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Literary notes about insentient (AI summary)

The word "insentient" has been used in literature to underscore the lack of consciousness or feeling in physical matter and the world at large. For example, in James Joyce's Ulysses, the term is employed to describe the inert, lifeless quality of a strainveined timber table, emphasizing its inability to perceive or react [1]. In contrast, William James uses the term in a broader philosophical context to argue that in a purely insentient world, notions of good and evil have no foundation since there is no inherent moral consciousness underpinning the fabric of reality [2].
  1. The cause of a brief sharp unforeseen heard loud lone crack emitted by the insentient material of a strainveined timber table.
    — from Ulysses by James Joyce
  2. Surely there is no status for good and evil to exist in, in a purely insentient world.
    — from The Will to Believe, and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy by William James

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