1/11/2012

Astrologically speaking, does size matter?

What's the purpose of life?  This is another good question.  It doesn't seem to bother other species much, but it bothers human beings quite a bit.  The British philosopher Bertrand Russell presented this question simply and brilliantly.  It's in three parts, and it's worth reading twice: "Is man what he seems to the astronomer, a tiny lump of impure carbon and water crawling impotently on a small and unimportant planet? Or is he what he appears to Hamlet?  Is he perhaps both at once?"

Russell's three questions capture some of the core puzzles of Western - though not necessarily Eastern - philosophy.  Is life essentially accidental and meaningless, or is it as profound and mysterious as Shakespeare's great tragic hero believed it to be?

From "The Element" by Sir Ken Robinson; page 59