11/1/2007 - Philosophy - Voltaire and Cioran

Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd

French philosopher Voltaire (1694-1778) has become the embodiment of the Enlightenment, the philosophical movement that paved the way for our freedom of speech as we know it today (and that we often take too much for granted). To underline this basic human right, the following quote by Voltaire:

Think for yourselves and let others enjoy the privilege to do so too

I was struck by the first quote above, because I think doubt is not only a beautiful but also an essential quality in man (and woman). For me doubt is an essential trait; it isn't something that weakens the mind and character, on the contrary; it can only reinforce the mind. I like to be challenged all the time as I don't claim that I know the ultimate truth. The quest for truth is a most fascinating journey, but I know that in the end it will be very hard to find. 

When I read this quote by Voltaire, I was reminded of my favourite 20th century thinker/philosopher E.M.Cioran, who defends not only man's right to doubt himself, but even his right to contradict himself at times. I couldn't agree more. Like I said, I don't pretend to know the truth and even though I firmly defend my beliefs, I always like to listen to different opinions, to test and eventually refocus these beliefs. Suppress your certainties, suppress above all their consequences: you will reconstitute paradise, so says Cioran in the first chapter of his landmark book A short history of decay (1949). Note that he uses the word 'certainties' and not 'beliefs'.

Even though he didn't believe in God, Cioran considered man's claim to speak in the name of God and to possess the universal truth as the original sin, the fall from paradise and the beginning of all disaster. So, thanks to Voltaire for placing doubt above certainty, even though I am fully aware it won't regain paradise.

For more Cioran, see entries 1, 9 and 23 November 2006

10/1/2007 - Philosophy - Plato's 'Phaedo'

‘When Socrates heard this he laughed gently and said, ‘I am surprised at you, Simmias. I shall certainly find it difficult to convince the outside world that I do not regard my present lot as a misfortune if I cannot even convince you, and you are afraid that I am more irritable now than I used to be. Evidently you think that I have less insight into the future than a swan; because when these birds feel that the time has come for them to die, they sing more loudly and sweetly than they have sung in all their lives before, for joy that they are going away into the presence of the god whose servants they are. It is quite wrong for human beings to make out that the swans sing their last song as an expression of grief at their approaching end; people who say this are misled by their own fear of death, and fail to reflect that no bird sings when it is hungry or cold or distressed in any other way; not even the nightingale or swallow or hoopoe, whose songs are supposed to be a lament. In my opinion neither they nor the swans sing because they are sad. I believe that the swans, belonging as they do to Apollo, have prophetic powers and sing because they know the good things that await them in the unseen world; and they are happier on that day than they have been ever before. Now I consider that I am in the same service as the swans, and dedicated to the same god; and that I am no worse endowed with prophetic powers by my master than they are, and no more disconsolate at leaving this life. So far as that fear of yours is concerned, you may say and ask whatever you like, for as long as the eleven officers of the Athenians permit.’

Plato: The last days of Socrates, Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, Phaedo. Penguin Classics, p. 144. (Pheado)

Socrates’ words on the swan-song prior to his own death are amongst the most beautiful texts about death and dying that I know. It has been some years since I last read the Phaedo, but when I found this Penguin Classics edition yesterday in Elizabeth’s Bookstore, Newtown, I decided straight away to buy it. Always nice to have both the Dutch and English translations of such major texts in ancient philosophy.

The first thing I looked up was the swan song passage. My first acquaintance with this text was years ago when I read these words at the funeral of a friend, who had chosen this text to be read during this occasion. Shortly afterwards, I read the complete Euthyphro, Apology, Crito and Phaedo; the fate of Socrates, the first true philosopher in Western history. He was sentenced to death on charges of ‘impiety and corrupting young minds’. He accepted his fate and in Crito he counters the arguments of friends urging him to escape.

The Phaedo reads like a gospel. The work is focused on the soul that disengages itself from the body, for the true philosopher not a moment to deplore but rather a moment to rejoice, as it means that the final stage of the soul’s journey has arrived. He therefore compares himself with the swans, fellow-servants of Apollo, god of prophecy. In that way this work reminds me of Montaigne’s essay To philosophize is to learn how to die (see entry 15/11/2006).

A gospel or not, religious or not, this work that is amongst the most famous texts Plato has written, is in itself a classic work the reader can enjoy just for the beauty of its words.

