Beginnings of a post on Spinoza

Spinoza was very influenced by Descartes.... who was also of course a mathematician - Cartesian Co-ordinates......

He set himself the bold task of working everything out - as many philosophers do..... And as most prominently his recent predecessor Descartes did.

He used geometry and geometric principles.........
.... to create an entire system of The Universe and Humanity and Human Emotions.....

Surprisingly successful he was too....

A Fascinating Encounter

I am reading snatches of "A History of the Modern World" by the English historian Paul Johnson.

An excellent and well-argued book by a truly excellent historian.

Another excellent book by him is "The Offshore Islanders: A History of the English People." But a discussion of that is for another post.

One thing I can't keep myself from splurting out a post on is this.

Joyce and Proust actually met.

Yes these two archetypal modernist writers actually briefly met.

Yes. These two wordy, long-winded generators of hefty rambling tomes - the two writers that you are supposed to have read but that maybe you haven't really - the foremost French one and the foremost one in English - actually met!

This event is related by Johnson. It took place in Paris on May 18th 1922.

It sounds almost like a fantasy but apparently something like the following happened.

Joyce blandly proclaimed that he hadn't read a single word of Proust's voluminous work and that - to put it mildly - this did not concern him in the slightest.

Proust was very offended by this. He didn't know what to say. So he shot back that neither had he read a single word of Joyce's work.

LOL!!! - as they say.

In another work Joyce dismisses Proust's work - which is supposed to be quite philosophical - with the (German) pun "Prost bitte".

Well I am rejoicing at not having either Joyce or Proust on my reading list.
.........

In the interests of balance the event is recounted somewhat differently here:

http://westrow.wordpress.com/2009/05/18/proust-and-joyce-meet/

What I am Reading

Just a note to say I am reading "The Origins of Totalitarianism" (c.1950) by Hannah Arendt. A very clever lady.

Very readable and lucid prose. Excellent, excellent stuff.
She argues a point at the start that I had never really encountered. That is - systematised and ideological "anti-Semitism" is mainly originated in political nationalism and in the development of the Nation State of the Europe of the 1800s. Before this it did not really exist. I have never really heard that before.

Took a peak at the final chapter where she discusses the idea of loneliness and/or isolation. The point is made that it is possible to be lonely in company - in the sense that people feel lonely when they have the feeling of a lack of relatedness to others, inability to relate to others; and a feeling of superfluousness. The opposite of feeling respected or esteemed by oneself or others to some degree - things that are quite needed for a happy life.

Arendt points out that this loneliness of the individual was fostered under totalitarian regimes - the main ones for her here are Nazism and Bolshevism. Yet she speaks of it at the time that she is writing - 1950.

I can't help thinking it's not always a coincidence that people today feel a lack of rootedness and a superfluousness. The type of totalitarianism we seem to live under today is capitalism. And its ideology is the utter dogshit that is contemporary "economics".

An amazing quote from the beginning of Chapter 8:
"Nazism and Bolshevism owe more to Pan-Germanism and Pan-Slavism (respectively) than to any other ideology or political movement."
Hannah Arendt.

Just want to say that Hannah Arendt was a wonderful and very clever lady and had some of her origins in Hannover - a wonderful town with a wonderful town hall that looks like a massive birthday cake.

I am a philosopher - not a poet.

I am a philosopher - not a poet.

I don't even know if I believe in poetry.

Or at least I certainly don't believe in poetry without philosophy.

........

I am a philosopher - a lover of wisdom.

I am not sure if poetry always leads to wisdom.


I am not sure if poetry even exists. It is hard to define.

"Word Art" is one poetic way of defining it.

I have written quite a lot of what could be called poetry.

I have lost most of it.

T.S.Eliot described poetry as a "raid upon the inarticulate".

I find it hard to believe that he really believed that when one reads his own poetry.

--------------

2018.

I am starting to believe in poetry again.

......

Get with the Programme!

The Senility of our Intellectual Culture.

On some emission entitled "The One Show" on EBC1 Einstein was described as having "autism". Yeah Right! And so does everyone. Einstein had NOTHING of the kind. Nor does anyone.
It does not exist.

Also the phenomenon of intellectual summary books - such as the "For Beginners" series - which I think on balance are an excellent thing - if only because they get people interested in ideas - were condemned in an English Sunday "news" paper recently.

They should be encouraged.

FURTHERMORE - the phenomenon of these books once again seemed to be the fault somehow of one Albert Einstein. WHO HAD NOTHING WHATSOEVER TO DO WITH THEM.

Vilified while alive, he is now vilified when dead by an intellectual culture of seemingly infinite senility.
One of the cleverest people who ever lived - who explained himself quite clearly.

More Lies About Our History

St. Mary of Bethlehem Hospital was a monastic establishment that existed near Bishopsgate and near what became Liverpool Street Station - for at least two hundred years from before the 1300s to the 1500s.

