Tag: critical reflection

The Anxiety of Nature and The Difficulty of Grace

Wan BoLeave a comment

"A man's heart has heard two ways through life: the way of nature and the way of grace. You'll have to choose which one you'll follow. Grace doesn't try to please itself. It accepts being slighted, forgotten, disliked. It accepts insults and injuries. Nature only wants to please itself. Get others to please it too. It likes to lord it over them, to have its own way. It finds reasons to be unhappy when all the world is shining around it, and love is smiling through all things. " - The Tree of Life (2011)

The Mathematics and Phenomenology of Infinity

Wan BoLeave a comment

Perhaps surprising to many, infinity comes with different sizes. While mathematicians can establish this generic result, they cannot always calculate or pinpoint different sizes of infinity. Such incapability demonstrates that mathematics is still an incomplete logical system. To me, the incompleteness of mathematics has an existential overtone echoing the finitude of human existence in contrast to people’s pursuit of eternity, meaning and purpose for their lives. That contrast, or paradox of life, reveals the pain of finite human existence, which I understood more in a creative writing workshop organised by USP. In this post, I explore how the desire to reach the infinite and the pain of finite existence inspire mathematicians and artists in their pursuits of truth and beauty.

Reason and Wounded Women

Wan BoLeave a comment

Cogito, ergo sum. René Descartes famously claims after meditating on the certainty of human knowledge. Upholding the rational, thinking self, Descartes pioneers modern rationalist philosophy which believes that reason is the most effective, if not the only method of acquiring knowledge. I confess that reason, with its promise of universality and objectivity, enticed me into studying philosophy in university. But as I encounter more complex situations in life, I increasingly find reason incapable of representing reality and guiding my moral decisions. Reason seems to detach me from everyday life and trivialise ambivalent moral situations that do not immediately make logical sense. I have been internally conflicted regarding rationalist philosophy and the superiority of reason in everyday life...