Philosophical Thoughts
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I started reading two philosophy books recently and found them interesting enough to want to share my thoughts. The books are Less Than Nothing by Slavoj Zizek (a book on Hegel) and the Critique of Judgment by Immanuel Kant.
Less Than Nothing: Hegel says that Being and Nothing are the same thing. Obviously this makes no sense and is a major reason many people write him off as a philosopher (it's one of his first postulates in Science of Logic). Zizek explains what he means though: the undifferentiated senses, without any thoughts or reasoning behind them, is the same thing as Nothing. A common interpretation of the afterlife is "nothing" or "blackness"-- Hegel is saying that's what Being already is. Lay down relaxed, thinking about something cheerful, without any pressures on you, and you are already there-- Nothing. The only difference between the "eternal darkness" of the afterlife and that is the colors appearing through the eyesight (which is possibly where the "eternal darkness" conception of the afterlife comes from-- people closing their eyes and thinking that's what happens when you die, that that's Nothing).
Critique of Judgment: After refuting Reason's ability to think about things beyond what it has experienced in the Critique of Pure Reason*, Kant remolds our ability to think in the Critique of Judgment. I just started the book so I haven't gone too far into it, but he separates thinking's ability to think in terms of aesthetics and teleology: our aesthetic experience of the world and our ability to discern principles in Nature. This reminded me of the formula of Magick: the Art and Science of causing Change in conformity with Will. Our Art is our aesthetic preference in the world and our Science is our ability to discern Nature's principles and act in accordance with them. The term "aesthetic" itself is almost liberating in its nihilism and lack of judgment: all that is is what appears. Very empty and very beautiful.
*Such as the beginning of the universe and other metaphysical speculations. Pure reason can't talk about what it hasn't experienced.