Poetry by Lawrence R. Spencer. Poetic nonsense by Lawrence R. Spencer and others. Haiku poems by Lawrence R. Spencer.
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Mostly Harmless is the FIFTH book in the Hitchhikers Guide to The Galaxy Trilogy, by Douglas Adams. I read all of Douglas Adams books this year, a few for the second time. I consider Adams to be one of the greatest philosophers in human history, although, like Mark Twain, he was considered to be a humorist. Any valuable philosophy must expose the random absurdities of human existence, which is also a definition of humor. – LRS
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Socrates (Greek: 470/469 BC – 399 BC) was a classical Greek (Athenian) philosopher credited as one of the founders of Western philosophy. He is an enigmatic figure known chiefly through the accounts of classical writers, especially the writings of his students Plato and Xenophon and the plays of his contemporary Aristophanes. Plato’s dialogues are among the most comprehensive accounts of Socrates to survive from antiquity, though it is unclear the degree to which Socrates himself is “hidden behind his ‘best disciple’, Plato”.
Through his portrayal in Plato’s dialogues, Socrates has become renowned for his contribution to the field of ethics, and it is this Platonic Socrates who lends his name to the concepts of Socratic irony and the Socratic method, or elenchus. The latter remains a commonly used tool in a wide range of discussions, and is a type of pedagogy in which a series of questions is asked not only to draw individual answers, but also to encourage fundamental insight into the issue at hand. Plato’s Socrates also made important and lasting contributions to the field of epistemology, and the influence of his ideas and approach remains a strong foundation for much western philosophy that followed. — Wikipedia.org
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I am a great fan of the paintings of Hieronymus Bosch and his best-known follower, Pieter Bruegel the Elder. I appreciate the in-your-face-honesty of their paintings, which were produced during a period of extreme religious and political repression that gripped Europe. The macabre, grotesque reality of the people and superstitions of the age are eloquently illustrated with masterfully satirical potency. Here is a marvelous animation, constructed from “The Seven Deadly Sins”. They were “deadly” because the Catholic priests would murder you if you refused to buy into their monstrous superstitions designed to control the population for political and financial gain. From my perspective — 500 years later — our lives have certainly improved, but they are still essentially macabre and grotesque.
The Seven Deadly Sins (2011) is a video animation by Belgian artist Antoine Roegiers based on The Seven Deadly Sins by Pieter Bruegel the Elder. Bruegel is the best-known Bosch follower and Karel van Mander called him “Pieter the Droll” in his Schilder-boeck:
