Fuck Yeah Philosophy!

filled with the rustling of ideas

[fuckyeahphilosophy]

Tell them I had a wonderful life.

Ludwig Wittgenstein's last words

[fuckyeahphilosophy]

We have though too much in terms of a will which submits and not enough in terms of an imagination which opens up.

Paul Ricœur: ‘Herméneutique de l'idée de Révélation’, in: Ricœur, P./Lévinas, E./Nanlotte, Edgar: La Révélation. Brussels 1977. (translated by Richard Kearney)

[fuckyeahphilosophy]

In the life of a man, his time is but a moment, his being an incessant flux, his senses a dim rushlight, his body a prey of worms, his soul an unquiet eddy, his fortune dark, and his fame doubtful. In short, all that is of the body is as coursing waters, all that is of the soul as dreams and vapours; like a warfare, a brief sojourning in an alien land; and after repute, oblivion. Where, then, can man find the power to guide and guard his steps? In one thing and one alone: Philosophy.

Marcus Aurelius: Meditations

[fuckyeahphilosophy]

I do not believe in Belief. But this is an Age of Faith, and there are so many militant creeds that, in self-defence, one has to formulate a creed of one's own. Tolerance, good temper and sympathy are no longer enough in a world which is rent by religious and racial persecution, in a world where ignorance rules, and Science, who ought to have ruled, plays the subservient pimp. Tolerance, good temper and sympathy - they are what matter really, and if the human race is not to collapse they must come to the front before long. But for the moment they are not enough, their action is no stronger than a flower, battered beneath a military jackboot. They want stiffening, even if the process coarsens them. Faith, to my mind, is a stiffening process, a sort of mental starch, which ought to be applied as sparingly as possible. I dislike the stuff. I do not believe in it, for its own sake, at all. Herein I probably differ from most people, who believe in Belief, and are only sorry they cannot swallow even more than they do.

E.M. Forster: "What I Believe"

[fuckyeahphilosophy]

The object of inquiry for Afro-American critical thought is the past and the present, the doings and the sufferings of African people in the United States. Rather than a new scientific discipline or field of study, it is a genre of writing, a textuality, a mode of discourse that interprets, describes, and evaluates Afro-American life in order comprehensively to understand and effectively to transform it. It is not concerned with “foundations” or transcendental “grounds” but with how to build its language in such a way that the configuration of sentences and the constellation of paragraphs themselves create a textuality and distinctive discourse which are a material force for Afro-American freedom.

Cornel West: Prophesy Deliverance!: An Afro-American Revolutionary Christianity

[fuckyeahphilosophy]

Bertrand Russell - Message To Future Generations

[fuckyeahphilosophy]

"Beware of first- hand ideas!" exclaimed one of the most advanced of [the lecturers]. "First-hand ideas do not really exist. They are but the physical impressions produced by live and fear, and on this gross foundation who could erect a philosophy? Let your ideas be second-hand, and if possible tenth-hand, for then they will be far removed from that disturbing element – direct observation. Do not learn anything about this subject of mine – the French Revolution. Learn instead what I think that Enicharmon thought Urizen thought Gutch thought Ho-Yung thought Chi-Bo-Sing thought Lafcadio Hearn thought Carlyle thought Mirabeau said about the French Revolution. Through the medium of these ten great minds, the blood that was shed at Paris and the windows that were broken at Versailles will be clarified to an idea which you may employ most profitably in your daily lives. But be sure that the intermediates are many and varied, for in history one authority exists to counteract another. Urizen must counteract the scepticism of Ho-Yung and Enicharmon, I must myself counteract the impetuosity of Gutch. You who listen to me are in a better position to judge about the French Revolution than I am. Your descendants will be even in a better position than you, for they will learn what you think I think, and yet another intermediate will be added to the chain. And in time" – his voice rose – "there will come a generation that had got beyond facts, beyond impressions, a generation absolutely colourless, a generation seraphically free from taint of personality, which will see the French Revolution not as it happened, nor as they would like it to have happened, but as it would have happened, had it taken place in the days of the Machine."

