[By] thus selecting and precipitating the unusual, astounding, difficult, and divine, Philosophy marks the boundary lines dividing her from Science in the same way as she does from Prudence by the emphasizing of the useless. – Early Greek Philosophy and other Essays, by Friedrich Nietzsche, p. 73 Nietzsche paraphrases Aristotle to say that philosophy…
Sunday, grey, road slick with a sheen of plowed snow, — that’s winter in the mid-west. I do not mind the snow. It is a blanket for nature. Snow slows the pace of town-life, obstructing the efficiency, a machine-logic that accelerates, a reminder that winter’s cold is a sign. Now is the season for…
Ferrari. I saw the movie for the second time yesterday. A friend, (who has spent a good amount of time at race tracks) and I met at the theater. The arc of the story, the birth of the Enzo Ferrari company is entwined with its founders history in post-WWII Italy, his conflict fraught marriage…
I must write about this tune, said the insistent small voice as if a small version of my younger self sat on my shoulder. The Cutting Crew tune came over the radio as I made my way before sunrise to the Geneva Starbucks neighborhood. There is something about this tune, the keyboard runs which…
Thursday, the sun threatens to illuminate which is a hint of a brighter afternoon. Wintertime in the Midwest. How can one resist absorbing the somber, gray, cold of the season? I must resist. Music is a proven tactic for sustaining creativity, the motivation for good work. I finished an essay written by Nietzsche which…
A quotation captured my imagination this morning. Consider that there are varieties of knowledge. The knowledge that is acquired by learning the proper names of the elements, by learning how they combine to form complex molecules, by learning the mathematics by which molecular chemistry is expressed – are all types of knowledge. Then there…
A new year, turn the page. We prefer predictability do we not? We cannot help ourselves. Each of us is a standard issue mammal, albeit a language enabled one. Like every living thing our bodies seek homeostasis, that delicate balance which makes living easier, an economy of energy exchange. Those undisturbed circumstances, you know…
I participated with a group of friends in a discussion about the future. What possible paths appear to be before us as a society, given the political, economic, an social trends that we are aware of? I am satisfied the future is opaque, not subject to prediction. Still, who can resist such an exchange…
Midweek. A few days remain until Christmas. The to-do list is short. To live is to act, to do. It is good to have a list, the illusion of control. I believe there is no control, that all is at “the mercy” of the state of things that immediately preceded this moment. Still there…
Rän Qiu asked Zhongni, saying,‘Can it be knownhow it was before heaven and earth?’ The reply was,‘It can. It was the same of old as now… [Zhongni] Was that which was produced before Heaven and Earth a thing?That which made things and gave to each its character was not itself a thing.Things came forth…
