“It is certain that a book is not harmless merely because no one is consciously offended by it.”

— T.S. Eliot

Religion and Literature (1935)

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T.S. Eliot 270

20th century English author 1888–1965

Igor Aleksander (1937) scientist

The simple things are hardest (2005)

“It was intended to please no one and to offend everyone. The entire process of the book was to discover the repressed elements of contemporary culture, whatever they are, and palpate them.”

Camille Paglia (1947) American writer

Response to criticism of Sexual Personae: Art and Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson, as quoted in "20Q: Camille Paglia" by Warren Kalbacker in Playboy magazine (October 1991) http://www.playboy.co.uk/article/16659/20q-camille-paglia; also in Gauntlet # 4 (1992), p. 133
Context: It was intended to please no one and to offend everyone. The entire process of the book was to discover the repressed elements of contemporary culture, whatever they are, and palpate them. One of the main premises was to demonstrate that pornography is everywhere in major art. Art history as written is completely sex free, repressive and puritanical. I want precision and historical knowledge, but at the same time, I try to zap it with pornographic intensity.

“There is but one indefectibly certain truth, and that is the truth that pyrrhonistic scepticism itself leaves standing, — the truth that the present phenomenon of consciousness exists.”

William James (1842–1910) American philosopher, psychologist, and pragmatist

The Will to Believe http://infomotions.com/etexts/philosophy/1800-1899/james-will-751.htm (1897)
1890s

“The consciousness of a general idea has a certain "unity of the ego" in it, which is identical when it passes from one mind to another.”

Charles Sanders Peirce (1839–1914) American philosopher, logician, mathematician, and scientist

"Man's Glassy Essence" in The Monist, Vol. III, No. 1 (October 1892)
Context: The consciousness of a general idea has a certain "unity of the ego" in it, which is identical when it passes from one mind to another. It is, therefore, quite analogous to a person, and indeed, a person is only a particular kind of general idea.

“Evil is a radiation of the human consciousness in certain transitional positions.”

Franz Kafka book The Zürau Aphorisms

85
The Zürau Aphorisms (1917 - 1918)
Context: Evil is a radiation of the human consciousness in certain transitional positions. It is not actually the sensual world that is a mere appearance; what is so is the evil of it, which, admittedly, is what constitutes the sensual world in our eyes.