In Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Investigations, he proposed a thought experiment that challenged the way we look at introspection and how it informs the language we use to describe sensations.
For the thought experiment, Wittgenstein asks us to imagine a group of individuals, each of whom has a box containing something called a “beetle.” No one can see into anyone else’s box. Everyone is asked to describe their beetle — but each person only knows their own beetle. [And] each person can only talk about their own beetle, as there might be different things in each person’s box. Consequently, Wittgenstein says the subsequent descriptions cannot have a part in the “language game.” Over time, people will talk about what is in their boxes, but the word “beetle” simply ends up meaning “that thing that is in a person’s box.”
Why is this bizarre thought experiment disturbing? The mental experiment points out that the beetle is like our minds, and that we can’t know exactly what it is like in another individual’s mind. We can’t know exactly what other people are experiencing, or the uniqueness of their perspective. It’s an issue that’s very much related to the so-called hard problem of consciousness and the phenomenon of qualia.
Read 8 more Philosophical Thought Experiments That Will Keep You Up at Night via io9
i am a serene and lovely person. yes absolutely everything bothers me & i go through life in a state of constant aggravation and annoyance & have to physically restrain myself from breaking down in tears over how utterly irritated i am sometimes. but i am serene and lovely nonetheless
simmer - hayley williams / the bell jar - sylvia plath / cop car - mitski / judith slaying holofernes - artemisia gentileschi / fast as you can - fiona apple / animal- aurora / salome - jean benner / tonight i am someone else - chelsea hodson / wishbone - richard siken / ride - lana del rey
A Little Life (Hanya Yanigahara)/ Dandelion Wine (Ray Bradbury)/ Souvenir (boygenius)/ Self-Portrait Agianst Red Wallpaper (Richard Siken)
“Despair takes you again and you remain sitting like a total invalid, sniveling until dark, darkness that brings endless insomnia and a dawn sadder than the dusk it preceded.”
— Arthur Rimbaud, from a letter to Isabelle Rimbaud wr. c. July 1891
It’s so crazy how humans r social creatures but we’re stuck in this hell hole of late stage capitalism that convinces us we can not only heal in isolation but thrive in it too, find purpose and dedication and make a lifestyle out of it, and only at the end of that tiresome road can we reward ourselves by leaving desolation behind and replacing it with community when the whole time it’s always companionship and love and understanding that we need, it’s always someone we can share with to know we are not alone in this place and this pain...
“A lot of people never use their initiative because no-one told them to.” Banksy.
“Seek freedom and become captive of your desires. Seek discipline and find your liberty.” Frank Herbert.
“One must not think slightingly of the paradoxical…for the paradox is the source of the thinker’s passion, and the thinker without a paradox is like a lover without feeling: a paltry mediocrity.” Soren Kierkegaard.
“Good judgement is the result of experience and experience the result of bad judgement.” Mark Twain. (this rules! think about it!)
“Whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it.” Mahatma Gandhi.
“There are two tragedies in life. One is to lose your heart’s desire. The other is to gain it.” George Bernard Shaw.
“Getting divorced just because you don’t love a man is almost as silly as getting married just because you do. ” Zsa Zsa Gabor.
“Failing to plan, is like planning to fail.” Stephen McCranie.
“We live in an age when unnecessary things are our only necessities.” Oscar Wilde.
“It’s weird not to be weird.” John Lennon.
“Men have two greatest fears: the first fear is the fear of being needed, and the second fear is the fear of not being needed.” C. JoyBell C.
“And the trouble is, if you don’t risk anything, you risk even more.” Erica Jong.
“The funny thing about the heart is a soft heart is a strong heart, and a hard heart is a weak heart.” Criss Jami.
“Procrastinate now, don’t put it off.” Ellen DeGeneres.
To pretend, I actually do the thing: I have therefore only pretended to pretend. Jacques Derrida.
“He who fears he shall suffer, already suffers what he fears.” Michel de Montaigne.
“Life is a preparation for the future; and the best preparation for the future is to live as if there were none.” Albert Einstein.
“Fighting for peace, is like f***ing for chastity” Stephen King.
“Let go of certainty. The opposite isn’t uncertainty. It’s openness, curiosity and a willingness to embrace paradox, rather than choose up sides. The ultimate challenge is to accept ourselves exactly as we are, but never stop trying to learn and grow.” Tony Schwartz.
“You alone keep me – you are the only chain that links me to time – but for you I should be free – And yet I cannot be destined to live long; A hatred of life must consume the vital principle – perfectly detached as I am from the world, I cannot long be a part of it. I feel that all is to me dead except the necessity of viewing a succession of daily suns illuminate the sepulchre of all I love.”
— Mary Shelley, from a diary entry featured in The Journals of Mary Shelley (via violentwavesofemotion)
“There is a close link between insomnia and despair. The loss of hope comes with the loss of sleep. The difference between paradise and hell: you can always sleep in paradise, never in hell.”
— E. M. Cioran, On the Heights of Despair, trans. Ilinca Zarifopol-Johnston
sometimes i think about the golden record and i want to cry
just learned about the 3D printed project digital grotesque II and it’s a quite a dream