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    Being in the world

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    Heidegger had an interesting concept about being. As distinct from those who saw being as essentially concerned with consciousness, Heidegger saw humans as part of the world inextricably. His expression Dasein describes that experience of being fully part of the world. After his ‘turn’ Heidegger coined the term Gelassenheit a…

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  • Drawing a line

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    The Conservative government in the UK would like to draw a line under investigations into criminal activity in Northern Ireland at some random date in the past. Despite the opposition of all political parties in the North and the government in the South, Westminster has forced a bill through that…

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    Angst or angoise

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    I am enjoying Sarah Bakewell’s book At the Existentialist Café. It gives a history of modern philosophers like Sartre, Camus, Beauvoir and Heidegger. At the heart of French Existentialist thinking was the idea of freedom. “To realise the extent of my freedom is to be plunged into a state of…

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  • Task driven

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    This is one of those expressions favoured by corporate types in interviews along with team player, good communicator and purveyor of bullshit. But maybe there is some foundation of truth in the idea that we are all task driven. We set our own goals and try to stay focused in…

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  • Bronowski

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    Jacob Bronowski has a brilliant series of ‘personal views’ being repeated on the BBC called the Ascent of Man. His concluding episode made some interesting points about the relationships between science and the arts and the integrity of knowledge. He stated that it is our duty to safeguard knowledge from…

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  • Falling down

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    Recently I have taken a couple of tumbles that have added to my difficulties staying mobile. Both incidents were entirely my own stupid fault. On a wet evening, I put on my flip-flops and got on my bike to go to the off-license. I misjudged the kerh by someone’s driveway…

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  • Absurdity

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    The Myth of Sisyphus is a bit of a downer. The first chapter deals with suicide, reasons for, reasons why despite those reasons people continue to live their lives. The timing for reading about suicide is not great given that a family member recently took his own life. I had…

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  • Albert Camus

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    I am collecting Albert Camus’ seminal work The Myth of Sisyphus from Waterstones bookshop today. I’m hoping that it will give me some insights into his famous quote about integrity. I read his novels The Plague and The Stranger when I was a teenager because that’s what my older brother…

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  • The kiss of death

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    Putin probably didn’t kiss Yevgeny Prigozhin, consensually or otherwise, full on the lips. But in true football management style he appeared to forgive his indiscretions just before he arranged for him and the innocent passengers on his plane to be blown out of the skies. The Wagner group having sworn…

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    Jerk chicken

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    I bought Gordon Ramsay’s cookbook at a charity shop the other day. One of the recipes that took my fancy was his version of jerk chicken. I had most of the ingredients apart from the chicken legs, scotch bonnet chillies and fresh thyme. For the marinade he specified scotch bonnet…

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