Saturday, December 3, 2005

   Something I picked up along the way

My White Rapper Who Thinks He Is Black is Juicy Pimp-Juice The G-Unit. Take The Silly White Guy Who Thinks He Is Actually A Black Gangsta' Rapper But Is Actually Trippin' Since He Is A White Fo'. today! Created with Rum and Monkey's Name Generator Generator. My insanely stupid emo name is stab my soul you bitch. Take The "If Your Name Was An Emo Song... Generator Thingy" today! Created with Rum and Monkey's Name Generator Generator. My My friends would really like to call me: is nutrition. Take What your friends would really like to call you. today! Created with Rum and Monkey's Name Generator Generator. My totally gay, Carlian nickname is Ass-kickin' Manchild. Take The "totally gay nickname Carl would give you" Name Generator today! Created with Rum and Monkey's Name Generator Generator. My dragon name is Cashh the Stained (Green Dragon). Take Dragon Name Generator today! Created with Rum and Monkey's Name Generator Generator. My God-damned hippie name is Lilac Birchwood. Take The Damned Hippie Name Generator today! Created with Rum and Monkey's Name Generator Generator. My tetsuliu is 人人果實. Take 你有哪一種惡魔果實的潛力 today! Created with Rum and Monkey's Name Generator Generator. My very British name is Humphrey Butcher. Take The Very British Name Generator today! Created with Rum and Monkey's Name Generator Generator. My New nickname is Lieutenant Bashful C. Stupid-Butt. Take The Third Grade Insult Generator today! Created with Rum and Monkey's Name Generator Generator.

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Sunday, November 6, 2005

   Ends and means: the last end. (part one)

Before you scoff at the idea of a universal means, observe that it's just the inverse of an end-in-itself. An end-in-itself, long a cornerstone of ethics, is the ultimate end to which all other values are means. An end-in-itself is the end of all means, and a universal means is the means to all ends. If an end-in-itself exists, may not a universal means also exist? Perhaps alchemists erred only in seeking the universal means among tinctures, powders and stones. The concept of an end-in-itself goes all the way back to Aristotle. He observed that some things we choose for the sake of something else and some things we choose for their own sake. To take a modern example, we don't choose a dollar for its own sake, but for the sake of the coffee we intend to buy with it. And we don't choose the coffee for its own sake, but for the sake of drinking it. The dollar is a means to the coffee as an end, the coffee is a means to the end of drinking, and so on--but within limits. Aristotle noted that not everything can be desired for the sake of something else, "for at that rate the process would go on to infinity, so that our desire would be empty and vain." A chain of one means leading to another means, leading to yet another means, and so on forever, would be pointless and impossible. There is necessarily an end which we desire for its own sake: an end-in-itself. Furthermore: "If ... there is some end of the things we do, which we desire for its own sake (everything else being desired for the sake of this), ... clearly this must be the good and the chief good. Will not the knowledge of it, then, have a great influence on life? Shall we not, like archers who have a mark to aim at, be more likely to hit upon what is right?" --Nichomachean Ethics, I 1. This was a good day's work even for Aristotle! Beginning from the commonplace observation that there are things we desire for the sake of something else, he had at one stroke validated the concept of an end-in-itself and proposed the concept of a unique end of all action. The unification of moral life was immense. One need merely focus on the last end and pursue it single-mindedly, evaluating all other goods as means to that last end. There was no need to divide one's attention among myriads of unrelated goods. A single last end would imply an entire code of conduct and way of life.

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Saturday, November 5, 2005

   Universal means.

According to my encyclopedia: "The stone, also referred to as the "tincture," or the "powder" (Greek xerion, which passed through Latin into Arabic as elixir), was allied to an elixir of life, believed by alchemists to be a liquid derived from it. Inasmuch as alchemy was concerned not only with the search for a method of upgrading less valuable metals but also of perfecting the human soul, the philosopher's stone was thought to cure illnesses, prolong life, and bring about spiritual revitalization. The philosopher's stone, described variously, was sometimes said to be a common substance, found everywhere but unrecognized and unappreciated." (Encyc. Brit., 15th ed., 1976) What a wish list! Wealth. Spiritual renewal. Longevity. Health. Even an elixir of life! In essence, the philosopher's stone offers all human values. The philosopher's stone is like gold, but even better. Gold is a means to all wealth, but the philosopher's stone is a means to all ends, a universal means. And it's lying around for the taking. It's everywhere! If you have the wit merely to recognize it and learn how to use it, then all ends are within your reach. We needn't wonder why those who believed in the philosopher's stone devoted their lives to finding it. What higher ideal could they seek? What better end could a man set himself than a universal means?

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Friday, November 4, 2005

   New Means of Me: Alchemy

Hello everyone! I'm back!!! I am also known as Skyerainofsorrow! *Chuckles* Well my site is going to be about Alchemy because I'm really psyched about it! Enjoy! Alchemy hovered between worlds. It emerged in a time-between-times, after a Dark Age had brightened but before a Renaissance had dawned. It came from Arab and Greek sources, but it flourished in theWest. It lay between faith and philosophy; it still dreamed of heaven, but it focused on the Earth. Alchemy sought abundance in this world for the sake of living men. Alchemists aimed to transmute base metals into gold. Why gold? Evidently because observation declares that gold is the principle of wealth. A man who has drink may not have food, or he may have these but lack fine clothing, or horses, or mansions, or lands. But a man who has gold may have all these and more. Gold is special; it is not just one kind of wealth among many: it is a means to the rest. Gold is the means to everything that can be bought. But what is the means to the means? What is the means to gold? Alchemists proposed to use the philosopher's stone, a mysterious, unknown substance which they believed to have the power to transmute base metals into gold. If they could find the philosopher's stone, gold would become plentiful and (so they thought) wealth would be abundant. Thus, for centuries, alchemists sought the philosopher's stone. Their quest for the philosopher's stone can be viewed as irrational silliness or the highest idealism. There was no reason to expect such a "stone" to exist, but what alchemists hoped to gain by means of the philosopher's stone is the sum of all human ambition. Transmutation of metals was the least of the stone's supposed powers.

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