21/12/2006 - Philosophy - from 'The Rebel' by Albert Camus

Albert Camus (1913-1960) is one of the best known French writers of the 20st century. In 1957 he received the Nobel Prize for literature. His work seemed almost forgotten, but the last years were marked by a renewed interest in his work. The following text is a paragraph from his 1951 Essay 'The Rebel':

'Likewise, absolute nihilism, which is willing to justify suicide, advances even more easily to logical murder. If our time admits with equanimity that murder has its justification, this is because of the indifference to life which is the mark of nihilism. Certainly there have been periods in which the passion for living was so strong that it too rushed into criminal excesses. But these excesses were the outcome of a terrible enjoyment. They were not the monotonous course of events, set in motion by a compulsive logic, in whose eyes everything is equal. This logic has carried those suicidal values on which our era was nurtured to their final consequence, which is the legitimatisation of murder. Likewise, it culminates in collective suicide. The most striking demonstration was furnished by the Hitlerian apocalypse of 1945. Self-destruction meant nothing to those madmen who, in their bomb-shelters, arranged their own death and apotheosis. The important thing was not to die alone, and simultaneously to destroy a whole world. In a way, the man who kills himself in solitude still recognizes a value, since, manifestly, he claims no right to the lives of other people. The proof of this is that he never uses, in order to dominate others, the terrible strength and freedom which he gains from his decision to die; every act of solitary self-destruction, when it does not proceed from passion, is in some way generous or scornful. But one is scornful on behalf of something. If the world is a matter of indifference to the suicide, this is because he has an idea of something which is not or could not be indifferent to him. One thinks that one will destroy everything or take everything along with one; but from this very death a value arises which would, perhaps, have justified existence. Absolute negation is therefore not achieved by suicide. It can be achieved only by absolute destruction, of both oneself and everybody else. Or at least it can be experienced only by striving toward that delectable end. Suicide and murder are thus two aspects of a single system, the system of an unhappy intellect which rather than suffer limitation chooses the dark victory which annihilates earth and heaven.'

Albert Camus - The Rebel (1951), Author’s Introduction, p.14-15. (Penguin Classics)

My renewed interest in French writer/philosopher Albert Camus (whose books I hadn’t read for about two decades) made me read the English edition of his 1951 essay The Rebel. This book marked the definite split between Camus and Jean Paul Sartre (and Simone de Beauvoir).

After World War II, Camus wanted to see France united and striving towards a new (democratic-socialist) society, away from the pre-war ‘bourgeois’ situation, but also steering away of the communists, who had played such an essential role in the French resistance. Even though Camus had been a member of the Communist Party since his early twenties, the existence of Stalin’s gulags, a fact the West started to get more and more informed about, made him break with the party.

In The Rebel Camus opposes Stalin’s camps and as such he was an object of scorn for Sartre and De Beauvoir, both of whom turned a blind eye, as the gulags would ultimately lead to a ‘better’ (read: bolshevist) society. (They made the same mistake in the next decades when they wholeheartedly supported Mao’s ‘cultural revolution‘, which culminated in at least 60 million deaths, which made Mao the biggest mass murderer of the 20th century). It is striking that the attitude of Sartre and De Beauvoir was the general attitude of the Western so-called ‘intellectuals’ in the fifties. (One often wonders what exactly was so ‘intellectual’ about them, other than a well-played game of political opportunism). Camus was looked upon with disdain. How did he dare betray the ‘revolutionary ideals‘?

When I read this part of the Author’s Introduction, I was struck by the relevance of this text for today’s situation. I don’t have to go into detail, everybody knows about those who use the nihilistic method of suicide to create mass murder. I also don’t have to stress how many present day ‘intellectuals’ wholeheartedly side with the nihilists, this without the slightest touch of criticism about their methods. The name of British MP George Galloway comes to mind, but his name is only one of many.

For me Camus is a beacon of dignity and decency, of calm, rational thinking in a world that by the minute turns more and more insane. The Rebel is only one of his works that shows how relevant he can still be for any real intellectual discussion in our times.

KC

Most of the works of Albert Camus are available in Penguin Classics.

For more on Camus, please see entry 18/11/2006

30/11/2006 - Today's quote - Nietzsche

Friedrich Nietzsche: Twilight of the idols, chapter Maxims and Arrows, 42.

A great and very strong aphorism from one of my favourite works of Nietzsche. The 'philosopher with the hammer' has given us a multitude of quotes, food for thought, things to reflect upon for a long time after we've read them.

In life we may think too quickly that we should be satisfied with what we have achieved, that that's all we are capable of, that's it. Of course it is essential to be very happy with what you have, not to strive for those things that are beyond your reach. But at the same time life is too rich, too full of opportunities not to give ourselves the chance to see what we can get out of it, how we can 'improve' ourselves in the very positive sense of this verb. And it is in this sense that I interpret this 'maxim'.

