“Most people learn nothing from experience, except confirmation of their prejudices.“

— Bertrand Russell, The Lessons of Experience, 23 September 1931

When you find human society disagreeable and feel yourself justified in flying to solitude, you can be so constituted as to be unable to bear the depression of it for any length of time, which will probably be the case if you are young. Let me advise you, then, to form the habit of taking some of your solitude with you into society, to learn to be to some extent alone even though you are in company; not to say at once what you think, and, on the other hand, not to attach too precise a meaning to what others say; rather, not to expect much of them, either morally or intellectually, and to strengthen yourself in the feeling of indifference to their opinion, which is the surest way of always practicing a praiseworthy toleration. If you do that, you will not live so much with other people, though you may appear to move amongst them: your relation to them will be of a purely objective character. This precaution will keep you from too close contact with society, and therefore secure you against being contaminated or even outraged by it. Society is in this respect like a fire-the wise man warming himself at a proper distance from it; not coming too close, like the fool, who, on getting scorched, runs away and shivers in solitude, loud in his complaint that the fire burns. ~Arthur Schopenhauer

(Book: Essays and Aphorisms https://amzn.to/3KUHaI1)

(Art: Photograph by Kees Scherer)

" The aim of Philosophy is to Clarify and The aim of Literature is to mystify. The novelist is trying to creat an illusion while the Philosopher is trying to destroy an illusion. Literature tries to involve the writer and the reader ; while Philosophy is a narrowly intellectual activity. Literature is emotion inclusive while Philosophy is emotion - exclusive. "

[Bryan Mage : British Philosopher , Politician and Author : Interview with Iris Murdoch , Philosophy Vs Literature.]

For Hegel ...

" Human beings cannot have an identity without Social or Cultural background. Human beings are social creatures that depend on others to be who they are. The only way we could see ourselves is through our reflection in others. ....

The sense that we want acknowledgement, status , appreciation , ... shows that our human nature has social core. "

[G. W. F. Hegel on Human Nature : German Philosopher]

The world that scientists, who stand on the position of physicalist objectivism, speak about turns out to be not an objective world at all, i.e., a world independent of human consciousness, but an intersubjective world, i.e., the world of intersubjectively experienced objects. The objects of scientific research are intersubjective objects, and scientists do not know and cannot in principle know any other objects, just as the whole of humanity cannot know any other objects.

— Yaroslav Slinin on Husserl’s transcendental idealism/phenomenology

Socratic Method ....

A method used by the Great Philosopher Socrates. " Socratic Method " is used by Socrates to enable a person to reflect his ideas. Socrates asks sharp questions to help him dig out the deepest belief of a given person on a certain subject and most of the time the person might find his deepest ideas conflicting with his initial ones.

(From Philosophy Overdose)

" Schopenhauer argues that what is ultimate in this world of phenomenon (living experience) is energy. He says that the underlying metaphysics is whatever manifests itself as this energy and through out the cosmos (stars , solar system , In animals , In trees , In falling stones , In ourselves , In everything ...) ; It is the Unconscious energy that forms rooms , makes our organs work while we are asleep and so on. I understand him saying that the nearest we come to getting any glimering to what that is in experience is the experience we have inside ourselves of the energy that goes forth the will to exist , the will to survive ... That is ultimate, irreducible push or drive and underlying to everythingelse. "

[Bryan Magee (British Philosopher) Reflection on Arthur Schopenhauer's Metaphysics : Philosophy Overdose]

" Principle of sufficient reason says that For every Truth there must be a reason why it is so and not otherwise. In other words Everything has a cause. This principle rules out that the possibility that certain things might just happen or be for no reason whatsoever. Now we may not know what that reason or cause is but nonetheless we could be assured that there must be one. Principle of sufficient reason is very controversial principle that has and still continued to divided philosophers. "

[Principle of Sufficient Reason : G. W. Leibniz (German Philosopher) : From Philosophy Overdose]

" Kant's Epistemology is the product of the Enlightenment. Philosophers of the enlightenment rejected the idea that we should depend on religious or secular authorities. Rather they believed that each of us could find the Truth by his/her own by using Reason. ... Kant said that ' Humans reached maturity because they aren't obedient to a higher authority like God or the Monarch but they were their own highest authority. "

[Immanuel Kant on Enlightenment : From Philosophy Overdose]

“Every powerful emotion has its own myth-making tendency. When the emotion is peculiar to an individual, he is considered more or less mad if he gives credence to such myths as he has invented. But when an emotion is collective, as in war or disease, there are few to correct the myths that naturally arise. Consequently in all times of great collective excitement unfounded rumors obtain wide credence. This myth-making faculty is often allied with cruelty. Such myths give an excuse for the infliction of torture, and the unfounded belief in them is evidence of the unconscious desire to find some victim to persecute.“

— Bertrand Russell, Unpopular Essays (1950), Ch. XII: An Outline of Intellectual Rubbish, p. 81

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Unpopular Essays is a collection of Bertrand Russell’s more controversial works, reaffirming his liberal values. Written to “combat the growth in dogmatism“ on first publication in 1950 it met with critical acclaim and a wide readership.

“Is it surprising that prisons resemble factories, schools, barracks, hospitals, which all resemble prisons?”

— Michel Foucault, Discipline and Punish (1977)

~ Chapter 1: Theocracy, Sobornost’, and Democracy

~ Chapter 2: The Russian Postsecular

~ Chapter 3: Orthodoxy and Phenomenology

~ Chapter 4: Orthodox Theology and the Inevitability of Metaphysics

~ Chapter 5: Orthodox Theology and Philosophy of Self

~ Chapter 6: Orthodoxy and Logic

~ Chapter 7: Orthodoxy, Philosophy, and Ethics

~ Chapter 8: Orthodoxy and Philosophy of Language

Christian Epistemology is Relational Ontology !

" To be conscious of something in the world is to relate to an item in the world rather than to relate to its representation of it within your head. What we think of a self-consciousness of the world , The idea we have such a thing as a self in a character , The essential being that we truely are ... That is a myth according to Sartre. .... He says there isno a predetermined character that makes who you are ... Who you are is the Function of What you do. "

[The basic argument of Jean Paul Sartre on Phenomenology : Philosophy Overdose]