In this blog I put some of my texts. They are more or less related to my philosophical practice, but mainly of a philosophical nature. I use writing as a way to make sense of the world and our place in it. The writing can in itself function as a form getting to know yourself better.
Acedia – The Noonday Demon
The demon of acedia – also called the noonday demon – is the one that causes the most serious trouble of all. It makes the sun appear to slow down or stop, so the day seems to be fifty hours long. Then it forces the monk to keep looking out the window and rush from…
Feeling vs Thinking
The English 18th century author and politician Horace Walpole once wrote: “The world is a comedy to those that think; a tragedy to those that feel.” Feelings are conscious experiences, generated from mental thoughts, a learned response to an emotional trigger. They are not necessary and how to react to an event is, in some…
The Static Movement of Love and Beauty
STATIC MOVEMENT SOUNDS LIKE A CONTRADICTION so how can it work? James Joyce writes that … the tragic emotion is static. Or rather the dramatic emotion is. The feelings excited by improper art are kinetic, desire or loathing. Desire urges us to possess, to go to something; loathing urges us to abandon, to go from…
Climate Protest as Installation Art
DEFILING PAINTINGS IN MUSEUMS as a way to protest against climate change. Throwing tomato soup at a sunflower painting by van Gogh and liquified mashed potatoes at a Monet painting. Smearing cake on the Mona Lisa. How is that going to help the cause? Either the idea is only to get our attention, something which…
Connection
EVERYONE IS GLUED TO THEIR PHONE, absorbed in their little screens they become oblivious to what goes on around them. I must admit that this bothers me as much as it amazes me. What is so interesting there, that they rather stare at it then engage with the rest of the world? Why do they…
Grace
GRACE: “God’s unmerited favour, love, or help”. From Latin gratia: “favour, esteem, regard”. Related to gratis: “without recompense, for nothing”. You are afforded help, a favour, for free. You did not ask for it, you did nothing to deserve it, and still it came. It can be a small thing: the sun breaking through the clouds, a piece of…
Dialogos 