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Paradoxism is an avant-garde movement in literature, art, philosophy, science, based on excessive use of antitheses, antinomies, contradictions, parables, odds, paradoxes in creations. It was set up by the editor since 1980’s and promulgates a counter-time/ counter-sense creation. Paradoxism started as an anti-totalitarian protest against a closed society, Romania of 1980’s. Why was the movement based on contradictions? Because we lived in that society a double life: an official one – propagated by the political system, and another one real. In mass-media it was promulgated that “our life is wonderful”, but in reality “our life was miserable”. The paradox flourishing! And then we took the creation in derision, in opposite sense, in a syncretic way. Thus the paradoxism was born....

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Cyclopedia of issues in modern philosophy: The philosophy of science and religion, the cognitive sciences, cultural studies, aesthetics, art and literature, the philosophy of economics, the philosophy of psychology, and ethics....

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Claude Simon was trained as a humanist in arts and sciences in France, the UK and the USA. He worked as a teacher, researcher and consultant in schools, universities and private companies. He lived in London for ten years, then in Princeton and New York for eight years. He met the artist Cynthia in New York and they’ve been together ever since. They both traveled extensively through South America, Europe, Africa and Asia. Claude now lives in France. Throughout his life, he kept diaries of his numerous professional and personal experiences. He decided then to put his notes into readable formats, whether short stories, novels or poetry. Claude still occasionally teaches and coaches people, but he is now focusing his energies on finalizing book projects conceived over the past twenty years. With the “Mirror …” poems, from beautiful love feelings to mysterious existential questioning, Claude takes you through fireworks of suggestions, sensations and dreams. In turn plain and simple, soul searching or uncomfortably dizzy, his thoughtful melodies will carry you across unknown yet familiar spiritual landscapes. We hope they bri...

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(…) Here I am, with you, like an alien brother, You are here, with me, Intimate kin stranger, The door opens, The flood drowns us And sweeps away All words and thoughts. I am here in you, You are here in me, We are together in our unknown home, We are together, both in everything, Both with everything. (…) (from “Being in Nothingness”)...

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SENSELESS LOVE p. 7 LEARN AND UNLEARN p. 11 RESPONSIBLE p. 17 UNIFORM p. 21 REVOLUTION p. 25 A STORY OF A TIME p. 29 IN AND OUT p. 33 EVERYMAN AND NOBODY p. 41 I AM NOT ME p. 43 NO MONEY WORLD p. 51 ONE DAY p. 55 EVIL GOOD p. 57 INFINITE p. 61 A STORY WITHOUT A PLOT p. 67 MY NEW HOME p. 79 A PATH LIKE ANY PATH p. 81 BEING IN NOTHINGNESS p. 87 ...

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Cyclopedia of issues in modern philosophy: The philosophy of science and religion, the cognitive sciences, cultural studies, aesthetics, art and literature, the philosophy of economics, the philosophy of psychology, and ethics....

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A series of lectures on landscape painting delivered at Oxford in 1871, by artist, critic, and social commentator, John Ruskin.

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Essay/Short nonfiction, Philosophy, Nature

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Excerpt: Chapter 1. Who I Was and Who She Was. Oh, while she is still here, it is still all right; I go up and look at her every minute; but tomorrow they will take her away -- and how shall I be left alone? Now she is on the table in the drawing-room, they put two card tables together, the coffin will be here tomorrow -- white, pure white ?gros de Naples? -- but that?s not it?...

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The Symposium (Ancient Greek: Συμπόσιον) is a philosophical book written by Plato sometime after 385 BCE. On one level the book deals with the genealogy, nature and purpose of love, on another level the book deals with the topic of knowledge, specifically how does one know what one knows. The topic of love is taken up in the form of a group of speeches, given by a group of men at a symposium or a wine drinking party at the house of the tragedian Agathon at Athens. Plato constructed the Symposium as a story within a story within a story. This architecture creates the space for Plato to build his philosophy of knowledge. The speech of Socrates points out that the highest purpose of Love is to become a Philosopher, or Lover of Wisdom. (Summary from Wikipedia)...

