BITS & PIECES OF A MISPLACED LIFE: PHILOSOPHY (sort of)

for Ricardo & Isabel

"We all want to be closer to the fire."
                                       William Goldman
**
 ANTIMONY IS NOT THE SAME AS ALIMONY (paying alimony
will make any person philosophical)

“Antinomy” is a word for logical paradox or inconsistency closely associated with 18th-century German philosopher 
Immanuel Kant. In his book “Critique of Pure Reason,” 
Kant introduced a number of logical paradoxes now known
 as “Kant’s antinomies” to show how two equally reasonable
 ideas could ultimately contradict one another. For example, Kant made a carefully reasoned argument that the universe
 and time had a beginning and strict borders, and then 
made an equally logical argument concluding the universe 
and time were both without beginning or end. The goal of 
Kant’s antinomies was to show how reason alone was not 
enough to resolve metaphysical problems, because even 
the best-reasoned arguments could ultimately arrive at 
opposite conclusions.”

From THE WORD GENIUS WEBSITE (Feb. 18, 2023)
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/FMfcgzGrcj
LbSRKZKCgqpPpRRrrBGqKg
**
Immanuel Kant

Immanuel Kant,
For the life of me I can't
Understand his uses of antimony.
Perhaps it means Philosophers don’t make much money,
**

I wonder what chairs think about all day. "Oh, here 
comes another asshole."
                       Robin Williams
**
EINSTEIN ON HOW HE THINKS

 "Words do not seem to play any role in my mechanism 
of thought. I seem to use more or less clear images 
of a visual  type, combined with some muscular feeling.
 These vaguely play together, combining with each other,
 without any logical construction in words and signs 
which could be communicated to others. "

Albert Einstein

**

"Three things the wise man does not do. He does not plow the sky. He does not paint pictures on water. And he does not argue with a woman." 
                  
CHARLIE CHAN in the novel Keeper of the Key (1932)

**
THREE THINGS ABOVE ALL ELSE

"People in the mid-18th century:  climate, government and religion. He was ahead of his time in putting climate first.  Peter Frankopan opens his new book with Voltaire's
comment and proceeds to show how all manner of natural 
disasters have shaped human history; not just floods and
 storms, but earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and crashing meteorites, too."

from an unsigned review of The Earth Transformed by
Peter Frankopan (The Economist, March 11, 2023)
**

THE PRINCIPAL CONCERN OF GOOD CRAFTSMEN

"It seems to me that if you are a good craftsman your 
principal concern should be to keep working. If you 
manage to do that your employers will have to pay you 
sooner or later exactly what you are worth. How could 
they avoid it?

Buster Keaton .
Buster Keaton, with Charles Samuels . My Wonderful World of Slapstick (New York: Doubleday & Company, 1960)
**

"First say to yourself what you would be, and then do
what you have to do."
                             Epicetius. Discourses
**
REAL LIFE IN MANHATTAN
 
The woman on 111th Street
Shouted into her cellphone
“That’s not the way
Real life works!” Her tone
 
Was not philosophical,
But I knew on the spot
That she knew something
About Life that I did not.
 
Louis Phillips
 
Louis Phillips
--