#rut

Some years ago, there was a lovely philosopher of science and journalist in Italy named Giulio Giorello, and he did an interview with me. And I don’t know if he wrote it or not, but the headline in Corriere della Sera when it was published was "Sì, abbiamo un'anima. Ma è fatta di tanti piccoli robot – "Yes, we have a soul, but it’s made of lots of tiny robots." And I thought, exactly. That’s the view. Yes, we have a soul, but in what sense? In the sense that our brains, unlike the brains even of dogs and cats and chimpanzees and dolphins, our brains have functional structures that give our brains powers that no other brains have - powers of look-ahead, primarily. We can understand our position in the world, we can see the future, we can understand where we came from. We know that we’re here. No buffalo knows it’s a buffalo, but we jolly well know that we’re members of Homo sapiens, and it’s the knowledge that we have and the can-do, our capacity to think ahead and to reflect and to evaluate and to evaluate our evaluations, and evaluate the grounds for our evaluations. It’s this expandable capacity to represent reasons that we have that gives us a soul. But what’s it made of? It’s made of neurons. It’s made of lots of tiny robots. And we can actually explain the structure and operation of that kind of soul, whereas an eternal, immortal, immaterial soul is just a metaphysical rug under which you sweep your embarrassment for not having any explanation. ↗

— Daniel C. Dennett

#matter #mind #robots #soul #truth

Propaganda is a sprinter, but truth is a long-distance runner. ↗

— Ernest Partridge

#propaganda

All true histories contain instruction; though, in some, the treasure may be hard to find, and when found, so trivial in quantity, that the dry, shriveled kernel scarcely compensates for the trouble of cracking the nut. ↗

— Anne Brontë

#thought #truth #writing #biography

People want biography. People want memoir. They want you to tell them that the story you're telling them is true. The thing I'm telling you is true, but it did not always happen to me. ↗

— Dorothy Allison

#truth #biography

Once you’ve read too many trashy best-sellers, you begin to look for something with substance, something that attempts to define the universe. ↗

— Jessica Zafra

#books #fact #substance #truth #witty

The hidden well-spring of your soul must needs rise and run murmuring to the sea; And the treasure of your infinite depths would be revealed to your eyes. But let there be no scales to weigh your unknown treasure; And seek not the depths of your knowledge with staff or sounding line. For self is a sea boundless and measureless. Say not, I have found the truth, but rather, I have found a truth. Say not, I have found the path of the soul. Say rather, I have met the soul walking upon my path. For the soul walks upon all paths. The soul walks not upon a line, neither does it grow like a reed. The soul unfolds itself, like a lotus of countless petals. ↗

— Kahlil Gibran

#growth #soul #truth #self-knowledge

When many voices are speaking at once, listen to the one most quiet and gentle. That’s the one worth listening to. ~ Miranda* ~ ↗

— Miranda Linda Weisz

#listen-to-your-heart #listening-to-inner-self #meditation #truth #self-worth

My stomach lurched, an appetizer before the full portion of heartache I had a feeling was going to be served at some point soon. ↗

— Gayle Forman

#heartache

Truth resides in every human heart, and one has to search for it there, and to be guided by truth as one sees it. But no one has a right to coerce others to act according to his own view of truth. ↗

— Mahatma Gandhi

#human-rights

In the lie of truth lies the truth. ↗

— Dejan Stojanovic

#dejan-stojanovic #lie #lies #literature #literature-quotes