E.M. Forster: The Machine Stops (1909)

[fuckyeahphilosophy]

Philosophy is no trick to catch the public; it is not devised for show. It is a matter, not of words, but of facts. It is not pursued in order that the day may yield some amusement before it is spent, or that our leisure may be relieved of a tedium that irks us. It moulds and constructs the soul; it orders our life, guides our conduct, shows us what we should do and what we should leave undone; it sits at the helm and directs our course as we waver amid uncertainties.

Seneca: Moral letters to Lucilius, Letter 16 (ranslated by Richard Mott Gummere)

[fuckyeahphilosophy]

Senator Finch: How do we determine what’s good? In a democracy, good is a conversation not a unilateral decision.

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice

[fuckyeahphilosophy]

The universe is under no obligation to make sense to you.

Neil deGrasse Tyson: Astrophysics for People in a Hurry

[fuckyeahphilosophy]

The time, it is to be hoped, is gone by when any defence would be necessary of the "liberty of the press" as one of the securities against corrupt or tyrannical government. No argument, we may suppose, can now be needed, against permitting a legislature or an executive, not identified in interest with the people, to prescribe opinions to them, and determine what doctrines or what arguments they shall be allowed to hear. This aspect of the question, besides, has been so often and so triumphantly enforced by preceding writers, that it needs not be specially insisted on in this place.

John Stuart Mill: On Liberty (1859)

[fuckyeahphilosophy]

John Searle: How Do Persons Maintain Their Identity?

[fuckyeahphilosophy]

What else than a natural and mighty palimpsest is the human brain? Such a palimpsest is my brain; such a palimpsest, O reader! is yours. Everlasting layers of ideas, images, feelings, have fallen upon your brain softly as light. Each succession has seemed to bury all that went before. And yet in reality not one has been extinguished.

Thomas De Quincey: The Palimpsest of Suspiria de Profundis

[fuckyeahphilosophy]

may my heart always be open to little // birds who are the secrets of living // whatever they sing is better than to know // and if men should not hear them men are old

e.e.cummings: "Complete Poems, 1904-1962"

[fuckyeahphilosophy]

The tradition of the oppressed teaches us that the 'state of emergency' in which we live is not the exception but the rule. We must attain to a conception of history that is in keeping with this insight. Then we shall clearly realize that it is our task to bring about a real state of emergency, and this will improve our position in the struggle against Fascism. One reason why Fascism has a chance is that in the name of progress its opponents treat it as a historical norm. The current amazement that the things we are experiencing are 'still' possible in the twentieth century is not philosophical. This amazement is not the beginning of knowledge – unless it is the knowledge that the view of history which gives rise to it is untenable.

Walter Benjamin: Theses on the Philosophy of History (1940, translated by Harry Zohn)

[fuckyeahphilosophy]

Law is a rule and measure of acts whereby man is induced to act or is restrained from acting: for _lex_ is derived from _ligare_ (to bind), because it binds one to act. Now the rule and measure of human acts is _ratio_ which is the first principle of human acts […] since it belongs to _ratio_ to direct to the end, which is the first principle in all matters of action […] It follows that law is something pertaining to reason.

St Thomas Aquinas: Summa Theologica, IaII Q90 A1 (translated by the Fathers of the English Dominican Province)

[fuckyeahphilosophy]

Where am I, or what? From what causes do I derive my existence, and to what condition shall I return? Whose favour shall I court, and whose anger must I dread? What beings surround me? and on whom have I any influence, or who have any influence on me? I am confounded with all these questions, and begin to fancy myself in the most deplorable condition imaginable, inviron'd with the deepest darkness, and utterly depriv'd of the use of every member and faculty.

David Hume: Treatise of Human Nature