After learning about Mimetic Theory, we encounter an older idea about the origin of conflict – Hegel’s First Man. I will not summarize either concept here at length, but I will briefly explain what Hegel meant by the First Man. Before the advent of civilization, primordial man, uncultured and untamed, had a basic need, which … Read more
Man tends to question everything, but this is a burden to him. The questions, instead of disappearing, multiply. Because no answer is acceptable (lacks the full truth); at the end of each attempt is a justification for a new attempt. The inquiry never stops. And as he questions more, he then questions his need to … Read more
When one considers how ready are the forces of young men for discharge, one does not wonder at seeing them decide so uncritically and with so little selection for this or that cause: that which attracts them is the sight of eagerness for a cause, as it were the sight of the burning match-not the … Read more
Thomas Hobbes, author of the notorious Leviathan, had a strange definition for “free will” He presumed that anything, whether animate or inanimate, is considered free if nothing stands in its way. If there are no obstacles, then there is freedom. If a rock is rolling down a hill without anything it in its path, then … Read more
Charles Bukowski, today known as a celebrated author, found success in his fifties. In his twenties, he wrote hundreds of short stories. Two of these were published, both of which barely sold any copies. This was during a time when Bukowski traveled across the U.S, and worked several blue-collar jobs. Years later, he nearly died … Read more
Mimetic Theory Where do man’s desires come from? Apart from the basic desire to survive (food, shelter, rest), what motivates people? Where did the desire for status, fame, honor, legacy, pride, vanity come from? One thinker who conceived of a simple yet brilliant answer to this question was Rene Girard, a literary theorist who spent … Read more
Man, by nature, is an imitation machine. Those who think originally are rare, but it is their ideas that transfigure society. Thinkers that belong to this category are Aristotle, Descartes, Hume, Kant, Nietzsche, Derrida, Freud, Jung, Girard. Aristotle taught that a first principle was “first basis by which a thing was known.” Descartes’ cogito ergo … Read more
The rascal/philosopher Alan Watts gained notoriety for popularizing Eastern ideas in the Western world. He thought of himself as an entertainer, but do not mistake levity with insincerity. Watts describes is the difference between the East and the West in their identifications with the Passive and the Active. This is similar to the dichotomy of … Read more
What is behind human motivation? Freud would tell you that all human goals are manifestations of the biological need to reproduce. All our desires, including intellectuality and aesthetic taste, are merely by-products of sexual signaling. Comedians are not witty because there is anything unique about their personality, but because it enhances their chances of standing … Read more
“The trick is to be bored with a specific book, rather than with the act of reading,” Nassim Taleb. What is a book? It is information, packaged to you in a certain way, by an author. The way the book is packaged can determine whether you grow bored from it or not. The point … Read more