Metaphysical Optimism

The past 2,500 years (rounded) of western culture summarized by Pouwel Slurink in 'Can Evolution Explain Evil?' (2020):
 

"In this sense, Darwinism puts an end to the ‘metaphysical optimism’ of Parmenides, Pythagoras, Plato, Aquinas, Leibniz, Voltaire, Hegel ... For Platonism, evil comes from a domain in which the perfection of the world has not penetrated or is not properly understood. For Christianity, it results from bad decisions. For Enlightenment thinkers, it result from bad thinking. For Darwinism, ‘evil’ is a somewhat subjective, umbrella term for the many forms of misery that organisms undergo because they are the product of a partly inherently cruel chance process."

P.S. Mount Sarmiento, Chile in the distance, and a sight of HMS Beagle. Drawing made in 1834 by Conrad Martens (1801-1878).. Source: here.

Tell Me About Tomorrow

P.S. This song from Levante can be found: here. The source of the picture: here.

To Seduce with Words

What is love and when does it come - if ever?

Jacques Audiard, in NRC 27-4-2022 (discussion about movie 'Les Olympiades' from 2022): in times of Tinder, the discourse of love is differently than for the generations before. In the movie 'Ma nuit chez Maud' (1969) two people talk all night about love, it doesn't come to sex, they seduce each other with words. For the Tinder generation it is very common to have sex on the first meeting. The question then is: where and when does love begin? Earlier in the prelude to the first sex, now sometime after.

 

Smell of Rain

And 

... taking a long walk,

... drinking a glass of water and consider it not ordinary,

... reading a book 

... - there must be so much more.
 

P.S. The quote is from Brooke Hampton: here. And the picture is from Alessandro Puccinelli: here.