Tag overview for: 'philosophy'
Entries on this site with 'philosophy'
- special branch
Some more on Stefan Themerson , whose 'Special Branch' - out of print these days - offers another great example of his unique style of mental gymnastics. Subtitled 'A Dial
- the mystery of the sardine
'You see,' he said very quietly, 'a perfect system can never be perfect. A system has to be imperfect to be perfect. A little corruption, a little bribery, a little hypocr
- logicomix
It's an ambitious idea, creating a graphic novel about mathematicians, logicians and philosophers arguing about absolute truth. But ' Logicomix: An Epic Search For Truth '
- word is murder
Word is murder of a thing, not only in the elementary sense of implying its absence - by naming a thing, we treat it as absent, as dead, although it is still present - but
- a pataphor for what?
Some more on Oulipo (see previous post ), many of whose members were also 'pataphysicians. A pseudo-philosophy devised by French playwright and surrealist avant la lettre
- the religious experience of philip k. dick
In 1974, science fiction writer Philip K. Dick experienced a series of mystical visions. They would greatly influence his writing, most explicitly in ' Valis ', a philosop
- closure
Closure has been described as an online Flash game "about being and nothingness". The game indeed takes a very original approach to the worn-out genre of platform games ,
- the simorgh
It's a bit weird to use a spoiler warning when reviewing a book that's over 800 years old. But ' The Conference of the Birds ' ('Mantiq at-Ta'ir'), by twelfth century Sufi
- notes from underground
I am a sick man... I am a wicked man. An unattractive man. I think my liver hurts. These opening statements set the tone for what must be one of the most savage rants in w
- la convivencia
The period known as La Convivencia refers to the peaceful coexistence of Muslems, Jews and Christians during the Moorish reign of al-Andalus (Spain), between 711 and 1492.
- tarzan vs. ibm
As Nouvelle Vague 's venture into science fiction, Jean-Luc Godard 's ' Alphaville ' (1965) is still a fascinating piece of conceptual (as opposed to spectacular) sci-fi.
- the consolation of philosophy
Since today is the memorial day of Saint Severinus , better known as Boethius , it seems fitting to take a look at his masterpiece ' The Consolation of Philosophy ' ('De C
- war and peace
A "loose baggy monster" Henry James once called Leo Tolstoy 's ' War and Peace '. At over 1300 pages, with no clearly defined plot and featuring some 500 characters, it ce
- hyperreality
All through the 19th and 20th centuries political and economic practice merge increasingly into the same type of discourse. Propaganda and advertising fuse in the same mar
- iffr: scream of the ants
The Rotterdam Film Festival is always a good place for Iranian cinema. Tehran was one of this year's hot spots , and there was also master-in-exile Mohsen Makhmalbaf 's ne
- narziss & goldmund
Adapting Herman Hesse 's novel ' Narcissus and Goldmund ' to the theatre poses a difficult challenge. Hesse's novel, set in Medieval Germany, sets up a juxtaposition of ar
- the mahabharata
The Indian Mahabharata has been called the longest epic in the world. Spanning over 74.000 Sanskrit verses (about ten times the length of the Iliad and Odyssey combined!),
- de zee die denkt
' De Zee Die Denkt ' ('The Sea That Thinks') is a weird, thoughtprovoking film about itself and about a script writer struggling with the question of what the 'I', the sel
- the seventh sally
Died yesterday, Stanisław Lem , the Polish science-fiction writer best known for his book ' Solaris ' and its film adaptations by Tarkovsky and Soderbergh , was really a p
- zen logic
Without claiming to understand much of Zen (if that's even the point), here's a koan that seems to sum up its spirit nicely: A master was asked the question, "What is the
- culture industry
Today aesthetic barbarity completes what has threatened the creations of the spirit since they were gathered together as culture and neutralized. To speak of culture was a
- kipple
'Cause i can never find the original definition for this great concept, here's the complete quote: Kipple is useless objects, like junk mail or match folders after you use
- hyperdemocracy
Today we are witnessing the triumphs of a hyperdemocracy in which the mass acts directly, outside the law, imposing its aspirations and its desires by means of material pr
- pandora's box
' Primer ' is one of those mindf*cks that will leave you a) completely cold, or b) wanting to watch it again, now. This film is along the lines of ' Pi ', ' Memento ' or '
- over-communication
...Over-communication -- that is, the tendency to know exactly in one point of the world what is going on in all other parts of the world. In order for a culture and its m
- a secret veiled by a secret
It's the simplest possible system. Consider only the outer circle. To code something, you replace each letter of your original message with the letter that precedes it: fo
- cryptical arabesques
H.P. Lovecraft , one of the grandfathers of horror stories (and probably one of the few writers that can be called gothic and baroque at the same time), turns out to be qu
- uphill battle
If you remember every word in this book, your memory will have recorded about two million pieces of information: the order in your brain will have increased by about two m
- time, pt. 2
What time is for the nonreligious man of modern society would be more difficult to put into a few words. We do not intend to discuss the modern philosophies of time nor th
- information, pt. 2
Now, there is something obscene about the instant replication of an event, act or speech and their immediate transcription, for some degree of delay, pause or suspense is
- information, pt. 1
It was hell living in the twenty-first century. Information transfer had reached the velocity of light. [He] had once fed a tenword plot outline into a robot fiction machi
- big ideas in perspective
Reading Bertrand Russell's History of Western Philosophy puts some of human kind's biggest ideas in perspective for you: Big idea #1: Their [Leucippus and Democritus, 5th
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