Jan 28, 2021 08:00 AM
Sheep in sheep's clothing
https://alexanderpruss.blogspot.com/2021...thing.html
"...in some standard Gettier cases, if you reason probabilistically, it is possible to know."
On the suffering of the world
https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertain...story.html
EXCERPTS: . . . Life, according to Arthur Schopenhauer, consists of [...] the Will-to-Live ... Because we are dominated by this primal, instinctual egoism, it is desire, not reason, that ruthlessly controls our actions. Throughout life, we are tirelessly harried from want to want, never finding permanent satisfaction in anything. ... Our existence consequently tick-tocks between suffering and boredom. In such a world of chance and contingency, earthly happiness is impossible, existing only in the future, which is uncertain, or in the past, which is irrecoverable.
In short, human beings dwell, as the Buddhists say, in the realm of samsara, bound to a repeated cycle of desire and suffering. [...] Ours is, in fact, the worst of all possible worlds, both valueless and unreal. And yet, because of our inexorable Will-to-Live, we fear death far more than we dread the endless miseries and privations of life. Still, asks Schopenhauer, why should we be afraid of nonexistence since no one is troubled about having been nothing before his or her birth? After our “momentary intermezzo” on this Earth, we will soon enjoy again “the lost paradise of non-existence.”
Can nothing be done, then, for poor, forked humanity? There are some palliatives. Compassion, above all. [...] Art — especially music — can provide a temporary respite from the burden of time. Philosophical knowledge can grant us serenity and insight, while asceticism and the renunciation of desire may free us from bondage to the Will and lead us to a peaceful Nirvana.
Despite all his gloomy reasoning, Schopenhauer [...] was arguably the best-known modern philosopher since Hegel, whom he despised. Today, though, he is mostly read as an influence on Nietzsche or raided for his numerous pithy observations about almost everything. Here’s one that neatly characterizes many of the so-called “patriots” of last week’s Capitol-swarming mob: “Every miserable fool who has nothing at all of which he can be proud, adopts, as a last resource, pride in the nation to which he belongs; he is ready and glad to defend all its faults and follies tooth and nail, thus reimbursing himself for his own inferiority.”
[...] even if Schopenhauer is essentially right about the human condition, shouldn’t we try to live as if he weren’t? (MORE - details)
https://alexanderpruss.blogspot.com/2021...thing.html
"...in some standard Gettier cases, if you reason probabilistically, it is possible to know."
On the suffering of the world
https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertain...story.html
EXCERPTS: . . . Life, according to Arthur Schopenhauer, consists of [...] the Will-to-Live ... Because we are dominated by this primal, instinctual egoism, it is desire, not reason, that ruthlessly controls our actions. Throughout life, we are tirelessly harried from want to want, never finding permanent satisfaction in anything. ... Our existence consequently tick-tocks between suffering and boredom. In such a world of chance and contingency, earthly happiness is impossible, existing only in the future, which is uncertain, or in the past, which is irrecoverable.
In short, human beings dwell, as the Buddhists say, in the realm of samsara, bound to a repeated cycle of desire and suffering. [...] Ours is, in fact, the worst of all possible worlds, both valueless and unreal. And yet, because of our inexorable Will-to-Live, we fear death far more than we dread the endless miseries and privations of life. Still, asks Schopenhauer, why should we be afraid of nonexistence since no one is troubled about having been nothing before his or her birth? After our “momentary intermezzo” on this Earth, we will soon enjoy again “the lost paradise of non-existence.”
Can nothing be done, then, for poor, forked humanity? There are some palliatives. Compassion, above all. [...] Art — especially music — can provide a temporary respite from the burden of time. Philosophical knowledge can grant us serenity and insight, while asceticism and the renunciation of desire may free us from bondage to the Will and lead us to a peaceful Nirvana.
Despite all his gloomy reasoning, Schopenhauer [...] was arguably the best-known modern philosopher since Hegel, whom he despised. Today, though, he is mostly read as an influence on Nietzsche or raided for his numerous pithy observations about almost everything. Here’s one that neatly characterizes many of the so-called “patriots” of last week’s Capitol-swarming mob: “Every miserable fool who has nothing at all of which he can be proud, adopts, as a last resource, pride in the nation to which he belongs; he is ready and glad to defend all its faults and follies tooth and nail, thus reimbursing himself for his own inferiority.”
[...] even if Schopenhauer is essentially right about the human condition, shouldn’t we try to live as if he weren’t? (MORE - details)
