Biography:
Hey folks. I'm a medical editor with an interest in insect photography and philosophy (but not insect philosophy). Favorite philosophers: Leibniz, Kant, Husserl.
Gear used for insect photography:
Canon EOS 5D digital SLR
Canon 580EX II flash unit
Reflectors
Canon 200 mm L-series lens
Canon 1.4X teleconverter
Canon focusing rail
Tokina 100 mm macro lens
Kenko extension tubes (12 mm, 20 mm, 36 mm)
Nikon 3T, 4T diopters
Gitzo G1228 tripod
Velbon PH-173 tripod head
Swift Eaglet 7x36 close-focusing binoculars
Boxes constructed from microscope slides (for photographing aquatic insects)
Gear used for philosophy:
Mind and senses (in that order [i.e., I'm not an empiricist])
And now... three quotes:
"To gain in self-knowledge, it helps to be willing to examine the hairy little critters that dwell in the swamps, bogs, fens, littoral pools, and sump holes of one's heart." (Catfish, personal communication)
"Without going outside his door, one understands (all that takes place) under the sky; without looking out from his window, one sees the Tao of Heaven. The farther that one goes out (from himself), the less he knows." (Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching, #47)
"For all is a plenum (and thus all matter is connected together) and in the plenum every motion has an effect upon distant bodies in proportion to their distance, so that each body not only is affected by those which are in contact with it and in some way feels the effect of everything that happens to them, but also is mediately affected by bodies adjoining those with which it itself is in immediate contact. Wherefore it follows that this inter-communication of things extends to any distance, however great. And consequently every body feels the effect of all that takes place in the universe, so that he who sees all might read in each what is happening everywhere, and even what has happened or shall happen, observing in the present that which is far off as well in time as in place: sympnoia panta, as Hippocrates said. But a soul can read in itself only that which is there represented distinctly; it cannot all at once unroll everything that is enfolded in it, for its complexity is infinite." (Leibniz, Monadology, #61)
