One-Liner Wednesday: Be Careful What You Wish For

“Now is not the time to be making new enemies”  – David Hume – – – – – – – David Hume was one of the leading figures of the Scottish enlightenment, probably best known for his empiricist philosophy. His system of thought precluded any possibility of there actually being a Deity such as portrayed…

One-Liner Wednesday: Epistemology 101

“You only think it’s there because you can see it.”  – – – – – – – – – Perhaps a little explanation would be helpful. Those of a certain age may remember that when you turned off an old television set the screen went black but there was a white dot that took a…

It’s all about the bottle

Pessimist or optimist? Who cares? Apart, that is, from the good folks at WordPress, where today’s instalment of ‘365 Days of Writing Prompts’ poses the familiar question: ‘The glass? Is the glass half-full or half-empty?’ A true pedant (who? moi?) could deconstruct this interesting philosophical question for hours on end. Assuming that there really is…

Forty two

“Granpa?” (yes, it’s that boy again), “What’s the meaning of existence?” I know my limitations. A question that  has occupied the finest minds of Homo Sapiens – and, for all we know, other species as well (those dolphins are no slouches) – for thousands of years was hardly going to receive a definitive answer on the way to the…

Philosophy made simple

I’ve got a degree in philosophy, me. It was all a long time ago and it was taken on the basis that it was the most useless and impractical thing I could think of to do for three years at government expense (we had grants in those days, believe it or not). As it turned…