Richibi’s Weblog

Just another WordPress.com weblog

Tag: philosophy

July 2, 2014

philosophers at play


Raphael - "The School of Athens"

“The School of Athens“ (1510-11)

Raphael

_________

the Philosophers’ World Cup – Germany vs. Greece,
enjoy the live action

the Philosophers’ World Cup – Germany vs. France,
read the debate

existentially yours

Richard

Leave a comment
January 24, 2014

“Meditations“, Book 4 – Marcus Aurelius

“How much trouble he avoids who does not look to see what his
neighbour says or does or thinks, but only to what he does himself,
that it may be just and pure; or as Agathon says, look not round at
the depraved morals of others, but run straight along the line
without deviating from it.”

“Meditations“, Book 4, 18

Marcus Aurelius

___________

having given the sciences their theoretical
foundations, philosophy, overtaken by facts,
theorems and numbers, impermeable verities
based on rigorous calculations and verifiable
experimentations, feared ceding its austere
position at the head of progressive thought
and ground its studies in more rationally
impregnable pursuits, empiricism overtook
speculation, morality became merely a
subtext instead of the existential quest
it had earlier informed

it has never recovered, though the
importance of the question of good
and evil has never subsided

towards what do we aspire, how do we
accord that with our environment, be it
social, political, natural

it is not a bad thing to consider our
priorities, otherwise we are merely
wisps, I would think, of undifferentiated
dust in the wind, dust having returned
inexorably to untransubstantiated
dust

therefore Marcus Aurelius

Richard

2 Comments
March 7, 2013

Nemo – “Ennead I” by Plotinus (7)‏

 
Date: Sun, 3 Mar 2013 21:45:49 +0000
To: Richibi’s Weblog
From: comment-reply@wordpress.com
Subject: [New comment] “Ennead I” by Plotinus.
 

To apply Plotinus’ theory of memory to Alzheimer, and answer your earlier question. The disease damaged the first component of memory, i.e., our memory storage facility, but it leaves the second and third components intact, where “we” are most active. People afflicted with Alzheimer are no less human than the rest, because they still have their thoughts, emotions, desires, judgment and will.

To use analogy, I’d liken living with Alzheimer to walking on the beach. Our memory is like the footprints we leave in the sand, which are constantly washed away by the waves, but the lack of footprints doesn’t prevent us from continue walking/living

 
 
I have no doubt that there is a soul, a human
entity, behind even a vegetative living being,
Nemo, let me tell you a story, I worked for
years in a palliative care unit as a volunteer
after the death of my beloved, who had died
there in one of their first units in the late 80s,
it was my way of saying thank you
 
a woman there lay in extremis, making no
sense of the fray that stirred ceaselessly
about her, her family distraught over her
perilous state fussing and worrying,
helpless and trying to find nevertheless
purpose midst unfamiliar and stressful
feelings, awash in their stray, unsettled, 
energy
 
their senior member, an actual pastor,
asked if I would sit by their mother’s side
while they all took a necessary break for
lunch, of course I immediately acceded,
that’s what I was there for    
 
gently I sat by her side, I had found
solace in a particular Oriental esoteric
faith meanwhile for my own debilitating
anguish, which had bequeathed me a
chant that would settle often and with
reverence my most aggrieved moments,
little by little it had rendered
acknowledgment, resolve, and, dare I
say, even grace, to my distress 
 
I began to murmur this chant as I lay my
hand upon her arm, she all aflutter from
her chronic delirium trying to find,
hopelessly it appeared, a place to settle,
I could only with my touch console
somewhat, I wistfully imagined
 
in my monotone I continued to issue
the palliative vowel sounds, surrounding
them with as much compassion and
gentle harmony as I could muster,
knowing that these must reach the soul,
something I had been discovering from
my own fraught experience
 
her body began to settle, there was no
question of reaching her mind, any kind
of intelligible conversation, but you do
that also with a very young child, and like
a very young child she continued to
respond 
 
to my chant, which had been like a river
flowing, constant and murmuring, finding
the most soothing paths of a trickling 
rhythm, she began to harmonize
 
row, row, row, your boat, she began
to sing, haltingly of course, at first
tentatively, but then with more and
more, though ever reliant, confidence
 
I believe that God had been talking 
there to all of us, I turned to see the
family standing in the doorway, still
and hushed
 
 
where, Nemo, does that leave philosophy
 
therefore Proust   
 
 
Richard      
 
 
 
 
Leave a comment