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Ruel Mannette

@awanderingphilosopher

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Anti-AI Activist 👨‍🏫
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& Academic Philosopher, Bioethicist, and Religious Studies Scholar

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Don't tell us, Barney, that whatever entered Palmer Eldritch is God, because you don't know that much about Him; no one can. But that living entity from intersystem space may, like us, be shaped in His image. A way He selected of showing Himself to us. If the map is not the territory, the pot is not the potter. So don't talk ontology, Barney; don't say is." She smiled at him hopefully, to see if he understood.

[...]

"Someday,' Barney said, "we may worship at that mon- ument." Not the deed by Leo Bulero, he thought; as admirable as it was--will be, more accurately- -that won't be our object. No, we'll all of us, as a culture, do as I already am tending toward: we'll invest it wanly, pitifully, with our conception of infinite powers. And we'll be right in a sense because those powers are there.

[...]

She reached out, took him by the hand, and held onto him earnestly. "Never grovel to God, or whatever superior being it is we've encountered-it wouldn't want that and even if it did you shouldn't do it." by @awanderingphilosopher

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an hour ago

"The end of strife and conflict of all kinds had also meant the virtual end of creative art. There were myriad of performers, amateur and professional, yet there had been no really outstanding new works of literature, music, painting or sculpture for a generation. The world was still living on the glories of a past that could never return. No one worried except a few philosophers. The race was too intent upon savoring its new-found freedom to look beyond the pleasures of the prrsent. Utopia was here at last: its novelty had not yet been assailed by the supreme enemy of all Utopias- boredom."- Clark

Ironic that he would say this when this novel itself is a novel really without violence or the need for any in the story and yet it remains enthralling throughout.

The word that I came up with for this kind of sci-novel is a brain-stretcher. Clark plays so well with scale in the book that ones sense of the familiar is constantly pulled. Part of it is just the masterful pacing, step by step, just like the Overlord's in the book, Clark eases the reader deeper and deeper into the culminating climax thats lurking in the background. What accompanies this is Clark thinking very seriously about the very range of what other life may be like and how very large the universe is. There also seems to be a bit of Indian Philosophy mixed into Clark's comic speculations.

All along the way there are diverging discussions on the role and purpose of nationalism, utopia, urban planning, parapsychology, the drive for science, curiosity, art, politics, reproduction, and education all tucked in around a novel which is less about any individual humans (though there is a large cast of characters) than about humanity as a whole. As much as I liked 2001 a Space Odessey which I thought was a solid Sci-novel I can see why Clark thought this one was one of his best. Rarely have I gotten a sense for the sheer scale that is astronomy 101 from a sci-novel and Clark's measured tale expressed it well. by @awanderingphilosopher

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2 days ago

"Notice your neighbors if perchance a death takes place in the building. They were asleep in their little routine and suddenly, for example, the concierge dies. At once they awake, bestie themselves, get the details, comilmiserate. A newly dead man and the show begins at last. They need tragedy, dont you know; its their little transcendence, their apéritif."- Camus ( as Clamence)

I think Sartre is right to see this novel as Camus' most philosophical. It is a long winding ranting confession of a man in an Amsterdam bar who doesnt feel himself to be all that good. A kind of moral imposter syndrome. But in his complete confession he makes a pronouncement on everyone else that they too must be as fake as him. But are they? This is the double paradox of a problem of other minds but on a more subtle level. Its not a metaphysicsl question of access, because besides a convincing chatbot and a delusional biologist, most people are not dealing with the question of a general picture of another mind. Wittgenstein dealt with this quite well in PI. Our very langauge and comportment suppose a degree of access. The problematic then is rather do we suppose too much. Camus inquiry here isnt that we cannot know whats going on in someone else's mind but that we may be assuming they are much too like ourselves. Clamence takes everyone for a fraud because he- in a moment of utter honesty- takes himself for one.

