Dreaming.............................

“Now, my own suspicion is that the universe is not only queerer than we suppose, but queerer than we can suppose. I have read and heard many attempts at a systematic account of it, from materialism and theosophy to the Christian system or that of Kant, and I have always felt that they were much too simple. I suspect that there are more things in heaven and earth that are dreamed of, or can be dreamed of, in any philosophy. That is the reason why I have no philosophy myself, and must be my excuse for dreaming.” 

-J. B. S. Haldane, Possible Worlds

enlargeable photo and attempted explanation here

On managing expectations.............

...........or as 12-step people might say, "High expectations are just premeditated resentments."

"The fastest way to fail as an investor to have reality fall short of your expectations. It’s better to plan for 5% and get 10% than to plan on 10% and only get 5%."

-Michael Batnick

The uncertainty of Socrates.............

He had his own religious faith:  he believed in one God, and hoped in his modest way that death would not quite destroy him, but he knew that a lasting moral code could not be based upon so uncertain a theology.  If one could build a system of morality absolutely independent of religious doctrine, as valid for the atheist as for the pietist, then theologies might come and go without loosening the moral cement that makes of wilful individuals the peaceful citizens of a community.

-Will Durant,  The Story of Philosophy

Making some rather large assumptions....

If, for example, good meant intelligent, and virtue meant wisdom; if men could be taught to see clearly their real interests, to see afar, the distant results of their deeds, to criticize and coordinate their desires out of a self-cancelling chaos into a purposive and creative harmony—this, perhaps, would provide for the educated and sophisticated man the morality which in the unlettered relies on reiterated precepts and external controls.  Perhaps all sin is error, partial vision, foolishness?  The intelligent man may have the same violent and unsocial impulses as the ignorant man, but surely he will control them better, and slip less often into imitation of the beast.  And in an intelligently administered society—one that returned to the individual, in widened powers, more than it took from him in restricted liberty—the advantage of every man would lie in social and loyal conduct, and only clear sight would be needed to ensure peace and order and good will.

-Will Durant,  The Story of Philosophy

Needing just the right amount of chaos.......

     But if the government itself is a chaos and an absurdity, if it rules without helping, and commands without leading,—how can we persuade the individual, in such a state, to obey the laws and confine his self-seeking within the circle of the total good?  No wonder an Alcibiades turns against a state that distrusts ability, and reverences number more than knowledge.  No wonder there is chaos where there is no thought, and the crowd decides in haste and ignorance, to repent at leisure and in desolation.  Is it not a base superstition that mere numbers will give wisdom?  On the contrary is it not universally seen that men in crowds are more foolish and more violent and more cruel than men separate and alone?

-Will Durant,  The Story of Philosophy

Fifty years ago..................At Woodstock

John Sebastian...............................................Younger Generation

Message...................................

“There is a hidden message in every waterfall. It says, if you are flexible, falling will not hurt you!” 

-Mehmet Murat ildan

Sort of like Socrates.................

.........................................................just asking questions.

The beginning of western philosophy........

     In 490-470 B.C. Sparta and Athens, forgetting their jealousies and joining forces, fought off the effort of the Persians under Darius and Xerxes to turn Greece into a colony of an Asiatic empire.  In this struggle of youthful Europe against the senile East, Sparta provided the army and Athens the navy.  The war over, Sparta demobilized her troops, and suffered the economic disturbances natural to that process, while Athens turned her navy into a merchant fleet, and became one of the greatest trading cities of the ancient world.  Sparta relapsed into agricultural seclusion and stagnation, while Athens became a busy mart and port, the meeting place of many races of men and of diverse cults and customs, whose contact and rivalry begot comparison, analysis and thought.
      Traditions and dogmas rub one another down to a minimum in such centers of varied intercourse; where there are a thousand faiths we are apt to become sceptical of them all.  Probably the traders were the first sceptics; they has seen too much to believe too much;  and the general disposition of merchants to classify all men as either fools or knaves inclined them to question every creed.  Gradually, too, they were developing science; mathematics grew with the increasing complexity of exchange, astronomy with the increasing audacity of navigation.  The growth of wealth brought the leisure and security which are prerequisite of research and speculation;  men now asked the stars not only for guidance on the seas but as well for an answer to the riddles of the universe;  the first Greek philosophers were astronomers.  "Proud of their achievements," says Aristotle, "men pushed farther afield after the Persian wars; they took all knowledge for their province, and sought ever wider studies."  Men grew bold enough to attempt natural explanations of processes and events before attributed to supernatural agencies and powers;  magic and ritual slowly gave way to science and control; and philosophy began.

