[εις επαινον δοξης αυτου] New comment on Strange collocation.

greglong has left a new comment on your post "Strange collocation":

Thanks for this, Matt. Amazing quote from Russell. Here are a couple of other related quotes from a book I read recently by Christopher Potter, You Are Here: A Portable History of the Universe (NY: HarperCollins, 2009), p. 2, 4:

"Spiritual aspirations threaten to be swallowed up by this senseless bulk into a sort of nightmare of meaninglessness. The enormous quantity of matter that we perceive around us, compared with the trembling little flicker of spiritual insight that we perceive within us, seems to tell strongly in favor of a materialistic outlook on life."

Anglo-German scholar Edward Conze (1904-1979)

"Man knows at last, that he is alone in the unfeeling immensity of the universe, out of which he has emerged only by chance."

French biologist Jacque Monod (1910-1976)

"Science has revealed much about the universe and our position in it. And generally, the findings have been humbling. The earth is not at the center of the universe. Our species descended from brutes. We are made of the same stuff as mud. We are moved by neurophysiological signals and subject to a variety of biological, psychological and sociological influences over which we have limited control and little understanding."

Nick Bostrom, Director of the Future of Humanity Institute at the University of Oxford

"Our true position [is one] of isolation, in an immense and mysterious universe."

American physicist Armand Delsemme



Posted by greglong to εις επαινον δοξης αυτου at 6:09 AM