Philosophy of mind, ethics, phenomenology, and mindfulness. Generally, a critic & gadfly. Roams like a bee collecting nectar.
Paris, France
Joined March 2009
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If you wish to venture into infinity,
Explore the finite in every direction.
If you wish to delight in the whole,
You must learn to see the whole
In the smallest of things.
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832)
David Matta retweeted
The ten philosophers who have most influenced my thinking are:
1. Ludwig Wittgenstein
2. Nāgārjuna
3. Martin Heidegger
4. Edmund Husserl
5. G. W. F. Hegel
6. Friedrich Nietzsche
7. Maurice Merleau-Ponty
8. David Hume
9. Immanuel Kant
10. Hans-Georg Gadamer
David Matta retweeted
Kant connected intellectual maturity to autonomy and courage. I think many intellectually sophisticated people may lack both.
David Matta retweeted
Consciousness is the immediate presence of experience: its being this, here, now.
I believe we are embodied, conscious beings with genuine freedom. Several values matter, some moral truths go beyond opinion, and reason should remain connected to lived experience. I also suspect reality contains more than physical processes alone
In Greek mythology, Heracles was given one day to clean King Augeas's stables, which held years of filth. He didn't pick up a shovel. He turned two great rivers through the stables and washed it all away at once.
Lebanon today carries the heaps of decades: wars, inner fighting, corruption, sectarianism, debt, despair. No shovel is big enough.
But Lebanon has two great rivers of its own: its youth and its diaspora. When they flow through the fields together, not around them, the cleaning becomes possible.
Lebanon needs a tsunami. 🇱🇧
في الأسطورة اليونانية، طُلب من هرقل أن ينظّف إسطبلات الملك أوجياس في يوم واحد، وقد تراكمت فيها أوساخ سنوات طويلة. لم يحمل المجرفة، بل حوّل مجرى نهرين عظيمين، فجرف الماء كل شيء دفعة واحدة.
ولبنان اليوم مثقل بأكوام عقود: الحروب، والاقتتال الداخلي، والفساد، والطائفية، والديون، واليأس. لا توجد مجرفة بهذا الحجم.
لكنّ للبنان نهرين عظيمين: شبابه ومغتربيه. حين يتدفقان معاً عبر الحقول، لا من حولها، يصبح التنظيف ممكناً.
لبنان يحتاج إلى تسونامي. 🇱🇧
#Lebanon #لبنان
David Matta retweeted
Perhaps you come from two different intellectual worlds. Yours seeks precision, clarity, and what can be established; Žižek's probes contradictions, paradoxes, and what remains unsettled. You seek to clarify; he seeks to unsettle. The opportunity might arise again?
David Matta retweeted
I’ve rarely encountered a philosopher as original, creative and hilarious as Žižek. He topples our assumptions with ease. His knife example reminds me of Merleau-Ponty’s two hands touching: which hand touches, and which is touched?
David Matta retweeted
“By nature, the art of questioning well is much rarer than the art of answering well.”
Nietzsche
David Matta retweeted
But what difference does it make whether we wake up or remain asleep? This echoes Geoffrey Hinton’s cries in the wilderness about AI’s dangers, with few concrete solutions. The paradox is troubling: as science advances, it seems to strip away one more dimension of what makes us human.
David Matta retweeted
The arrogance and conceit of tech leaders are becoming increasingly unrestrained and uncontainable. Their technological achievements are undeniable, but they should not be mistaken for wisdom or moral authority.
