Thread for mundane ironists

Ludwig Wittgenstein

Most propositions and questions, that have been written about philosophical matters, are not false, but senseless. … They are of the same kind as the question whether the Good is more or less identical than the Beautiful.)

You tell me. That second part in particular.

But some of the greatest achievements in philosophy could only be compared with taking up some books which seemed to belong together, and putting them on different shelves; nothing more being final about their positions than that they no longer lie side by side. The onlooker who doesn’t know the difficulty of the task might well think in such a case that nothing at all had been achieved.

I dare someone to bring this down out of the clouds.

Self-evidence, of which Russell has said so much, can only be discarded in logic by language itself preventing every logical mistake. That logic is a priori consists in the fact that we cannot think illogically.

Just out of curiosity, how close does this come to common sense?

The book deals with the problems of philosophy and shows, as I believe, that the method of formulating these problems rests on the misunderstanding of the logic of our language.

Its limitations say.

The man who said that one cannot step into the same river twice said something wrong; one can step into the same river twice.

Word games, or, this time, is he actually on to something.

Certainty is as it were a tone of voice in which one declares how things are, but one does not infer from the tone of voice that one is justified.

See, I told you.

than?

What about the Rubicon?

jk

God

“From all of our beginnings, we keep reliving the Garden story.”
Ann Voskamp

You first. With or without the fig leaves.

“So the gods must mean something else,” said Jix.
“God, not gods!” insisted Johnnie.
Nick threw up his hands. “God, gods, or whatever,” said Nick. “Right now, it doesn’t matter whether it’s Jesus, or Kukulcan, or a dancing bear at the end of the tunnel. What matters is that we have a clue, and we have to figure it out.”
“Why?” Johnnie asked again. “Why does God – excuse me, I mean ‘the Light of Universal Whatever’- why does it just give us a freakin’ impossible clue? Why can’t it just tell us what we’re supposed to do?”
“Because,” said Mikey. “the Dancing Bear wants us to suffer.” Neal Shusterman

That’s my point, of course. Give us a Scripture that even a child can grasp as the One True Path.

“If that were God’s plan, it’s a bad bargain; I don’t want to have to deal with a God like that…My sense is God and I came to an accommodation with each other a couple of decades ago, where he’s gotten used to the things that I’m not capable of and I’ve come to terms with things he’s not capable of…and we care very much about each other.” Harold Kushner

Hey, like I always say: “whatever works”. At least until it doesn’t. In the interim, all that matters for most is what they believe not what they can actually demonstrate.

“If you wait, your heavenly Father will pick you up, carry you out into the night, and make your life sparkle. He wants to dazzle you with the wonder of his love.” Paul E. Miller

So, which of us has waited the longest?

“Dylan Jerome," the lawyer admits, "wanted to sue God for not caring enough about him.” Jodi Picoult

Where’s Stephen L. Miles when you need him? Let’s talk about it.

“Is it folly to believe in something that is intangible? After all, some of the greatest intangibles are Love, Hope, and Wonder. Another is Deity. The choice to be a fool is yours.” Vera Nazarian

Uh, click?

Joe Abercrombie from The Blade Itself

What a place. Glokta stifled a smile. It reminds me of myself, in a way. We both were magnificent once, and we both have our best days far behind us.

Not only that, but I suspect, as well, they are not likely to ever return.

Why do big men tend to have such little brains? Perhaps they get by on brawn too often, and their minds dry up like plums in the sun.

Next up: big women.

Damn, he was bored. It was a fact, he was only now beginning to realise, that the conversation of the drunk is only interesting to the drunk. A few glasses on wine can be the difference between finding a man a hilarious companion or an insufferable moron.

Cheers.

The blade itself incites to deeds of violence.

Next up: the bazooka itself.

These are dangerous times alright, and yet danger and opportunity often walk hand in hand.

Let’s get back to this on Wednesday. Right, Don?

When he’d made it thirty strides or so Logen turned around and looked back. The pot was sitting forlorn by the lake, already filling up with rainwater. They’d been through a lot together, him and that pot. “Fare you well, old friend.” The pot did not reply.

Next up: Wilson.

Death

“Dead. Never been that before. Not even once.” Jasper Fforde

Can you say that? Or, perhaps, more to the point, can you defend that?.

“I felt despair. The word’s overused and banalified now, despair, but it’s a serious word, and I’m using it seriously. David Foster Wallace

Yeah, we certainly get that now.

"For me [death] denotes a simple admixture — a weird yearning for death combined with a crushing sense of my own smallness and futility that presents as a fear of death. It’s maybe close to what people call dread or angst. But it’s not these things, quite. It’s more like wanting to die in order to escape the unbearable feeling of becoming aware that I’m small and weak and selfish and going without any doubt at all to die. It’s wanting to jump overboard.” David Foster Wallace

Let’s just say he took this down out of the clouds.

“To whom could I put this question (with any hope of an answer)? Does being able to live without someone you loved mean you loved her less than you thought…?” Roland Barthes

Of course, a postmodern question deserves a postmodern answer. Though practically every one of them just leads to…you tell me.

“What happens if you get scared half to death twice?” Steven Wright

And not just philosophically.

“I was not, I was, I am not, I care not.” Epicurus

Now, especially, I suspect.

Philosophy

“Even if you are alone you wage war with yourself.” Dejan Stojanovic

Imagine my own then.

“In football everything is complicated by the presence of the opposite team.” Jean-Paul Sartre

Or, here, Hell is other posters?

“Sex is a powerful intent to create: the creation of pleasure, creation of love, and ultimately the creation of life. It connects and syncs two beings emotionally, physically, and mentally and is one of the strongest expressions of love that exists in this World.” Forrest Curran

Note to Supannika: Touche.

“How very paltry and limited the normal human intellect is, and how little lucidity there is in the human consciousness, may be judged from the fact that, despite the ephemeral brevity of human life, the uncertainty of our existence and the countless enigmas which press upon us from all sides, everyone does not continually and ceaselessly philosophize, but that only the rarest of exceptions do.” Arthur Schopenhauer

Take a bow?

“Which came first, the mind or the idea of the mind? Have you never wondered? They arrived together. The mind is an idea.” Bernard Beckett

Click, I’m guessing.

Everything we see hides another thing, we always want to see what is hidden by what we see, but it is impossible. Humans hide their secrets too well…” Rene Magritte

Mine for yours?