This journal is mostly public because most of it contains poetry, quotations, pictures, jokes, videos, and news (medical and otherwise). If you like what you see, you are welcome to drop by, anytime. I update frequently.

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Posts Tagged: 'philosophy'

Apr. 8th, 2024

med_cat: (woman reading)
med_cat: (woman reading)

Smile ;)

med_cat: (woman reading)
— Здравствуйте, Евгений Маркович! Вас беспокоит сбербанк.
— Здравствуйте, Вы ошибаетесь.
— ... В смысле?
— Меня не беспокоит сбербанк.
— ... В смысле?
— Меня беспокоит осознание невозможности преодоления собственной смерти и риск неправильного распоряжения собственной свободой.
— ... В смысле?
— В смысле, как Кьеркегора. А сбербанк меня не беспокоит.

"Hello, Evegeniy Markovich! This is Savings Bank, sorry to bother you."

"Hello, you are mistaken."

"...What do you mean?"

"The Savings Bank isn't bothering me."

"...What do you mean?"

"What is bothering me is the realization of impossibility of overcoming one's death and the risk of incorrectly using one's freedom."

"...What do you mean?"

"I mean, as Kierkegaard wrote about it. But the Savings Bank isn't bothering me at all."
~~

Букинист приходит к своему другу проверить, нет ли у него чего-нибудь, что могло бы подойти для коллекции.
- Вот, недавно выкинул довольно старую Библию, - говорит друг, - она у меня валялась черт знает с какого года.
- А кто издатель, ты не смотрел?
- Какой-то Гут... Гутен...
- Гутенберг?!!
- Да, точно, Гутенберг!
- Что же ты наделал! Это же первая печатная книга, за нее тебе бы дали миллионы долларов!
- Ну, не знаю... Мою бы и за ломаный грош никто не купил. Она была вся исчиркана пометками, а какой-то идиот исписал все поля своими примечаниями, да еще и подписался: "Мартин Лютер".

A man who runs a used-books shop comes to visit his friend to ask if he has anything suitable for sale.

"Oh, I threw out a very old Bible recently," the friend says, "it was lying about since who even knows when."

"Who was the publisher, do you recall, by any chance?"

"Some fellow named Gut... Guten..."

"Gutenberg?!"

"Yes, that was it, Gutenberg!"

"What have you done?! This was the first book ever to be published, you could have sold it for several million dollars!"

"Oh, I don't know about that...I don't think anyone would've given even a penny for my copy. It had marks and underlining all through the text, and some idiot also filled all the margins with his handwritten comments, and he even signed his name: 'Martin Luther'".

;))

Jan. 18th, 2024

med_cat: (dog and book)
med_cat: (dog and book)

The Philosopher Song

med_cat: (dog and book)


Nov. 20th, 2023

med_cat: (Ad astra)
med_cat: (Ad astra)

Quote of the day

med_cat: (Ad astra)
И после плохого урожая нужно сеять" - эти слова Сенеки для меня являются точкой опоры в трудные моменты внешних катаклизмов.

"Even after a bad harvest, you must sow," these words of Seneca's are something I rely on, during the difficult times of external catastrophes.
Read more... )

Sep. 5th, 2022

med_cat: (woman reading)
med_cat: (woman reading)

"What you should do if there's nothing you can do" (Engl)

med_cat: (woman reading)
(From the Telegram channel "Popular Philosophy"; translation is mine)


What should you do if there's nothing you can do?


One of the most awful trials one can encounter during one's lifetime is the trial by helplessness.

These are situations which occur in life when you can see evil, you realize that it is evil, you are fully aware of all the insanity and unfairness of everything that is going on, but there is nothing you can do about it.

You cannot stop it, you cannot protect others from it, you cannot punish those responsible. What should you do?

There are two very important actions which it is necessary to take in such a situation. Read more... )

Sep. 1st, 2022

med_cat: (woman reading)
med_cat: (woman reading)

"What you should do if there's nothing you can do" (Rus)

med_cat: (woman reading)
[Forwarded from Популярная философия]

Что делать, когда ничего не можешь сделать?

Одно из самых страшных испытаний, с которыми можно столкнуться в жизни, - это испытание бессилием.

Это такие ситуации в жизни, когда ты видишь зло, понимаешь, что это зло, осознаешь все безумие и несправедливость происходящего, но ничего не можешь с этим сделать.  

Не можешь остановить, не можешь защитить, не можешь наказать. Как быть?

