Thomas Paine; a story Background, some of it relevant and some of it decorative: Paine was born in Norfolk 1737, as England was beginning its industrial revolution. He received basic schooling, but was forbidden to learn Latin by his father (curious “A.” because this is a bias he would hold onto, considering it a useless and wasteful effort, and “B.” because it suggests...
Editor Notes: Editorial notes: Shai’s interest in the French Revolution is likely driven by his study of classical philosophers and his desire to better understand the period in which they lived and the impact it might have had on their philosophical views. The specific reference to the French Revolution starts in his review of Edmund Burke’s “Philosophical Enquiry into the...
To you whom this concerns, I don’t know where to start. Which reminds me of how I began one of my journals. And so, to quote myself:* There’s something satisfyingly indulgent about copying words that had already been finished, but are being given a new meaning in a new context. So: Allow me to pause the proceedings – really no more than a preface, an elaborate digression into...
Editorial notes: This Essay was found as a ‘draft’ entry in Everything2. It seems to be a continuation of the thought process recorded a few days earlier in A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful and it ends with a number of points for future consideration. It is published here with minor changes. I had first considered illustrating the...
Editorial notes: This Essay[I] was found as a ‘draft’ entry in Everything2 and it is not clear whether it was complete and ready for publication. It is published here with minor changes. A follow-up draft was recorded a number of days later, containing further thoughts on this matter. Beauty. The grandest of human values is beauty. It is the experience of the beautiful that brings...
One of the first features to be observed is that I live in what appears to be a world of things. Everything is.
A fact easily denied in the world of post-modernity.
But I am. But is it fair to transcend from one thing to all things? And is it appropriate to assume that I am the only one, or that those like us are?
If then I conclude that there are things with different domains.
This is for you. I love you. Love is the quintessential romantic, irrational, human experience. It is in the first place the domain of its clients, although readily owned by the poets. As for others. The philosophers are permitted access, though they often regress into poets too; describing love as sacred, profound, and utterly existential. In the penultimate place in the line for love, in front...
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) was born in Geneva. His mother died about a week after his birth, and after his father had to leave the country due to the risk of imprisonment, he was raised by an uncle. He abandoned his education as an engraver due to his bully employer, and at the mere age of 16, moved to France where he met the first major female figure in his life (Mme de Warens). He was...
Editorial notes: This is Shai’s first reference to the French philosopher of Lithuanian Jewish ancestry, Emmanuel Levinas. Levinas’ ideas appear to have made an impact on Shai’s outlook as he refers to him 11 more times in the following three and a half years, most notably in a post entitled “Perceptions of wisdom in the Talmud with Emmanuel Levinas“. Levinas[I] says that we come to be ourselves...
Quotes from Bentham’s[I] An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation[II]: Nature has placed mankind under the governance of two sovereign masters, pain and pleasure. It is for them alone to point out what we ought to do, as well as to determine what we shall do. On the one hand the standard of right and wrong, on the other the chain of causes and effects, are fastened to...
