The Marginalian
The Marginalian

Reads tagged with “philosophy”

Archives of Joy: Reflections on Animals and the Nature of Being
Archives of Joy: Reflections on Animals and the Nature of Being

An invitation to “a certain, forgotten way of seeing the world” and an exultation at “earthly life, with its duration so short it obliges us to surpass ourselves.”

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Between Matter and Spirit: Psychoanalyst Allen Wheelis on the Substance of What We Are
Between Matter and Spirit: Psychoanalyst Allen Wheelis on the Substance of What We Are

“We are carriers of spirit… into a future unknown, unknowable, and in continual creation.”

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A Victorian Visionary’s Prescient Case for Animal Rights and Vegetarianism
A Victorian Visionary’s Prescient Case for Animal Rights and Vegetarianism

“Once upon a time your fore-fathers made no scruple about not only killing, but also eating their relations.”

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The Universe and the Soul: Richard Jefferies on Nature as Prayer for Presence
The Universe and the Soul: Richard Jefferies on Nature as Prayer for Presence

How to grow “absorbed into the being or existence of the universe.”

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The Delicate Art of Connection: William James on the Most Important Attitude for Relationships
The Delicate Art of Connection: William James on the Most Important Attitude for Relationships

“Neither the whole of truth nor the whole of good is revealed to any single observer.”

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The Experience Machine: Cognitive Philosopher Andy Clark on the Power of Expectation and How the Mind Renders Reality
The Experience Machine: Cognitive Philosopher Andy Clark on the Power of Expectation and How the Mind Renders Reality

“We are never simply seeing what’s ‘really there,’ stripped bare of our own anticipations or insulated from our own past experiences. Instead, all human experience is part phantom — the product of deep-set predictions.”

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Everything Is Already There: Javier Marías on the Courage to Heed Your Intuitions
Everything Is Already There: Javier Marías on the Courage to Heed Your Intuitions

“This has nothing to do with premonitions, there is nothing supernatural or mysterious about it, what’s mysterious is that we pay no heed to it.”

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Kierkegaard on the Value of Despair
Kierkegaard on the Value of Despair

“To despair over oneself, in despair to want to be rid of oneself, is the formula for all despair.”

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The Poetry of Reality: Robert Louis Stevenson on What Makes Life Worth Living
The Poetry of Reality: Robert Louis Stevenson on What Makes Life Worth Living

“The true realism, always and everywhere, is that of the poets: to find out where joy resides, and give it a voice far beyond singing.”

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Enchantment and the Courage of Joy: René Magritte on the Antidote to the Banality of Pessimism
Enchantment and the Courage of Joy: René Magritte on the Antidote to the Banality of Pessimism

“Life is wasted when we make it more terrifying, precisely because it is so easy to do so.”

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