Есть два очень важных действия, которые необходимо совершить в такой ситуации.Read more... )

May. 9th, 2022

med_cat: (woman reading)
med_cat: (woman reading)

"We are smarter than our enemy by one book"

med_cat: (woman reading)

...немае нiчого небезпечнiшого нiж пiдступний ворог, але немае нiчого отрутнiшого вiд удаваного друга...

нет ничего опаснее коварного врага, но нет ничего ядовитее притворного друга

via [personal profile] murysia

Jan. 9th, 2018

med_cat: (woman reading)
med_cat: (woman reading)

Pics and links

med_cat: (woman reading)
Photos:

High above Jupiter's Clouds, a photo from NASA

A Kamchatka photo, by Denis Budkov

Astronomy and Philosophy:


Pale Blue Dot, by Carl Sagan, from Brain Pickings

Medicine and Applied Psychology:

Things to say to a friend with a serious illness

(instead of, "Everything will be OK", "Stay strong", and "Everything happens for a reason"...)

"Showing up", another article on the proper way to provide support, from the Option B website

Option B website, on how to build resilience, and help others, with personal stories

What depression is really like, from Brain Pickings

[psych] Attitude: an excellent analysis of the importance of attitude and the truth behind the Law of Attraction, from [livejournal.com profile] siderea

Two dying memoirists wrote bestsellers about their final days. Then their spouses fell in love.

(about John Duberstein and Lucy Kalanithi, from The Washington Post)

How Blue Eyes Get Their Color, from Science Alert (and how other eye colors are generated, as well)

Poetry:

Tennyson's Sea Fairies and Other Poems, a scan of the beautifully illustrated 1890 edition

Much-Loved Poems: An Anthology of some of the English-Speaking World's Favorite Poetry

Nov. 3rd, 2017

med_cat: (H&W gray)
med_cat: (H&W gray)

Quote of the day

med_cat: (H&W gray)

"One must always remember that we are not merely made of skin and bone. We are spiritual beings who can achieve all we set out to do. All we have to do is believe in the truth of our existence.

We were not put on this Earth by chance and either have we been put here simply to live and die. We are all on a wonderful journey of discovery. Not only to discover the joys and hardships of life, but to discover who we really are."

(Jeremy Brett)

Apr. 17th, 2017

med_cat: (woman reading)
med_cat: (woman reading)

"Is your soul appalled?" by Elizabeth Gilbert

med_cat: (woman reading)
Elizabeth Gilbert

Question of the day: IS YOUR SOUL APPALLED?

Dear Ones:

I often receive questions from people who are trying to find their path in life, but don't know which way to turn. ("I'm stuck," is the most familiar expression of this dismaying condition.)

Getting unstuck can be a long process — even a lifelong process — but here is a line of thought I try to offer people, when I see them struggling...it goes something like this:

For reasons that you may never understand, you have been given stewardship over a human soul — which is, of course, your own. This soul was born into YOU — born into your very specific life. Your soul, born into this life, is what my friend Rob Bell calls "a unique event in the history of the universe." There has never been one of you before. Nobody has ever tried the experiment of YOU yet. Nobody has ever tried being this particular soul, lodged in this particular body, born into this particular family, arriving at this particular moment in time, raised in this particular culture, faced with these particular challenges. (And, as Rob also reminds us, that realization alone can be a comforting thought, when you are feeling lost and overwhelmed: NOBODY HAS EVER TRIED THE EXPERIMENT OF YOU YET. Why did you think you were supposed to get it right on the first try? You are a unique event. There is no precedent. There is no operational manual. So show yourself some mercy, if this business of being you seems impossibly tricky at times. You have to figure you out as you go. Sometimes "figuring yourself out as you go" can feel like you're tinkering with the engine of a car, while you are also driving that car down the highway at 70 mile an hour, and while you are also the passenger. Perfect. I think it's supposed to feel like that. It's a strange situation. Have patience with yourself.)

Read more... )

Nov. 1st, 2016

med_cat: (Hourglass)
med_cat: (Hourglass)

Quote of the day

med_cat: (Hourglass)
When you wake up in the morning, tell yourself: The people I deal with today will be meddling, ungrateful, arrogant, dishonest, jealous, and surly. They are like this because they can’t tell good from evil.

But I have seen the beauty of good, and the ugliness of evil, and have recognized that the wrongdoer has a nature related to my own — not of the same blood or birth, but of the same mind, and possessing a share of the divine.

And so none of them can hurt me. No one can implicate me in ugliness. Nor can I feel angry at my relative, or hate him.

We were born to work together like feet, hands, and eyes, like the two rows of teeth, upper and lower.

To obstruct each other is unnatural. To feel anger at someone, to turn your back on him: these are obstructions.

