Tara Stiles: Orthoskepsis: When Too Much Thinking Is A Bad Thing

Tara Stiles: Orthoskepsis: When Too Much Thinking Is A Bad Thing: 

"Perhaps thinking too much could be the problem. American physician Steven Bratman proposed the term orthorexia: 'orth' (right and correct) 'orexia' (appetite). The term refers to an unhealthy obsession with healthy eating. Orthorexia is not yet an eating disorder recognized by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. However, academic investigation is underway. I am convinced we also have an unhealthy obsession with thinking. What would that be called? Orth-o-skepsis (orth, plus the Greek skepsis: examination, doubt, skeptical philosophy). I just made that up. I threw in the 'o' so it would sound ok."

I'm not sure what I think about this.  On the one hand thinking too much is the cause of a lot of my misery, on the other trusting yr gut turns you into George W. Bush...

Conservatives lose first evolution vote | KXAN.com

Conservatives lose first evolution vote | KXAN.com: 

"AUSTIN (KXAN) - The drama over the potential inclusion of creationism or intelligent design in Texas biology curriculum is over for now as a coalition of six Democrats and two Republicans defeated an amendment that would have maintained discussion of evolution's 'weaknesses.'"

I love Texas.  It is nice not to have to be ashamed of it today.

Reviews: November 1979

Reviews: November 1979:

"Painter, playwright, novelist, aesthetician, and philosopher, Witkiewicz -- or Witkacy as he called himself -- belongs to the writers and thinkers known in Poland as catastrophists, who sprang up in the period framed by two world wars, the first of which brought the Polish state back into existence after nearly 150 years of dismemberment, and the second of which threatened the nation with total annihilation. Poised between cataclysms, Witkacy forecast an apocalyptic close to Western civilization and wrote with sardonic humor about the approaching end of the world."

Witkiewicz

Witkiewicz: 

"Reared in realistic ideology, we always ask of each work of art, 'Well all right, but what is it trying to say? What is it supposed to represent? What is the 'idea' behind this work?' As soon as we fail to get satisfactory answers to these questions, we turn away in disgust from the work under discussion, swearing more or less politely and repeating triumphantly, 'I don't understand.' We do not want to grasp the simple truth that a work of Art does not express anything in the sense in which we have grown accustomed to use the word in real life. Thus it always has been and always will be until Art comes to an end, which probably (and fortunately) will not happen in the form of naturalistic stagnation, as our stormy and anguished times prove. We do not understand that a work of Art is what it is and nothing else, since we have grown accustomed to think that Art is the expression of some kind of real-life content, the representation of some real or fantastic worlds, something that has value only when compared to something else of which it is the reflection. Even if we actually experience something else, which was and is the deepest essence of our individuality -- its directly given, irreducible unity -- we pay no attention to this impression under the impact of an ideology falsified by realism . . ."

Witkacy: Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz (1885-1939)

Witkacy: Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz (1885-1939): 

"He wrote: 'On leaving the theater, one should feel that he has woken up from some strange dream in which even the commonest of things possessed some strange unfathomed charm characteristic of dreams incomparable to anything else.'

This dream-like world is the only way, according to Witkacy that the theater can fulfill its task, which is to transport the spectator into an exceptional state, the state of sensuous comprehension of the Mystery of Existence which, in its pure form, cannot be reached so easily in the passing of daily life."

Witkacy: Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz (1885-1939)

Witkacy: Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz (1885-1939): 

"According to Witkacy, this Mystery can never be solved, but it can be experienced. In his theory of art, he claimed that through the experience of true art (primarily painting, drama, music) an individual intensifies his or her feelings of individuality and affirms his/her own uniqueness in the face of an alien universe. As a result, the individual restores temporarily what Witkacy calls Metaphysical Feeling of the Strangeness of Existence, which simultaneously creates a childlike sense of wonder and anxiety."

Text of President Barack Obama's inaugural address - Top AP Stories - MiamiHerald.com

Text of President Barack Obama's inaugural address - Top AP Stories - MiamiHerald.com: 

"We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus - and non-believers."