Monthly Archives: July 2018

I know which view of the Empyrean I think more spiritual

Posted on by under Aesthetics, Art and Ideology, Art and social life, astronomy, creation, dialectical materialism, Neoplatonism - the pornography of academic philosophers, V.I.Lenin
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Gustave Doré’s 1855 illustration for The Divine Comedy: ‘Rosa Celeste: Dante and Beatrice gaze upon the highest Heaven, The Empyrean’.

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Neutrino associated with distant blazar jet

There is nothing in the world but matter in motion, and matter in motion cannot move otherwise than in space and time. Human conceptions of space and time are relative, but these relative conceptions go to compound absolute truth. These relative conceptions, in their development, move towards absolute truth and approach nearer and nearer to it. The mutability of human conceptions of space and time no more refutes the objective reality of space and time than the mutability of scientific knowledge of the structure and forms of matter in motion refutes the objective reality of the external world.

V.I.Lenin, Materialism and Empirio-criticism: Critical Comments on a Reactionary Philosophy, Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1975, 158

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As nature, so knowledge

Posted on by under astronomy, dialectical materialism, Marxism, NASA, Neoplatonism - the pornography of academic philosophers, V.I.Lenin
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The Extraordinary Spiral in LL Pegasi

‘Human knowledge is not (or does not follow) a straight line, but a curve, which endlessly approximates a series of circles, a spiral. Any fragment, segment, section of this curve can be transformed (transformed one-sidedly) into an independent, complete, straight line, which then (if one does not see the wood for the trees) leads into the quagmire, into clerical obscurantism (where it is anchored by the class interests of the ruling classes).’ 

Lenin, ‘On the Question of Dialectics’, 1915, Collected Works, Vol., 38 (Philosophical Notebooks), Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1972, 355-363, 363

‘Spiral in Development: a figurative description of the process of development employed by Engels and Lenin in elucidating the law of the negation of the negation. Development produces in phenomena an apparent return to the old in the course of change: some features of a lower level are repeated at a higher level. This may be depicted graphically as a spiral in which each new coil repeats the preceding one, but at a higher level. Development in a spiral forms a contrast to the typically metaphysical idea of development as being motion along a closed circle without any new elements.’

Dictionary of Philosophy, Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1984, 398-99

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The Ozzie spirit in 2018

Posted on by under Australian culture, Capitalism, Capitalist ideology

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Melissa Cunningham, ‘Cranky customers cause Woolies to backflip on plastic bags’, The Sydney Morning Herald, 30.06.18

Woolworths has backflipped on its plastic bag ban after irate customers refused to pay for plastic bags at the checkout.

The supermarket giant will hand out free reusable plastic bags for 10 days, after stores were inundated with complaints from customers who refused to pay for bags or did not have enough of their own stored up.

It comes a week after Woolworths issued a ban on single-use plastic bags in stores across NSW, Victoria, Queensland and Western Australia. The reusable plastic bags, which usually cost 15 cents, will be available free until July 8, the supermarket giant said.

“Since we phased out single-use plastic bags nationwide on June 20, some customers have told us that getting into the habit of bringing their own reusable bags has been a challenge,” Woolworths managing director Claire Peters said. “We’ve listened to these customers and heard they just want a little extra help from us to get through the transition to a more sustainable way of shopping. This will not only help support customers as they work to form new habits, but also ensure they’ll have reusable bags on hand when they next shop with us.” …

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