(Marcus Aurelius, "Meditations", translated by Gregory Hays)

Oct. 18th, 2016

med_cat: (Ad astra)
med_cat: (Ad astra)

"The prayer of Ajax was for light..."

med_cat: (Ad astra)
I see I'd already posted this in March of 2011, but I don't think it's lost its relevance...something I'd been thinking of recently.
~~

"...The prayer of Ajax was for light;
Through all that dark and desperate fight,
The blackness of that noonday night,
He asked but the return of sight,
  To see his foeman's face.

Let our unceasing, earnest prayer
Be, too, for light,--for strength to bear
Our portion of the weight of care,
That crushes into dumb despair
  One half the human race...."

Sep. 18th, 2016

med_cat: (Hourglass)
med_cat: (Hourglass)

Quote of the day

med_cat: (Hourglass)
You must match time’s swiftness with your speed in using it, and you must drink quickly as though from a rapid stream that will not always flow…

Just as travelers are beguiled by conversation or reading or some profound meditation, and find they have arrived at their destination before they knew they were approaching it; so it is with this unceasing and extremely fast-moving journey of life, which waking or sleeping we make at the same pace — the preoccupied become aware of it only when it is over.

(Seneca)

Jun. 10th, 2015

med_cat: (cat in dress)
med_cat: (cat in dress)

Quote of the day

med_cat: (cat in dress)
The higher we are placed, the more humbly we should walk."

-- Cicero,
philosopher

Nov. 5th, 2014

med_cat: (cat in dress)
med_cat: (cat in dress)

Quote of the day

med_cat: (cat in dress)


("For me, I am driven by two main philosophies: know more today about the world than I knew yesterday and lessen the suffering of others. You'd be surprised how far that gets you."
~Neil deGrasse Tyson)

Sep. 17th, 2014

med_cat: (Hourglass)
med_cat: (Hourglass)

Quote of the day

med_cat: (Hourglass)


"Ask not what you can expect of life; ask what life expects of you."

(Viktor Frankl)

Sep. 8th, 2014

med_cat: (Hourglass)
med_cat: (Hourglass)

Quote and story of the day

med_cat: (Hourglass)

If you read one thing today, make it Seneca on the shortness of life and how to live wide rather than long: http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2014/09/01/seneca-on-the-shortness-of-life/

"It is not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste a lot of it. Life is long enough, and a sufficiently generous amount has been given to us for the highest achievements if it were all well invested. But when it is wasted in heedless luxury and spent on no good activity, we are forced at last by death’s final constraint to realize that it has passed away before we knew it was passing. So it is: we are not given a short life but we make it short, and we are not ill-supplied but wasteful of it… Life is long if you know how to use it."
....

"Everyone hustles his life along, and is troubled by a longing for the future and weariness of the present. But the man who … organizes every day as though it were his last, neither longs for nor fears the next day… Nothing can be taken from this life, and you can only add to it as if giving to a man who is already full and satisfied food which he does not want but can hold. So you must not think a man has lived long because he has white hair and wrinkles: he has not lived long, just existed long. For suppose you should think that a man had had a long voyage who had been caught in a raging storm as he left harbor, and carried hither and thither and driven round and round in a circle by the rage of opposing winds? He did not have a long voyage, just a long tossing about."

Jul. 31st, 2014

med_cat: (woman reading)
med_cat: (woman reading)

"Maybe it's good, and maybe not"

med_cat: (woman reading)
A classic tale, which I was recently reminded of by [livejournal.com profile] leto_12's post. The story is below, in English and Russian.
~~

There is a Chinese Proverb that goes something like this…

A farmer and his son had a beloved stallion who helped the family earn a living. One day, the horse ran away and their neighbors exclaimed, “Your horse ran away, what terrible luck!” The farmer replied, “Maybe so, maybe not. We’ll see.”

A few days later, the horse returned home... )
~~
(the two versions in Russian provided by [livejournal.com profile] leto_12--many thanks!)
~~
Один старик нашел в лесу прекрасную белую кобылицу. Он привел ее к себе домой, и стал за ней ухаживать. И все соседи говорили: "Надо же, как тебе повезло! Ведь такая красивая кобыла, это же целое сокровище!" А старик отвечал: "Не знаю, повезло мне или нет, но знаю, что надо теперь для лошади строить конюшню", и вместо рассуждений шел строить конюшню.

В один далеко не прекрасный день лошадь убежала. И все соседи опять собрались у старика, рассуждая: "Ох, какое невезение! Лошадь сбежала, какая потеря!". А старик сказал: "Не знаю, везение это или невезение, знаю только, что конюшню мне можно не строить".

