1594
Unofficial fan channel for Existential Comics official website existentialcomics.com I'm NOT the author of the webcomic, I just forward it on telegram
Sometimes people talk about testing voters on their knowledge before allowing them to vote, but I think forcing them to read Rousseau last minute at gunpoint is just more in line with American Values.
Читать полностью…
"Oh and one more thing, if you do happen to write anything down, make sure to get my opinions on how loverboys are still hot even if they grow a beard, people in the future need to know."
Читать полностью…
The "Galileo Affair" was obviously a pretty funny situation in general. The Catholics were losing so much territory in Europe at that time to Protestantism (relax, it is only England) that they were extremely paranoid about even seemingly insignificant "heresies". Although it is a myth that Galileo was tortured for his views, or even excommunicated, he was condemned and imprisoned for teaching heliocentrism (although it was more like house arrest).
It's quite unclear why exactly it is heretical, of course, to say that the Earth orbits the Sun. The bible sort of suggests that the Sun goes around the Earth, but it isn't some kind of central point about the Earth being the center of the universe because God created Man as the center of all things, like some people seem to think. It's more like, the Bible mentions one time how the Sun stopped in the sky, and that sort of sounds like it means the Sun is moving around the Earth. Not only that, but the Bible probably only takes that view because the people who translated the Bible had that view from Ptolemy, so it isn't so much the Bible being overturned, but Ptolemy. When Copernicus himself presented his ideas to the Pope, a hundred or so years earlier, he was awarded with a gift! But like I said, the Church was very insecure at this time, so I guess they couldn't mess around.
This lead to some pretty funny situations, like some Catholic philosophers refusing to even look through Galileo's telescope, presumably because they were afraid they might themselves get convinced by the evidence, and then be holding heretical opinions. Not much of a philosopher, apparently.
The Pope had actually given Galileo direct permission to argue for heliocentrism, as long as he didn't take a position. Galileo, unfortunately, made the argument far too well, and it was obvious that he believed in heliocentrism. Like the comic suggests, it seems to me that anyone making this argument must have been convinced by Galileo, and therefore heretical themselves. Unfortunately Galileo didn’t take up this argument, and merely denied taking a side on the debate, and also that it wasn't heretical because the bible itself doesn't take sides on physics (two contradicting arguments at once Galileo, not great rhetoric!)
Probably my favorite fact though is that one of his punishments was having to recite seven psalms of penitence once per week, but his daughter Maria Celeste petitioned the Pope to have it count if she did the prayers for him. Presumably this freed up more of his time to...I don’t know, think up more heretical opinions, presumably?
An Alternate History of the Galileo Affair - Existential Comics
Читать полностью…
Whether Hume actually awoke Kant from his dogmatic slumber or if it was just a coincidence, is truly one of the greatest mysteries of philosophy.
Читать полностью…
Philosophers have been trying to define what a human is since the beginning, starting perhaps with Plato's hamfisted "featherless biped" which was mocked by Diogenes by presenting a plucked chicken and declaring it a man.
Aristotle thought man was the "rational animal" (remember this was before social media).
Descartes amazingly thought that not only were humans the only animal with souls, but that we were the only animal with any consciousness, and that other animals didn't even experience pain.
Schopenhauer thought the very structure of the human experience, given that we have wants and needs that can never properly be fulfilled, was suffering.
Nietzsche thought one thing that distinguished humans from animals (and perhaps even "lesser" humans, is our ability to extend our will through time by making and fulfilling promises to ourselves.
Sartre thought freedom was the essential trait to humans.
For Wittgenstein, our ability to use language was probably the most unique and defining trait.
For Postmodernists like Derrida, however, there is no human nature, as our nature is almost entirely created by the social context we find ourselves in. By coincidence though, pretty much all the postmodernists seem to be pretty similar (snobby Frenchmen for the most part).
A Brief History of Human Nature - Existential Comics
Читать полностью…
The Greatest Happiness Possible - Existential Comics
Читать полностью…
Bulking phase: life affirming, meaningful pursuit, the will to power in the most literal possible sense.
Cutting phase: life denying, elevates the aesthetic to the realm of the serious, has you eating things like salads for some reason.
William James took many different drugs in his life, leading him to have mind altering and even mystical experiences. Most of this was pretty normal stoner stuff, he found the unity of all things, blah blah blah. Strangely though, he claimed he was only able to understand Hegel while under the influence of nitrous oxide. So, I don't know, if you are a student who is struggling...something to consider.
