=========================== Machiavelli and Descartes =========================== Machiavelli's "The Prince" ========================== I have finally read the long-queued Machiavelli's "The Prince", which turned out to be short and mostly known from secondary sources (it being cynical, "realpolitik"), repeating some of the chapter on maintenance of tyranny from Aristotle's "Politics", even in seemingly minor details, e.g.: "princes ought to leave affairs of reproach to the management of others, and keep those of grace in their own hands" in "The Prince", "He should also let all honours flow immediately from himself, but every censure from his subordinate officers and judges" in "Politics". Though it uses a different arbitrary classification for states. Unsure how well its claims apply to modern times, in which wars appear to be less common, and the technologies (including weapons and those for mass surveillance) more advanced, though modern tyrannies seem to follow similar tactics. There appears to be some contradiction: usually the author expects men to act selfishly and ignore virtue or morals, constrained by force alone, and all pursuing glory and riches, but at times relies on nobody being "so shameless as to become a monument of ingratitude". Survivorship bias seems to be present in his speculations on fortune, though that is not unexpected, since that was not just before game theory, but even before probability theory. Misogyny is admixed there. Assuming that the work approximates a tyranny establishment and maintenance good enough, I think for most people it is more interesting how to resist that. But no surprise there, either: according to it, and as mentioned in numerous other places, it is harder to rule those states where people do not give up (and do remember freedom), and harder yet if they are organized (e.g., with barons). Rather underwhelming overall, but still one of the major and well-known works, and short, so seems worthwhile to read. Descartes's "Meditations on First Philosophy" ============================================= I have only read the first two chapters of Descartes's "Meditations on First Philosophy" before, in which his skepticism is introduced and human mind is considered, but skipped the rest, in which he confuses himself back, and which are rather theological. Now decided to finish those as well; fortunately it is short, too. Odd assumptions/premises begin popping up in those chapters, combined with lax reasoning, including appeals to ignorance, and sounding rather feverish: occasional reasonable speculations mixed with those. Which would be a disappointment if it was not widely known from secondary sources already. Though there were interesting bits still: attribution of errors to will affirming or denying things without sufficient understanding (i.e., deciding upon insufficient evidence). Moreover, the consequence he derives from that, that he cannot be deceived if he is careful, sounds similar to a basic assumption of science, that reality can be discovered. Ironically, it is explicitly an assumption there, while he asserts it as knowledge. As others before Darwin, he marvels at how nicely human body is constructed, not suspecting evolution and adaptation; attributes useful adaptations to goodness of a deity. But the last four chapters also seem worthwhile to read, being even shorter than "The Prince". Other news ========== - Continued reading OpenStax's "Introduction to Philosophy", halfway through now. It is quite high-level, and has some typos and inaccuracies, but fortunately it also has a working online errata, so those are going to be fixed. It is nice to read a modern text on philosophy for a change, and such overviews are good for the breadth of knowledge. - The local situation keeps developing in the same direction as before: now there is software in development for grading how traditionally-valued students are, claims that imported toys distract children from loving the motherland, access to official archive data on political repressions is once again restricted, and combined with the increased taxes (income, VAT, and more), now there are proposals to cut universal healthcare (which is poor here) for the unemployed. I think it might be challenging to make up any satire on this, since the reality would quickly surpass it, and even the reality looks over the top. - Apparently I do progress a little with the new physical exercises, despite catching a cold yet again, albeit slowly. Doing proper L-sit pull-ups (with straight legs) now, in addition to regular pull-ups, and holding L-sit for a little longer. Still beginner levels, but I am a beginner: up to 10 seconds on hands, 20 on parallettes. And I kept the streak of walks on rest days, but likely will cut it now: it is chilly (about 10 degrees Celsius) and rainy already; I tried walking for a couple of hours in such a weather, and past the sunset, without an umbrella or a hood, and found that it is far less pleasant or relaxing than walks when it is dry and light. Going to do indoors cardio instead, again, on most days until the late spring. - Considered usage of optical media for backups, once again. Apart from difficulties and uncertainty with file management and encryption for those (e.g., still unsure whether LUKS + UDF would work smoothly), I am unsure which disk types may be most suitable: CDs have a lower density, which is apparently more reliable, yet least convenient; DVDs are in the middle, while BDs are supposed to last longer despite the high density, but external drives for those are quite rare, require more power, and are more expensive. But discovered that if you search in online stores for computer cases that have external 5.25-inch bays, they tend to also have proper internal 3.5-inch bays, not just holes for bolting HDDs onto the walls of a case. - Tried out tinc, it works fine. I would normally use IPsec or Wireguard, but international connections over those are blocked here. Also installed its Android client from F-Droid repositories, but that requires to edit configuration files, and no editor can write those from the odd and restricted Android storage. No access to those via MTP, either. It is annoying to not be able to manipulate files on your device; at some point I should accept reset to factory settings and the risk of bricking, and root this Pixel phone, possibly switching to one of the alternative Android versions at once. ---- :Date: 2025-10-12