0/0
What can be said at all can be said clearly, and whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent. - Ludwig Wittgenstein
There are, indeed, things that cannot be put into words. They make themselves manifest. They are what is mystical.
0/0
What can be said at all can be said clearly, and whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent. - Ludwig Wittgenstein
When the answer cannot be put into words, neither can the question be put into words.
The riddle does not exist.
If a question can be framed at all, it is also possible to answer it.
The solution of the problem of life is seen in the vanishing of the problem.
(Is not this the reason why those who have found after a long period of doubt that the sense of life became clear to them have then been unable to say what constituted that sense?)
The riddle does not exist.
If a question can be framed at all, it is also possible to answer it.
The solution of the problem of life is seen in the vanishing of the problem.
(Is not this the reason why those who have found after a long period of doubt that the sense of life became clear to them have then been unable to say what constituted that sense?)
William Barrett writes, “August 1914 shattered the foundations of [the] human world. It revealed that the apparent stability, security, and material progress of society had rested, like everything human, upon the void. European man came face to face with himself as a stranger.” Barrett is not alone in this reading of history. The world war and post–world war years are conventionally thought of as a time when the West’s optimism and faith in development, progress and rationality came into question.
- Laughing At Nothing
- Laughing At Nothing
Crawling inward (n.)
¹ When the outer world feels too dangerous, despair-inducing, and grim, one seeks shelter by crawling inwards into one's own mind and inner world where they think it will be calmer and less dangerous
² The state of hyperfixation on one's inner world. One is curled up inside his mind, and can see nothing but his mind through his mind's eye. The outside world becomes a mere background noise and a stormy weather outside the narrow windows of the inner world.
¹ When the outer world feels too dangerous, despair-inducing, and grim, one seeks shelter by crawling inwards into one's own mind and inner world where they think it will be calmer and less dangerous
² The state of hyperfixation on one's inner world. One is curled up inside his mind, and can see nothing but his mind through his mind's eye. The outside world becomes a mere background noise and a stormy weather outside the narrow windows of the inner world.
When one "lives inside his own head," he gradually loses contact with the outer world. The inner demons and haunting houses become larger than they really are, gloomier than they really are. Corpses and tombs in the graveyards of memory are unearthed. And windmills start to look uncannily like giant monsters.
Just like if you put your thumb too close to your eye, it can block even the sun; if you look too close at your own thoughts, they can block the outer world.
Just like if you put your thumb too close to your eye, it can block even the sun; if you look too close at your own thoughts, they can block the outer world.
So every now and then, leave your room (literally and metaphorically). Go outside. Get sweaty, or get cold. Pet a cat, or catch a dragonfly.
Refill the mansions of mind and memory with new souvenirs from the outer world, and rejoice in them.
Refill the mansions of mind and memory with new souvenirs from the outer world, and rejoice in them.
These advocates of political revolution thought that humans would enjoy expanded freedom and happiness with the abolition of property, leadership, unequal social status, and privilege.
But, Nietzsche points out, the complaints and desires of the anarchist [revolutionaries] are the complaints and desires of those who want revenge on a world that has denied them what they are too weak to seize for themselves. “[T]here is a fine dose of revenge in every complaint.”
- Laughing at Nothing
But, Nietzsche points out, the complaints and desires of the anarchist [revolutionaries] are the complaints and desires of those who want revenge on a world that has denied them what they are too weak to seize for themselves. “[T]here is a fine dose of revenge in every complaint.”
- Laughing at Nothing
Not only is there no guarantee of the temporal immortality of the human soul, that is to say of its eternal survival after death; but, in any case, this assumption completely fails to accomplish the purpose for which it has always been intended. Or is some riddle solved by my surviving for ever? Is not this eternal life itself as much of a riddle as our present life? The solution of the riddle of life in space and time lies outside space and time. (It is certainly not the solution of any problems of natural science that is required.)
We feel that even when all possible scientific questions have been answered, the problems of life remain completely untouched. Of course there are then no questions left, and this itself is the answer.