Stand and Face the World

What We Must Do

"We want to stand upon our own feet and look fair and square at the world - its good facts, its bad facts, and its ugliness; see the world as it is, and be not afraid of it. Conquer the world by intelligence, and not merely by being slavishly subdued by the terror that comes from it.  The whole conception of God is a conception derived from the ancient Oriental despotisms. It is a conception quite unworthy of free men.  When you hear people in church debasing themselves and saying that they are miserable sinners, and all the rest of it, it seems contemptable and not worthy of self-respecting human beings.  We ought to stand up and look at the world frankly in the face.  We ought to make the best we can of the world, and if it is not so good as we wish, after all it will still be better than what these others have made of it in all these ages.  A good world needs knowledge, kindliness, and courage; it does not need a regretful hankering after the past, or a fettering of the free intelligence by the words uttered long ago by ignorant men.  It needs a fearless outlook and a free intelligence.  It needs hope for the future, not looking back all the time towards a past that is dead, which we trust will be far surpassed by the future that our intelligence can create."
- Bertrand Russell, Why I Am Not A Christian, 1927

[Does "Oriental" really mean from the Middle East and India; although despotisms existed all around the world.]

Bertrand Russell on God and Religion. Edited by Al Seckel. Prometheus Books, 1986, index, 250 pages.

Buddhism Without Beliefs: A Contemporary Guide to Awakening. By Stephen Batchelor. New York, Riverhead Books, 1997, 127 pages.  

Free Thought: My Views

Nature Mysticism

How to Live a Good Life: Advice from Wise and Respected Persons

"Face the world and go crosswise."
Linji, Zen Master, 850 CE

Little Tricks for Getting By Well

How To Live

"Don't Worry About Death
Pay Attention
Be Born
Read at lot, forget most of what you read, and be slow-witted
Survive love and loss
Use little tricks
Question Everything
Keep a private room behind the shop
Be convivial: live with others
Wake from the sleep of habit
Live temperately
Guard your humanity
Do something no one has done before
See the world
Do a good job, but not too good a job
Philosophize only by accident
Reflect on everything; regret nothing
Give up control
Be ordinary and imperfect
Let life be its own answer"

-  Summary of some of the views of Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) by Sarah Bakewell in How to Live: Or A Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at an Answer, 2010.    

How to Live a Good Life: Advice from Wise Persons

Green Way Research

A Philosopher's Notebooks by Mike Garofalo


Currently, I am reading the excellent biography of Michel de Montaigne by Sarah Blackwell.  I first read Montaigne back in 1964.  Now, in 2015, in my own semi-retirement, I find rereading Montaigne's reflections in his "retirement" on his own life, times, experiences, thoughts, and feelings to be intellectually stimulating.  Intellectual history and biographies are some of my main reading interests.  


The Essays by Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592)  Translated by Donald M. Frame.  New York, Everyman's Library, 2003.  I own the complete works by Montaigne in a Kindle digital version for easier reading.  1392 pages.  ISBN: 1400040213.  VSCL.

How to Live: Or A Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at an Answer  By Sarah Bakewell.  New York, Other Press, 2010.  Index, bibliography, notes, 399 pages.  ISBN: 9781590514832.  VSCL.

 

I Love Science

 "I love science, and it pains me to think that so many are terrified of the subject or feel that choosing science means you cannot also choose compassion, or the arts, or be awed by nature. Science is not meant to cure us of mystery, but to reinvent and reinvigorate it."
- Robert Sapolsky, Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers

"In the end, it's probably impossible to tease out whether the heads or tails of science, the theory or the experiment, has done more to push science ahead." (DS, p36).  


"It is theory that decides what we can observe."
-  Albert Einstein

"Consider what effects, that might conceivably have practical bearings, we conceive the object of our conception to have. Then, our conception of these effects is the whole of our conception of the object."
-  Charles Sanders Pierce

The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements  By Sam Kean.  Little, Brown and Company, 2010.  400 pages.  ISBN: 978-0316051644.  VSCL.  Subjects: Chemistry, Periodic Table, Science, Elements.  This book is the most interesting, informative, and well written book I have read in the last 60 days. 

The modern sciences of physics and chemistry have discovered or synthesized 118 Elements.  This fascinating subject can be studied through the graphical model of the Periodic Table of Elements first conceived in 1869 by the Russian chemist, Dmitri Medneleev.  Read the "Disappearing Spoon" for the fascinating story of the Table of the Elements. 

   

Religion of the Enlightenment

 Nature's God: The Heretical Origins of the American Republic.  By Matthew Stewart.  W.W. Norton, 2014.  Index, notes, 566 pages.  

Naturalism, Deism, Atheism 

Books on Atheism, Agnosticism, Non-Religious, Freethinkers, Humanists

Freethinkers: A History of American Secularism. By Susan Jacoby.  Holt, 2004.  448 pages. 

Religion in America: Percentage of People Who Are Independent of Religion

Mike' Garofalo's Experiences and Views on Religion

Pragmatism and American History

Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress.  By Steven Pinker.  Penguin Books, 2018, 576 pages.  VSCL. 

My Intellectual and Spiritual Heritage

Buddhists, Taoists, Philosophers

Noted Authors, Scholars, Translators, Editors, Teachers

** These are my teachers.
This is my intellectual heritage, my "lineage".
These are the authors I have read and studied since 1962.

