Arquivo de philosophy | Page 104 of 116

Inspiration: Conscious Brain Stimulation

I read somewhere, a few years ago, a psychologist said that Bertrand Russell used an interesting process when he was involved in complex problems. It would be more or less as follows: Russell thought, with maximum concentration and strength of mind, on the particular problem; he outlined the possible solutions, dismembered them into minor issues, formulated various hypotheses and tried to find, in all, the possible flaws. The question occupied him entirely for hours, sometimes days, and then, when he felt exhausted, he did not publish, nor executed the final wording of his conclusions: he abandoned the problem and let him rest, occupying his mind with anything else. Then, after a few days, weeks or months, suddenly the mind pointed the solution, which came as a violent avalanche, and so Russell sat down to write. What would that be, inspiration? If that is the word, then it is necessary to add that there is nothing divine, fantastic, or superhuman about it. What is there is method, conscious brain stimulation. And if the brain, therefore, sometimes does not deliver an immediate response, it does not mean that it does not work, or that it is not working. In the same way, when it decides to boil at an inopportune moment, it is not doing any kind of magic or exhibiting supernatural powers…

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The Unbearable “I”

I hope, if not in these notes, I will never speak that unbearable word — “I” — in the first person. I find it funny how, still here and just now, I combine the verbs in the first person repetitively, when none other than myself have categorical disgust for this modern obsession with one’s own being and consider myself the most insignificant singularity of the whole universe. However, here are the justifications and the confession: (1) the “I”, in these notes, will never be but a low-lying expressive appeal, when the object of these lines is entirely another — confessing, I hope to expel the intrusive word; — (2) if one day, and I beg it not to happen, but if one day the “I” take the opposite path and start to occupy the center of these notes, then I will have exhausted myself as an artist and as an explorer of issues that go beyond my petty reality. Let’s see what will happen…

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The Summit Is Natural Neighbor of the Abyss

There is a notable problem arising from the ascent and it basically boils down to this: the summit is natural neighbor of the abyss. I could formulate in other ways, saying that when we reach the top, movement is only possible down, or that the distance from peak to cliff is any slip… I am thinking now of Julien Sorel, but there are countless examples. Why exactly does the spotlight make us so vulnerable? Envy? By the desire that, by its nature, exposes us? I cannot help but notice the destructive potential of ascension, the trials it normally demands, and its deceptive, if not unfair, prize. Rationally, the conclusion is imposed: perhaps the wisest thing is to immediately stop climbing.

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Endless Injustices

In the study of history, more impressive than the conquests, wars, the development of civilizations and all the rest, is the almost unbelievable succession of injustices committed against great men. Minority are those who, honored, valorous, have earned for themselves a memory worthy of their own work. Worse than the persecutions that some have suffered so much in life, worse than contempt, public spurcation, poverty, life that presented to them as a sequence of frustrations, dislikes, one after the other, piling and swelling like they were trials, worse than all this is, after death, fall into oblivion, if not defamed, when they can no longer respond or, still : to prove how unworthy the human race is to them.

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