I could've said: "Atheists think that they are hardcore because they don't believe in God. But Buddhists don't even believe in people! - except in a notional or discursive sense, and excepting the personalists (who lost), and then there's the Pudgala section of the Adhidamma, but there, we . . . (More)

  I am not at war with the universe - though that doesn't mean I have to like it.That's the trouble with ravers and Discordians; they insist upon liking it.  The disciples of sweetness and light are characterized by grasping desperation. (And no, I'm not against it, either.  Didn't I already say . . . (More)

 Or:  Per Wittgenstein, religion is a form of life, principally. 

�Fiction, myth, religion, faith, voluntary reality, ritual, and play.� The stakes today are rather high.� then there's "Bob".� Why do I assert that "Bob" is the prime wholesale source of relatively uncut Slack there be?� "Bob" said so, and "Bob"'s word is good enough for me, . . . (More)

Atheists think that they are hardcore because they don't believe in God.But Buddhists don't even believe in people! The remarkable thing here is that some of you may think that I'm kidding, but I'm not.  This shows the depth of your prejudice.  Even the remarkable Descartes thought it was a . . . (More)

  Leviathan  is a remarkable comic strip by Peter Blegvad, who you should (but don't) know from Slapp Happy, a loosely "progressive" band who collaborated with Henry Cow for a period and had their own interesting career.  Regardless of pedigree, this is superior stuff; check it out. . . . (More)

  "Nightingale" by Judy Collins is one of the best slow burns in the history of singer-songwriter music. Accordingly, I am making fair use of the lyrics below: Jacob's heart bent with fear, Like a bow with death for its arrow; In Vain he search for the final truth To set his soul free of d . . . (More)

  There has been some buzz recently about Ayn Rand - owed to a recently published biography - and since I am such a rigid conformist, I thought I would jump on the bandwagon.  After all, all the cool kids are doing it. I am well aware of everything that can be (and is) said against her.  T . . . (More)

  Or, what I should have said on the last day of my last class: Never stop.  Philosophy is a discipline, and it is imperative that you keep it up, and deepen the discipline.  Otherwise, as the saying goes, your life, unexamined, will not be truly worth living.  Indeed, a life with no philosophy . . . (More)

 Chrysippus, a favorite and very quotable Stoic, once said that poverty teaches by force those lessons that philosophy tries to teach by persuasion.  In this I am inclined to agree with him.  Recently, the American news media have been much agitated over reductions in consumer spending, for exa . . . (More)