По-русски, в двух вариантах: )

Jul. 24th, 2014

med_cat: (Ad astra)
med_cat: (Ad astra)

Quote of the day

med_cat: (Ad astra)
There is so much about my fate that I cannot control, but other things do fall under the jurisdiction. I can decide how I spend my time, whom I interact with, whom I share my body and life and money and energy with. I can select what I can read and eat and study. I can choose how I'm going to regard unfortunate circumstances in my life-whether I will see them as curses or opportunities. I can choose my words and the tone of voice in which I speak to others. And most of all, I can choose my thoughts.

— Elizabeth Gilbert

Jul. 11th, 2014

med_cat: (Hourglass)
med_cat: (Hourglass)

The meaning of pain

med_cat: (Hourglass)


At times it can feel like the pain and disappointment just never seems to stop. If it is not one thing it is another. We try so hard. We try to be so good and do right by people. We work and struggle and press forward day after day. We are told there is supposed to be some sort of reward out there, but where is it? Read more... )
~~
You hurt. You recover. You move on. Odds are pretty good you're just going to get hurt again. But each time, you learn something.
Each time, you come out of it a little stronger, and at some point you realize that there are more flavors of pain than coffee.Read more... )

Jun. 14th, 2014

med_cat: (cat in dress)
med_cat: (cat in dress)

Арнхильд Лаувенг "Завтра я всегда бывала львом"/Arnhild Lauveng, "Tomorrow I would always be a lion"

med_cat: (cat in dress)

Arnhild Lauveng is a Norwegian psychologist, who was diagnosed with a severe form of schizophrenia at the age of 16 and spent the next 10 years in and out of psychiatric hospitals. She recovered, became a psychologist, and wrote a book about her experience.

You can see the book in English here:

http://www.amazon.com/Road-Back-Schizophrenia-Memoir/dp/1616088710

I would like to show you the concluding pages of her book, below:
~~

Арнхильд Лаувенг--норвежский психолог. В возрасте 16 лет у неё была диагностирована шизофрения в тяжёлой форме. Следующие 10 лет она провела в основном в психиатрических больницах. Она вылечилась, получила диплом психолога и написала книгу о своей жизни. Я хотела бы показать вам последние страницы этой книги. Всю книгу в русском переводе можно бесплатно найти в электронных библиотеках.

Вот статья про неё; спасибо [livejournal.com profile] a_bodryak


http://rusrep.ru/article/2013/10/22/schizo


~~

Жизнь моя сложилась совсем не так, как я задумывала. Что-то навсегда изменилось, и жизнь направилась по совершенно другому руслу. Иногда приходится слышать от людей, переживших какой-нибудь кризис, что теперь они видят, что без него никогда не стали бы теми, кто они есть. Я не могу этого сказать о себе. Я помню, как это была тяжко, какой безнадежной казалась жизнь. Я знаю, сколько я натворила глупостей, навредила самой себе и тем, кого я люблю. Я знаю, как легко все могло обернуться в самую худшую сторону. Я знаю, что мне невероятно повезло, что я вообще осталась жива. Так что если бы в моей власти было выбирать, я постаралась бы избежать этой боли. Однако наверняка было лучше, что выбор от меня не зависел. Потому что я узнала страшно много такого, чего иначе мне никогда не довелось бы узнать. Может быть, я стала лучше в человеческом смысле, и я знаю, что мне это помогло стать хорошим психологом. Не потому что моя история справедлива для всех и каждого. Но потому что мой опыт показал мне, что нет никаких «мы» и «они>. Все мы просто люди. Все мы разные. И все в основе своей одинаковы.


My life has turned out not at all the way I’d thought it would. Some things have changed forever, and my life went down an entirely different path. Sometimes one hears from people who have survived a major crisis of some sort that now they can see that without that crisis, they would have never become who they are. I cannot say that about myself. I remember how very difficult it was, and how hopeless my life seemed. I know how many foolish things I had done, hurting myself and those I love. I know how easily this could have come to the worst. I know that I was incredibly lucky that I have remained alive at all. So if it were within my power to choose, I would have chosen to avoid this pain. However, it was probably for the best that the choice was not mine to make. Because I did learn a lot of things I would have never been able to otherwise. Perhaps I have become a better person, and I know that it helped me to become a good psychologist. Not because my story is true for each and every one. But because my experience has shown me that there are no “we” and “they”. All of us are simply people. All of us are different. And all of us are the same, deep down.

Read more... )