I am proud, and when a philosopher exhibits pride, it is a great pride indeed. My activities are never directed toward any public, toward any applause from the masses or toward the encouraging chorus of my contemporaries. To walk alone along a lonely street is part of the philosopher's nature. His gift is the rarest gift of all, the most unnatural ( Read more... )

Dear Doktor Professor Heidegger, I should like to know what you mean by the expression "the fall into the quotidian." When did this fall occur? Where were we standing when it happened?

Transcript of a conversation between Harvey and a 9-year-old at the end of the latter's Latin tutorial:

Child: Do you have showers in your dorms?
Harvey: Yes... why?
C: Well, you smell.
H: Really? How so?
C: You have a man smell. Do you use soap?
H: Sure, I use soap.
C: My mom has some really good smelling soap... When's your birthday?

 H: the sign refers to the totality of worldhood
J: worldhood... weltlichkeit
H: weltlichkeit?
J: weltlich: worldly; keit: -ness; worldliness, but Macquarrie says worldhood
H: wolrldhood-of-the-world
J: weltlichkeit-der-welt, 'cause it's the genitive: der Welt
H: is weltlichkeit capitalized?
J: no, it's a made up word
H: but it's a noun: worldhood
J: shit, ( Read more... )

Prague was a modest success, not a great one. I drank less than I hoped I would. Does the fault lie with the failure or fantasy? The complications of travelling in company took their toll: the girls, who expired around ten each evening; their neglect of proper footwear and blistered feet that greatly hampered my speed; the intolerable and ( Read more... )

It is unfortunate for us that some of the greatest men, we know least, and talk most. Socrates, Christ and Shakespeare have, perhaps, contributed more to the enlightenment of mankind than any other three men who could be named, and yet the history of all three has given rise to a boundless ocean of discussion, which has left us little save the ( Read more... )

It seems that one often discovers somewhat bizarre patterns of behavior when travelling abroad. Sweden is no exception. What strikes me as particularly strange is the swedish attitude toward j-walking. You could be standing at a corner without a car in sight and every person next to you will be waiting patiently (minutes-on-end) for the pedestrian ( Read more... )

It was a rather dreary weekend here in Stockholm; it stayed in the low 50s and rained constantly. But by rain I mean more of a thick mist that gets whipped into a fury by strong winds. The weather is quite variable and, for the most part, overcast. I was told yesterday that it is “worse than usual”; there is nothing more disheartening for a ( Read more... )

It's been a slow day at the office; much to my chagrin, the Swedes do not take holiday on July 4th nor celebrate it in any way. In hopes of enlivening a little patriotic spirit among my coworkers I wore a light blue shirt, jeans and chique red tie--to no avail. But I soon hatched a new plan to memorialize the day.

One of the researchers here at IDEA ( Read more... )

I just finished my first two weeks in Stockholm-on-top-of-the-world and, for that matter, half of this year two ought ought seven. As we find ourselves in these middling days I thought I might share some stories. I intend to update this journal for one purpose and one only: to prevent repeating the same stories to my readers individually and thus ( Read more... )