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Ancient Texts, Philosophy

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volunteers bring you 17 recordings of Days by Ralph Waldo Emerson. This was the Weekly Poetry project for June 10, 2012. As a lecturer and orator, Emerson—nicknamed the Concord Sage—became the leading voice of intellectual culture in the United States. Herman Melville, who had met Emerson in 1849, originally thought he had a defect in the region of the heart and a self-conceit so intensely intellectual that at first one hesitates to call it by its right name, though he later admitted Emerson was a great man. Theodore Parker, a minister and Transcendentalist, noted Emerson's ability to influence and inspire others: the brilliant genius of Emerson rose in the winter nights, and hung over Boston, drawing the eyes of ingenuous young people to look up to that great new start, a beauty and a mystery, which charmed for the moment, while it gave also perennial inspiration, as it led them forward along new paths, and towards new hopes. ( Summary from Wikipedia )...

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Fantasy, Philosophy, Myths/Legends, Poetry

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The Art of Controversy (or The Art of Being Right ) ( Die Kunst, Recht zu Behalten ) is a short treatise written in 1831 by the German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer in which he presents thirty-eight methods of gaining an unfair advantage in a debate and thereby being right even if you are wrong. Schopenhauer champions the virtue of dialectical argument, in his view wrongly neglected by philosophers in favour of logic, and goes on to discuss the distinction between our conscious intellectual powers and our will. The text is a favourite of debaters including the philosophers AC Grayling and Mary Warnock, and the Mayor of London Boris Johnson. (Summary by Carl Manchester)...

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Philosophy, Instruction

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This so-called “globalization” is called on Internet in the following ways: global totalitarianism, neo-totalitarianism, new world order, global fascist order, neo-fascism, today’s new fascism, semi-colonialism, neocolonialism, global cyber hegemony (global control and manipulation of the Internet), global dictatorship, etc. where a few elites from some power countries try to take over the whole globe, which would become a prison planet. These unscrupulous, immoral, corrupted, genocidal, power-hungry elites will exercise an apartheid policy against the whole world, controlling people’s soul through their totalitarian regulation coercions....

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Dark Strategies in Politics. Various ideas, hints, possible methods These ideas are compiled from various readings. They are unethical, immoral, unfair, and devilish. They are unfortunately examples of bad behavior and intentions of some powerful elites and other malignant people. IN CONCLUSION, THIS IS A DO-NOT-DO LIST!... • Corruption, deception, betray to reach your goal; • To take someone’s property; • In nature it doesn’t exist equality, nor liberty; • Real instincts; • Being sincere and honest you loose for sure;...

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Preface: The Wolf Dressed in Sheepskin : 4 Global Totalitarianism and the Working Animals: 6 International Injustice in Science, Arts, and Letters: 23 Dark Strategies in Politics: 29 Extracts from Machiavelli’s leading “Prince”: 52 Extracts from Sun Tzu’s “The Art of War”: 55 ADDENDA: More References on (Anti)Globalization: 63...

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Collections of original poetry in the mainstream European tradition.

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Sweetly in the Silence For – March Wind Cascades Life The Being Part Discipline Barely Respite Out West One Mind Making Small-Scale Communion Covenant Nothing but Love Encounter Poetry, Charity White Mare Too Many People Age of Images Climbing in Spirit on Endless Hills Thoughts of Genji Entanglment Dream Little Words for Tao Ch’ien Sleeping Nowhere Wavering The Only One Viewing Burne-Jones’ Perseus Series No More Keep It Fluid Scale Scrap-Yard Diatribe In the Gallery Dimensionless A High Singing East-West, All Over Earth Murasaki Small Hours Mysterious Minds Of Light But Your Reality Star-Flower Self-Admonition Subterranean Rivers Out Over Strangest Flower Fecit Deep in the Long Grass Lullaby The Joy-Givers How Wholly How Little Time Is Plants and Stone Altitude Simple Fires Coitu True Notes Deer Trails White Bamboo I White Bamboo II Not For Sale Celebrate Considering Tao for Beginners Delta Only One The Task of Art Mountain Sighing Sign for the Human Race A Toast to Monsieur Mallarmé Solitude, My Beauty Dark Main ‘In the interstices of your spirit’ Intimacie...

