Nineteen years of blogs in philosophy. More than 1.5 million views!
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Random quote Museums function like homes of the nobility to which the public at certain hours are admitted as visitors. The class nature of the ‘nobility’ may vary, but as soon as a work is placed in a museum it acquires the mystery of a way of life which excludes the mass. John Berger, photographer (1926-2017)
Taken by me at the Strassenindustriemuseum-in Ennepetal, Germany We have seen in my blog last week that causation is not only in the mind, as Hume thought, but that it is also something real. Moreover, according to Hume, causation requires repeated observations of correlations among events. This would exclude the possibility of causes that occur only once. However, we have seen that the Belgian…
Random quote [T]hey say that everyone should claim to be just, regardless of whether they are or are not, and anyone who is not pretending to be just is insane, because it is necessary for everyone to share in it in some way or other if they are to live with their fellow men. Protagoras van Abdera (c. 490-420 BC) in Plato, Protagoras , 323 b-c
Taken by me at the Strassenindustriemuseum-in Ennepetal, Germany Causation is only in the mind. That is what Hume thinks, as we have seen in my blog three weeks ago . As Hume states (see my blog): “When we say … that one object is connected with another, we mean only, that they have acquired a connexion in our thought…” and we have no idea, whether in reality such a connection is a causal one or…
Random quote [T]he philosopher … is always, so far as he is able, in communion through memory with those things the communion with which causes God to be divine. Now a man who employs such memories rightly is always being initiated into perfect mysteries and he alone becomes truly perfect; but since he separates himself from human interests and turns his attention toward the divine, he is rebuked…
Barrel Organ "The Arab", once the most famous barrel organ in the Netherlands Photo taken by me in the Museum Speelklok, Utrecht, NL A bandwagon is a decorated wagon that carries a musical ensemble or band in a parade or other entertainment event. I think – but I am not sure – that it is a typical American phenomenon, although you find decorated wagons carrying a musical ensemble also during…
Random quote What if one person or some oligarchy or indeed a democracy, were possessed of a soul that hungers for pleasures and passions, and needs to be filled with these, a soul that resists nothing, and is assailed by unending, insatiate evil diseases? Well, if something of this sort, having trampled all over the laws, rules a city or some individual, then, there is no way to save it. An…
Lately, someone asked me what I think happiness is. I had forgotten that once I had written a blog about it, but essentially my answer was the same as what I had written there, although from a different perspective. Therefore I think it is worth writing about it again, instead of simply referring to that old blog. I assume that many people see happiness as a state. As a positive subjective feeling…
Random quote Clogs – “floppies,” slippers – are made so that one can slip them on one’s feet without using the hands. They are monuments to the hatred of bending over. Theodor Adorno (1903-1969)
One of the most important contributions of David Hume (1711-1776) to philosophy is his view on causation. In several respects it is controversial and much has been said about it. Despite all criticisms it contains some essential elements of the idea of causation that you find back in almost any discussion about it, if not that they are present in the background. Therefore it’s worth giving here…
