Philosophy

Beguiling Ambiguity
I wrote a theoretical reflection about binary communication with babies a few weeks ago, and I'm going to add something to that. Don't worry: I won't advocate ternary or n-ary communication here. Rather, I want to say something about ambiguity and undecidedness. About half an hour ago, Miru was hungry (she eats a lot) and ...
The Ought that haunts others
"Can I even express the quiet horror that debilitates my mind when I experience the utter vacuity of this work, of these pointless tasks I perform every day? Can I communicate this torment? Why would I? Perhaps because there is a statistical probability that I'm not the only one experiencing this, that there are many ...
Cries and Music
This is part of a series of blog posts that is inspired by our baby daughter, Miru. It is well known that babies have a sonic prehistory that starts in the womb, and advice to comfort a baby often includes exposing her to white noise similar to the audible sensations she had while in utero. There ...
Awaiting Binary Communication
This is part of a series of blog posts that is inspired by our baby daughter, Miru. Every infant starts out in this world with a one-word vocabulary, the content of which we (from the perspective of our infinitely nuanced expressive apparatus) then interpret as crying. I don't know how the baby herself experiences the crying, ...
Do you mind?

Sometimes we better use the rear view mirror for our observations, instead of the headlights. Like with deer. - old trucker saying
There is too much literature about the "I", the ego, the self, or the mind, and too much of this literature is so terribly organised, structured in chapters, paragraphs, sections, with proud ...
Writing. Laughing.
What is the value of writing? Thinking, shared. The ability to think old thoughts again, sharpen them, create a monument for our live thinking that otherwise would exist only as marginal comments to whatever circumstances we've concentrated our thoughts on. Systems of thoughts can be dangerous; history is full of examples. See the system of ...
Is truth=beauty is true?
We all know people who occasionally proclaim that truth is beauty. But have you ever shared a table with somebody who made the statement in such a convincing way, that you felt that their whole existence was breathing this truth? I did, last week. I met a stage designer somewhere in Amsterdam, and there he ...
What do I think about Zizek?
What is he thinking?As a learned philosopher with a funny blog, I should have an opinion or two about the Thinking Beast of Ljubljana, the populist, famous, celebrated, roaring, one and only, please welcome Slavoj Zizek (the adornments on the Zs are intentionally left out) who twists psychoanalytical theories together with rabid Marxism and generates ...
May 19. Exploring an island with one palmtree on it.
Today, we will have lunch on the Kuna island again. We will have the same menu as yesterday, and - if we would have been Kunas - as everyday. But we are no Kunas. Tomorrow we will have lunch in an American foodcourt eating french fries and hamburgers. Tomorrow the Kuna will eat fried fish, ...