The essay explores how organisms bring forth meaning and significance through their evolutionary history and interactions with their environments. It examines the concept of Umwelt, highlighting that inherited capacities shape an organism’s engagement with the world. Evolution results in a continuous history of relations, with organisms altering their surroundings and passing on these changes to future generations.
The purpose of this essay is to read Victor Shklovsky and William James as thinkers of the recovery of experience. Their common problem is the condition in which reality is already named, classified, and absorbed into practical use before it has been properly encountered.
Karl Marx’s perspective on human nature presents a complex relationship between humanity and nature, positioning labour as a transformative process. However, his views create a hierarchy that privileges human consciousness over non-human life, raising concerns about alienation and the implications of communism. Ultimately, the analysis suggests a need to rethink the interconnectedness of nature and human evolution beyond Marxian frameworks.
The essay critiques the notion that beauty is solely subjective, arguing instead that true beauty arises from a disciplined perception that allows subjects to reveal their complexities. Drawing on the philosophies of Heidegger and Murdoch, it asserts that art must strive for a truthful representation of reality, embracing the intricacies and contradictions inherent within.
This essay explores the concept of “bullshit jobs” as a degraded form of secular heroism, drawing on the theories of Ernest Becker and David Graeber. It argues that pointless employment undermines the sense of agency and meaning in life, leading to a culture where work becomes synonymous with identity, despite its lack of purpose.
Philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer and physicist Erwin Schrodinger share an intellectual connection centered on the concept of ontological oneness. Schopenhauer anticipated themes present in quantum mechanics, emphasizing a unified reality beyond time and space. Both thinkers challenge conventional distinctions between observer and observed, highlighting the interplay of will and representation.
This essay compares J.R.R. Tolkien and William James, highlighting the enactive power of imagination and fantasy in shaping lived experiences. Both thinkers articulate the interplay of joy and sorrow, emphasizing that imaginative faculties enable melioristic ideals and moral action, fostering transformation and hope within the human condition amid adversity.
This essay explores the phenomenology of organisms, focusing on the concept of Umwelt as introduced by Jacob von Uexkull, which defines each organism’s unique perceptual world. It delves into theories of cognition related to living systems, emphasizing the interconnectedness of organisms and their environments as they interact, adapt, and evolve.
This essay explores embodied phenomenology within William James’ radical empiricism, emphasizing consciousness as a dynamic process emerging from the holistic interplay of mind, body, and environment. It critiques traditional subject-object dichotomies, advocating for a view where pure experience is fundamental to understanding lived reality. James’ insights resonate with later phenomenologists like Heidegger and Merleau-Ponty.
This essay outlines speculative empiricism, emphasizing experience’s dynamic nature and human self-seeking behavior. William James argues that our identities and achievements are shaped through social interactions and habits. He posits that life should be understood as a process of becoming, with ethical and existential implications rooted in human experiences and creativity.
The Beginning of Terror 