#pragmatism

In the pragmatist, streetwise climate of advanced postmodern capitalism, with its scepticism of big pictures and grand narratives, its hard-nosed disenchantment with the metaphysical, 'life' is one among a whole series of discredited totalities. We are invited to think small rather than big – ironically, at just the point when some of those out to destroy Western civilization are doing exactly the opposite. In the conflict between Western capitalism and radical Islam, a paucity of belief squares up to an excess of it. The West finds itself faced with a full-blooded metaphysical onslaught at just the historical point that it has, so to speak, philosophically disarmed. As far as belief goes, postmodernism prefers to travel light: it has beliefs, to be sure, but it does not have faith. ↗

— Terry Eagleton

#belief #capitalism #faith #grand-narratives #islam

Tragic heroes are failed pragmatists. Their ends are unrealistic and their means are impractical. ↗

— Adam Phillips

#pragmatism #life

Greatness is not manifested by unlimited pragmatism, which places such a high premium on the end justifying any means and any methods. ↗

— Margaret Chase Smith

#end #greatness #high #justifying #manifested

What do believers in the Absolute mean by saving that their belief affords them comfort? They mean that since in the Absolute finite evil is ‘overruled’ already, we may, therefore, whenever we wish, treat the temporal as if it were potentially the eternal, be sure that we can trust its outcome, and, without sin, dismiss our fear and drop the worry of our finite responsibility. In short, they mean that we have a right ever and anon to take a moral holiday, to let the world wag in its own way, feeling that its issues are in better hands than ours and are none of our business. ↗

— William James

#business

If we live with possibilities we are exiles from the present which is given us by God to be our own, homeless and displaced in a future or a past which are not ours because they are always beyond our reach. The present is our right place, and we can lay hands on whatever it offers us. ↗

— Thomas Merton

#hope #pragmatism #present #dreams

Cine a ucis stelele? Cine a surpat drumul spre viitor al celor din morminte? ↗

— Ionel Teodoreanu

#dreams #hope #pragmatism #dreams