I continue to read Nietzsche’s description of the philosophers who came before Socrates/Plato. Plato is the watershed of the intellectual heritage of the West. Plato, a composer of theatrical drama introduces us to Socrates by his collection of Socratic Dialogues. Socrates is an example, teacher/role model. He instructs by provoking reflection, the exercise of…
Another bitter day. The number at the bottom left of this screen informs that the outside air temperature is -12 degrees F. I am satisfied to have books, more to think about and to write about and a warm place to be safe. Everyone is not so fortunate. I continue reading Nietzsche on the…
Monday morning a few minutes before 9AM. The outside temperature is minus 10 degrees Fahrenheit. I am tempted to regard cold as if “that” were a fixed state of matter. Especially when opening the glass storm door before dark, it’s frosted over, opaque with translucent white. The vehicle warmed up for 20 minutes. I…
[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…
The sky is a uniform gray, the traffic moves silently, on the far side of the Starbucks window on State Street here in Geneva. Snow is predicted for the late afternoon or early evening. Forecasters are almost apologetic for uncertainty. They’re unable to predict how much snow will fall. Computer models for weather much…
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…
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…
The rules that programmed an entire century: form follows function. We planned cities, tone-deaf buildings, urban social engineering, so soul-crushing it finally had to be leveled. Monster homes plopped on the seashore, boxes upon boxes, right to the property line, curve of the shore against the straight-lime imagination of the developers. Post-modern architecture was…
December 21st. The dark outside is palpable reminder. Today is the shortest day of the year. The tilt of the earth’s axis away from the sun is at an oblique angle in the northern hemisphere. Is the dark evil, the diminished light an omen? On the other hand might we celebrate this interlude, pause…
Tuesday morning and it is mid-December. Winter is settling in. The temperature is in the teens. That the season arrives as expected anchors my sense of well being. We utterly depend upon Nature. Yes, I am “of Nature” and there is nothing “higher” that I can say of myself. I have the benefit of…