This brings up layers and layers of questions, if all his virtue is for nothing, would any virtue be real? If he must talk and talk to try and express why he is guilty is he really all that bad? Methinks thou doth protest too much. Its almost like he is trying to convince himself. When he walked on after the woman died and did nothing is that really the display of callousness he is trying to convey or does that really just reveal an underlying empathy he is trying to ignore. Its a fascinating novel and extremely thought provoking. As a novel Camus' others are better but as a work of philosophy it transcends his earlier novels imo and brings together various themes from his earlier phases and looks back on them critically. taken in Final Draft by @awanderingphilosopher

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3 days ago

"'I and Thou' is recognized today as among the handful of writings that the twentieth century will bequeath to the centuries to come..." - Maurice Freedman

"The life of a human being does not exist merely in the sphere of goal-directed verbs. It does not consist merely of activities that have something for their object. I perceive something. I feel something. I imagine something. I want something. I sense something. I think something. The life of a human being does not consist merely of all this and its like.

All this and it's like is the basjs of the realm of It.
But the realm of You has another basis."- Buber

This is one philosophy book that I think it is worthwhile that everyone reads. His poetic style can be hard at first. Kaufman, the translator thought it was stilted and complained about Buber aging Nietzche (the other philosopher Kaufman was famous for translating). But Borges found it well worthwhile and I agree with Borges. There is a reason Kaufman translated it with pressure from Buber's son.

From Carl Rogers to MLK Buber had a massive impact and for good reason. When you begin to approach it Buber I think offers in a small volume a powerful and relevant view on Ethics, epistemology, and philosophy of life that has been both extremely influential but also remains potent today. Like other classic works of philosophy there is so much to dig into and so many new questions come out of it. While the dialogical philosophy Buber develops in it would go on to inform the rest of his work the core ideas have been taken in a multitude of directions by other thinkers.

I also think why MLK and Dag Hammarskjöld appealed to it is because there is a real ethical impulse in it this book that I think is positive to contemporary philosophical discussion in a way I am not always sure about with other thinkers.

While many thinkers arent as accessible I think I and Thou presents a masterful introduction to a philosophy without requiring the dense analysis of hundreds of pages and yet can offer insight into ones immediate lived experience. Anyway, as Im teaching Buber next week for a class I was thinking about why I think its a must read book. by @awanderingphilosopher

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6 days ago

Its always fascinating when an author has a work outside their major genre. Sometimes its a failure, like Hemingway or Nietzsche's poetry, other times its excellent and left youre hoping for more, as Gore Vida and Gide wrote far too few short stories, or othertimes youre just left intrigued as with Kafka, Henry James, T.S. Elliot or Hemingway's foray into drama. This book falls into that third category as im not quite sure what to make of it. While its not a genre as often discussed, I love travel writing. Its one of my favorite genres. Its memoir with a point, and its also a history of a specific moment in time, and ultimately its a kind of ethnography that is often far more honest about who the ethnographer is with much less pretentence. Anyway, to read Doestevsky's travel writing? Im in.

Surprisingly, it was what you'd expect. For both better and worse. He is at full curmudgeon mode: uncomfortable and cynical in Paris and annoyed yet fascinating with French people, full of pity for the deplorable mess that is England (though he does note that he thinks English women are the most beautiful) and utterly dismissive of Germany. Italy gets no disrespect but barely any attention.

It all sounds like Doestevsky but without his fictional mask it comes off far worse. His strengths are there just naked without his characters. Saul Bellow was right to note that it was rare for him to speak so straightforwardly in his own voice. But it also does him far less favors. He is still perceptive, his analysis of the Europeanization of Russia is brilliant and the critiques of the French Bourgious apt (though ironically it is him at his most French- and therefore European- as well as most derivative as there is hardly any advance on Balzac, Flaubert, or Baudelaire any number of other homegrown critics). I think I enjoyed this more than Bellow did, and its not as pathetic as Baudelaire was in Belgium or Kerouac in France, but its not Doestevsky at his best at all. Honestly, unless youre into him as a thinker its not worth your time as it contributes little. It mostly devolves into that analysis of nations stuff that has to be very well done to be at all worthwhile. by @awanderingphilosopher

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9 days ago

"Well, it seems to me sometimes that it is less dreadful not to believe in God at all than to believe in God as a mere mechanic, a mathematician or a physicist. [
...] But the world ks not a piece of mechanism any more than Almighty God is a mechanic, or a schoolmaster with his stick, or a judge with his balance. If He is, we should believe that on the Day of Judgement the Lord will seek advice from those who are called, serious, balanced, hard-headed people. It js a mad idea Sister Blanche! You know well that kind of people have always thought the saints to be fools, and the saints are the true friends and counselors of God.... so..."- Bernanos (as spoken by the character Constance).

