With intent of the author dead, I am embracing the new perception driven reality. What follows is a pure madness; please read at your own risk.
As my habits convert my luxurious enjoyments into dull and daily necessities; a need for seriousness grows in my stomach.
I contemplate the people who maintain power by keeping people disgusted, bored and cynical by creating every possible psychological reason for people to stay at home doing one-hitters and chatting online on primary day.
Philosophical Reminders
-The aesthete reminds me that it is often more fun to want something than to have it.
-The philosopher arm chair reminds me that a crust eaten in peace is better than a banquet partaken in anxiety.
-The ethisist reminds me that I do not know why we are here but it is surely not just to enjoy ourselves.
-The spite within reminds me that I'd rather be mad than feel pleasure.
-The solipsist reminds me that the limits of language (the one language which I understand) mean the limits of my world.
-My first person experience reminds me that science may be described as the art of systematic oversimplification.
-My bachelors degree in philosophy reminds me how useless a decent education is.
My issue - Can these two thoughts be reconciled?
“The sole remaining task for philosophy is the analysis of language.” - Wittgenstein
-Zen philosophy states that since language can never leave its own constructs and internal rules, it cannot serve as a vehicle for philosophical truth.
An Illustration
"Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo." is a grammatically valid sentence in the English language. It has been discussed in literature since 1972 when the sentence was used by William J. Rapaport, an associate professor at the University at Buffalo.
If what can be said at all can be said clearly, and what we cannot talk about we must pass over in silence, then philosophical truth must surmount the "Zen" limits of language if is to complete is last task of analyzing language.
My Question
Given the above philosophical observations, shall the sounds of philosophical truth pass into silence? Does the new world of blogging and re-blogging fill this silence, or are "mundayz just the wurst."
A philosopher who is not taking part in discussions is like a boxer who never goes into the ring. Just be mindful of the Hedgehog Dilemma.
Senators, please don't respond with, "Whats the point of doing philosophy?"
ReplyDeleteA most excellent post Nero. And why would such a post call for such a malignant response of "What's the point of doing philosophy?" You know all too well that is a question the Post-Moderner need not ask, perhaps because he is afraid he is unsure of the answer at times. Yet you have inspired the digging out of that existential text of old Bolton 182, Nietzsche's "Beyond Good & Evil".
ReplyDelete"It is hard to be understood, especially when one thinks and lives 'as the current of the Ganges moves' among men who think and live differently--namely, 'as the tortoise moves', or at best "the way frogs walk, (I obviously do everything to be 'hard to understand' myself!)--and one should be cordially grateful for the good will to some subtly of interpretation."
His words, unfortunately do not solve the problem you put forth, but only serve as yet another example of its philosophical prowess. However, he also says this:
"But a curiosity of my type remains after all the most agreeable of all vices--sorry, I meant to say: the love of truth has its reward in heaven and even on earth."
So perhaps Nero, our inability to find truth through is forever hindered by our dependence on language. Perhaps this is the inescapable fate of our existence, but does that mean that the search should end?
Nietzsche’s confounding image of the bird of ideas trapped in the cage of language with superficial quotes of Wittgenstein had led me to a silence of all truth. But Like Po-Mo stated, this does not mean the search should stop. Thanks to chaos-linguistics I have come to realize that I should not be stunned or stultified by the arbitrariness and relativity of language but instead stand refreshed and revivified by it’s anxiety inducing yawning abyss of freedom. While I do see that the stick tool of language gets at the ants of meaning in the tree trunk, I draw limits on what one is able to do with the ant; i.e metaphysics and ethics. I guess what I am trying to get at is that the philosophical truth about language is something that is climbed upon then jumped from. "The Tao which can be spoken is not the Tao," Lao Tzu.
ReplyDeleteSpecial thanks goes out to Senator Jim-bo for his knowledge on chaos-linguistics via skype.
"The bait is the means to get the fish where you want it, catch the fish and you forget the bait. The snare is the means to get the rabbit where you want it, catch the rabbit and forget the snare. Words are the means to get the idea where you want it, catch on to the idea and you forget about the words. Where shall I find a man who forgets about words, and have a word with him?"
-Chuang Tzu
http://www.strange-loops.com/philhakimchaoslinguistics.html
How inspired you are by Eastern Philosophy Nero! Your inspiration has again inspired me to dig up texts from the past. This time I draw on my own translation/adaptation (aided of course by my professor) of the ancient Japanese, Buddhist text of Kukkai "The Opposition of the Two Teachings -- Seeking a Third Space to Escape the Conflict of Ideas and Duality"
ReplyDelete"The mysterious space of enlightenment is permeated by the sound of the lawful body of the Buddha. The characteristic of the word of the lawful body is intimacy. This intimacy allows for a truthful exchange, such as the kind that only friends can understand -- what is said and what happens is exactly the same."
The plain of enlightenment is a place where "what is said and what happens is exactly the same". The fallacy of language ceases due to the closeness of those communicating to each other. There is a oneness...I cannot help but think of Buber and "I and Thou" here as well, and again marvel at the questions that consume us as a species over time and place.
My translation ends here (again, with what seems like an odd but unplanned reference to Nietzsche above). It is a warning, of becoming too comfortable in "trendy teaching, masks that merely appear as the true teachings":
"Speaking metaphorically about those entangled in the net of abstract thought, we can say that they are like rams rushing into a bamboo fence and entrapping their horns...The path through the sutra must re-energize its travelers and needs not to mislead them or make them too comfortable. How else can they hope to preserve its insights which are inexhaustible, and uncountable as the grains of the Ganges river?"
So Nero, I pose this: perhaps there is a way out of the entanglement of language to truth. Be it through close relationships with one another, or the search for enlightenment. But be forewarned, and perhaps this is the greatest folly of the Senate itself (and maybe even many philosophers)--do not get stuck in the Nietzschian "nook" of our own thoughts.
What can a layman such as myself add after imbibing the delicate elegance of these fellow senators' byzantium thought weaves?
ReplyDeleteIndeed, for exposition's sake, Nero, myself and an esteemed guest of the house, Jimbo, weighed in upon the Wittgenstein--Zen contradiction. Though for further clarification- mine and Jimmy's precursory porch discussion took a decidedly anthropological leant.
Circumstances prevented our brainchild from receiving its proper linguistic embellishment-- an oversight I intend to rectify. And again, pardon this layman- as fumbling with daddy's tools- I am uncertain.
Truth in this case we defined as contextual summation. The ape and the ants metaphor we served uncooked, but it sought to demonstrate a physical pragmatism for language. As the dumb ape, we fish for contextual summations in their dirt hole with what misshapen devices we chance upon inventing for ourselves.
Language, imperfect tool it may be, is rightly judged on its aptitude in retrieving ants.
Chuang Tzu wants queen ants, yet finds only common carpenter anties. So does one throw out the stick? Or does one develop a taste for what their tools can provide?
Or Rather:
What language do feral children think in: Greek or Latin?