Category: philosophy

purposeful farce of her reasoning.

And, of the methodology of social studies, the lady spoke, saying,

“It should be art and not science.”

Make it poetry, not dictum.

■

Art inspires; science Informs.

science is Hard. judges.

Art is soft. Encourages.

one is known by how it Does;

One is known by the noun containing It.

A real Kant of a reckoning:

The false premise that existence is a predicate.

■

Existing adds nothing to the essence of a being.

De quocumque prædicatur aliquid quod non.

Of whomsoever it is used in reference to something which is not.

■

Ontological argument:

one is observer bias.

One is observer effect.

But, Which is which and of whom is Who?

■

Make it unironically magnanimous.

Make it impervious to dogma susceptible to leveraging.

Make it conversational and able to play devil’s advocate with no consequence.

■

The difference between a petty enemy and a formidable foe is metaphysically existential.

The Art of making a soft dialectic is the diabolical epitome of all that is Holy and Hard, of having an ally in the brethren of the adversarial.

■

“Let the catbird/s sing,” she whispers.

“All that is well and good;” he redundently says, “but, how do we pragmatically comply with this epistle?”

“How should I know? I’m a poet not a scientist,” she concedes, giggling at the purposeful farce of her own reasoning.

♤

(And for the Time-Being, she continues to enjoy the half and half in her coffee.)

Ways of seeing.

Forward and up.

A tightrope walker knows to not look down

when toeing a path

across the line.

When nothing makes sense

Abandon yourself to the terrorifically awful awesome.
Control and compliance, there is a

subtle difference in

Ways of Seeing.

Berger the Maverick.

“Perspective centers everything on the eye of the beholder.”

Hosting Flaneurs

The chill in the air smells like the last time I fell in love.

Knitted woolen leg warmers donned. Chestnut brown and unraveling from overuse.

My sister gave me three pairs, last year.

“You want, like, Flash Dance legwarmers for your birthday?” she asked.

“Yeah, I am standing on my toes these days.”

An hour ’til I walk to the restaurant.An hour of coffee, words, and nicotine.

I will pluck my heavy comforter (trans. duvet) from storage after work.

⊙

I seat a one top.

Coffee?: I ask

I insist on it: he says.

We have that in common.

No cream. Bring white sugar if you have it: he says.

White sugar?: I think.

Kat, do we have white sugar already on the table?: I ask, unsure what white sugar means.

Bleached sugar, you mean?: she asks.

Smiling, I say: dunno. He wants white sugar. Those words.

Well, we have raw sugar, nutrisweet, sweat n’ low, and truevia in packets on the tables. We have Splenda packets here, just in case. Brown sugar for breakfast…:

The dishwasher (who provided his own sobriquet [call me MC BlackCoffee: he told me, when I first started] ) interrupts her.

He wants this: he says, holding a shaker the size of two coffee cups stacked on top of each other.

What kind of sugar do you call this: I ask him.

The good kind: he says.

We need to reevaluate your nickname. Sugared coffee is not black coffee: I tease.

Don’t change the color, does it?: he nods, smiling.

⊙

Server T. touches my shoulder: the guy at table six has a book for you.

Oh, word. I was hoping he would make good: I say.

How do you know him? He wasn’t sure if you were the right person. Plus, you just seated him.: he says confused and a bit irritated I had let one guy sit at his four top.

I don’t know him. I didn’t recognize him: I reply.

He shrugs. I smile.

Two nights ago, I discovered this server knew philosophy as well as, if not better than, me. And, he discovered a coworker that could keep up with him. We had discussed the very book table six has brought me. He seemed happy.

~

I met table six when he came in for breakfast a few days before. I noticed him reading a Martin Gardner book.

I dig that guy: I say.

This seventyish year old man looked up at me. I recall one eye not opening all the way, although both eyes appear open today.

I found Hofstadter, Penrose, and Feynman through him: I say.

He stared at me.

He wants to be left alone: I think.

I walk away, after offering: I’ll leave you to enjoy.

As he left, he stopped by my hostess post and asked: how did someone your age find out about these guys.

Well, I was ten years younger in Alabama selling collegiate clothing in a boutique and I got very bored.

~

I go up to table six. He has brought me his second copy of Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid, thoughtfully wrapped in plastic as it rains heavy. This was a gateway book for me and I lost my copy during my move from AL to WA. I am thrilled a copy has found it’s way back to me.

What kind of restaurant is this? You and my server is a philosophy graduate.: he says, looking quite serious.

One that is open to hiring ex-academic flaneurs: I joke.

I have him sign and date the book.

By the way, your server is also a third degree black belt: I mention.

~

Server T says: Don’t you think it’s funny we were just talking about that book the other night?

