Possible Worlds
Discover the problems of logic in this text and David Lewis’s radical answer to them. Learn more about the meaning of sentences in different contexts and the undefinability of truth.
WeiterlesenTag: Immanence
Diagrams – Philosophical
I am approaching Sanskrit very slowly. On Thursdays, Nishtha holds a seminar on the Rigveda. Reciting together in Sanskrit, the detailed analysis of the translation, Nishtha’s philological considerations and the explanations of the psychology of the gods open a way into these ‘sacred’ texts. I remember my study of Latin, the Indo-European roots, the sounds that reverberate in the ragas, phonetics as a declaration of existence, language as sound and vibration, communication as rhythm. The breath of life, yoga, vitality,…
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Music
I did not bring much with me to India, a backpackful, mostly clothes, books, technology. But I packed a good pair of headphones and have now bought an external hi-fi sound card for my phone’s USB-C output from Tempotec. It was not exactly cheap, but it is excellent. I was delighted when it arrived today, and of course I tried it out immediately. What a divided experience. The music immediately evoked memories; I reveled in it. I thought of Husserl,…
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Immanence
Yesterday I saw two millipedes mating. It was pretty much the most fascinating thing I have seen in a very long time. The creatures entwined themselves in one another, rubbed and courted one another; there was rhythm, devotion, engulfing. The two had met by chance, and after a few minutes moved on in different directions. An encounter. They were two forms of life that had united to beget further life. A Life – A Life Today I then reread Deleuze’s…
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Reading
For three weeks now I have been reading in India: Deleuze, Upanishads, Sri Aurobindo. In between I sometimes meditate. The rest is still a remnant of everyday life in the New World. Reading the news, consuming entertainment media, organizing things that have no real significance here but need continuity so that they do not fall apart in old Europe and the New World. Reading, then… It seems to me that I have spent decades preparing to read here. My thinking…
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Collision
It was a feat of strength. Clearing out the apartment, moving with friends, putting things into storage, reorienting myself before a new chapter begins. Leaving the familiar, breaking the status quo, doing what is important and right without making compromises. But that also means suffering and inflicting wounds, breaking things and planting something new. Strange only that some friends are going through something similar. After Covid, the world is different. We no longer want to live as we did before.…
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Metamorphosis
I am undergoing a metamorphosis. Recently, at a gathering, someone said this was a wonderful group of caterpillars. I paused. He said, yes… soon these will be butterflies. A friend once said that metamorphosis was a proof of God’s existence. How else could one explain a butterfly arising from a caterpillar through purely evolutionary steps? Can such a leap in complexity be grasped in evolutionary terms at all? I am not a biologist, and it interested me only as a…
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Many I’s
Today I heard a quotation from Sri Aurobindo. He said, in essence, that each of us has several I’s. That was clear to me. For decades, my experience has been that the different aspects of a personality are many, and that the idea of a subjective identity is a construction. I always regarded the principles of construction as ideological, serving the logic of passports, individual responsibility, and the administration of justice, but also of guilt and atonement, the idea of…
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