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“In its use of this method natural science has shown a curious mixture
of rationalism and irrationalism. Its prevalent tone of thought has been
ardently rationalistic within its own borders, and dogmatically irrational
beyond those borders. In practice such an attitude tends to become a dog-
matic denial that there are any factors in the world not fully expressible in terms of its own primary notions devoid of further generalization. Such
a denial is the self-denial of thought.”
― Process and Reality: An Essay in Cosmology
of rationalism and irrationalism. Its prevalent tone of thought has been
ardently rationalistic within its own borders, and dogmatically irrational
beyond those borders. In practice such an attitude tends to become a dog-
matic denial that there are any factors in the world not fully expressible in terms of its own primary notions devoid of further generalization. Such
a denial is the self-denial of thought.”
― Process and Reality: An Essay in Cosmology
“It is a profoundly erroneous truism, repeated by all copy-books and by eminent people when they are making speeches, that we should cultivate the habit of thinking of what we are doing. The precise opposite is the case. Civilization advances by extending the number of important operations which we can perform without thinking about them. Operations of thought are like cavalry charges in a battle — they are strictly limited in number, they require fresh horses, and must only be made at decisive moments.”
― An Introduction to Mathematics
― An Introduction to Mathematics
“With an influx of sensory information comes a need for complex internal processing. When more is known, decisions become more complicated.”
― Other Minds
― Other Minds
“Relating to objects can be looked at in the same way as psychosomatic coexistence and the wider issue of integration. Object-relating is something that the maturational process drives the baby to achieve, but cannot happen securely unless the world is presented to the baby well enough. The adapting mother presents the world in such a way that the baby starts with a ration of the experience of omnipotence, this being the proper foundation for his or her later coming to terms with the Reality Principle.”
― Home Is Where We Start From: Essays by a Psychoanalyst
― Home Is Where We Start From: Essays by a Psychoanalyst
“You sense what's going on and do something in response. But doing something, if you are made of many cells, is not a trivial matter, not something that can simply be assumed. It takes a great deal of coordination between your parts. This is not a big deal if you are a bacterium, but if you're a larger organism, things are different. Then you face the task of generating a coherent whole-organism action from the many tiny outputs--the tiny contractions, contortions, and twitches--of your parts.
A multitude of micro-actions must be shaped into a macro-action.”
― Other Minds
A multitude of micro-actions must be shaped into a macro-action.”
― Other Minds
Raff’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Raff’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
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