-Will Durant,  The Story of Philosophy

Fifty years ago.............At Woodstock

Joan Baez............................................Swing Low, Sweet Chariot

trifling issues...............................

     Zeno appears to have been trying to synthesize the best aspects of different Athenian philosophical traditions.  However, the Cynic and Academic schools were often seen as representing fundamentally different assumptions about what it means to be a philosopher.  The Cynics sneered at the pretentious and bookish nature of Plato's Academy.  The Academics, in turn, thought the doctrines of the Cynics were crude and too extreme—Plato reputedly called Diogenes "Socrates gone mad."  Zeno must have believed that studying philosophical theory, or subjects like logic and cosmology, can be good insofar as it makes us more virtuous and improves our character.  However, it also can be a bad thing if it becomes so pedantic or overly "academic" that it diverts us from the pursuit of virtue.  Marcus learned the same attitude from his Stoic teachers.  He repeatedly warned himself not to become distracted by reading too many books—thus wasting time on trifling issues in logic and metaphysics—but instead to remain focused on the practical goal of living wisely.

-Donald Robertson,  How To Think Like A Roman Emperor:  The Stoic Philosophy Of Marcus Aurelius

As slogans go.........................

.............................this one may be difficult to top.  Got my vote.

Ponder this one for a moment...........

"The pace of change is never going to be slower than it is now."

-Beth Comstock, as extracted from here

Learned another new word today.....

It's pretty clear that cartoonist Paula Pratt was a student of the nineteenth-century American philosopher Charles Sanders Peirce.  By the way, that's not a typo;  his name really did violate the rule "i" before "e," except after "c," and he pronounced it "Purse."  And that's not the only rule he broke.  He staked out new territory with is declaration that "truth is what works," and he is therefore known in the history of philosophy as a "pragmatist."  His own term for himself was "fallibilist," meaning, as he said, that "people cannot attain absolute certainty concerning questions of fact."  But in the meantime, we have to go with our best shot, based on current evidence, and see how it works out in practice.

-Thomas Cathcart & Daniel Klein,   I Think, Therefore I Draw:  Understanding Philosophy Through Cartoons

Here's something you don't read everyday....

Maybe Portugal can show us a different approach to the problem. 

Standards...................................

..................................................................................a list.

Opening paragraphs................

     Wardell Holland, the mayor of Wheatfield, Minnesota, was sitting in the double-wide he rented from his mother, a Daisy Match Grade pellet rifle in his hands, shooting flies.  His mother suspected he let the flies in on purpose so he could shoot at them.  He denied it, but he was lying.

-John Sandford,  Holy Ghost:  A Virgil Flowers Novel

Let's have more faith.....................

.................................................in the "bottoms up" approach:

Discussions of cities and how they work are of three kinds. Economists like the neoclassical model of spatial equilibrium; sites are evaluated by competitors and equilibrium site rents emerge. Designers (often utopians) like ambitious plans: their top-down design skills can be scaled-up significantly. Followers of Jane Jacobs disagree and celebrate the complex spatial arrangements that emerge bottom-up; knowledge is complex and dispersed.

-Peter Gordon, as culled from here

Fifty years ago....................At Woodstock

Joan Baez...............................................We Shall Overcome

The times they are a changin'—Part 1

..................................................................Homo Appiens.