Bernanos's play is set in the era of the French revolution. A group of nuns faces political sanctions for holding their religious beliefs. First they are banned from practicing then, taking a vow of martyrdom, they are sentenced to death. The most fascinating part for me was the discussion of martyrdom and the questions around when it was or wasnt acceptable and how much to seel it out or prevent it. There was a key throughly story of one particular nuns battle with courage that kept a consistent throughline for the story.

As a play dealing with holding to one's faith and religion in an era of political turmoil it was fascinating and this was its real strength. There was one nun that was a really interesting character and only like three who were decently fleshed out the rest were mostly background. Besides this key theme of decisions to hold on to faith in political turmoil and questions of when its acceptable to die for faith were interesting. I didnt find the discussions about courage all that profound nor the rest of it besides Constance who was great. I think some of her ideas may have been closer to Bernanos' own. The titular character Blanche I empathized with but wasn't that into nor any of the rest of them tbh. Its a play so its a fairly quick read if youre interested in the themes or if youre Catholic otherwise not one of my favorites though it was cool to see a Nun based story. by @awanderingphilosopher

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12 days ago

"The desperate attempt to clear his own thought of all that polluted the belief systems of the institutionalized modern world allows us again to relate The Kingdom of God to much else of Tolstoy's work, rather than seeing it as a radical offshoot. Tolstoy's obsession with truth was as strong as his hatred of the artifical."- Patrick Maxwell in thr introduction to 'The Kingdom of God is Within You'

Bookmail thanks to @warblerpress ! These editions feel great and im excited to dive into these philosophical classics! by @awanderingphilosopher

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13 days ago

"[the following has been crossed out]

"Propos'' on Prometheus, before the war. A man who holds power can certainly put a just man in prison for life, and then think no more about it; if he falls from power, and begins to think, he may himself become wise, just, and saintly ... But the just man in prison will not remain just for long, because he will go mad. Or anyway he will become weak, faint-hearted, cringing (M...). So the tyrant has power to destroy not only the body but also the soul, and enjoys even a moral privilege over his enemies? An intolerable thought.

One should always think of men in power as dangerous things. Keep out of their reach as far as one can possibly do so without cowardice. And if one day one is obliged, on pain of losing one's self-respect, to face and be broken by their power, think of oneself as conquered by the nature of things, and not by`men. For example: one may be in prison, in chains-but one might equally well be paralysed and blind; and there's no difference. Etc., etc."- Simone Weil

The 'propos' was a genre developed my one of Weil's most important mentors the French philosopher Emile Chartier, aka Alain. The Propos was an extended reflection offered at length over a page or two, sometimes only a few paragraphs, longer than an aphorisms it often riffed on a particular theme, and like the classical French maxim often turned back in again on itself in an almost paradoxical or prima facie contradiction that tended to reveal a deeper truth.

Its interesting to me that Weil crossed this passage out. It seems to mesh with her views on affliction so was it for stylistic reasons she rejected it? Or did she generally agree, but as Alain was a master of prose, did she hope to perfect it further? Or was there a deeper reason? Or did she reflect on this and find that it didnt quite capture what she hope to convey that it mistook an aspect of her thought. Or as this is in her early notebook was this because she did not yet want to face up to conclusions she would later draw? Or, maybe the most troubling, did she find that this line of thought was too uncomfortable- even for her- or that its conclusions were too pernicious? by @awanderingphilosopher

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14 days ago

@alifeonbooks and @notbaddan both recently made great videos on so-called 'performative reading'. People complaining about this annoy me so much more than those who 'supposedly do this'. Yes its annoying debating Wittgenstein with a guy who just wants to name drop and has never read the book but I appreciate the performance or the Wittgenstein book on the shelf that will never be read 100% more than the fake 'your just doing it for a performance' to impress who? @alifeonbooks makes a great point that either non-readers dont care and readers who think its an act arent impressed. So whats the logic? Who goes through all this expended effort to impress no one? And @notbaddan is right like if the eyes went over the words and were absorbed its just 'reading' who cares if it was meant to impress anyone?

