Isn't it curious how curious we are about ourselves? You would think there could be nothing easier than knowing yourself. After all, you are you, and there is nothing and nobody that you have more direct and immediate access to than yourself. Yet, when someone remembers the old Greek aphorism "know thyself", instead of sighing … Continue reading On Knowing Yourself
Miranda Fricker on Epistemic Injustice
In her 2007 book, Epistemic Injustice: Power and Ethics of Knowing, philosopher Miranda Fricker develops a concept of epistemic injustice. Fricker suggests that to be epistemically wronged means having the credibility of one's capacity as a knower prejudicially deflated. She differentiates two ways in which such injustice can occur: Testimonial injustice - when a person … Continue reading Miranda Fricker on Epistemic Injustice
Revisiting: Quote About Truth and Its Seekers
An inspiring quote about truth and how to seek it
Food For Thought From Baruch Spinoza
What is your usual way of reacting to another person's actions or words? Where do you start? If we are honest with ourselves (at least ourselves), how often do we begin with a genuine effort to understand the other? “I have striven not to laugh at human actions, not to weep at them, nor to … Continue reading Food For Thought From Baruch Spinoza
Whose Monster Is It Anyway?
“Most strangers, gods and monsters - along with various ghosts, phantoms and doubles who bear a family resemblance - are, deep down, tokens of fracture within the human psyche. They speak to us of how we are split between conscious and unconscious, familiar and unfamiliar, same and other. And they remind us that we have … Continue reading Whose Monster Is It Anyway?
A Walk In The Park With Irish Myths
In his book, The Power of Myth, Joseph Campbell says, "Myths are clues to the spiritual potentialities of the human life... Myths and dreams come from the same place. They come from realizations of some kind that have then to find expression in symbolic form." Often, that form finds an expression in art. Wind-felled Beech … Continue reading A Walk In The Park With Irish Myths
Being In Times That Are Not Yours
"Sometimes, in the house, she no longer felt at home. And in those moments she never imagined another house that would feel more attuned to her, less hostile. She understood that every house was a trap that would close around her. Chaos was not a sad or even frightening idea; it was the only thing … Continue reading Being In Times That Are Not Yours
Thoreau and Thoughts on Nature
Why do we think we can go 'out into' nature and observe it when we are, ourselves, its part? Nature can put things into perspective for us because it puts us into perspective. What has this tree experienced? (my photo) "We can never have enough of Nature. We must be refreshed by the sight of … Continue reading Thoreau and Thoughts on Nature
Maurice Merleau-Ponty on the Social World
He was friends with Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir, and sought to come up with a theoretical alternative to the dichotomy of idealism vs realism. French philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty thought that both these positions share the mistaken assumption of a ready-made world that we can know either intellectually (idealism) or empirically (realism). What was … Continue reading Maurice Merleau-Ponty on the Social World
Philosophical Quote About Aging
Just as philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre was writing fiction, so did his lifelong partner, philosopher and feminist activist Simone de Beauvoir. Here is a short quote from her story "The Age of Discretion", in the voice of the main character, a recently retired former teacher, intellectual, active writer, mother, and wife. "Reflexions, echoes, reverberating back and … Continue reading Philosophical Quote About Aging
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