‘The solution to the problem of life is seen in the vanishing of the problem. (Is not this the reason why those who have found after a long period of doubt that the sense of life has become clear to them have been unable to say what constitutes that sense?)’ (Wittgenstein, Tractatus, 6.521) That remarkable … Continue reading Storypower: Quigley’s Ineffable Escapade
Category: philosophy
reflections in a philosophical strain
No abiding city
Things take odd turns sometimes. After my Byzantine Epiphany I felt sure I was on the track of something, yet it proved elusive: after a lot of writing I felt I was still circling round it, unable to pin it down. Then this morning I woke to the news that (with the General Election just … Continue reading No abiding city
The Exploration of Inner Space III: What Plato’s got to do with it
Chimborazo, Ecuador WHEN I was but thirteen or so I went into a golden land, Chimborazo, Cotopaxi Took me by the hand. Turner’s poem is called ‘Romance’ and it records an experience most of us have felt at some point in childhood, the enchantment that arises from the potent combination of exotic names and far-off … Continue reading The Exploration of Inner Space III: What Plato’s got to do with it
The Exploration of Inner Space II : by way of metaphor
In a recent piece, prompted by Eliot’s line ‘Humankind cannot bear very much reality’ I suggested that we have constructed a carapace that protects us from Reality much as a spacesuit protects an astronaut or a bathysphere a deep-sea explorer. This in itself is an instance of how metaphor works as a tool of thought … Continue reading The Exploration of Inner Space II : by way of metaphor
The Exploration of Inner Space, I : Facing up to reality
From time to time, you come across ingenious arguments that purport to show that the moon-landings were an elaborate hoax, which I think say more about those who advance them than they do about the veracity of lunar exploration; yet there is a sense in which man has not experienced ‘being on the moon’ any … Continue reading The Exploration of Inner Space, I : Facing up to reality
For us, there is only the trying
One thing that being a writer brings home to you is the tentative nature of all writing: it is always an attempt to say something - one that can be more or less successful - and it is always a struggle. And the more difficult the matter, the greater the struggle, because we are conscious … Continue reading For us, there is only the trying
Switching sides: a confession
When I was younger - more than quarter of a century younger - I did something that I now think was wrong, though I didn’t at the time. I was asked to cover someone’s Higher English evening class and found that they were studying Wordsworth’s poem that begins ‘Up! up! my friend, and quit your … Continue reading Switching sides: a confession
Experiments with Time
Salvador Dali: 'The persistence of Memory' 'An Experiment with Time' is a book I have mentioned before by that interesting Irish inventor and pioneer aeronaut, JW Dunne. It was very popular once and for a time you could almost guarantee that you would find at least one copy in any second-hand book shop you cared to visit … Continue reading Experiments with Time
Force of Habit
'Mind-forged manacles', as well as being one of Blake's most resonant phrases, also shows how well (and succinctly) poetry (and art in general) can express a complex idea that it is difficult to express by standard reasoning. At the heart of Blake's phrase is a contradiction, something that is anathema to conventional reason: 'forging' is … Continue reading Force of Habit
The Paradox of Elective Indispensability: a Faustian pact?
Even for those of us who have lived most of our lives without them, it is hard to imagine now how we ever lived without personal computers and all that stems from them - e-mail, the internet, social networks, smart phones and the like: they seem indispensable. Which is curious, since many of us still … Continue reading The Paradox of Elective Indispensability: a Faustian pact?
COMPLEAT TROWZER 