KC

Nietzsche's works are widely available in Penguin Classics

28/11/2006 - Today's quote - Marcus Aurelius

Look beneath the surface: never let a thing's intrinsic quality or worth escape you.

Marcus Aurelius: Meditations, Book six, par.3

For more Marcus Aurelius, go to Archive or click on the philosophy-link

23/11/2006 - Philosophy - Cioran

E.M. Cioran: On the heights of despair, par.: The Flight from the Cross.

The ability to have and express doubt and with it the aversion to dogmatic thought, is a recurring idea in the works of the French/Rumanian writer/philosopher Cioran (1911-1995). As the above quote shows, this idea is already present in his early work On the heights of despair, a book Cioran wrote when he was 23 years old. This book, one of the few books he wrote in his native Rumanian, is clearly the work of a young writer, searching for his own voice. But in it, we come across many ideas that would be elaborated in later books that he wrote in French. Compare the following quotes from one of his most essential works, A short history of decay, which was published in 1949:

I would only like to highlight the examples of nihilistic movements like Nazism, Bolshevism and Islamism to underline how much truth can be found in Cioran's words.

Cioran is a writer who takes you out of your comfort zone, who always challenges the reader. With it comes the right to express doubts, even to contradict yourself at times. This is not so strange, considering the aphoristic nature of his work. That is why many find it hard to explain Cioran's thoughts. 'The only way to explain Cioran is by quoting his books extensively' is a well-accepted way to approach his work. I plan to pay more attention to this very interesting writer, who never ceases to astonish and challenge me.

For more Cioran, go to Archive or click on the philosophy-link.

21/11/2006 - Philosophy - Seneca

'A further point, too, is that these people who never attain independence follow the views of their predecessors, first, in matters in which everyone else without exception has abandoned the older authority concerned, and secondly, in matters in which investigations are still not complete. But no new findings will ever be made if we rest content with the findings of the past. Besides, a man who follows someone else not only does not find anything, he is not even looking. 'But surely you are going to walk in your predecessors' footsteps? Yes indeed, I shall use the old road, but if I find a shorter and easier one I shall open it up. The men who pioneered the old routes are leaders, not our masters. Truth lies open to everyone. There has yet to be a monopoly of truth. And there is plenty of it left for future generations too.'

Seneca, Letters from a Stoic, letter XXXIII

I love the last paragraph of this letter, especially the line a man who follows someone else not only does not find anything, he is not even looking. At first I wanted to quote only this line, but then I thought it would make more sense in it's context.

I wrote a little comment to accompany this text, but in the end I decided to omit it as the above words are clear enough. It is great to hear, read and digest all sorts of philosophies and opinions, but in the end it is your own opinion that counts. To which I would like to add that disagreement is very healthy, provided it is accompanied by good argumentation.

For more Seneca, go to Archive or click on the philosophy link.

18/11/2006 - Philosophy - Albert Camus

'Thirty-four Frenchmen tortured and then murdered at Vincennes; without help from our imagination these words say nothing. And what does the imagination reveal? Two men, face-to-face, one of whom is preparing to tear out the fingernails of the other, who looks him in the eye.

This is not the first time we have had to confront such unbearable images. The year 1933 marked the beginning of an era that one of the greatest of our contemporaries has rightly dubbed the Age of Contempt *. And for ten years, whenever we heard the news that naked, unarmed human beings had been methodically mutilated by men with faces just like our own, our minds reeled, and we asked how such things were possible.

Yet such things were possible. For ten years they were possible, and today, as if to warn us that victory on the battlefield does not signify total triumph, we learn of comrades who had their guts ripped out, their limbs torn off, and their faces kicked in. And the men who did these things were men polite enough to give up their seats on the subway, just as Himmler, who made a science and an art of torture, used the back door when he returned home at night so as not to wake his pet canary.'

Albert Camus, The Age of Contempt. In Camus at Combat, writing 1944-1947.

Albert Camus (1913-1960, Nobel Prize 1957) is without any doubt one of the most famous French writers. The question is if we can also rank him amongst the best writers. I would definitely answer yes, absolutely.

Camus was very popular in the sixties and seventies. His first novel The Stranger (1942) is about a man who kills an Arab in a fight on the beach in Algeria and receives the death penalty for his crime. Most of all however, his sentence was due to the fact that he didn't cry at his mother's funeral.** The Stranger ranks amongst the most widely read novels of the 20th century.

