Philosophy Wire: Seeing while being blind…

Scientists have studied color vision by probing individual sensory cells in the human eye. The results confirm that the photoreceptor cells of the retina are especially sensitive to colors corresponding to their visual pigments, even when stimulated in isolation. A new observation is that proximity effects play a key role: sensitivity varied depending on which cell classes were located in the immediate neighborhood. [1] We analyze vision. Thinking of colors. But the cosmos was not always like that. The cosmos wass black. Void of any colours. No blue. No red. And then came Homer. And an ocean dark as wine came to be. And a sky bright as bronze manifested into existence. The fire of Troy was lit. And suddenly, due to an old blind man, we all started to see…

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Philosophy Wire: Science fiction, prediction, dictation.

Philosophy Wire by Spiros Kakos [2013-06-23]: Futuristic cities' designs remind us very much pictures from the recent War of the Worlds. [1] Science fiction does not predict future developments. It dictates them!

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One last spaghetti...

He had just come back from the funeral. His mother had just died. She was his most beloved person. She had taken care of him for so many years, raised him, she... his eyes wet, started crying again. From a small child he had been pondering on the possibility (it was just a... possibility back then) of his parents dying. And whenever he thought about it, his mother always came and reassured him that everything will be OK... But today she wasn't there. She would not be there anymore. Not now. Not ever again. And that "Never" really made his heart ache. It was that sense of security that he missed the most. A person who loved him so much that would do anything just to make him feel better. He felt good around her. Now he felt void.

With heavy feet he opened the door. Entered the lounge, then went slowly into the kitchen. He hadn't eaten since the previous day. Since he heard the bad news... He thought eating was an insult to his mother. He could not put anything into his mouth after her death. But now biology came to overcome his will. He had to eat something. Mechanically and unwillingly he opened the fridge trying to find something editable. He opened the door and saw a plate of spaghetti. Tears started pouring from his eyes. Tears he couldn't stop. It was the food his mother made for him yesterday just before she died. Ready as he liked it. He couldn't even see the plate with his blurred eyes. Took it. Placed it on the table. Started eating it. Slowly. Each time he ate, he remembered of his mother preparing it. He cried even more. Every bite brought more sadness to his heart. The sauce. As he preferred it. With a lot of vinegar as he liked it. Another bite. And another. He kept on crying while finishing his food. She had even put extra chesses as she only knew he liked it. And another bite. The food was getting less and less. The last meal from his mother. He ate it but at the same time wanted to leave it as it is. It was the last thing he had from her. Another bite. Every time he felt so pleased from the excellent food, he also remembered of who prepared it and the pleasure went away instantly. Tears again. Mechanically he ate it all. When he was a kid, he would always ask for more. And she would - with all her love - give him more. Smiling.

He fell sleepy. Slowly he bent over the table and laid his head on it. His eyes closed and he dreamed of the only thing that would make his soul pleased. Another plate of spaghetti with cheese... And in his sleep, just for a fleeting moment, he smiled...

Spiros Kakos

2/2013 – Athens, Greece

Philosophy Wire: Proust, lost texts, sea, Odette…

Philosophy Wire by Spiros Kakos [2012-11-19]: Unknown texts of Marcel Proust are to be published in a book for the first time. [source: web news] In those texts the writer dreamed of great landscapes with endless grass or sea. Landscapes he “visited” once again in the “In Search of Lost Time”… In those texts he referred to Odette. A person he remembered later in his life with nostalgia… No matter what “scientists” say, how real are the things we think about depends solely on us.

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Philosophy Wire: Hemingway, laziness, genius

Philosophy Wire by Spiros Kakos [2012-07-10]: Just under 50 alternative endings for Ernest Hemingway's classic novel A Farewell to Arms are being published for the first time in the US. Hemingway famously revealed that he re-wrote the ending 39 times to get the words right, although the actual figure was 47 [source: BBC News]. Who said that genius is a by-product of genes? Whoever is bored to re-write even one line, let him know that he will never become a Hemingway this way…

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Philosophy Wire: Does Ten-Ten exist? Stupid question… Or not?

