HU TEQUILA! (Prof. L. G.)
Ganz tolle Fragen habe ich mir fuer Sie ausgedacht. Da wuerde ich am liebsten selbst mit ankreuzen! HZ (Dr. K. S.)
"Es mißfällt mir." – Warum? – "Ich bin ihm nicht gewachsen." – Hat je ein Mensch so geantwortet? (Friedrich Nietzsche)
"If once a man indulges himself in murder, very soon he comes to think little of robbing; and from robbing he comes next to drinking and Sabbath-breaking, and from that to incivility and procrastination." (Thomas De Quincey)
Wer das Fenster offenläßt, der zündet auch Autos an und frißt auch kleine Kinder. HZ Dr. K. S.
"I call that 'the falling problem'. You encounter it when you first study physics. You realize that, if you were ever dropped from a plane without a parachute, you could calculate with a high degree of accuracy how long it’s take to hit the ground, your speed, how much energy you’ll deposit into the earth. And yet, you would still be just as dead as a particularly stupid gorilla dropped the same distance. Mastery of the nature of reality grants you no mastery over the behavior of reality. I could tell you your grandpa is very sick. I could tell you what each cell is doing wrong, why it’s doing wrong, and roughly when it started doing wrong. But I can’t tell them to stop."
"Why can’t you make a machine to fix it?"
"Same reason you can’t make a parachute when you fall from the plane."
"Because it’s too hard?"
"Nothing is too hard. Many things are too fast." Zach Weiner
Nach dem Aufstand des 17. Juni
Ließ der Sekretär des Schriftstellerverbands
In der Stalinallee Flugblätter verteilen
Auf denen zu lesen war, daß das Volk
Das Vertrauen der Regierung verscherzt habe
Und es nur durch verdoppelte Arbeit
zurückerobern könne. Wäre es da
Nicht doch einfacher, die Regierung
Löste das Volk auf und
Wählte ein anderes? — Bertolt Brecht („Die Lösung“)
"How did you go bankrupt?", Bill asked.
"Two ways", Mike said. "Gradually and then suddenly." Ernest Hemingway (The Sun Also Rises)
The Measure of a Man
He did a few things, made a few friends, and left when he couldn't take crying over what was happening to the people he cared so much about.
447.Die Unruhe in der Philosophie, könnte man sagen, kommt daher, daß wir die Philosophie falsch ansehen, falsch sehen, nämlich gleichsam in (endlose) Längsstreifen zerlegt, statt in (begrenzte) Querstreifen. Diese Umstellung der Auffassung macht die größte Schwierigkeit. Wir wollen also gleichsam den unbegrenzten Streifen erfassen und klagen, daß es nicht Stück für Stück möglich ist. Freilich nicht, wenn man unter einem Stück einen endlosen Längsstreifen versteht. Wohl aber, wenn man einen Querstreifen darunter versteht.
– Aber dann kommen wir ja mit unserer Arbeit wieder nicht zu Ende! – Freilich nicht, denn sie hat keins.
(Statt der turbulenten Mutmaßungen und Erklärungen wollen wir ruhige Erwägung sprachlicher Tatsachen setzen.)(Wittgenstein)
"Are you coming to bed?"
"I can’t. This is important."
"What?"
"Someone is wrong on the Internet." XKCD ("Duty Calls")
Ethical philosophy question:
Q- Why does the devil keep his deals?
A- Because as an immortal he has an infinite time horizon of other deals he jeopardizes if he betrays any given deal. Therefore the opportunity cost is too high.
Q- What does that make politicians then?
A- Lower in ethical reliability than the devil.
"A newspaper man has got to know when to keep his mouth and his mind shut. You might end up dead."
"Isn’t that the usual fate of men, Harry?" R. A. Lafferty (Fourth Mansions)
402.„Nichts ist so gewiß wie, daß mir Bewußtsein eignet.“ Warum soll ich es dann nicht auf sich beruhen lassen? Diese Gewißheit ist wie eine große Kraft, deren Angriffspunkt sich nicht bewegt, die also keine Arbeit leistet.403.Erinnere dich: die meisten sagen, man spüre in der Narkose nichts. Manche aber sagen doch: Man könnte ja doch etwas fühlen und es nur völlig vergessen. — Wittgenstein, Zettel (1929–&1948)
"...in case of need I will make bombards, mortars, and firethrowing engines of beautiful and practical design." It starts with Archimedes focusing the sun’s rays upon the fleet at Syracuse, it starts with the first rock hurled by the first grasping hand. It starts where we start. It is mind, it is hunger, it is greed, it is defense, it is mischief, it is the devil, it is the god; it is life... Carter Scholz (Radiance/Leonardo da Vinci)
"Wir benennen die Dinge und können nun über sie reden. Uns in der Rede auf sie beziehen." – Als ob mit dem Akt des Benennens schon das, was wir weiter tun, gegeben wäre. Als ob es nur Eines gäbe, was heißt: 'von Dingen reden'. Während wir doch das Verschiedenartigste mit unsern Sätzen tun. Denken wir allein an die Ausrufe. Mit ihren ganz verschiedenen Funktionen.
Wasser
Fort!
Au!
Hilfe!
Schön!
Nicht!
Bist du nun noch geneigt, diese Wörter 'Benennungen von Gegenständen' zu nennen? [...] — Wittgenstein (Philosophische Untersuchungen)
"I did not understand a word; but I know: this is philosophy" was the deep conviction of a highly gifted young physicist after he had heard Martin Heidegger speak. Karl Popper
"I don’t speak", Bijaz said. "I operate a machine called language. It creaks and groans, but it is mine own." Frank Herbert (Dune Messiah)
"I see by your outfit you may be a preacher."
"Yes, I am,—of the non-theistic, non-sectarian sort."
..."A totally nondenominational prayer: Insofar as I may be heard by anything, which may or may not care what I say, I ask, if it matters, that you be forgiven for anything you may have done or failed to do which requires forgiveness. Conversely, if not forgiveness, but something else may be required to insure any possible benefit for which you may be eligible after the destruction of your body, I ask that this, whatever it may be, be granted or withheld, as the case may be, in such a manner as to insure your receiving sad benefit. I ask this in my capacity as your elected intermediary between yourself and that which may not be yourself, but which may have an interest in the matter of your receiving as much as is possible for you to receive of this thing, and which may in some way be influenced by this ceremony. Amen." Roger Zelazny, (Creatures of Light and Darkness)
"I will tell you what I am talking about", he said. "Most kinds of power require a substantial sacrifice by whoever wants the power. There is an apprenticeship, a discipline lasting many years. Whatever kind of power you want. President of the company. Black belt in karate. Spiritual guru. Whatever it is you seek, you have to put in the time, the practice, the effort. You must give up a lot to get it. It has to be very important to you. And once you have attained, it’s your power. It can’t be given away: it resides in you. It is literally the result of your discipline.
Now what is interesting about this process is that, by the time someone has acquired the ability to kill with his bare hands, he has also matured to the point where he won’t use it unwisely. So that kind of power has a built-in control. The discipline of getting the you so that you won’t abuse it.
But scientific power is like inherited wealth: attained without discipline. You read what others have done, and you take the next step. You can do it very young. You can make progress very fast." Michael Crichton (Jurassic Park)
Wenn man das schneller machen koennte, koennte man das schneller machen. HU Prof. J.-P. R.
Bleibt nur die Frage, ob das was bringt. Prof S.K.
Errata
Das ist falsch... spannend! HU Prof. L. G.
Da habe ich einen Fehler gemacht... interesting. HU Prof. K. M.
Das klingt verdaechtig. HU Prof. S.K.