The best of lies make up the unstable truth for our unstable times
All about: truth
Meditation on truth
How do we meditate on the idea of truth? Philosophers have written about it for many centuries. We will not revisit the theories of Aristotle, Aquinas, Hegel, Kant, Frege, Derrida. We don't need to remember anything if we think for ourselves. Take a long breath. Truth is a property of statements, not of things. We ...
Reading: White Lie by Abbas Beydoun
Today I read the poem White Lie by the Lebanese poet Abbas Beydoun, born in 1945. As usual, I write freely why I think this poem is a good one. The truth is also blood. And it might be a piece of tongue or someting severed from us. We might find it in semen or ...
In Defense Of The Philosophy Faculty
When I began studying philosophy in 1997 some people called it navel-gazing. It is no different in 2017, as calls for austerity affect everything that doesn't generate a direct cash return. The reputation of philosophy, because it has no (and cannot have) direct practical value, is that of a complex game of words that refuses ...
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 ...
February 6.
Consumption and religion. If you buy a cup of coffee or a Patéis de Lisboa, you just put your coins on the counter without any other emotion than the great taste of this combination. It's my reason (in fact, one of my reasons) to be here in Lisbon and write in the February sun. ...