Philosophy Wire: Blue apple. Miracles. What are we afraid?

Alice in Wonderland...

Philosophy Wire by Spiros Kakos [2016-12-12]: Blue apple. It does not exist. And yet you can talk about it. You can draw it. Soon you will be able to create it in a lab. What is it that CANNOT be done? Why is it that science is so opposed to miracles while at the same time it leads us to believe than anything can be done, given time? Is it that we do not believe in miracles or are we do afraid we might see one?

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Philosophy Wire: Light, Time, One.

Philosophy Wire by Spiros Kakos [2013-11-19]: Ancient light. Travelling for billions of years. [1] And yet, for it is looks as though only three years have passed. [2] An eternity in a moment. Parmenides in practice!

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Parmenides - A time traveler

He took one step and then hesitated. The Engine had never been tested in practice and this made him anxious. However this was the only opportunity they had before the Pentagon guys got their hands on it in a few hours. A time machine was the dream of every superpower and they seem to have made it come true. Before the generals came to claim their prize, they wanted to fulfill one of their own - more personal - dreams. A few days before the body of a man was discovered in a ditch at Athens Greece. The body was dated back to the time of ancient Athens. With him archeologists found some notes on Parmenides. Now they wanted to try to go back in time and make every philosopher would envy - to try to talk with Socrates face to face! "Certainly a much more noble goal," thought James and started again walking towards the Engine. The latter had been secretly transferred with a C-5 in Greece and was set in a place near the ditch where the archaeological discovery was made.

The whole scene was simple and nothing betrayed the importance of the moment. Suspense filled the air. With a paper notepad as his only ally, he got into the Engine. Enable.

Without the many effects or colors that he imagined he would see, he was in ancient Athens. It was getting dark. The gold Attic Sun was setting and suddenly his heart calmed. All the stress was gone. He was in the middle of a dirt road. Alone. Heard footsteps behind him. Hide. Reacting instinctively, he lowered his head beneath a mound, without knowing why. Three men were walking toward him, talking. Even from afar he began to understand his terrible luck! It was Parmenides and his pupil Zeno, who had come to visit Athens. And the third man, who now looked young, was Socrates! Many historians wrote about this meeting of these giants of philosophy. And he was now there – a live witness! He pulled out his notepad and quickly began to take notes. The men walked slowly and spoke loudly in the deserted dirt road. But it was something he did not like in the whole scene. Ignore it. The men had approached him now. James continued to frantically write down what he heard and then he realized it with terror. At the same time a snake suddenly bit him in the neck! She was beside him all the time as he was concentrated in writing and he had not noticed it. He started spitting blood while the snake was moving away in the ditch. The same ditch where the dead man with the notes to the Parmenides had been discovered! A tear rolled down his cheek as he was dying. The men moved on.

It started raining. Thick mud slowly covered him. He pulled his notes close to him and slept.

Spiros Kakos

Athens, 04/2013

Philosophy Wire: Naming things, Parmenides, existence…

Philosophy Wire by Spiros Kakos [2013-01-25]: Researchers claim that most of the world's plant and animal species could be named before they go extinct. [source: web news] We are obsessed with “naming” things! We HAVE to name them, to give credit to the Ideas of Plato which we cherish so much. By naming something we make it “exist”. And only what “exists” can “stop existing”. Maybe we should try to listen to Parmenides and the other pre-Socratic philosophers…

 

Related article: What does it take to believe in death... Part 4

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Philosophy Wire: Journalism, Bild, Zeitung, prejudice, Parmenides…

Philosophy Wire by Spiros Kakos [2012-05-13]: Journalists from Sueddeutsche Zeitung refused to receive the Henri Nannen Journalism Award due to the fact that newspaper Bild was also awarded [source: 1, 2]. Prejudice is difficult to fight. When you “know” that something is not of a high quality, how can you accept it as something else if it changes? Wasn’t Parmenides who said that the notion of Change is an illusion after all (see Harmonia Philosophica) ? How can something change, but still remain the “same” so that we are able to refer to it by the same name?

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Philosophy Message: The Immortal Blogger. What are you going to post in 3100 A.D. ?

Philosophy Message by Spiros Kakos [2011-10-09]: What happens to a blog when its owner dies? A macabre thought someone might say, but this is a real problem that our generation will be the first to face. In 1000 years from now the Internet surfer will come across sites and blogs whose owner once existed and will then be no more. But is this the case? Any one can program future blog posts. This is a way to abolish the all-knowing Time and show to the future generations that “existence” can only have the meaning with which Homer used it. Exist = Begin something. “Non existence” does not exist. And Google Blogger can be a weird technological way to prove in essence what Parmenides postulated thousands of years ago. What will you program to post in 3100 AD ?

