Preview BETWEEN TRUTH AND ILLUSION eBook 

                                           

Welcome to the DUALISTIC PHILOSOPHY of

BETWEEN TRUTH AND ILLUSION

by John O'Loughlin of Centretruths Digital Media

 

Links to the files of which follow the remarks below:-

 

My first exercise in philosophy, originally penned in 1977, takes dualism as its starting-point and develops its commonsensical logic through three parts, the first of which is essayistic, the second a series of aphoristic reflections on the philosophy outlined in Part One, and the third a dialogue between me, the so-named 'philosopher', and an imaginary student ... that strives both to clarify and enlarge upon the main contentions of the work. – John O'Loughlin.

 

CONTENTS

 

INTRODUCTION

 

PART ONE: ESSAYS ON A DUALISTIC PHILOSOPHY

 

THE INTERDEPENDENCE OF OPPOSITES

 

THE CONFLICT OF OPPOSITES

 

THE NECESSARY ILLUSION

 

THE LEGITIMACY OF STUPIDITY

 

MORE POSITIVE THAN NEGATIVE

 

BOTH POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE

 

NEITHER ANGEL NOR DEMON

 

NO GOOD WITHOUT EVIL

 

ONLY PARTLY WISE

 

PERFECT OR IMPERFECT

 

PERFECT AND IMPERFECT

 

A NECESSARY DOUBT

 

NO SHAM WISDOM

 

ONLY ABSURD SOMETIMES

 

NOT ENTIRELY SANE

 

NOT ENTIRELY INSANE

 

NO HAPPINESS WITHOUT SADNESS

 

NOTHING SUPERFLUOUS

 

BETWEEN DAY AND NIGHT

 

A MISTAKE IN PLUTARCH

 

PART TWO: LESSONS ON A DUALISTIC PHILOSOPHY

 

WISDOM AND FOLLY

 

TRUTH AND ILLUSION

 

GOOD AND EVIL

 

HAPPINESS AND SADNESS

 

PROFUNDITY AND SUPERFICIALITY

 

CERTAINTY AND DOUBT

 

REASONABLENESS AND UNREASONABLENESS

 

CLEVERNESS AND STUPIDITY

 

SUCCESS AND FAILURE

 

PLEASURE AND PAIN

 

LOVE AND HATE

 

VIRTUE AND VICE

 

STRENGTH AND WEAKNESS

 

INTEREST AND DISINTEREST

 

PART THREE: DIALOGUE ON A DUALISTIC PHILOSOPHY

 

A DUALISTIC INTEGRITY

 

All files Copyright © 2011 John O'Loughlin

 

 

TEXT LINKS

BETWEEN TRUTH AND ILLUSION (PDF-derived paperback version)

Centretruths eBook previews on Wordpress

 

Email: john-oloughlin@centretuths.com

 

 

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

 

John O'Loughlin was born in Salthill, Galway, the Republic of Ireland, of Irish- and British-born parents in 1952. Following a parental split partly due to his mother's Aldershot origins (her father, a Presbyterian from Donegal, had served in the British Army), he was brought to England by his mother and grandmother (who upon the death of her Aldershot-based husband had initially returned to Ireland after a lengthy marital absence from Athenry) in the mid-50s and, having had the benefit of private tuition from a Catholic priest, subsequently attended St. Joseph's and St. George's RC schools in Aldershot, Hants, and, with an enforced change of denomination from Catholic to Protestant in consequence of having been sent to a children's home by his mother upon the death and repatriation of his grandmother, he went on to attend first Barrow Hedges Primary School in Carshalton Beeches, Surrey, and then Carshalton High School for Boys. Upon leaving the latter in pre-GCSE era 1970 with an assortment of CSEs (Certificate of Secondary Education) and GCEs (General Certificate of Education), including history and music, he moved to London and went on, via two short-lived jobs, to work at the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music in Bedford Square, where, with some prior experience himself of having sat and passed (with merit) an ABRSM Gd.4 piano exam, he eventually became responsible for booking examination venues. After a brief flirtation with further education at Redhill Technical College back in Surrey, where he had enrolled to do English and History A Levels, he returned to his former job in the West End but, due to a combination of personal factors, left the Associated Board in 1976 and began to pursue a literary vocation which, despite a brief spell as a computer and office-skills tutor at Hornsey Management Agency within the local YMCA in the late '80s and early '90s, he has steadfastly continued with ever since. His novels include Changing Worlds (1976), Fixed Limits (1976), Cross-Purposes (1979), Thwarted Ambitions (1980), and Deceptive Motives (1981). Since the mid-80s Mr O'Loughlin has dedicated himself almost exclusively to philosophy, which he regards as his true literary vocation, and has penned several titles of a philosophical nature, including Devil and God (1985–6), Towards the Supernoumenon (1987), Elemental Spectra (1988–9), Philosophical Truth (1991–2) and, more recently, The Best of All Possible Worlds (2008), The Centre of Truth (2009), Insane but not Mad (2011), and Philosophic Flights of Poetic Fancy (2012).

 

Copyright © 2024 Centretruths Digital Media