domenica 16 ottobre 2016

sabato 15 ottobre 2016

What I can imagine and what I cannot -- I can imagine something that I have never seen, or even something that does not exist. But I can imagine anything? Maybe not. For example I cannot imagine a stick that does not have a length. I can imagine a stick length which constantly changes, so that it becomes impossible to measure. But a stick without length, no. And that may be because I have a limited imagination or, rather, because that rod length is not really logically impossible? But Euclid, in the parallel world of geometry, was able to think of a point without dimensions, without a thick line, a circle, surrounding a circle, but which adds nothing to the size of that.

giovedì 22 settembre 2016

The sirens

The sirens undermine the sailors with their song and the listener is bound to crashing against the rocks. But because death strikes the listener? Because it is the terrible punishment of the gods for those who have the presumption, arrogance, the hybris of wanting to hear what is reserved to the deity. Mortals do not have access to the divine knowledge, on pain of death. Even Socrates was put to death, punished for his hybris, revealing publicly in defense oration, which tells of the response of the Pythia of Delphi, "Socrates is the wisest of men." But this response is not enough to Socrates, he attempts to show that God is wrong and that, therefore, he is wiser than God.

mercoledì 10 agosto 2016

The old gods are dead

The old gods are dead and with them their myths. We built other myths, of course, but these are now more subtle than the ancients, because today we are unaware of them. The old gods are dead and new ones and oppress us, prey of them, mock the old. Today we are dominated by myths, sex and power, history and technique. The first myth: the beautiful future everyone will eat abundantly and will have sex with whomever they wish and every difference will be answered in a common happiness. The myth of history, a development from dark to light, with us in a dominant position, say at the height of knowledge and live happy. This seems like the harder myth to die, although they appear constantly clues of its futility and inconsistency. Our story today is called contemporary history, since 1789. And then? As you will later call? No way, the story is over. And finally, the myth of the technique that solves everything and, if not resolved now, certainly not solve tomorrow. But the technique is not that a useful result of science, which is instead pure invention and is, in its highest hypothesis, a metaphysical cosmology. And the science tells us today that matter, energy, atoms, many, light, electrodynamics, are representations for us, expressions of something that is expressed mysterious and unknowable, which is behind, which is hidden.

giovedì 5 maggio 2016

Enigma

Enigma This “enigma” is the question about a problem, that is, of an obstacle placed by the god of Delphi on our journey. How to overcome the obstacle? He tried one way, comparing opinions. And the comparison is done with the ways of rational dialectics, where the statement of the first who speaks is contradicted by another. Contradicting means that the exchange of opinions is presented as the origin “antifatic”. Or is it true the first opinion is true or the second. But because from debate it comes early in “antifatic” way? The absolute choice between one or the other horn of the dilemma, reveals the true nature of the reasoning, that is, is based on the principle of contradiction and on principle of the third excluded, which is a consequence of the first. But here it is not a choice, rational discourse may not have a different nature, it can only reveal its intimate nature, namely that of a system of logical rules. The comparison does not end with these first statements, but unfolds in unpredictable ways and often very intricate, a genuine network, “griphos” for the Greeks, one of the synonyms of the enigma. And in that network you can be harnessed and no more out. The reason, in short, is born of the riddle and enigma can also be captured and destroyed. It 's very frail.

giovedì 7 aprile 2016