filepedia.org - [fiat lux]

On the Essence of Truth

admin — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 02:59:05 +0000

"Our topic is the essence of truth. The question regarding the essence of truth is not concerned with whether truth is a truth of practical experience or of economic calculation, the truth of a technical consideration or of political sagacity, or, in particular, a truth of scientific research or of artistic composition, or even the truth of thoughtful reflection or of cultic belief. The question of essence disregards all this and attends to the one thing that in general distinguishes every “truth” as truth.

A Plea for Captain John Brown

admin — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 17:13:32 +0000

A Plea for Captain John Brown is an essay by Henry David Thoreau. It is based on a speech Thoreau first delivered to an audience at Concord, Massachusetts on October 30, 1859, two weeks after John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry, and repeated several times before Brown’s execution onDecember 2, 1859. It was later published as a part of Echoes of Harper's Ferry in 1860.

On Truth and Lies in a Nonmoral Sense

admin — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 15:29:08 +0000

Über Wahrheit und Lüge im außermoralischen Sinn (in English: "On Truth and Lies in a Nonmoral Sense", also called "On Truth and Lie in an Extra-Moral Sense") is an (initially) unpublished work of Friedrich Nietzsche, written, if not published, in the year following The Birth of Tragedy; 1873.

Provocations

admin — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 20:16:17 +0000

Divided into six sections, Provocations contains a little of everything from Kierkegaard's prodigious output, including his wryly humorous attacks on what he calls the "mediocre shell" of conventional Christianity, his brilliantly pithy parables, his amazing insights on the human condition, and his incisive attempts to dig through the fluff of theological jargon and clear a way for the basics: decisiveness, obedience, passion, and recognition of the truth.

A Defense of Poetry

admin — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 05:36:59 +0000

A Defence of Poetry is an essay by the English poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, written in 1821 and first published posthumously in 1840. It contains Shelley's famous claim that "poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world".

Barack Obama - Obama Inaugural Address January 20, 2009

admin — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 17:39:05 +0000

Songs and Sonnets

admin — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 00:21:44 +0000

THE FLEA.

MARK but this flea, and mark in this,
How little that which thou deniest me is ;
It suck'd me first, and now sucks thee,
And in this flea our two bloods mingled be.
Thou know'st that this cannot be said
A sin, nor shame, nor loss of maidenhead ;
Yet this enjoys before it woo,
And pamper'd swells with one blood made of two ;
And this, alas ! is more than we would do.

O stay, three lives in one flea spare,
Where we almost, yea, more than married are.
This flea is you and I, and this
Our marriage bed, and marriage temple is.

Lecture on Ethics

admin — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 15:57:49 +0000

A popular lecture given, it is believed, in Cambridge to the society known as “The Heretics” in 1929 or 1930.

Clews to Emerson’s Mystic Verse (1903)

admin — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 00:41:56 +0000

PREFATORY NOTE.

Of the following studies in Emerson's poetry, as origi nally printed, my friends Charles Eliot Norton, William Rounseville Alger, and Charles Molloy, all veteran students of their revered friend's verse, and among the best living interpreters of his thought, wrote me in very flattering terms expressive of their enjoyment in reading them and their approval of the material as accurate and of permanent value. Hence its appearance in this pamphlet form. I have availed myself of Professor Norton's judgment in correcting one or two points in which I was in error. The " Clews " are not intended to be read independently of the poems, but as gloss and commentary for one who has the poems in hand.

W. S. K. BELMONT, MASS., May i, 1903.

Barack Obama - Obama's Victory Speech

admin — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 05:49:39 +0000

Barack Obama spoke in Grant Park in Chicago, IL at 12:00am ET on Wednesday, November 5, 2008.

Barack Obama - 2008 Democratic National Convention

admin — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 19:40:07 +0000

Malcolm X - The Oxford Union Debate (1964)

admin — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 18:37:51 +0000

"On November 30, Malcolm X flew to the United Kingdom, where he participated in a debate at the Oxford Union on December 3. The topic of the debate was "Extremism in the Defense of Liberty is No Vice; Moderation in the Pursuit of Justice is No Virtue", and Malcolm X argued the affirmative. Interest in the debate was so high that it was televised nationally by the BBC."

On the Concept of History

admin — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 19:57:29 +0000

"Walter Bendix Schönflies Benjamin (July 15, 1892 – September 27, 1940) was a German-Jewish Marxist literary critic, essayist, translator, and philosopher. He was at times associated with the Frankfurt School of critical theory and was also greatly inspired by the Marxism of Bertolt Brecht and Jewish mysticism as presented by Gershom Scholem."

On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History

admin — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 19:39:07 +0000

The greatest and most enduring of the prophets of the Victorian era, Thomas Carlyle was prescient about the importance of heroism in defining a nation's ambition and character. First published in 1841, his On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History established a foundation for historical studies that has lost none of its importance in an age of sports, photo-ops, and cable news.

From its first pages the book recognizes the intimate connections between heroism and myth. Beginning with the legends of Odin, lord of the Nordic gods, Carlyle describes major forms that heroism can take: in god, poet, warrior, priest, prophet, and king.

Heroism

admin — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 23:21:05 +0000

"Paradise is under the shadow of swords."
Mahomet

Ruby wine is drunk by knaves,
Sugar spends to fatten slaves,
Rose and vine-leaf deck buffoons;
Thunderclouds are Jove's festoons,
Drooping oft in wreaths of dread Lightning-knotted round his head;
The hero is not fed on sweets,
Daily his own heart he eats;
Chambers of the great are jails,
And head-winds right for royal sails.

Death's Duel

admin — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 13:23:28 +0000

"This sermon was, by sacred authority, styled the author's own funeral sermon, most fitly, whether we respect the time or matter. It was preached not many days before his death, as if, having done this, there remained nothing for him to do but to die; and the matter is of death--the occasion and subject of all funeral sermons. It hath been observed of this reverend man, that his faculty in preaching continually increased, and that, as he exceeded others at first, so at last he exceeded himself.

Edward Said - The Tragedy of Palestine

admin — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 20:21:54 +0000

Rice University President's Lecture by Edward Said, professor of comparative literature and chair of the doctoral program at Columbia University, on "The Tragedy of Palestine." Delivered on March 26th, 1998.

Barack Obama - Yes We Can

admin — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 06:37:43 +0000

Barack Obama speaks in Nashua, New Hampshire on the night of the democratic primary (January 6, 2008).

Martin Luther King - Why I Am Opposed To The War In Vietnam

admin — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 06:23:32 +0000

Sermon at the Ebenezer Baptist Church on April 30, 1967

Ecclesiastes

admin — Sat, 31 May 2008 23:49:26 +0000

"Ecclesiastes is a book of the Hebrew Bible. The English name derives from the Greek translation of the Hebrew title.

"The author represents himself as the son of David, and king over Israel in Jerusalem. The work consists of personal or autobiographic matter, at times expressed in aphorisms and maxims illuminated in terse paragraphs with reflections on the meaning of life and the best way of life. The work emphatically proclaims all the actions of man to be inherently "vain", "futile", "empty", or "meaningless," depending on translation, as the lives of both wise and foolish men end in death. While the teacher clearly promotes wisdom as a means for a well-lived earthly life, he is unable to ascribe eternal meaning to it. In light of this perceived senselessness, the preacher suggests that one should enjoy the simple pleasures of daily life, such as eating, drinking, and taking enjoyment in one's wife and work, which are gifts from the hand of God."