12 ideas
| 8228 | Being is revealed at the point between waking and sleep [Anon (Cent)] |
| Full Idea: At the point of sleep when sleep has not yet come and external wakefulness vanishes, at this point being is revealed. | |
| From: Anon (Cent) (Centring [c.500 BCE], 50) | |
| A reaction: One for Heidegger. The problem with eastern philosophy is that no one expects that this revelation could be put into words, so we cannot compare our revelations of being, or pass them on to others. Which means they can't be criticised. |
| 3534 | To be is to have causal powers [Alexander,S] |
| Full Idea: To be is to have causal powers. | |
| From: Samuel Alexander (works [1927], §4), quoted by Jaegwon Kim - Nonreductivist troubles with ment.causation | |
| A reaction: This is sometimes called Alexander's Principle. It is first found in Plato, and is popular with physicalists, but there are problem cases... A thing needs to exist in order to have causal powers. To exist is more than to be perceived. |
| 8232 | Neglect your self, and feel the consciousness of each other being [Anon (Cent)] |
| Full Idea: Feel the consciousness of each person as your own consciousness. So, leaving aside concern for self, become each being. | |
| From: Anon (Cent) (Centring [c.500 BCE], 83) | |
| A reaction: Good. The western scepticism about other minds puts up a barrier to this sort of thought. The best of Zen is when it encourages the use of imagination to explore what is real. But imagination struggles to distinguish what is true. |
| 14494 | Epiphenomenalism is like a pointless nobleman, kept for show, but soon to be abolished [Alexander,S] |
| Full Idea: Epiphenomenalism supposes something to exist in nature which has nothing to do, no purpose to serve, a species of noblesse which depends on the work of its inferiors, but is kept for show and might as well, and undoubtedly would in time be abolished. | |
| From: Samuel Alexander (Space, Time and Deity (2 vols) [1927], 2:8), quoted by Jaegwon Kim - Nonreductivist troubles with ment.causation IV | |
| A reaction: Wonderful! Kim quotes this, and labels the implicit slogan (to be real is to have causal powers) 'Alexander's Dictum'. All the examples given of epiphenomena are only causally inert within a defined system, but they act causally outside the system. |
| 3398 | Epiphenomenalism makes the mind totally pointless [Alexander,S] |
| Full Idea: Epiphenomenalism supposes something to exist in nature which has nothing to do and no purpose to serve. | |
| From: Samuel Alexander (works [1927]), quoted by Jaegwon Kim - Philosophy of Mind p.129 | |
| A reaction: An objection, but not, I think, a strong one. The fact, for example, that sweat is shiny is the result of good evolutionary reasons, but I cannot think of any purpose which it serves. All events which are purposeful are likely to have side-effects. |
| 8230 | Just as you have the impulse to do something, stop [Anon (Cent)] |
| Full Idea: Just as you have the impulse to do something, stop. | |
| From: Anon (Cent) (Centring [c.500 BCE], 64) | |
| A reaction: Nice. You might train your own will like a dog in this way. It is a counterexample to the simplistic idea that all you need is a belief and a desire, and you have got an action. But (pace Searle, Ideas 3817 + 3818) this does not prove free will. |
| 8234 | Bondage and liberation are relative terms, which only frighten those already terrified of the universe [Anon (Cent)] |
| Full Idea: Since in truth, bondage and freedom are relative, these words are only for those terrified with the universe. The universe is a reflection of minds. As you see many suns in water from one sun, so see bondage and liberation. | |
| From: Anon (Cent) (Centring [c.500 BCE], 110) | |
| A reaction: Since most easterners have experienced permanent social repression, their philosophies all encourage them not to worry about it. No wonder marxism, proved popular, when it suggested you could actually change things. |
| 8227 | Feel your whole body saturated with cosmic essence [Anon (Cent)] |
| Full Idea: Feel your substance, bones, flesh, blood, saturated with cosmic essence. | |
| From: Anon (Cent) (Centring [c.500 BCE], 23) | |
| A reaction: I find this unsatisfactory. Being a sad victim of materialistic western scientific culture, I don't think 'cosmic essence' exists. I could imagine myself full of the stuff, and that might feel good, but I could also imagine I had won the lottery. |
| 8229 | The serenity in blue sky beyond clouds [Anon (Cent)] |
| Full Idea: Simply by looking into blue sky beyond clouds - the serenity. | |
| From: Anon (Cent) (Centring [c.500 BCE], 59) | |
| A reaction: Philip Larkin finds the same experience looking through high windows. If we articulate the experience, it seems to combine humility and detachment. The sky makes us insignificant, but the mind can project into the sky. |
| 8231 | Abandon attachment to body, and feel the joy of being everywhere [Anon (Cent)] |
| Full Idea: Toss attachment for body aside, realising I am everywhere. One who is everywhere is joyous. | |
| From: Anon (Cent) (Centring [c.500 BCE], 79) | |
| A reaction: I really don't think it is wisdom to spend your time imagining things which are not true. I might imagine that some gorgeous film star is in love with me, but I don't recommend it. Live according to nature. We are physical beings. |
| 8233 | Imagine fire burning up your whole body, but not you [Anon (Cent)] |
| Full Idea: Focus on fire rising through your form from the toes up until the body burns to ashes, but not you. | |
| From: Anon (Cent) (Centring [c.500 BCE], 28) | |
| A reaction: Try very hard to persuade yourself that you are immortal, even if you are not. Hm. Zen Buddhism actually contains very little commitment to what is true or false. It explores interesting beliefs like children playing with toys. Very post-modern. |
| 1513 | The Egyptians were the first to say the soul is immortal and reincarnated [Herodotus] |
| Full Idea: The Egyptians were the first to claim that the soul of a human being is immortal, and that each time the body dies the soul enters another creature just as it is being born. | |
| From: Herodotus (The Histories [c.435 BCE], 2.123.2) |