I always had the idea that this admiration for Camus caused a slump in the last decades of the previous century, as readers were looking for new heroes. In those days I hardly ever heard anyone talking about Camus anymore. But now somehow there seems to be a revival. Camus was the theme of this year's April edition of influential French Magazine Litteraire and recently Camus at Combat was published in English.

Camus started writing for the French underground newspaper Combat in 1944. The qualification 'compelling' is no overstatement for the wide range of articles Camus wrote during the last months of the German occupation of France and the first years after the liberation. How to keep the unity after the Germans had been defeated? Where to draw the lines in the post-war 'purge'? (The South of France had had it's own pro-Germany government in Vichy. This proved to be an embarrassing issue for years after the war). Was the death penalty allowed in these situations?

Camus deals with these and many other issues in these articles that bear the trademark of his well thought-out insight, his elaborate style and, occasionally, the sharpness of his cynicism (as much as he allowed himself to be a cynic in these confusing times).

The Age of Contempt is one of the first articles Camus wrote for Combat. It reminded me of the words of philosopher Hannah Arendt, who spoke of 'The banality of evil' in her report on the Eichmann-process in Jerusalem. As the reader may know, Eichmann was the architect of the 'Endlösung', the 'final solution' for the 'Jewish problem.'

I don't want to give any further comment, I would like to let the words speak for themselves. I definitely plan to come back to Camus at Combat.

* The term ‘Age of Contempt’ was first used by French writer André Malraux.

** This is the general interpretation of The Stranger. The novel is however more complicated than this, but it would take more than a few hundred words to get into this in detail.

If you are interested in buying this book: I got my copy from book shop Better read than dead in Newtown, Sydney.

15/11/2006 - Philosophy - Montaigne

Michel de Montaigne, Essays, Book I, 20: To philosophize is to learn how to die

When I was introduced to the Essays of Montaigne (1533-1592) about ten years ago, To philosophize is to learn how to die was one of the first essays I read. It definitely was the one that had the biggest impact on me. Since then, I have re-read it many times, but the last time I read it must have been some years ago. Reading it again today, I acknowledge how much this essay owes to the Stoic school of philosophy, and the central thought A man who has learned how to die has unlearned how to be a slave is a thought we also come across (be it in slightly different words) in the works of Seneca or Marcus Aurelius. Apparently Montaigne wrote this essay at a time when he himself was in the grips of his fear of death. Still, I think this text can deliver an important message and more than a focus upon death, I have always regarded this essay as a celebration of life, as an incentive to get as much out of life as possible, to make every day count, to be aware each day of the fact that we are alive and that it is worth wile to try and get the best out of it, this without becoming moralistic in thought or deed. As such, it remains one of my favourite philosophical texts.

There are many editions of Montaigne's Essays. The Penguin Classics edition should be widely available.

9/11/2006 - Today's quote - E.M.Cioran

Criticism is a misconception: we must read not to understand others but to understand ourselves.

E.M.Cioran: Essays and aphorisms

For more entries on Cioran, please go to 'Archive' or click on the 'philosophy' section

5/11/2006 - Philosophy - Seneca

'A further point, too, is that these people who never attain independence follow the views of their predecessors, first, in matters in which everyone else without exception has abandoned the older authority concerned, and secondly, in matters in which investigations are still not complete. But no new findings will ever be made if we rest content with the findings of the past. Besides, a man who follows someone else not only does not find anything, he is not even looking. 'But surely you are going to walk in your predecessors' footsteps?' Yes indeed, I shall use the ofd road but if I find a shorter and easier one I shall open it up. The men who pioneered the old routes are leaders, not our masters. Truth lies open to everyone. There has yet to be a monopoly of truth. And there is plenty of it left for future generations too.'

Seneca (4 BC - AD 65): Letters from a Stoic, Letter XXXVIII

For more on Seneca, please go to Archive, or click on the philosophy link below.

4/11/2006 - Philosophy - Marcus Aurelius

'If anyone can show me, and prove to me, that I am wrong in thought or deed, I will gladly change. I seek the truth, which never yet hurt anybody. It is only persistence in self-delusion and ignorance which does harm.'

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book six, par.21

For more about Marcus Aurelius, please go to Archive or click on the 'philosophy' link.

1/11/2006 - Today's quote - E.M.Cioran

The one sincere confession is the one we make indirectly - when we talk about other people.

E.M.Cioran: The trouble with being born. (Aphorisms).

