Among the most famous lines in philosophy is Descartes’s claim that he had proven his own existence because he thinks: Je pense, donc je suis. It is referred to as the cogito because we remember it best from a later publication, in Latin. The English translation reads–surprise!–I think, therefore I am. But does it matter […]
Category: Philosophy
Dreams of Reason Then There’s a famous phrase in a painting by Goya–“El sueño de la razón produce monstruos“– which might mean “the sleep of reason produces monsters,” or “the dream of reason produce monsters[!]” The charm of the line lies in its polysemy, since the Spanish word sueño means both sleep and dream. These […]
Introduction In this age, long years of formal education foster our disbelief in anything supernatural. And since the central tenets of religion involve the supernatural, many professors, journalists, teachers, and other intellectuals reject religion as a whole. Human reproduction requires an ovum from the female, a sperm cell from the male. We can’t believe in […]
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The Four Seasons and Human Passions
How they affect us, the four seasons–if we live in a place and culture in which we experience them as such. I am not talking just about their measure by astronomical events, beginning and ending with a solstice or an equinox. Rather, I’m referring to how they are perceived by our senses, and how the […]