De landweg

 "De poging om planmatig een ordening aan de aardbol op te leggen is tevergeefs als de mens zichzelf niet schikt naar het toespreken van de landweg. Het gevaar dreigt dat de hedendaagse mensen doof blijven voor zijn spreken. Tot hun oor dringt alleen nog maar het lawaai van apparaten door, die ze bijna voor de stem van God houden. Aldus raakt de mens verstrooid en richtingloos. Aan de verstrooiden verschijnt het Eenvoudige éénvormig. Het éénvormige bewerkt verzadiging. De verzadigden vinden alleen nog sleur. Het Eenvoudige is ontvlucht. Zijn stille kracht is verdord." (Heidegger 1949, De landweg)

Nature Rewired

"Als u na afloop van deze bijeenkomst straks de kinetische sculpturen gaat bekijken, die ontroerende mechanieken. Probeert u dan eens de expositieruimte voor te stellen door door ogen van de haas, het konijn, de arend, de valk, de ezel, de twee honden en the questionable god of bio mechanics. En realiseert u zich daarbij hoeveel ontelbare werelden er zijn van onze planeet. En misschien ervaart u dan ook die wonderlijke plek, die u zelf bent. Die u op elk moment overal mee naartoe draagt, zolang het u gegund is in deze wereld te vertoeven. Verbaast u zich over die mobiele lichtplek, die u zelf bent, die wandelende bühne waarvan u zelf het middelpunt bent. Wonderbaarlijke vreemde wezens zijn we. Ieder van ons met een eigen, uniek ontspringen van wereld, op elk moment, en met dank aan alles wat onze voorouders in de wereld hebben gebracht." (Lemmens 2014, Nature Rewired: Ontroerende techniek)

Genes as monads

1. My topic here will be the monad, which is just a simple substance. By calling it ‘simple’ I mean that it has no parts, though it can be a part of something composite.

2. There must be simple substances, because there are composites. A composite thing is just a collection of simple ones that happen to have come together.

3. Something that has no parts can’t be extended, can’t have a shape, and can’t be split up. So monads are the true atoms of Nature—the elements out of which everything is made.

14. [...] within the simple substance is nothing but what we call perception. This must be carefully distinguished from awareness or consciousness.

56. [...] each simple substance has relational properties that express all the others, so that each monad is a perpetual living mirror of the universe.

 (Leibniz 1714, Monadology)

Leibniz' Mill: a category-mistake?

"It has to be acknowledged that perception can’t be explained by mechanical principles, that is by shapes and motions, and thus that nothing that depends on perception can be explained in that way either. Suppose this were wrong. Imagine there were a machine whose structure pro- duced thought, feeling, and perception; we can conceive of its being enlarged while maintaining the same relative proportions among its parts, so that we could walk into it as we can walk into a mill. Suppose we do walk into it; all we would find there are cogs and levers and so on pushing one another, and never anything to account for a perception. So perception must be sought in simple substances, not in composite things like machines." (Leibniz 1714, Monadology, § 17)

Category-mistake?

"A foreigner visiting Oxford or Cambridge for the first time is shown a number of colleges, libraries, playing fields, museums, scientific departments and administrative offices. He then asks ‘But where is the University? I have seen where the members of the Colleges live, where the Registrar works, where the scientists experiment and the rest. But I have not yet seen the University in which reside and work the members of your University.’ It has then to be explained to him that the University is not another collateral institution, some ulterior counterpart to the colleges, laboratories and offices which he has seen. The University is just the way in which all that he has already seen is organized. When they are seen and when their coordination is understood, the University has been seen. His mistake lay in his innocent assumption that it was correct to speak of Christ Church, the Bodleian Library, the Ashmolean Museum and the University, to speak, that is, as if ‘the University’ stood for an extra member of the class of which these other units are members. He was mistakenly allocating the University to the same category as that to which the other institutions belong." (Ryle 1949, The Concept of Mind, p. 18)

Talk to the hand (of nature)

 "Genes will spread by reason of pure parasitic effectiveness, as in a virus.
We may think this spreading for the sake of spreading rather futile, but
nature is not interested in our judgements, of futility or of anything else."
(Dawkins 1999, Unweaving the Rainbow, p. 276)

Collectively trolling Dawkins

"A meme is anything that replicates itself from brain to brain, via any available means of copying. It is a matter of dispute whether the resemblance between gene and meme is good scientific poetry or bad. On balance, I still think it is good, although if you look the word up on the worldwide web you'll find plenty of examples of enthusiasts getting carried away and going too far. There even seems to be some kind of religion of the meme starting up - I find it hard to decide whether it is a joke or not." (Dawkins 1999, Unweaving the Rainbow, p. 274)

Libellosofie

"Kun je de allocatie van geld voor een hoogleraarschap in de praktische filosofie dat ten koste gaat van de mogelijkheid om datzelfde geld te besteden aan minilaptops voor hongerende negerkinderen ooit tot een algemene wet maken?" (Oudemans 2014, Homo homini agnus, p. 12)

Is - ought

"In every system of morality, which I have hitherto met with, I have always remarked, that the author proceeds for some time in the ordinary ways of reasoning, and establishes the being of a God, or makes observations concerning human affairs; when all of a sudden I am surprised to find, that instead of the usual copulations of propositions, is, and is not, I meet with no proposition that is not connected with an ought, or an ought not. This change is imperceptible; but is however, of the last consequence. For as this ought, or ought not, expresses some new relation or affirmation, 'tis necessary that it should be observed and explained; and at the same time that a reason should be given; for what seems altogether inconceivable, how this new relation can be a deduction from others, which are entirely different from it. But as authors do not commonly use this precaution, I shall presume to recommend it to the readers; and am persuaded, that this small attention would subvert all the vulgar systems of morality, and let us see, that the distinction of vice and virtue is not founded merely on the relations of objects, nor is perceived by reason." (Hume 1739, A Treatise of Human Nature, p. 335)

Wat rijmt er op Tilburg?

Twee limericks over Tilburg

Nen bijziende playboy ut Tilburg,
die war qua de vrouwkes kiskurrig.
Hij docht in de sauna,
daor kiek ik de vrouw na,
as ik althans irst vur nen bril zurg.

-

Mijn kinky seksslaafje uit Tilburg,
die hield van SM, ja echt hil urg.
Plots werd ze het zat,
maar ik niet zodat,
ik haar nu tegen haar wil wurg.

René en Willy weerleggen Spinoza

"Wanneer twee enkeldingen van geheel dezelfde aard zich met elkaar verbinden, vormen zij samen één enkelding, dat tweemaal machtiger is dan elk alleen was." (Spinoza 1979, Ethica, p. 222)

En René en Willy van de Kerkhof dan?!