Now their critics have one point - well this is all being done on social media so it is also a performance- yes but so was Reading Rainbow with Levar Burton or when Dolly Parton advertised Steinbeck. That doesnt mean they weren't also reading. Part of the problem is, in a real Judith Butler sense, we are all performing for social media. But tbh so are we in our regular lives too. Me wearing a shirt which I think communicates 'me' is a performance so is just being in public. Having a beard is performing being a male even while I like having a beard. All tattoos are performative.

Now some could respond: the problem is not that we are all actors the problem is weather what we are doing is somehow 'fake'.

And here is where I still dont care.

If you fake reading bell hooks or hold Tolstoy upside down or swing Hegel around on Twitter- idc. There are a 1,000 other worse fake things ppl do. They buy a truck that is way too big, they wear an analog watch they cant read, they lie about driving manual or the military, they wear a sports jersey for a team they dont know or a band shirt they dont know a song from. I genuinely do not care if someone wants to fake reading a book. Ill be minor-ly annoyed we cant talk about it but there are 100s of more toxic activities. If you think reading is cool enough to fake go for it. Otherwise, let ppl perform what they like to perform. by @awanderingphilosopher

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20 days ago

@reasonandreligion made a post about some of his key influences and while I dont have books from all of them on hand (my Cornel West books are still in Hawaii for example) I wanted to make an appreciation post of some of these major thinkers.

Now, I appreciate all these philosophers. While I think Wittgenstein gets his due attention I think he is also not read carefully enough. Too often he is crudely thrown at other thinkers as a kind of 'gotcha' which doesnt carefully address his own complexitt. Meanwhile, I have plenty of disagreements with Habermas, I stand by my view, that he may have been one of the most important philosophers of our age and my lifetime. I think he was a far better thinker than Rawls and I remain astounded that Rawls continued to be focused on over Habermas. On the American side I think Rorty was a fitting rival and I have even more disagreements with him, though I think, along with Cornel West they are some of our most important philosophical voices in America.

Addams, Dewey, and James, I think are classics and their work I think forms- alongside Hume's- essential fabric for contemporary philosophy. Addams was a philosopher in practice par excellence and many dont know that some of her concrete projects- such as the ACLU (which she helped found with others) remains in existence as an important force and continuation of her thought. While I prefer James to Dewey (and post James frequently on here) I think Dewey is an important philosopher as well and offers many correctives to not only metaphysical but political misunderstandings that we continue to twist ourselves in knots over especially today.

I feel similarly about Fanon's work which was also mentioned. I think few philosophers are more central to post-colonial philosophy. His post also had me thinking of my major philosophical influences and what I would post for that stack which I think I should try and do for myself at some point. by @awanderingphilosopher

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21 days ago

Not really sure if this book has only one character, or two, or eight. Fosse weaves the past in and out as witnessed by other characters amidst their own confusion and grief. Its a haunting little novella about two different tragedies separated by generations. But there is a weathered worn-in feeling of simplicity throughout the work as well. This is because the story is basically told through different characters witnessing small moments of the previous generations who lived in the same house by the fjord there is a real depth of place. As you inhabit their perspective you also experience the hallucinatory confusion they hold as well. In fact, the house and fjord almost seem to transcend the particular tragedies as the events almost play out as their shared memory.

Having read 'Morning and Evening' and 'A Shining' before this I felt like this one felt more grounded and almost more like a traditional novel at some points because there was a climax you knew that was coming. It also felt less like a searching for the transcendent that you felt between the words in other two. However, as the lives of characters float between temporally untethered scenes it was at the same time an almost more confusing work. Overall, I very much enjoyed it and it fits well alongside the other two of his ive read. Having read a few of Fosse's plays as well this one felt more like them than the other two novels particularly the playing with different moments of a Life speaking and interacting with each other in the same space. by @awanderingphilosopher

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24 days ago

I get rage baited easily so I made a video. by @awanderingphilosopher

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a month ago