Strange Doctrines

Socratic Metaskepticism

All I know is that I know nothing. And I'm not even sure about that.

Against Narrativity (cont'd)

Q. Which stories end in the death of the protagonist?

A. The ones that try to subvert conventions of narrative.

Why ask "Why?"?

"Nous avons psychologisé comme les fous, qui augmentent leur folie en s'efforìant de la comprendre."*

(Via Mark Jenkins.)

*"We have psychologized like the insane, who increase their madness in striving to understand it."

John Cottingham: Undergraduate Sophist

Shorter John Cottingham: Would that all atheists had the humility to realize that the only thing that can save all of humankind from its moral inventions are the religious doctrines I prefer to believe in.

(Via Arts & Letters Daily.)

Blessed Are the Pasta Makers

Skeptics of the Flying Spaghetti Monster are missing the point. Obviously, it isn't meant to be taken literally. It refers to any divinity in wheat products.

Drake's Principle

Every principle will break down under arbitrarily close scrutiny except for Drake's Principle.

Theogony

In the beginning, there were no meanings.

And then Man said, “Let there be Meaning!”

And on that day, God was born.

Profoundest Last Words

"Why should my words now be more esteemed merely because they are my last?"

Alas, to utter these words is to violate their spirit.

Why We Are Here

"We are here to drink beer. We are here to kill war. We are here to laugh at the odds and live our lives so well that Death will tremble to take us."
 — Bukowski

"I don't know why we are here, but I'm pretty sure that it is not in order to enjoy ourselves."
 — Wittgenstein

"We are here to provide the world with dramatic material."
 — Me

"We are here on earth to do good for others. What the others are here for, I don't know."
 — Auden

"[W]e are here on Earth to fart around, and don't let anybody tell you different."
 — Vonnegut

Consolation of the Imperilled

The Greeks, in a way of life in which great perils and upheavals were always present, sought in knowledge and reflection a kind of security and ultimate refugium. We, in an incomparably more secure condition, have transferred this perilousness into knowledge and reflection, and we recover from it, and calm ourselves down, with our way of life.

Nietzsche, Daybreak 154.

And Be Sure to Blog Every Now and Then

[W]here are you hurrying to?
You will never find that life for which you are looking.
When the gods created man they allotted to him death.
But life they retained in their own keeping.
As for you, Gilgamesh, fill your belly with good things;
Day and night, night and day, dance and be merry, feast and rejoice.
Let your clothes be fresh, bathe yourself in water.
Cherish the little child that holds your hand.
And make your wife happy in your embrace.
For this too is the lot of man.

From The Epic of Gilgamesh (Sandars, Nancy K., trans. )

(Via Brad DeLong.)

Ought from Naught

Moral antinaturalists claim that we cannot derive an ought from an is. And so they propose, instead, that we derive an ought from an isn't.

The Metaproblem of Evil

Given considerations adumbrated here, it seems clear that the Problem of Evil is not an argument against Christianity.

But that is an argument against Christianity.

Looking Away

Some days I find it impossible to affirm life. And it makes me feel guilty.

Against Narrativity

[Life] is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
--William Shakespeare, Macbeth

Maybe it's just a bad stretch, but I'm beginning to think reality might have a Macbethian bias.

Optimism and Ontology

"Why is there something rather than nothing?"

The optimist provides an answer: Because nothing is impossible.

Terrible Art

"[T]yranny comes more naturally than art to mediocre men."

- Camus

(Via Cliché Reality.)

Concord

The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. If only I had their composure.

The Last Theorem

I've discovered a truly marvelous proof of nihilism. Of course this margin is more than wide enough to contain it. It's just...what would be the point?

The Taming of the Shrill

"Words ought to be a little wild, for they are the assaults of thoughts on the unthinking."
        --John Maynard Keynes

(Via Paul Krugman.)