"Possibly the best comic strip EVER in the history of the entire universe", claimed one commentator.
I think Dennis the Menace (in its heydey), Gaston Lagaffe and one or others may occupy the same pantheon as Calvin and Hobbes, but there is little doubt that, for all those of us who have been deeply touched by the warmth, humour, sheer humanity with which Bill Watterson blessed us over so many years, these creations occupy a very special place in our hearts.
A.S. Byatt tells us that "for the Victorians, everything was part of one thing - science, religion, philosophy, economics, politics, women, poetry. They didn't compartmentalise - they thought big." - quote in New Statesman, 27/04/09
This is the Halcyon philosophy too, as much of what's most interesting and important in life appears to come from the interconnectedness of ideas, from the alchemy of putting together - in the words of Theodore Zeldin - two ideas that have never met.
"He who cannot draw on three thousand years is living from hand to mouth", so said Goethe, as quoted in Jostein Gaarder's philosophy primer-cum-mystery novel Sophie's World.
Wade Rowland, in Ockham's Razor, argued, inter alia:
The nineteenth century British economist Alfred Marshall said: "The economist, like everyone else, must concern himself with the ultimate aims of man." The ultimate aims. He must concern himself, in other words, with values.
Alan Watts proposed that "the most real state is the state of nothing," Our current reality, argued ideapod, is just a small piece in the reality of what it means to exist, to be nothing. While many consider this current state of existence, of life, as the crux of reality, perhaps our real state occurs before and after our lives in the abyss of "nothingness".
See also:
Why bother to study philosophy? Philosophical refl ection doesn't accomplish anything, but there are three reasons we might want to study it. First, to better understand ourselves. Second, because how we think about ourselves and our actions affects what we do and how we do it. Third, because ideas have practical consequences. People kill each other when they disagree about ideas, rights, religions, etc. Philosophical refl ection enables us to step back and critically examine the origins, validity and consequences of our ideas - Simon Blackburn, Think (paraphrased)
So are we all really being watched over by "machines of loving grace"? If you've never seen the documentaries by Adam Curtis, full as they are of quirky and strangely compelling arguments, patterns and links between the seemingly unlinked, then sit back, ingest a huge pinch of salt, take it all in and think for yourself.
Why bother to study philosophy? Philosophical refl ection doesn?t accomplish anything, but there are three reasons we might want to study it. First, to better understand ourselves. Second, because how we think about ourselves and our actions affects what we do and how we do it. Third, because ideas have practical consequences. People kill each other when they disagree about ideas, rights, religions, etc. Philosophical refl ection enables us to step back and critically examine the origins, validity and consequences of our ideas - Simon Blackburn, Think (paraphrased)
To be a philosopher is not merely to have subtle thoughts, nor even to found a school, but so to love wisdom as to live according to its dictates, a life of simplicity, independence, magnanimity, and trust - Henry Thoreau
The essence of philosophy is that a man should so live that his happiness shall depend as little as possible on external things - Epictetus