Hi Krim & others I wonder how many of us here would say we live in a truly dynamic universe and that therefore it an extremely dangerous place to be?
David M ----- Original Message ----- From: "Krimel" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Sunday, December 30, 2007 1:18 AM Subject: [MD] James' Post-it Note to Ham > Ham, > > I found that post-it Hume left for you a while back. Here is one from > James. > I don't know why I am getting your mail. > > Krimel > > "Probably the weightiest contribution to our feeling of the rationality of > the universe which the notion of the absolute brings is the assurance that > however disturbed the surface may be, at bottom all is well with the > cosmos-central peace abiding at the heart of endless agitation. This > conception is rational in many ways, beautiful aesthetically, beautiful > intellectually (could we only follow it into detail), and beautiful > morally, > if the enjoyment of security can be accounted moral. Practically it is > less > beautiful; for, as we saw in our last lecture, in representing the deepest > reality of the world as static and without a history, it loosens the > world's > hold upon our sympathies and leaves the soul of it foreign. Nevertheless > it > does give peace, and that kind of rationality is so paramountly demanded > by > men that to the end of time there will be absolutists, men who choose > belief > in a static eternal, rather than admit that the finite world of change and > striving, even with a God as one of the strivers, is itself eternal. ... > But > it is hard to portray the absolute at all without rising into what might > be > called the 'inspired' style of language-I use the word not ironically, but > prosaically and descriptively, to designate the only literary form that > goes > with the kind of emotion that the absolute arouses. One can follow the > pathway of reasoning soberly enough, but the picture itself has to be > effulgent. This admirable faculty of transcending, whilst inwardly > preserving, every contrariety, is the absolute's characteristic form of > rationality. We are but syllables in the mouth of the Lord; if the whole > sentence is divine, each syllable is absolutely what it should be, in > spite > of all appearances. In making up the balance for or against absolutism, > this > emotional value weights heavily the credit side of the account." > - William James "A Pluralistic Universe" > > Moq_Discuss mailing list > Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. > http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org > Archives: > http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ > http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/ > Moq_Discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/