In a time when the French intellectual world adored Sartre, the French/Rumanian writer/philosopher Emile Cioran published his essential books A short history of decay (1949) and Bitter Syllogisms (1952). It is significant that the 2000 copies of this last edition still weren't sold out twenty years later. But times have changed and these days Cioran, who died in Paris in 1995, is widely considered one of the most fascinating writers/philosophers of the 20st century. Love him or hate him, there hardly seems to be a middle way.

Cioran is usually criticized for his so-called 'pessimism', but more than anything he wants to challenge the reader, to take him out of his comfort zone, to expose some 'inconvenient truths' about mankind. Cioran wanted to lay bare our 'basic instincts', as he saw deeper, invisible motives behind all our actions.

He has been called the super-Nietzsche, and indeed, if Nietzsche is 'the philosopher with the hammer', Cioran can be called 'the philosopher with the sledge hammer'.

Many people in so-called 'intellectual' circles can't stand Cioran, mainly because of his aforementioned 'pessimism'. At the same time he is widely admired, French writer Michel Houellebecq being on of his most ardent fans.

For me Cioran is the most interesting, the most challenging and therefore the most admired writer/philosopher of the 20st century. I hope to pay much more attention to him in future entries on this weblog.  

The trouble with being born is being published by Arcade Publishing. I ordered my copy via Gleebooks in Glebe, Sydney.

30/10/2006 - Philosophy - Marcus Aurelius

'At two points hold yourself always in readiness: First, to do exclusively what reason, our king and lawgiver, shall suggest for the common weal; and secondly, to reconsider a decision if anyone present should correct you and convince you of an error of judgement. But such conviction must proceed from the assurance that justice, or the common good, or some other such interest will be served. This must be the sole consideration; not the likelihood of pleasure or popularity.'

Marcus Aurelius: Meditations, book four, par.12

Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius (AD 121-180), wrote his famous Meditations during his campaigns against the barbarians. The full twelve books contain less than 200 pages, but still the Meditations have granted Marcus Aurelius forever his place in classical philosophy.

Marcus Aurelius was heavily influenced by the Stoic tradition, that would contribute so much to Christianity. The most famous Stoic philosopher was Seneca the Younger (4.BC-65.AD), whose Letters from a Stoic are a landmark in Stoic philosophy. See for more on Seneca: Archive, entry 12 October 06.

At times, Marcus Aurelius' stoic attitude may prove to be a bit too much. Still, I always have this book close at hand and the reading of a few paragraphs has often proved to be extremely beneficial for my peace of mind. Highly recommended.

The Meditations are published in Penguin Classics.

24/10/2006 - Philosophy - Schopenhauer

Schopenhauer: On the vanity of existence § 4

‘The scenes of our life resemble pictures in rough mosaic; they are ineffective from close up, and have to be viewed from a distance if they are to seem beautiful. That is why to attain something desired is to discover how vain it is; and why, though we live all our lives in expectation of better things, we often at the same time long regretfully for what is past. The present, on the other hand, is regarded as something quite temporary and serving only as the road to our goal. That is why most men discover when they look back on their life that they have the whole time been living ad interim, and are surprised to see that which they let go by so unregarded and unenjoyed was precisely their life, was precisely that in expectation of which they lived.’

Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860) is one of the most popular and well-known names in modern Western philosophy. He has often been criticized for his pessimistic views, but anyone who really wants to lose oneself in his work will soon discover that his very readable and clear thoughts on life contain an abundance of wisdom and try (as far as this is possible) to offer remedies for life’s intrinsic problems.

The essay On the vanity of existence is part of his last work, Parerga and Paralipomena (1851). Together with several other essays, it is being published in Penguin Classics under the title Essays and Aphorisms.

18/10/2006 - Today's quote - Montaigne

The mind that has no fixed aim loses itself, for, as they say, to be everywhere is to be nowhere.

Michel de Montaigne - Essays, book one, essay 8: On idleness

Michel Eyquem, Siegneur de Montaigne (1533-1592) is famous for his three volumes of Essays. These philosophical meditations were revolutionary in their approach, as Montaigne took himself and his own life as starting point for his Essays, that range from barely one page to the famous Apology for Raymond Seybond, that contains around two hundred pages. Amongst strict philosophers, Montaigne's status is being disputed. Is he merely to be seen as a 'thinker', or can he be called a 'philosopher' in the scientifical sense of the word? A complete non-discussion as far as I'm concerned, but then again I'm no philosopher, nor am I really interested in the scientifical approach of philosophy. The very readable Essays are for me the best thing ever written in the field of philosophy. If I would be allowed to take one single book to the desert island, it would without any doubt be Montaigne's Essays.

The Complete Essays are available in Penguin Classics