Philosophy, Literature, Essays, and Thoughts
Enframing Enframing—the setting of borders and boundaries, the separation of the within and without, the distinction between inside and outside—is the central problem of our time. With humanity’s growing capacity to act, it is necessary to understand enframing—the process underlying action—else we may in turn be enslaved by its operation, acting thoughtlessly towards catastrophe. Enframing … Continue reading Enframing
To replicate, Biological systems need to satisfy three criteria: 1. Survival 2. Reproduction 3. Fidelity of copying—and, since most biological systems that exist are optimized for replication (since this is the process by which natural selection occurs), most are tethered to these three criteria. On the level of the organism, the dynamic self-replication of the … Continue reading A Theory of Biological Consciousness
(Working out some thoughts I've been having Education needs to be the optimal cultivation of consciousness. The exploration of the ends of education cannot be divorced from a Philosophy of Mind. Consciousness' central task is to simplify the world into what is relevant and what is irrelevant. This is done through a) the acquisition of … Continue reading Consciousness and Education
Panpsychism has been in vogue in the last decade or so, beloved particularly by analytic Australians. It is a misguided doctrine, because consciousness is specifically biological. And it can only be in organisms, that is, beings that organize and self-organize, cause and self-cause, that constantly react and act on the environment around them. Why? Because … Continue reading Against Panpsychism
Attached above is a map I used to conceptualize the problem. This post talks about the left third of the map. To answer the question, What Is Consciousness? It will be well to probe into two questions: What problem(s) is consciousness the solution to? (Which can be rephrased, more dramatically, as, What is the Human … Continue reading The Human Condition and Consciousness
Problem: There seems to be no way to willingly make myself Love. Explanation: Love is an end-in-itself, and has to be willed for its own sake. The very act of willing, however, expresses a certain interest to love (that is, we all know that love is a good thing, and desire to love), and therefore … Continue reading The Paradox in Amor-Ab-Initio
"Mom, can you not care about me so much! Just leave me alone!" The above line has been a recurring theme in my teenage years, with an almost-always too concerned mother (a rather fortunate thing, though I am focusing here on the torturous aspects). What troubled me was the fact that she could not stop … Continue reading Care. Concern. Love.
It has been a tradition of our school to have a House Song competition this year, and my House (whom I'm the head of) chose Let It Go. Thus, I've been thinking about the song a lot recently. I thoroughly enjoy the music, but its intellectual fertility, I'm afraid, is appalling. Particularly, it expresses a … Continue reading Ideological Critique of “Let It Go”
—This was written before sleep in that weird state where nothing is inhibited and word just flows out of one's fingers without regard for its content. Hence the melodrama, and the sense of (false?) pathos in the words. Originally advice to my good friend Josh who has, recently, fallen prey to Football Manager 2021. Extended … Continue reading What is Hell?
A short meditation on Home. Heidegger said that we are Dasein, being-there. As such, we live in a place, (in distinction to a mere environment) and thus, a home. This is determined already by us as zoon echon logon—the language speaking animal. For it is a miraculous fact of symbols that it can point to … Continue reading Home
A Writer's Diary 