There is an interesting comparison to be made between people and language: we can - especially when we are young and earnest - come to see both as standing in need of improvement, though essentially perfectible (with ourselves as the agents of perfection, naturally); only when we are older do we come to think that … Continue reading Three Misleading Oppositions, Three Useful Axioms
Category: philosophy
Vanishing Point and the Golden Rule (by way of Immanuel Kant)
I remember once becoming absurdly excited in Princes St. Gardens in Edinburgh - that was just where I chanced to be, not the cause of the excitement - when I realised that an interesting thing happens if you number the dimensions in the reverse of the conventional order. My brother had once explained the concept … Continue reading Vanishing Point and the Golden Rule (by way of Immanuel Kant)
A true likeness?
If you are not familiar with art history, a painting titled ‘nude descending a staircase’ probably conjures an image of a naked person halfway down a stair, poised in the act of moving from one step to another; but what Marcel Duchamp gives us is this: Here, by way of contrast, are two decently-clad Irishmen, … Continue reading A true likeness?
The Shadow and the Stone: reflections on the mechanism of metaphor
I mentioned elsewhere that there is a puzzle in our use of metaphor to expand our range of thought: if we think of the unknown in terms of the known concrete, as Vita Sackville-West has it, how does that get us anywhere new? I think I have the answer: it is by a process not … Continue reading The Shadow and the Stone: reflections on the mechanism of metaphor
‘With shabby equipment, always deteriorating…’
We live in an age of infrastructure: we take for granted an underpinning layer of nigh-magical technology, much of it electronic, on which our day-to-day lives rely; occasionally we are visited by anxiety lest it should fail - as the result of a solar storm, perhaps, such as a repeat of the Carrington Event of … Continue reading ‘With shabby equipment, always deteriorating…’
The Case of the Florentine Poet: Was Dante the father of Science Fiction?
It was only in researching this piece that I was struck by the uncanny physical resemblance between Dante Alighieri, the Florentine poet, and Mr Sherlock Holmes, of 221b Baker St, the World’s first Consulting Detective: ‘His eyes were sharp and piercing, ... and his thin, hawk-like nose gave his whole expression an air of alertness … Continue reading The Case of the Florentine Poet: Was Dante the father of Science Fiction?
‘we are only doing philosophy’
Esse est percipi - to be is to be perceived. That is Berkeley’s great insight, that the world as we know it exists only for us and beings similarly equipped. It is an observation widely misunderstood because the truth of it is difficult to express, hence the famous exchange between my countryman Boswell (whom I … Continue reading ‘we are only doing philosophy’
Repentance, or, embracing Subjective Reality
The sun moon and planets are unwitting actors that we have cast in a drama of our own contriving. Wagner’s Lied an den Abendstern (‘O Star of Eve’ - here intriguingly rendered on the musical saw) is not addressed to the second planet from the sun, inhospitably wrapped in clouds of sulphuric acid, but the … Continue reading Repentance, or, embracing Subjective Reality
Paxman and the Angels
‘Samson wis a mighty man he fought wi the cuddy’s jaws he fought ten thoosan battles in his crimson flannel drawers’ In the Bible, Samson is conceived by a woman previously thought barren and becomes a notable hero of Israel, smiting the Philistines before falling from grace through his infatuation with Delilah, which leaves him … Continue reading Paxman and the Angels
‘Them was the beds I saw!’ (as th’oul’ gunnock said)
When young, my brother and I had a book called (I think) The Prophecies of the Brahan Seer (indeed I believe it was this one), which dealt with the life (and somewhat unpleasant death) of Kenneth Mackenzie, also known as Coinneach Odhar or the Brahan seer, who was celebrated for having what in the Highlands is called ‘the … Continue reading ‘Them was the beds I saw!’ (as th’oul’ gunnock said)
COMPLEAT TROWZER 