It was recently extensively dug up in excavations being made for the creation of "Crossrail".

Many many bodies seem to have been found - of what were probably nuns.

No mention of the FACT of the rapid and violent suppression of the monasteries in the 1530s. A disgrace to England's history.

When this was reported on London News with Rizla - all that was mentioned was that this establishment was a forerunner of what became "Bedlam".

The irony is that mental illness DOES NOT EXIST. And that monastic establishments were more humane in their treatment of people having problems in life than those with this task in later centuries up until now.

Furthermore, St.Mary's probably never closed due to "cuts" or "recessions".

Monasticism as a general concept PRE-DATES and in my opinion is superior to "economics" and "psychiatry" and their attendant lies.

To my more modern way of thinking:-

POVERTY means simple living. NOT lack of money PER SE, nor privation, nor not working..... "Live simply so that others may simply live" Gandhi.
CHASTITY means appropriate use of sexuality. NOT it's extinction - which is impossible really....
and
OBEDIENCE means to the "UBI CARITAS ET AMOR IBI DEUS EST" type of principle....

T.B.C...

Finally

The respect, courtesy and mere politeness that some people are starting to show me - is the RESPECT and COURTESY that I should have been shown FROM THE START - because I AM A HUMAN BEING!

More Gems For the Fish Tank :)

After 9 - 11 way way back in the distant mists of 2001, I emailed this to someone who asked me what they thought would happen next -
"Bush will probably bomb what's left of Afghanistan. 
This will obviously achieve nothing whatsoever."


It is now 2011.
Hmm......

=======================================================


‎"Autour de la lecture de Jacques Lacan" par Citoyen Canapé.




"Franchement, je préfère la lecture de l'annuaire téléphonique.
Il y a une lucidité supérieure."

FIN. :D

----------------------

Lacan = Freud.... Et.. on sait mon "chanson" quant a` Fraud...:D

Lacan est un "Mubarak" de la vie intellectuelle franc,aise.... :)

http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/j/jacques_lacan.html


*RESTS VERY OVERWHELMING CASE*

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Lacan is "..an amusing and perfectly self-conscious charlatan."

(attributed to) Noam Chomsky.

E. F. SCHUMACHER!

Comment engendered by listening to "In Our Time" on Maimonides

Maimonides's major work was called "A GUIDE FOR THE PERPLEXED".
This title is shared with one of the works of one of our greatest recent Philosophers.

FOR SOME REASON THAT I WILL NEVER EVER UNDERSTAND - no one seems to talk about this thinker -
the German of Oxford - E. F. SCHUMACHER.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._F._Schumacher

He is very relevant to many issues around now as well.

He was certainly a Green thinker and a spiritual thinker.

---------------

July 2011.

I was very pleased that there was recently a Radio 4 program concerning this great philosopher.

I was not entirely happy with the way his views seem to have been portrayed.

Once again I feel drawn towards the conclusion or the sensation of the sheer futility of language.
Why did he bother to write his books?
Can people understand language of any kind?

........................

+7,211 "recs" for this post!!!

Thanks / Danke scho:n / Shookraan !

If I was Prime Minister.....

If I was Prime Minister of Italy I would build an 18-year old Belly Dancer Training School. 
And then live in it.


:) :D

"Work Shy"

‎"Work Shy" -

WHO INVENTED THIS PIECE OF LANGUAGE???
LET ME SEE??? HMM..... GERMAN BLOKE ...
PENCIL MOUSTACHE...ER....ER....

It was just used IN SERIOUSNESS on EBC News - so ONLY TO BE EXPECTED THEN....er....er... :D

The things is - NOT ONLY was this piece of language probably inaugurated by the Nazis - it is ALSO - meaningless and offensive.

Some Comments on the "Big Society".

Never once has Camoron acknowledged that Thatcher said - in full seriousness - "there is no such thing as society".

Another kind of "Big Society"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_monasteries_dissolved_by_Henry_VIII_of_England

This was another kind of "Big Society" of a kind was it not?

They put us to shame frankly.


The list is by no means exhaustive, since over 800 religious houses existed before the Reformation, and virtually every town, of any size, had at least one abbey, priory, convent or friary in it.
(Often many small houses of monks, nuns, canons or friars.)........


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Still! With so many thousands and thousands of monks and nuns the "unemployment" figures - which of course did not exist - must have been ridiculously HIGH/LOW....

AV is the wrong system. And FPTP is NOT a system.

Calling "FPTP" a "system" is an INSULT to the term "system" - that is what ANYONE NORMAL would be screaming to the English people every second of the day.

AV is the wrong system. And FPTP is NOT a system.

UNDER "FPTP" - IF you vote for someone other than the winning candidate in your seat - your vote COUNTS FOR NOTHING WHATSOEVER.

BASICALLY it is COMPARABLE to a night at the dogs. But with speeches.

Demolition

A degree has nothing whatsoever to do with getting a job or gaining anyone wealth.

