♣ January 2007♣
♣ February 2007♣
♣ March 2007♣
♣ April 2007♣
♣ May 2007♣
♣ June 2007♣
♣ July 2007♣
♣ August 2007♣
♣ September 2007♣
♣ October 2007♣
♣ November 2007♣
♣ December 2007♣
♣ January 2008♣
♣ February 2008♣
♣ March 2008♣
♣ April 2008♣
Excerpts from Sophie's world: Labels: books, Jostein Gaarder, kbox, philosophy
"Man is the measure of all things." said the Sophist Protagoras. By that he meant that the question of whether a thing is right or wrong, good or bad, must always be considered in relation to a person's needs."
"The Sophists were as a rule men who had traveled widely and seen different forms of government.Both conventions and local laws in the city-states could vary widely. This led the Sophists to raise the question of what was natural and what was socially induced. By doing this, they paved the way for social criticism in the city-state of Athens."
If you remember the Chinese essay i wrote recently, the points i raised were somewhat similar in the first two para. And i hate to say this, but i didn't like the fact that we thought the same thing, though it's unusual that my usual "skepticism" is actually a school of thought in the history of philosophy. But it's even more bewildering and mind provoking to find a different explanation that might completely refute my stand. Read below:
"By this he meant the right insight leads to the right action. And only he who does right can be a "virtuous man." When we do wrong it is because we don't know any better. That is why it is so important to go on learning. Socrates was concerned with finding clear and universally valid definitions of right and wrong. Unlike the Sophists, he believed that the ability to distinguish between right and wrong lies in people's reason and not in society."
And, my god, i would so totally disagree if he wasn't Socrates. Gosh, now what can i do besides suscribing myself to my fate of a few more nights of insomnia? Philosophy will always be an enigma and i might forever not get the chance to train myself to be someone who "loves wisdom".
Back to something light...
Kbox was enjoyable and only when im with you guys, i can be so at ease that the "ling mong", miss selfridge and azabu sabo jokes are unknowingly blurted. The company always matters.
But HJM, where are the photos? Where are the photos?
operation moving house tomorrow. hope it would be a blast.
finished rambling
12:51 AM <3
Some after-thoughts after the read and some excerpts that were superb: Labels: joker collection, Jostein Gaarder
"People would have gone absolutely wild if the astronomers had discovered another living planet. They just don't let themselves be amazed by their own."
Yes, our existence alone is something we should be taken aback by.
"A joker is a little fool who is different from everyone else. He's not a club, diamond, heart, or spade. He's not an eight or a nine, a King or a Jack. He is an outsider. He is placed in the same pack as the other cards, but he doesn't belong there. Therefore, he can be removed without anyone missing him."
The primary reason why i've began collecting jokers. I interpret the joker as a thinker and one who does not belong to the colony because he asks questions and seeks clarifications about his existence.
"Our lives are part of an unique adventure. Most of us think the world is 'normal' and are constantly hunting for something abnormal-like angels or Martians. But that is just because we don't realise the world is a mystery."
"If our brain was simple enough for us to understand it, we would be so stupid we wouldn't be able to understand it after all"
This sentence is genius. Pure genius.
"If God really exists, then He's clever at playing Hide-and-Seek with his Creations. Maybe He was frightened when He saw what He'd created. So He ran away from everything. YOu know, it's not easy to tell who got the biggest fright;Adam or the Lord. I think such an act of creation terrifies both parties."
And i like this story told in the story the best:
"A Russian cosmonaut and a Russian brain surgeon were once discussing Christianity. The brain surgeon was Christian but the cosmonaut wasn't. 'I have been to outer space mny times' bragged the cosmonaut, 'but i have never seen any angels.' The brain surgeon stared in amazement, but then he said, 'And i have operated on many intelligent brains, but i have never seen single thought."
Clearly explains the fact that it doesn't mean that something you cannot see with your naked eye does not exist. We don't know too much and hence, we should not be complacent and think we know a lot. Because as Socrates said "One thing only i know and that is that i know nothing."
"A young child sits building sandcastles in a sandbox. It constantly builds something new, something which it treasures for only a moment before it knocks it all down again. In the same way Time has been given a plant to play with. This is where the history of the world is written, this is where the events are engraved-and smoothed over again. This is where life bubbles like in a witch's cauldron. One day we'll be modelled here, too-from the same brittle material as our ancestors. The wind of Time blows through us, carries us and is us-then drops us again. We are conjured up and tricked away. There is always something lying and brewing in anticipation of taking our place. Because we;re not standing on solid ground, we're not even standing on sand-we are sand.
You cannot hide from Time. You can hide from kings and emperors and possibly from God, but you can't hide from Time. Time follows our every move, because everything around us is immersed in this transient element.
Time doesn't pass, and Time doesn't tick. We are the ones who pass and our watches tick.Time eats its way through history as silently and relentlessly as the sun rises in the east and sets in the west. It topples great civilisationsm gnaws at ancient monuments, and wolfs down generation after generation. That's why we speak of the "ravages of time".Time chews and chomps-and we are theones between its jaws.
For a fleeting moment, we are part of a furious swarm. He run around on earth as though it was the most obvious thing of all. But everything will disappear. It will disappear and be replaced with new multitudes, because people are always standing in line. Snapes and masks come and go, and new ideas are always popping up. Themes are never repeated, and a composition never shows up twice...There is nothing as complicated and precious as a person-but we are treated like trash.