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The Moral Equivalent of War, the last public utterance of William James, is significant as expressing the opinions of a practical psychologist on a question of growing popular interest. For the past fifteen years the movement for promoting international peace has been enlisting the support of organizations and individuals the world over. That this is a question on which much may be said for the opposition, James, though a pacificist, admits with his usual fair-mindedness, pointing out that militarism is the sole nourisher of certain human virtues that the world cannot let die, and that until the peace party devises some substitute, some moral equivalent, for the disciplinary value of war, their utopian goal is neither desirable nor possible. His own solution is advanced not as a practical measure, but merely as an illustration to show that the world is full of opportunities for the peaceful development and continuation of the martial qualities of human life. This essay was written for general dissemination as a publication of the American Association for International Conciliation, February, 1910. As it not only presents a peace pro...

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Philosophy, Essay/Short nonfiction, Politics

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John Ruskin (1819 – 1900) is best known for his work as an art critic and social critic, but is remembered as an author, poet and artist as well. Unto This Last is an important work of political economic though that influenced Gandhi, among others. (Hugh McGuire/Wikipedia)...

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Philosophy, Politics, Economics/Political Economy

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The Book of Tea was written by Okakura Kakuzo in the early 20th century. It was first published in 1906, and has since been republished many times. - In the book, Kakuzo introduces the term Teaism and how Tea has affected nearly every aspect of Japanese culture, thought, and life. The book is noted to be accessibile to Western audiences because though Kakuzo was born and raised Japanese, he was trained from a young age to speak English; and would speak it all his life, becoming proficient at communicating his thoughts in the Western Mind. In his book he elucidates such topics as Zen and Taoism, but also the secular aspects of Tea and Japanese life. The book emphasises how Teaism taught the Japanese many things; most importantly, simplicity. Kakuzo argues that this tea-induced simplicity affected art and architecture, and he was a long-time student of the visual arts. He ends the book with a chapter on Tea Masters, and spends some time talking about Sen no Rikyu and his contribution to the Japanese Tea Ceremony. (Summary from Wikipedia)...

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Philosophy, History

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Capital, Volume I is the first of three volumes in Karl Marx’s monumental work, Das Kapital, and the only volume to be published during his lifetime, in 1867. Marx’s aim in Capital, Volume I is to uncover and explain the laws specific to the capitalist mode of production and of the class struggles rooted in these capitalist social relations of production. Marx said himself that his aim was “to bring a science [i.e. political economy] by criticism to the point where it can be dialectically represented”, and in this way to “reveal the law of motion of modern society”. By showing how capitalist development was the precursor of a new, socialist mode of production, he aimed to provide a scientific foundation for the modern labour movement. In preparation for his book, he studied the economic literature available in his time for a period of twelve years, mainly in the British Museum in London.(Summary by Wikipedia)...

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Philosophy, Politics, Economics/Political Economy

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The introduction to Hegel's lectures on the philosophy of world history is often used to introduce students to Hegel's philosophy, in part because Hegel's sometimes difficult style is muted in the lectures, and he discourses on accessible themes such as world events in order to explain his philosophy. Much of the work is spent defining and characterizing Geist or spirit. Geist is similar to the culture of people, and is constantly reworking itself to keep up with the changes of society, while at the same time working to produce those changes through what Hegel called the cunning of reason. Another important theme of the text is the focus on world history, rather than regional or state history. The obscure writings of Jakob Böhme had a strong effect on Hegel. Böhme had written that the Fall of Man was a necessary stage in the evolution of the universe. This evolution was, itself, the result of God's desire for complete self-awareness. Hegel was fascinated by the works of Spinoza, Kant, Rousseau, and Goethe, and by the French Revolution. Modern philosophy, culture, and society seemed to Hegel fraught with contradictions and tensions, ...

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Philosophy, History

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volunteers bring you 20 recordings of Simplex Munditiis by Ben Jonson. This was the Weekly Poetry project for February 26, 2012. Ben Jonson was an English poet and playwright. He had a huge influence on both the theatre of his day and that which came after. Much of his poetry was inspired by the classical world of Ancient Greece and Rome. He also wrote a lot of satirical poetry on everyday topics, of which this poem is one such example. (Summary by Lucy Perry)...

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Philosophy, Romance, Poetry