Philosophy Wire by Spiros Kakos [2011-11-14]: Does the hero Ten-Ten actually exist? A child’s question someone might say. But this question (i.e. what “exists”, what is “real”) troubles philosophers for thousands of years. Let us think this question along with a similar one: Does Aristotle exist? Let us see what do we have as “data” for these two persons. First of all we have writings referring to them. Secondly we have movies referring to them. Then we have persons believing they are real (yes, ask a kid if Ten Ten exists). So when you analyze the question “objectively”, both persons “exist”. There is no essential difference between the “existence” of these two persons. And when it is difficult to define something (like “time”, “existence” et cetera), then maybe the answer is too simple to see”: maybe what it is difficult to define simply does not exist! Maybe there is no distinction at all between “real” and “fake” as in the days of Homer…

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Philosophy Wire: Dracula diary & the Resurrection of the Author…

Philosophy Wire by Spiros Kakos [2011-10-30]: The journal of the writer of Dracula has been found. Details of it will be published in a book soon [source: CNN News]. Why would we need to learn the inner thoughts of a writer in order to judge his writing or gain a better grasp of it? A novel is a novel. Read it and like it. Or read it and hate it. As simple as that.

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Philosophy Wire: 3D and a Book… Winner is not a surprise!

Philosophy Wire by Spiros Kakos [2011-09-28]: Cinema goers in UK say that 3D plays a minor role in the quality of a movie, according to a survey [source: BBC News]. Technology tricks never replace the real thing. A good writer can generate more feelings than even the most modern graphics engine. Reading the last scene from Steinbeck’s “Grapes of Wrath” book will always be more intense than any viewing of a 3D high-tech movie…

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Philosophy Wire: Philip Roth, Oscar Wild and the need of “non reading”

Philosophy Wire by Spiros Kakos [2011-06-30]: Great controversy has aroused from the nomination of the Booker International Prize (a known literary prize) to author Philip Roth [source: BBC News]. Philip has been accused of being a misogynist and anti-semitic. Is literature judging a place for personal opinions or just a place to honor writing talent? Maybe Oscar Wilde was right after all when he said that a critic should not read too much the books he writes critics about. If you do, you get too much involved with the content and you may start taking the whole endeavor all too personal…

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Philosophy Wire: Asterix, neurosurgeons and the existence of Obelix

Philosophy Wire by Spiros Kakos [2011-06-18]: A team of German neurosurgeons took the liberty to analyze the hundreds of head injuries roman legionnaires had to suffer at the hands of the ruthless gaul Asterix and even published a paper for that [source: web news, one can find the research here]. Many of us have grown up with these comics and we now that a scientific paper is published on them we are more “legitimate” in still reading them… Comics heroes do exist! Even scientists study them !

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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: Egypt, the banned graphic novel and the blurred boundaries between good and evil...

Philosophy Wire by Spiros Kakos [2011-03-27]: A graphic novel which Mubarak regime banned in Egypt, is to be released in English [source: CNN Edition]. The comic tells the story of a young man who disgusted by corruption, decides to rob a bank. During each era the boundaries of good and evil is blurred. And every society likes to designate its own. Our era of "democracy" leaves room for anyone to say what he wants and we tend to blame those who impose prohibitions or censorship as "primitive". The old regime of Egypt regarded the idea of robbing in this comic as objectionable. We do not, simply because we usually see everyday and everywhere around us robberies, murders and other criminal acts... I wonder how many ancient Egyptians would allow the circulation of a book describing the marriage between men? Without going into the specific details on what is right and wrong, le'ts not forget that these definitiona are always on the move... Let's not judge so strictly the old ones, because we will once be the "old ones" for the generations that will come. An open minded man must be open to both new and old knowledge and opinions. Which "rule" says that the newer view is most correct anyway? In any case all values, besides a hard core of universal values, have an expiration date. But in all cases the "faith in Justice" is what drives all laws. Who thinks that art is above the Law? Who think that law is above Art, the highest way of human spirit expression?

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Philosophy Wire: The shipwreck, Moby Dick and hybris today

Philosophy Wire by Spiros Kakos [2011-02-13]: Divers discovered the shipwreck of a whale ship, the capten of which was the inspiration of the Herman Melville's masterpiece "Mobu Dick" [source: web news]. Capten Ahab was obsessed with the big white whale and tried to go beyond the boundaries of himself and of nature. He was punished for his ύβρις. What are our obsessions today? What do we strive to do beyond the very limits of our Nature? What kind of "Moby Dick" do we chase nowadays?

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