To be great is to be misunderstood, Emerson

» Plotinus and Goodness

“But one ought to try to become as good as possible oneself, but not to think that only oneself can become perfectly good — for if one thinks this one is not perfectly good. One must rather think…

“ HA ha, look at all of them down there with their discursive thought.

— God

I was just talking to God, and (do I really have philosophical conversations with God? When I’m cracked out on coffee — yes) at one point I found myself emphatically saying to him “…because the history of thought IS thought!” It just occurred to me. And then I realized, oh right, that’s what Hegel is saying…

I had a very unexpected and surprising soul moment today. Chatting it up with an undergrad philosophy major. We’ve noticed over our few conversations in the last few months that we have a lot in common, personality wise. But never thought THIS would happen. I was talking about how I have to really work up the confidence to get something started, instead of just jump into things like a lot of other people (We were talking about my concerns about applying for a PhD program), and he stopped me and said it is the same with him. And THEN said this:

“For example, I can’t watch any movies unless I am VERY confident that I’m going to get something out of it.”

“What?? Are you serious? Me too!”

“Yeah, it pisses all my friends off. I have a friend who watches tons of movies all the time. I don’t get it.

“Same! I never watch any movies; I can never work myself up to thinking it is worth my time. People find it so strange!”

“Yeah, but I’m not that way with books, at all.”

“Me neither.”

“ I know very well that a great many theists are nearer pessimists than optimists, but they are unsound and inconsistent.

— Peirce

Listening to a Requiem while reading a particularly dry contemporary defense of realism. I feel contradiction, and strange.

I’d like to congratulate my uterus (well, and whole reproductive system) for having a 31 day cycle this past month. That’s basically normal. Yay uterus!

“ I regard Logic as the Ethics of the Intellect— that is, in the sense in which Ethics is the science of the methods of bringing Self-Control to bear to gain our Satisfactions… Logical self-control is a perfect mirror of ethical self-control — unless it be rather a species under that genus.

— C.S. Peirce

“ Ethics is the study of the methods of increasing self-control. Alternatively put, it is the science of learning to do what we really want to do — that is, what we will not regret having done.

— W.T. Jones, regarding Peirce’s view.

“ Descartes marks the period when Philosophy put off childish things and began to be a conceited young man. By the time the young man has grown to be an old man, he will have learned that traditions are precious treasures, while iconoclastic inventions are always cheap and often nasty.

— C.S. Peirce

“ My own philosophy resuscitates Hegel, though in a strange costume.

— Peirce

“ As soon as you’ve opened your mouth you’ve mediated.

— Hegel, paraphrased by Dr. Morelli

“ He’s seductive. Once you posit certain things, it all makes sense. But do you want to posit those things?

— Dr. Morelli, on Hegel

» The Elimination of Metaphysics

Henry: Guess what Molly! I made the greatest soup ever last night for dinner!
Molly: Oh really? What kind?
Henry: I call it “Soup Itself.” Molly: Wow. Must be good. What’s the recipe?
Henry: Recipe!…

» time and chicken nuggets

I’m tired out. Meaningless, meaningless.
It occurred to me that the veggie chicken nuggets baking in the oven have a different experience of time than I have. The four more minutes they get to bake…