Edmund Husserl (1859 - 1938), the main founder of phenomenology, emphasised the importance of the first step that a phenomenological philosopher must take to investigate the interrelation of the world and us as experiencing subjects. He called that first step epoché - suspending or placing into brackets. What should we bracket? Our natural attitude - the familiar, pre-theoretical, uncritical … Continue reading Phenomenology and Bracketing the Familiar
Dispatch From Scotland: Ideas as Legacy
While travelling through Scotland, I found several inspiring and thought-provoking ideas that met me on the walls of museums or the very pavement of the streets I walked. Why not? Our environment can be as mind-broadening as the literature we read. Here are two ideas that both centre around legacy. Printed on a wall of … Continue reading Dispatch From Scotland: Ideas as Legacy
A Quote About Truth and Its Seekers
An inspiring quote about truth and how to seek it
A Quote About Intellectual Life
An encouraging quote about intellectual life
Freedom vs Liberation
What is the difference between freedom and liberation? Is it the same to be free and to be liberated? For example, if I am at liberty to go where and do what I please, does it follow I am free? Or, more precisely, that I feel free? I do not think so. As philosophers Frantz … Continue reading Freedom vs Liberation
Sertillanges on Intellectual Life
One hundred years ago (in 1921), Dominican preacher and philosopher Antonin-Gilbert Sertillanges wrote a book that is still read today. Its title, The Intellectual Life: Its Spirit, Conditions, Methods, reveals its focus on practical guidance to anyone wishing to pursue the intellectual vocation. Here is a short passage from the book: "One is not dazzled, … Continue reading Sertillanges on Intellectual Life
Frantz Fanon on Identity Drama
Our identities are shaped and exist in relation to others. The way others relate to me and the way I can relate to them is fundamental to my sense of self, of who I am. When relationships play such a crucial role, some amount of drama is inevitable. However, we can become the prisoners of … Continue reading Frantz Fanon on Identity Drama
“Proper Study of Mankind is Man”
This famous line from the 18th-century English poet Alexander Pope's poem "An Essay on Man" is as captivating today as it was 300 years ago (especially if we mentally substitute 'man' with 'human'). Sometimes, when we fail to express our confused thoughts and feelings, we do what people have done for thousands of years - … Continue reading “Proper Study of Mankind is Man”
A Picture and A Quote
"Knowledge that is absolutely certain of its infallibility is faith."From Yevgeny Zamyatin's dystopian novel "We" (my translation) Yevgeny Zamyatin wrote his dystopian novel "We" during the early days of Soviet Russia (in 1920-1921). Considered to be the originator of the dystopian novel genre, it was first published in English in 1924. January afternoon at the Baltic Sea … Continue reading A Picture and A Quote
Sensation of Life: a lesson from feline philosophy
What can we learn from cats about the art of living a fulfilled life?
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