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Philosophy Wire: T2K, neutrinos, matter and the illusion of Change…

Philosophy Wire by Spiros Kakos [2011-06-16]: Scientists from the T2K project in Japan discovered that neutrinos can possibly interchange states between the three possible states of that particle type [source: BBC News]. No matter how much we want to disregard Zenon and no matter how much we like to believe in the notion of Change, Nature always finds ways to remind us of the unity of all things…

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Philosophy Wire: Do literature heroes actually exist?

Philosophy Wire by Spiros Kakos [2011-04-22]: An author of a popular book is accused that what he has written is just lies, created by his imagination [source: CNN News]. What defines what is real and what is not? Can we talk about something "not existent"? If we had not "discovered" that the author lied, the facts he mentioned in his book would remain "true" for us forever... Does Mickey Mouse exist? But we have many books written about him... Does the "X" person who lived in ancient Egypt, for whom we know nothing, exist? How can really such a person "Exist"? Can we think of something that does not exist? Parmenides said no... As Feyerabend said, at the times of Homer there was no distinction between "real" and "fictional" things - everything just "Were" (see Harmonia Philosophica) What about you? How much do you believe that your favorite literature hero "exists"?

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Philosophy Wire: Waves, de Broglie, Parmenides

Philosophy Wire by Spiros Kakos [2011-04-03]: Recently, scientists managed to create a device which produces waves and can form any type of shape on the surface of the water by adjusting the superposition of those waves [source: AMOEBA 1, ΑΜΟΕΒΑ 2, AMOEBA MoMA]. The waves are extremely simple, beautiful and interesting as a phenomenon. A ripple on a fluid's surface can cause things that one can easily "see" as object, or "hear" as a sound. And they may explain many (if not all) of what we experience everyday. Any theory that says the world is "One" will surely find a great ally in waves. A theory based on waves can explain the world "as One", much more easily than any theory based on "atoms". A single reality through which waves propagate can - according to some - explain consciousness and even the observed phenomena of telepathy (see the Holographic Universe Theory for example). A single reality through which waves propagate can support Parmenides and the blinded modern science, which wants to analyze everything in components without knowing if this is even feasible or correct. The waves have energy, they can cuperimpose and create new waves or they can collide and nullify each other. From the theory of de Broglie that particles behave like waves to the current string theory, waves are still the only way where every "strange" idea of "unity" seems possible. Perhaps that is why we love so much looking at the waves of the sea and maybe this is why we are sometimes intimidated by the same waves at the ocean...

Related articles for a unified reality: Harmonia Philosophica [English]

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Philosophy Wire: The pardon to Billy the Kid and the philosophy of "non-existence"


Philosophy Wire by Spiros Kakos [2010-12-31]: The Governor of New Texas, Bill Richardson, finally denied to grand pardon to the notorious criminal of the Wild West known by the name "Billy the Kid" (source: news article). The weird about the case is not the pardon itself. The interesting thing in this case is the mere fact that people tend to talk and discuss about people who have died, about people who have "ceazed to exist". How do we do that? Why do we do it? How can we discuss about something which "does not exist"?, Parmenides would ask...

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Philosophy Wire: From an apple that is not an apple to death that is not death...

Philosophy Wire of Spiros Kakos: 2010-12-01 Okanagan Specialty Fruits Inc. (OSF) has created a genetically modified apple that does not brown after being cut. [Source: http://news.in.gr/science-technology/article/?aid=1231069393, http://www.businessreviewcanada.ca/sectors/food/genetically-modified-non-browning-apples-british-columbia-0] Is an apple that does not turn brown after being cut an apple?

What are the characterisitcs an apple has? How many characteristics of an apple can we change before we stop talking about "apples"? Are things really different or is the world ONE as Parmenides said? [http://knol.google.com/k/harmonia-philosophica#] What actually is "is" ? What makes something what it "is" ? If we change one characteristic of something, is that something the "same" ? Yes? What if we change two characteristics? Do we still have the "same" thing? If we change all characteristics of  normal "apples" as we know them now, in 2010, will they still be "apples"? Imagine the same questions for humans and your mind can blow up... All of our cells change - are we still the "same" person? If yes, what about death? Is that also a small "characteristics change" in our body and existence? Do we still remain humans, as apples that do not brown are still "apples" ?

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