuart Kauffman blogs for the National Public Radio (NPR) website, and recently wrote a post reflecting on the universe’s symmetry breaking: To begin at the beginning, . . . The universe started extremely hot, dense, and essentially uniform, or isotropic.  Perhaps all four … Continue reading →

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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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The Is-Ought Distinction: What Would Nietzsche Say to Sam Harris?

Posted on May 14, 2010 by

Sam Harris has of late generated a lot of public discussion by reopening this can of worms: In the realm of values, is Hume right that no “is” should be governing our “oughts”? Put another way: Can science ever really arbitrate a human moral question? If science, for … Continue reading →

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A great Henry David Thoreau quote

Posted on April 28, 2010 by

No method nor discipline can supersede the necessity of being forever on the alert. What is a course of history, or philosophy, or poetry, or the most admirable routine of life, compared with the discipline of looking always at what … Continue reading →

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Innocence to experience—to emotional blackmale

Posted on April 1, 2010 by

After the gorilla’s existentialist period of Camus-like despair, I suppose that the next episode will be devoted to his religious conversion: a trainer comforts the gorilla by convincing him that he doesn’t really die—but nevertheless might go to hell if he … Continue reading →

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To See a World in a Grain of Sand

Posted on January 4, 2010 by

And an instrument in a Jeep:

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Judy Garland Singing “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”

Posted on December 23, 2009 by

And with heartbreaking power:

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“The Road”: Cormac McCarthy’s Version of Helen Reddy’s “You and Me Against the World”?

Posted on November 29, 2009 by

Slate recently reviewed the film version of Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, and reported that watching it is—how shall I put this politiely?—emotionally problematic:  The Boy and Man on the road, nameless in the long-dead world. Their cart and tarp and tins … Continue reading →

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Symbols, Myths, Metaphors, and Stories: Are Atheists More (or Less) Deluded By These Things Than Theists?

Posted on October 10, 2009 by

For both the atheist and the theist, reality is anything but fulfilling. The way things are, without you doing anything about them, has always been a problem, for reality, unstoried, is just one damn meaningless thing after another. And often unpleasant. It’s … Continue reading →

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Atheism is Dead?

Posted on September 24, 2009 by

There will always be atheists in the world—so I’m not talking about a demographic trend. I don’t know where atheism is heading with the masses. For all I know, it may be growing faster than any other idea in the world. Go team! … Continue reading →

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Urizen the Bearer of Circumfrences

Posted on September 10, 2009 by

A biographer of William Blake discusses Blake’s take on materialist reduction and the nature of mind:

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Something to Think About

Posted on September 1, 2009 by

An image of the Andromeda Galaxy from a book published in 1899: The Andromeda Galaxy is still there. The person who made its image is long gone. What traces of your actions will still be in this world a hundred years from … Continue reading →

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As Non-Empirical Languages, Do Philosophical Systems Have Greater Epistemic Validity Than Theological Systems?

Posted on July 8, 2009 by

I would say no. When we are dealing with non-empirical (that is, non-scientific) languages, I don’t think that you can give substantially greater epistemic weight to the conclusions of philosophers over those of theologians. When I think of some of the … Continue reading →

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“I am deluded by the turning mills”: How William Blake Might Have Responded to Richard Dawkins’s “The God Delusion”

Posted on March 21, 2009 by

From the third chapter of William Blake’s poem, Jerusalem: The Emanation of the Giant Albion (plate 60, lines 52-64): O Lord & Savior, have the Gods of the Heathen pierced thee? Or hast thou been pierced in the House of … Continue reading →

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