We skip around on earth like characters in a fairytale. We nod and smile at each other as to say, "Hi there, we're living at the same time, we're in the smae reality-or the same fairy tale..."Isn't that incredible? We're on a planet in the universe, but soon we'll be swept out of orbit again. Abracadabra-and we're gone.
If we had lived in another century, we would have shared our lives with different people. Today we can easily nod and smile and say hello to thousands of our contemporaries "Hi there! How strange we should be living at exactlly the same time" Or perhaps I bump into someone and open and door and shout:"Hi, soul!"
We're done, but we live this only once. We open our arms and declare that we exist, but then we are swept aside and thrust into the depths of history. Because we are disposable. We are part of an eternal masquerade where the masks come and go.
Thoughts don't flow. The philosophers in Athens believed that there was also something which didn't run. Plato called this the "world of ideas". The sandcastles isn't the most important thing. What is most important is the image of the sandcastle which the child has pictured befor it started to build. Why do you think the child knocks the castle down as soon as it is finished?
Have you ever wanted to draw or make something, but you just havent been able to get it right? YOu try over and over agian, without giving up. It is because the image you have in your head is always more complete than the representations you try to form with your hands. It's the same with everythinig we see around us. We think everything around could be better, and it's because all the images inside our heads have come from the world of ieas. That's where we really belong-not down here in the sandbox, where Time snaps at everything we love. There is another world and it was our soul before it lodged itself in a body and it will return there when the body succumbs to the ravages of time.
Our bodies have the same fate as the sandcastles in the sandbox, nothing can be done about it. But we do have something which Time doesn't gnaw through. That's because it doesn't really belong here. We need to look up from everything flowing around us and see what it is all a representation of."
The words in bold are an overall summary you can get from this long excerpt. And the main ideas i was attracted to. But it's better to read everything. I like the author's interpretation of time, it's something i can accept. Pick some ideas and maybe let me know in the tagboard about how you feel. That way, if this theory stands, a fourth dimension must exist.
"Every morning you have gone to work, but you have never been fully awake. Of course, you have seen the sun and the moon, the stars in the sky, and everything that moves, but you haven't really seen it at all. It is different for the Joker, because he was put into the world with a flaw:he sees too deeply and too much."
What a philosophical way to end an old year and start a fresh new year..
finished rambling
11:27 PM <3
Some words i looked up today: Labels: Clarke Quay, food, Jostein Gaarder, Results, TIME, words
Schadenfreude--basically it means delight at other peoples' misfortunes
Mien- inner state of mind, character worried mien, i tend to link it to the word demeanour
indefatigable--from the word fatigue, meaning seemingly incapable of feeling fatigue
indubitable--from the word doubt, meaning unquestionable
I don't really know whether you should blame it on weak constituition or i should just throw up my hands and say "I'm so DAMN SUAY", because ms moon has fallen sick again. This seems to be a "at least once in 3 mths" occurence hence it shouldn't be treated lightly. But i totally dread going to the doctor and i can't overcome that inertia to knock on the doc's door. Self-medication will do this time, again.
But don't worry, just a light sore throat, cough, and flu. Should be over within a few days.
Anyway, i just read the last issue of Time and i think most of us should go get a copy and read the few articles on the power of the mind and on how scientists can't seem to fathom how the mind works. The article on consciousness especially intrigues.
Have been reading Gaarder's Solitare Mystery lately and the fiction book's brings you deep ideas of philosophy: in discovering the mysteries of the world and the greater universe and also in identifying the truth that man not only knows not much about himself, but also knows almost nothing about his surroundings and the universe. Gaarder's books most often is linked with religious explanations on the worlds' mysteries and his ideas are almost linked with God and greater beings whom he's still grappling to identify with. But because of the way the book is written, with usually great story plot and interesting philosophies, he sometimes sucks me so deep into his story that i'm almost converted to believe in some of the "scientifically-unproven" theories that he has come up with (although i'm not a "God-believer" in true sense)
However, after reading these scientific articles on man's attempts to try to explain his own thoughts, im once again brought back to closer reality (It's understandable since i'm usually not much of a philosopher myself) that we shouldn't declare that man is being foolish in thinking that he knows a lot, and in being too absorbed with himself. A lot of scientific discoveries and theories stems from philosophies that man himself came up with, and at least when man declares that he knows very little about the world, he tries to at least prove with effort that he is trying to grapple with what's closest to him: his inner state of mind and thoughts.
I don't really know what i say makes any sense, it's a bit of preliminary thinking, so all those ideas might look more like a rough sketch than a thoroughly thought out piece, but i'd just thought philosophers and scientist can actually shake hands and make friends.
Enough about the woo-ha about all these....went shopping with Jac at Vivo yesterday and snatched some bargains. I bought an S & K long sleeve top for less than 20 and it's been so long since i got something from S & K (presumably because this top didn't look as S&K, blah blah). And i bought something for less than 20 from Zara?!(Can you believe it?!)
Went King's Satay at the Cannery after that, i really love Clarke Quay's atmosphere at night:
King's Satay is famous for its.............Satay! Duh.
Murtubak was good.
The prata wih "unique" topping was good too.
Roti John was good "three".
When it comes to good food, im lost for words. Anyway, King's Satay is a must-go because no service charge no gst, hohoho.
Oh....and weiyingermei scored an 8 for the O's. Wootx, one point better than me. Now,it's time for her to be in a dilemma, S.A or no S.A?
BTW, i'm soooo soooo worried about the A's.
finished rambling
11:56 PM <3