Читать полностью…
Philosopher News Network: Doping Scandal - Existential Comics
Читать полностью…
"And then Zarathustra made the classic mistake of starting a cult that wasn't a weird sex cult. If you are going to start a cult, you should at the very least be doing weird sex stuff or you aren't going to have a good time..."
Читать полностью…
Sort of incredibly, as of the writing of this comic, it seems like the Trump shooter basically had no real motive in the normal sense (i.e. a political goal to achieve). Sartre thought that human freedom could always transcend itself, in that you can have free acts without a prior chain of events that led it. The way we talk about freedom and motives often makes it seem like our actions are wholly cause by our prior beliefs. For example, if someone hated Charles de Gaulle their entire life, and wanted France to be a communist country, and then they shot him, their hatred and political ideals would have "caused" them to shoot him. But since we are free creatures, someone could equally wake up in the morning and decide to shoot him for "no reason".
Camus had similar ideas, taking it even further in that he thought most of the stories and narratives that we tell ourselves are often lies and fabrications to impose a narrative on our lives that might not exist. We want our lives to be like novels that we author, but most of the time it is more like we are just bouncing around more or less at random like anything else in the universe.
As a side note, I can almost gaurentee that both of them thought about shooting de Gaulle at least one, especially Sartre. Existentialists love dramatic shit like that.
Wait a minute, this complaint comes from the Pope himself, who thought the argument was convincing, this goes deeper than we thought...
Читать полностью…
Before reading Hume, Kant was writing more ordinary philosophy, mostly attempting to reconcile empiricism and rationalism. Once he read Hume's skepticism about causation and morality, he was spurred into action into finding a rational basis for morality and attempting to explain the structure of our conscious experience to account for things like space, time and causation. Basically he felt more or less forced to become the greatest philosopher of all time, because Hume's ideas annoyed him so much.
Читать полностью…
Of course the real answer is that God, in His infinite wisdom, created humans to stare at computer screens for 8 hours a day.
Читать полностью…
And yes, I am saying that to be a truly great philosopher, you MUST be a master of kung fu.
Читать полностью…
Edmund Burke argued for something called "virtual representation", which meant that an elected official did NOT represent the people who elected him, but in fact represented the nation as a whole as best he understood. These means that when voting, he should use his own judgment, and not simply vote as the people who elected him would want. On the one hand, these seems absurd, because if a representative doesn’t represent the people who vote for him, what is the point of democracy in the first place? Burke sort of agreed with this, being a kind of elitist and conservative who didn’t really believe in direct democracy. On the other hand though, in many cases it is obviously true that an elector can’t represent the local interests only. In Burke’s own speech defending himself, he was defending his vote against putting tariffs on Irish good that would protect business in his home region. Since he thought he represented Ireland (part of Great Britain at that time) as well as Bristol, he couldn’t vote for it out of pure local interest (he lost the next election, they didn’t like this it turns out).
Ironically, while he was using it to support Irish interests, his concept of “virtual representation” was the main argument used by the English to say that actual representation wasn’t needed for the Irish or the American colonists. They could simply trust that the British representatives would have their best interest at heart. Burke did not agree with this application of it, since the British members of parliament didn’t share common interests with the colonists or Catholic Irish. The Irish and Americans didn’t like the idea of “virtual representation” either, it turns out, hence the revolutions.
Edmund Burke Runs For Re-election - Existential Comics
Читать полностью…
The Vastness of the Universe and the Meaning of Life - Existential Comics
Читать полностью…
Also, William James was later found to have chromosomes in a DNA test, and an social media mob believes this is clearly cheating.
Читать полностью…
Socrates more or less believed that progress towards the truth would come from discussions and cooperation between people, as long as they are earnestly seeking the truth. Nietzsche focused more on how individuals must be able to break free from the culture around him. In reality of course, scientific and cultural progress is made in the much more Socratic way. If you were able to simply seek the truth by sitting in a mountain for 10 years in solitude, then a genius from a hunter gatherer society would have come up with the Theory of Relativity long ago. In reality, it took thousands and thousands of scientists in discussions with each other to set up Einstein to even able to have those thoughts.
Of course, Nietzsche knew this I'm sure, and stories like Zarathustra aren't about making small contributions to mankind's cumulative knowledge, but re-writing values in society. I'm still not sure why you have to be in the mountains for so long, but each to his own I suppose.
Should I have a cup of coffee, or shoot the president?
Читать полностью…