* ** *** I have benefitted and applied what I have learned! *** ** *

Confucius (551-479 BCE) Philosopher *

Lao Tzu (Circa 450 CE) Taoist *

Buddha (Circa 450 CE) Buddhist **

Aristotle (384-322 BCE) Philosopher ***

Epicurus (341-270 BCE) Philosopher *

Epictetus (50 BCE-135 CE) Philosopher *

Heshang Gong (250 CE) Taoist *

Bodhidharma (450 CE) Buddhist *

Huineng (638-713 CE) Buddhist *

Mazu Daoyi (709-788 CE) Buddhist

Eihei Dogen (1200-1253) Buddhist **

Chang San-Feng (1247-1317) Taoist *

Ikkyu Sojun (1394-1481) Buddhist *

Takuan Soho (1573-1645) Buddhist

Bankei Yotaku (1622-1693) Buddhist

Menzan Zuiho (1683-1769) Buddhist

Hakuin Ekaku (1686-1769) Buddhist **

Ryokan Taigu (1758-1831) Buddhist

Daisetsu T. Suzuki (1870-1966) Buddhist **

Reginald H. Blyth (1898-1964) Scholar ***

Philip Kapleau (1912-2004) Buddhist *

John Blofield (1913-1937) Buddhist

Trevor Leggett (1914-2000) Buddhist *

Alan Watts (1915-1973) Scholar **

Robert Aitken (1917-2010) Buddhist ***

Burton Watson (1925-2017) Scholar *

Thich Nhat Hanh (1926-2022) Buddhist **

Dalai Lama (1938-) Buddhist **

Red Pine (1943-) Scholar *

Sam Hamill (1943-2018) Scholar *

Yang Jwing-Ming (1946-) Taoist **

Norman Fischer (1946-) Buddhist

Thomas Cleary (1949-2021) Scholar ***

David Hinton (1954-) Scholar *

Deng Ming-Dao (1954-) Taoist **

Eva Wong (1955-) Taoist **

Livia Kohn (1956-) Scholar *

 

Renaissance Wisdom

 Renaissance Wisdom

"Believe in the individual
Learn to love learning
Help others achieve their potential
Be humble
Question everything
Know thyself
Believe in providence
Be courageous
Remember death (memento mori)
Seek eudaimonia, not happiness."

- Shane Sorensen, Renaissance Wisdom: How to Flourish in the Modern Day, 2022.

How to Live a Good Life: Advice from Wise and Respected Persons

 

Summer Activities: Reading, Gardening, Celebrations, Travel

Every month, I browse, fast read, or read ten to twenty books, and carefully read or study two or three books on the following subjects: the history of ideas, intellectual history, zeitgeist studies, philosophy of history, biographies.  

Intellectual History - My hypertext notebook

This month, for example: 

Whitehead, Alfred North.  Science and the Modern World, 1926.  

Dictionary of the History of Ideas: Studies of Selected Pivotal Ideas, 4 Volumes.  Philip P. Wiener, Editor in Chief.  New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1968, 1973.  For example, Volume 1: 677 pages, Contains: Abstraction in the Formation of Concepts to Design Argument.  An outstanding resource for under $70.00 for the four volume paperback set.  VSCL. 

 

I am retired, so I am like a college student again.  I use libraries and bookstores to acquire new and used  titles, and reread books books in my home library.  I read articles on the Internet and this counts for six books.  

Currently, I am reading books and articles related to the history of thinking about time, processes, the meaning of the future, process theology, ecology, feelings of duration, Whitehead, Hartshorn, Cobb.

Process Philosophy

Getting ready for Summer Solstice Celebrations, and busy with gardening at home.  Our California weather permitted vegetable gardening all year, with "summer veggies" from May to October.  The Solstice (June 21st) is one kind of a "Mid-Summer" celebration of maximum Sun during the day, fertility, productivity of agriculture, gratitude for blessings from the Earth, exuberance, zest ...

Our Summer 2021 travel adventures include a trip to cabins and boating on Silver Lake, Fourth of July fun, a wedding in Spokane, river boat trips, Olympic National Park (Forks, La Push), and mid-summer visits to the Pacific Coast.  Canada is still closed due to pandemic flu rules, so our trip to British Columbia (300 miles north) will wait till later.  

Pulling Onions by Mike Garofalo

An Intellectual History of the 20th Century

I am an avid reader of books about intellectual history.  The history of ideas, thinking, philosophy, science, literature, art and cultural achievements is fascinating to me.  

I have enjoyed reading two books by Peter Watson:  

Watson, Peter.  The Modern Mind: An Intellectual History of the 20th Century.   New York, Harper Perennial, 2002.  Index, notes, bibliography, 864 pages.  ISBN: 978-0060084387.  VSCL. This book approaches the subject in a narrative fashion in chronological order.  It lacks any illustrations.  It is especially strong on science, technology, and medicine since these were so dominant and creative in the past century.  He reviews the developments in art and literature quite thoroughly. 

Watson, Peter.  The Age of Atheists: How We Have Sought to Live Since the Death of God.  By Peter Watson.  Simon and Schuster, 2014.  640 pages.  ISBN:  978-1476754314.  VSCL.

His writing is clear, interesting, filled with facts and good observations and explanations, detailed, and directly relevant for us 21st century readers.