Unleash the Vile Hippos of Wrath (For Hell Hath Frozen Over)
I'd like to see a movie with that title. I don't know what it would be about (aside from the Vile Hippos of Wrath, prefferably with real hippos), but it would be sweet to see that title on screen. I saw a live hippo once, I wouldn't want to mess with one of those; they're like a dinosaur that dodged the extinction, they're huge!
Which brings me to my subject - well not really, but it looked better than a sudden transistion, like this one:
Perception and reality are one of things that I've always loved to compare. Taking the hippo example: whenever I saw footage/pictures of hippos, they didn't look that big; maybe like a big fat deer. However, when I saw one at a zoo in China I was blown away by huge the thing was; I mean , we're talking small truck here.
In my experience, a lot of things are like this. You have expectations and beliefs on what something is like, but more often than not, this preception is wrong. It happens all the time with things you buy, people you meer, parties you go to, and so on. We precieve something one way and there's often a great diconect from what it actually is.
I guess that's why I've never agreed with Kant. Preception, once widely accepted, may become considered fact, but that doesn't make it so. Maybe I've just read Kant wrong all these years, but one of the central points I picked up was how preception can shape reality.
Maybe he's right, and it can shape how you preceive reality, but does that really change reality? I mean, Kant seems to be saying to me that if I just think on my bicycle enough I'll be able to have a better one. That said, it would be better in my reality, but what about the people around me who see me riding it and still see an ugly bicycle.
Like I said, I've never really been able to get into Kant.
Then again, I like Spinoza so take it as you will.
-Thomas
Which brings me to my subject - well not really, but it looked better than a sudden transistion, like this one:
Which is besides the point since I just did it anyway.
TRANSISTION
Perception and reality are one of things that I've always loved to compare. Taking the hippo example: whenever I saw footage/pictures of hippos, they didn't look that big; maybe like a big fat deer. However, when I saw one at a zoo in China I was blown away by huge the thing was; I mean , we're talking small truck here.
In my experience, a lot of things are like this. You have expectations and beliefs on what something is like, but more often than not, this preception is wrong. It happens all the time with things you buy, people you meer, parties you go to, and so on. We precieve something one way and there's often a great diconect from what it actually is.
I guess that's why I've never agreed with Kant. Preception, once widely accepted, may become considered fact, but that doesn't make it so. Maybe I've just read Kant wrong all these years, but one of the central points I picked up was how preception can shape reality.
Maybe he's right, and it can shape how you preceive reality, but does that really change reality? I mean, Kant seems to be saying to me that if I just think on my bicycle enough I'll be able to have a better one. That said, it would be better in my reality, but what about the people around me who see me riding it and still see an ugly bicycle.
Like I said, I've never really been able to get into Kant.
Then again, I like Spinoza so take it as you will.
-Thomas
posted by T Kwong at 6:58 PM
5 Comments:
I'm not too familiar with kant, but the thought of people dictating fact and fiction is absurd. It is commonly accepted that there is a God, doesn't mean this is a fact. Silly kant. You can't choose reality, it just is. Break shit down even further, and we can't even really know what reality truly is, because it is subjective to the observer. Literally. For example red isn't actually red, color doesn't actually exist, it is only perceived as red by the lack of light waves or whatever the fuck. What is redness to a rock? Is your red the same vibrancy or appearance of my red? Shit who knows.
See, dearie, Kant says that if you belive enough that your bicycle is really fucking sweet, it won't matter how it actually is, you'll see it as really fucking sweet. And it won't matter if people make fun of you for it, 'cause you're really fucking sure that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction, I mean, that Gay people will destroy America, I mean that if English was good enough for Jesus it's good enough for me, I mean that God told me to invade the Phillipenes, I mean that you've got a sweet-ass bitchin' bike.
Also, Spinoza is possibly the hottest ever. Other than Plato and Hegel. I'm on a Plato and Hegel kick. For like the last two months. So Fucking sweet. There is a world of forms, we're just approximating it.
Also, screw you Satre, your lack of an ideal sucks. But your philosophy is neat.
I love great books schools.
Anonymous
I like the fact that Sartre hates people, though that does get tiring after a while.
Hume is awesome. So is Wittgenstein.
Plato's overrated. He took everything he said too literally. A lot of his points made sense in a metaphorical sense, but he honestly believed them to be true. Sign of the times, I guess.
I never said I didn't understand Kant. My point is that I never got into Kant becuase I think other people's view of reality shapes our own and that there is an actual reality. In short, delusions don't make things real, they make you believe they're real, which may be operationally the same to you, but it isn't actually real, which is not what Kant always seemed to be saying to me.
Jack has spoken (written?) my thoughts on Satre, Hume, and Plato. Plato was always too Greek for me.
-Thomas
If you don't like Plato, you haven't read enough. He's fucking awesome. Awesome. He basically says that he doesn't have the answers, but creates a framework from which giving answers is OK. It's spectacular.
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