Martin Butler's Negative Philosophy

Martin Butler's Negative Philosophy

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Martin Butler's Negative Philosophy
Martin Butler's Negative Philosophy
Blessed Hollowness

Blessed Hollowness

Life could not be sweeter for those who dare to fall into the drain of hollowness.

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Martin Butler
Feb 06, 2025
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Martin Butler's Negative Philosophy
Martin Butler's Negative Philosophy
Blessed Hollowness
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jack o lantern with light
Photo by Antonio Gabola on Unsplash

The standard cure for the feeling of hollowness is to do something. It doesn’t exactly cure it, but it ensures, to a greater or lesser degree, that our attention is given to something else. This is called circling the drain. Our bodies generate thought, emotion, desire, and sensation—functional things. There is no homunculus or entity within us generating or managing these four phenomena; the machine generates them, and they manifest according to their own rules and conditioning.

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