365 Random Thoughts: In the style of Wittgenstein, Lichtenberg & Carlin

By Stephen Doty

Thought-provoking remarks on our life and times.

Perfect for a coffee shop, bathroom, or airplane.

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• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Oct 16, 2009
• ISBN: 9781440174179

Stephen Doty

Stephen Doty has degrees in psychology and philosophy from Bucknell University and a degree in law from California Western School of Law. He practiced law for ten years in Las Vegas and now serves as an investor for a private foundation near Boston. He has published articles in Nevada Lawyer, Philosophy Today, Philosophy Now, and The Salem News.

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Copyright © 2010 Stephen Doty.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by

any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying,

recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system

without the written permission of the author except in the case of

brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, names, incidents,

organizations, and dialogue in this novel are either the products

of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

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ISBN: 978-1-4401-7416-2 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4401-7417-9 (e)

iUniverse rev. date:  12/06/2023

Contents

Introduction

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

What we do is to bring words back from their metaphysical to their everyday use.

What we are destroying is nothing but houses of cards and we are clearing up the ground of language on which they stand.

I believe it might interest a philosopher, one who can think himself, to read my notes. For even if I have hit the mark only rarely, he would recognize what targets I had been ceaselessly aiming at.

The question How do I know... drags out the language-game, or else does away with it.

–Ludwig Wittgenstein

Once we know our weaknesses they cease to do us any harm.

A punishment in a dream is still a punishment. On the utility of dreams.

Confidence in one’s strength is strength.

–Georg Lichtenberg

The decay and disintegration of this culture is astonishingly amusing if you are emotionally detached from it.

I’m sixty years of age. That’s 16 Celsius.

–George Carlin

Introduction

I kept a notebook in my briefcase from 1996-2009 and wrote down brief remarks when I felt the urge, typically while drinking tea at Starbucks in Florida and at Jaho in Massachusetts. I’ve looked through those notebooks recently and picked out entries that I believe others will enjoy. As a reader, I appreciate aphoristic refinement and strive for that as a writer. Although my tone may be pedagogical at times, this remains more my study than my teaching. The first twelve chapters have thirty remarks each, and the last one has five.

I want to thank Prof. Frank Wilson, who taught philosophy at Bucknell University for over twenty years, for reviewing a draft copy of this book and for making some suggestions for its improvement.

The image on the front cover alludes to a remark on page three concerning probabilities. Cover design by Team Kafka at the publishing house.

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1

When you buy stock in a company that makes diapers, it’s hard to time the bottom.

Aging gracefully is difficult. I’ve gone from riding scooters with a Duchess to visiting Hooters on crutches.

Politicians buy votes by promising to spend government money. That's why the USA must eventually go broke, like California – because good politics is bad economics, and good economics is bad politics.

Why