This simple and obvious fact in itself DEMOLISHES everything the present government says about higher education.

Stop the destruction of the NHS.

Oppose the Coalition’s plans for mass privatisation of the NHS via the Health and Social Care Bill!

If doctors oppose the Health and Social Care Bill through their biggest organisation - the BMA - the plans become unworkable!

Thousands of soldiers finished the war in 1945 and voted for Labour to create a country worth the victory.

Dont let Camoron destroy it.

Think of Clare Rayner - and ask yourself if the country agreed to this?

The Tories ostensibly defended the principles of the NHS before election and are now destroying it.

What is the most communist institution in history?

What is the most communist institution in history?

The monastery.

"..the most stupendous confidence trick of the twentieth century".

Psychoanalysis is "the most stupendous confidence trick of the twentieth century."


(Peter Medawar, biologist, 1979).

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"Wir weigern uns, getäuscht werden."

Karl Kraus.

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Freedom. Spinoza

"Freedom is absolutely necessary for progress in science and the liberal arts."


Benedict Spinoza.

IF the present King of Spain

IF the present King of Spain was the "Supreme Governor" of an entity called "The Church of Castile";

and had all "spiritual authority" within that Church;

 if everyone in his family had to belong to "The Church of Castile";

if this church was the established church and had by right members of its clergy in the Upper House of the Parliament of The Kingdom of Spain;

if....

then

The whole world would be disgusted as would and should be the people of Spain.....

THIS IS SO OBVIOUS!

It is a point of PRINCIPLE - and an INTELLECTUAL POINT!

Do people have PRINCIPLES or INTELLECTS any more?

It is quite unacceptable for a reigning living political figure - in this case a Monarch - who still technically in many ways has absolute power - to be the head of a church - and supposedly a Christian church....

Now I want to actually start to study philosophy

I repeat - because I feel the need to - that I regard almost everything I say here as EXTREMELY OBVIOUS and that now I would like to actually start to study some philosophy.

Interesting quote by Michèle Le Doeuff

‎"But my authors, Thomas More and Francis Bacon, are completely neglected by philosophers.
That's part of a wider problem in England, namely the lack of interest in the history of philosophy as such."

Michèle Le DOEUFF, French feminist philosopher, c.1991.

Not much more than an historical accident....?

The "right to bear arms"'s inclusion in the U.S. Constitution is probably not much more than an historical accident....

There is in the English "Bill of Rights" of 1689 a statement of a "right to bear arms" - for Protestants only I should add!....

Would people seriously attempt to reintroduce or invoke this?
Even if they were in some way pro-gun ownership?....

TBC...

The ostensible reason for its sacredness is the necessity for a "people" to have the means to overthrow a "government" that represents a tyranny........

----

In republics like the USA the "people" are (at least supposed in theory to be) the same thing as, and interchangeable with, the "government" anyway.....

hmmm.......

=============================

It is high time that the RACIST FASCIST BULLSHIT of the "N.R.A." was ENDED.

The simple point is - GUN CONTROL is a SEPARATE ISSUE from POLITICAL LIBERTY.

I went into politics because I am an anarchist

One of my favourite tweets

One of my favourites of my own tweets comes back to me now. I don't know why.

I am quite proud of it. It is this.

"Mad Mel Philips gives a severe dent to any theory of the Jews as being a people of intellectuals."

Another fave of mine was:

"Things are so bad that I am vaguely concentrating on Kavanagh QC."

:)

While we're at it - another classic of concision:

"I have purchased an Aria Giovanni Love Doll. I have no comment at this point."    :D


------------------

And another treat:


"The Independent on Sunday's Sheepuality List: Featuring a List of (England and) Wales's most prominent sheepshaggers and sheepsexuals. Number 1: Citizen Sofa - famous urban peasant."

P.R.

Just went down the shops.
On the walk there Tony Benn popped up on my music player - a speech attacking PR.

He said that one drawback of PR is that under that system we could get "a coalition government that nobody voted for."

WELL - OBVIOUS POINT - and truly amazing it is too - is that this is EXACTLY what we have now got after this last election under "FPTP".

---------------------------

Even I was utterly shocked at the degree to which the prospect of a viable 3rd party in England has been annihilated.
The SDP has gone - and now so has the "Lib Dems." And hence also the Lberals or Whigs one of the oldest parties in English history.

ONE reason of course is the disappearance of the Labour Party and its replacement with the USDemocratPartyofEngland/NewLabour.

Now all that remains is the annihilation of the ConservativeParty/NewToriesUSRepublicanPartyofEngland to complete the set. This is well on its way.

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I must repeat that this so-called "Coalition" is in reality a Conservative Government; and also that the office of "Deputy Prime Minister" is a complete fraud and fantasy.

FPTP is not supposed to generate coalitions, never has before and has not done this time.

English political culture is an embarrassment to Europe.