A memory, a conviction, a moment of wonder. In these essays I explore how worlds appear, become self-evident and change again. Personal experiences and philosophical questions intertwine.
Dioramics
English · Ton Haarmans
From a childhood diorama to the lifeworlds that have shaped my life: natural science, anarchism, psychology and the spiritual search. What was once compelling begins to falter; other worlds open up.
This personal essay shows how Dioramics came into being.
Lifeworlds and the self-evident
How a world becomes familiar, coherent and real.
The Diorama
The diorama as an image of a lifeworld: how a scene becomes a world as soon as you become absorbed in it, and why each new viewpoint opens up another scene.
English · Ton Haarmans
Mindsets
On the often invisible assumptions through which a world becomes intelligible and inhabitable. What happens when such assumptions shift?
English · Ton Haarmans
Obviousness
Why does every world we inhabit feel so self-evident? An exploration of the compelling force of certainty, even when its content changes.
English · Ton Haarmans
Belief
Belief as an activity that gives coherence to experience. How beliefs become invisible, and what appears when they begin to feel less self-evident.
English · Ton Haarmans
Reality
From waking up in a familiar room to the question of what we call real. On the coherence and persistence of a lived world.
English · Ton Haarmans
Dreams
While dreaming, you inhabit a world that feels self-evident. What does the transition to waking reveal about how worlds acquire their reality?
English · Ton Haarmans
Consciousness
What can we say about consciousness without turning it into an ultimate explanation? On the impossibility of standing outside experience.
English · Ton Haarmans
Philosophy without an ultimate foundation
Thinking about perspectives, ordering and the search for an ultimate explanation.
Philosophy
A personal reflection on philosophy: from searching for an all-encompassing system to examining how such systems make worlds visible.
English · Ton Haarmans
Nietzsche and the Dioramic View
An encounter between Nietzsche’s perspectivism and Dioramics, exploring their affinities and the differences in their approaches.
English · Ton Haarmans
Metaphysical Anarchism
What remains of order and meaning when no principle can establish itself as a definitive ground?
English · Ton Haarmans
Hierarchism
The appeal and compulsion of thinking from a centre, a summit or an origin. On power, the overview and what falls outside the ordering.
English · Ton Haarmans
Rhizome
Deleuze and Guattari’s rhizome as an invitation to think in terms of connections and plurality, without tracing everything back to a single root.
English · Ton Haarmans
Laws of Form
An exploration of George Spencer-Brown’s Laws of Form and the role of distinctions in what becomes visible and thinkable.
English · Ton Haarmans
Consciousness, language and the self
On inner space, the voice in our head and the feeling of being the one who decides.
The Geography of Consciousness
We speak of depths, layers and spaces of consciousness. What image slips in with these words, and what happens when we let go of the map?
English · Ton Haarmans
Inner Speech & Experience
The voice no one else hears, considered through predictive processing. On the connections between prediction, speech and experience.
English · Ton Haarmans
Free Will
An examination of the seemingly self-evident experience of choosing. From a sip of coffee to the question of how actions and the sense of authorship arise.
English · Ton Haarmans
Spirituality and enlightenment
Spiritual paths, their promises and the worlds they open up.
Spirituality
A personal exploration of spirituality as sensitivity to how life appears, and of our tendency to trade contact for certainty.
English · Ton Haarmans
Enlightenment
Fourteen ways in which enlightenment acquires meaning. What kind of world, search and self-image does each approach bring with it?
English · Ton Haarmans
Michael Teachings
The Michael Teachings as a model that makes personalities recognisable while also organising the way we see.
English · Ton Haarmans
Darkness
An exploration, in short, assertive passages, of the falling away of bearings, positioning and the need for an ultimate explanation.
English · Ton Haarmans
Science and reality
What makes scientific knowledge possible and where explanations reach their limits.
Scientific knowledge
From an early fascination with science to questions about evidence and reliability. What distinguishes inquiry from an assumed final answer?
English · Ton Haarmans
Cosmology
Cosmological models, top-down cosmology and the question of how we speak about origins while being part of the universe ourselves.
English · Ton Haarmans
Quantum mechanics
A philosophical exploration of measurement, information and the limits of the classical picture of independent objects.
English · Ton Haarmans
The Universe Has No Window of Its Own
Rovelli’s relational interpretation as a starting point for examining the desire for a single, complete picture of reality without a perspective.
English · Ton Haarmans
Imagined and artificial worlds
Science fiction, virtual environments and artificial intelligence as explorations of possible worlds.
Science Fiction
Science fiction as a laboratory for lifeworlds: a story can temporarily make a different set of self-evident assumptions inhabitable.
English · Ton Haarmans
Virtual Mindsets
A virtual visit to the Titanic gives a sense of how quickly another environment can take over your perception, orientation and responses.
English · Ton Haarmans
Hybrid Mindsets
A speculative exploration of animal worlds, artificial intelligence and possible connections between very different forms of orientation.
English · Ton Haarmans
AI Voice
An AI can speak in a recognisable voice. How does it differ from a human voice, with its embodiment, history and vulnerability?
English · Ton Haarmans
The Sophia Project
How a series of AI responses can begin to appear as a coherent presence. On voice, continuity and the impression of an inner life.
English · Ton Haarmans
Life as it is lived
Personal explorations of mortality, closeness, wonder and freedom.
The Worlds We Once Lived In
A personal reflection on political and spiritual involvement. How can something mean everything for years and later lose its hold?
English · Ton Haarmans
Death
A personal essay on the fear of disappearing, the absence of certainty and the simple fact that life is being experienced now.
English · Ton Haarmans
Shock and Awe
Wonder at the appearing of a world touches on the thought that this experiencing may one day cease. Where words reach their limits.
English · Ton Haarmans
Innocence
An unexpected moment of acceptance in a parked van. What appears when inner judgement is temporarily absent?
English · Ton Haarmans
Love is not a subject
Closeness, a shared everyday life and the difficulty of making love a subject of inquiry. Sometimes there is simply something to be done.
English · Ton Haarmans
Freedom
The unexpected freedom that arises when no philosophical or spiritual position needs to have the final word any longer.
English · Ton Haarmans
Irony
Tarot, family constellations and meaning between knowing and believing. On the possibility of letting something speak without turning it into a conclusive explanation or belief.
English · Ton Haarmans