Jokes often arise involuntarily, like dreams, and tend to be swiftly forgotten. From these similarities Freud inferred that jokes and dreams share a common origin in the unconscious. Both are essentially means of outwitting our inner 'censor'. — Jim Holt Copy Share Image
“In both jokes and dreams, Freud observed, meanings are condensed and displaced, things are represented indirectly or by their opposites, fallacious reasoning trumps logic. Jokes often arise involuntarily, like dreams, and tend to be swiftly forgotten. From these similarities Freud… — Jim Holt Copy Share Image
“Consistency is the virtue of small minds, and Spinoza had a great mind—he was inconsistent all over the place.” — Jim Holt Copy Share Image
Jokes often arise involuntarily, like dreams, and tend to be swiftly forgotten. From these similarities Freud inferred that jokes and dreams share a common… — Jim Holt Copy Share Image
“(It is interesting that the words “cosmos” and “cosmetic” have the same root, the Greek word for “adornment” or “arrangement.”)” — Jim Holt Copy Share Image
When you are trying to understand the world, it is unwise to assume that you occupy a privileged position in it. — Jim Holt Copy Share Image
“To begin with, if existence arose out of a need for goodness, then it must be essentially mental. In other words, existence must ultimately… — Jim Holt Copy Share Image
“In both jokes and dreams, Freud observed, meanings are condensed and displaced, things are represented indirectly or by their opposites, fallacious reasoning trumps logic.… — Jim Holt Copy Share Image
To abandon the principle of simplicity would be to abandon all reasoning about the external world — Jim Holt Copy Share Image
Suppose you turn your attention inward in search of this 'I'. You may encounter nothing more than an ever changing stream of consciousness, a… — Jim Holt Copy Share Image
“In 1921, a New York rabbi asked Einstein if he believed in God. "I believe in Spinoza's God," he answered, "who reveals himself in… — Jim Holt Copy Share Image
“I really don’t like to formulate what I believe because, like a quantum phenomenon, it varies from day to day, and anyway there’s a… — Jim Holt Copy Share Image
