The Sea-Wolf
on its release in 1904. Ambrose Bierce wrote "The great thing - and it is among the greatest of things - is that tremendous creation, Wolf Larsen...the hewing out and setting up of such a figure is black for a man to do in one lifetime." The Sea Wolf tells the story of intellectual Humphrey van Weyden's toughening and growth in the face of brutality and hardship. Set adrift after his ferry collides in fog and sinks, van Weyden is pulled out of the sea by Wolf Larsen.
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- For me it was Jack London's fiction The Sea-Wolf. I was/am interested in philosophical ideas/frameworks but the simple direct materialistic philosophy espoused by Wolf Larsen in the above book made me question everything i had read.
Here are the relevant excerpts : https://old.reddit.com/r/books/comments/1jqpar/what_book_sin...
We are mere "Animals" with a far more complex social structure than any other species which is why we invent all sorts of "subjective meanings" to "objectively meaningless" life. How to reconcile both is the eternal "Human Condition" problem.
See also : Philosophy in a Meaningless Life: A System of Nihilism, Consciousness and Reality by James Tartaglia. Free pdf at - https://www.bloomsburycollections.com/monograph?docid=b-9781...
- There is no "Purpose" defined for you from external sources; "Purpose" is only defined by You yourself which can be anything and nothing at all. Your are a collection of "Streams of Thought-Forms" and it is entirely up to you whether you want to stay with one stream (i.e. Purpose) or not.
A couple of my previous comments are relevant here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32920232 and https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32920420
The following two books helped me wrestle with this problem;
* The Sea-Wolf by Jack London - Some relevant excerpts can be found here: https://old.reddit.com/r/books/comments/1jqpar/what_book_sin...
* Philosophy in a Meaningless Life: A System of Nihilism, Consciousness and Reality by James Tartaglia - You can download a free copy from here: https://www.bloomsburycollections.com/book/philosophy-in-a-m...
- Why do people refuse to face Reality? We are just Biological Animals with a Complex Social Structure called "Civilization" which is but just a veneer.
Reminds me of one of my favourite passages from The Sea-Wolf by Jack London;
“Do you know, I sometimes catch myself wishing that I, too, were blind to the facts of life and only knew its fancies and illusions. They’re wrong, all wrong, of course, and contrary to reason; but in the face of them my reason tells me, wrong and most wrong, that to dream and live illusions gives greater delight. And after all, delight is the wage for living. Without delight, living is a worthless act. To labour at living and be unpaid is worse than to be dead. He who delights the most lives the most, and your dreams and unrealities are less disturbing to you and more gratifying than are my facts to me.”
He shook his head slowly, pondering.
“I often doubt, I often doubt, the worthwhileness of reason. Dreams must be more substantial and satisfying. Emotional delight is more filling and lasting than intellectual delight; and, besides, you pay for your moments of intellectual delight by having the blues. Emotional delight is followed by no more than jaded senses which speedily recuperate. I envy you, I envy you.”
He stopped abruptly, and then on his lips formed one of his strange quizzical smiles, as he added:
“It’s from my brain I envy you, take notice, and not from my heart. My reason dictates it. The envy is an intellectual product. I am like a sober man looking upon drunken men, and, greatly weary, wishing he, too, were drunk.”
“Or like a wise man looking upon fools and wishing he, too, were a fool,” I laughed.
“Quite so,” he said. “You are a blessed, bankrupt pair of fools. You have no facts in your pocketbook.”
“Yet we spend as freely as you,” was Maud Brewster’s contribution.
“More freely, because it costs you nothing.”
“And because we draw upon eternity,” she retorted.
“Whether you do or think you do, it’s the same thing. You spend what you haven’t got, and in return you get greater value from spending what you haven’t got than I get from spending what I have got, and what I have sweated to get.”
- Hear! Hear! :-) It really amazes me why people are not willing to acknowledge their own status in a hierarchical society. Recognizing where you stand and who you are indebted to, is the first step towards a equitable society.
If you have not already read it, i recommend Jack London's The Sea-Wolf to you (have listed some excerpts in this thread).
- I really rate Jack London as the great American novelist. I like the lessor known Sea Wolf the best of his but White Fang and The Call of the Wild really capture a sense of adventure and the history and vibe of that period of American expansion into the West.
- You make a very good point. The central issue has become; What does the word Philosophy itself mean in the current time and context? The way i look at it is as a holistic integration of the essence of the various compartmentalized sciences. It is of necessity somewhat vague since everything plays into (in some form) what one may call as my emergent consciousness. As a living organism on a time scale, i need to continuously adapt to my circumstances but how do i do it and still maintain autonomy? Nature has given us a brain which thinks thoughts well over and above that of mere survival and reproduction. Hence my need for meaning and happiness.
One way is a completely materialistic viewpoint best laid out by Jack London in his novel "The Sea Wolf" - https://old.reddit.com/r/books/comments/1jqpar/what_book_sin... The other way is to either subscribe (suspending judgement) to an existing school and follow its Religion or come up with your own based on what appeals to you.