Ha, I am surprisingly unsurprised. Things like this happen a lot to people like us, don’t you think?: I respond.

Well, I think there would be some observer bias in such a thought: he says, quite rightly.

But, observer bias is unavoidable by definition because we are observers at every moment. What are your thoughts on metaphysics?: I push him.

I try to avoid metaphysics. Too messy.: he says, walking away.

Yeah, yeah. That’s what all you philosophers say these days. Too messy and too close to mysticism: I call out as much to myself as to him.

Formalizing metaphysical, higher-level education

Prof. Lewis: what is the meaning of life?

Carroll: to answer the question, “what is the meaning of life?” Is that right?

Chuck raises his hand and is acknowledged; he asks: will this be on the quiz?

Cartesian-ism

I’ll see it when I believe it : I think therefore I am.

I’ll believe when I see it : I’m seen therefore I am.

_____________________________________________

“I’ll believe it when I see it,” say the lesser apes.

“You’ll see it when you believe it,” you said.

Cogito, ergo sum.

What René Descartes is remembered as saying.

Je pense, donc je suis.

How Descartes first wrote it.

I think therefore I am.

(tautological?)

“Whatever I have up until now accepted as most true I have acquired either from the senses or through the senses.” (7:18 Principles)

But Descartes feared a deceptive God or an evil eternal deceiver.

Could he trust the apprehensions of his physical senses?

He could not disprove that his sensations were not the result of deception; so he dove into doubt. How is sensation different from perception?

“We have a true or genuine perception of something if, when we consider it, we cannot doubt it…In the face of genuine clear and distinct perception, our affirmation of it is so firm that it cannot be shaken, even by a concerted effort to call those observed things into doubt. (7:145 Meditations)

Descartes tried to free us from “I’ll believe it when I see it.” He tried to disavow the authority and immediacy of knowing the world through sense and sensations. He did not believe that his five senses could apprehend truth in a way that overcame his doubt.

He found doubt and did not believe.

His belief was not dependent on sensual stimulation.

I’ll see it when I believe it.

I think therefore I am.

Perceptions that I cannot find a scrap of a reason to doubt, may be genuine.

So, we doubt the hell out of everything; and, if we exhaust every doubt of which we may conceive, we firm up our grasp of reality. Through dint of doubt, all doubt is removed. This is intellect.

“I think.” He couldn’t find a doubt about it, so he allowed his capacity for thought and doubt to validate his existence- that he “is.”

His sensations could be virtual reality, so he doubted what he saw.

When he had no doubt that he “thought”, he then believed he truly “was.”

—————————————————-

Empiricism resists and refuses the subjective realm, and is founded on a principle of obtaining information via senses and standardized measurements.

Science, empiricism, and Western culture say, “I’ll believe it when I see it.”

I got a (dumb) cell phone in 2002.

My family got dial up internet in our home around 1998.

Before the mid-1990’s, we could not be in two places at once (physical, say, a restaurant, and cyberspace).

The advent of Facebook, Instagram, selfies, social media and internet culture creates a condition for, “I’m seen therefore I am.” I validate myself and reality by reproducing images of myself digitally which I post to get views online. I act the role of myself in a construction that I calculate. I show what I want when I want to in the hopes others will come to know me as I have shown myself to be.

My sister’s generation operates on “I’m seen therefore I am.”

Little digitally savvy savages.

Groups eating together and everyone has a screen. Silicon is always in hand. Take it away and they sweat.

The viewpoint of this age group: I am capable of being observed by others, this validates that I “am.”

The desire to be seen, get friended, followed, liked, hits is the want of confirming and calculable feedback that digital you has been observed and accepted by others. The cyber persona may be chosen moment to moment, so to speak. Day to day personas are less so chosen.

They’ll believe it when they see it.

Yeah, we’ll cure cancer,

And pigs can fly,

God exists,

Well, that is, I’ll believe it when I see it’s already been done.

The more individuals who say likewise, then the less individuals we have working to solve these problems. Presumably, the people waiting to see it will not be trying to manifest it. Why would they?

To them it is impossible until somebody else says, “I’m going to believe it is a possibility to cure cancer, and then I will find out if I can realize that possibility, perceive it.”

There is a lovely lack of cynicism in “I’ll see when I believe it.” There is a proper dash of humility regarding our own self-awareness.

————————————————————–

“I’ll believe when I see.”

This, however, indicates an inherent incredulity and it absolves the self of accountability.

That which cannot be seen or sensed stands on unbelievable ground.

“I’m seen therefore I am.” I see myself and receive systematic, calculable feedback that others have seen me. This validates that I am. I can show it you, point at it.

Alternatively, “I think so I am” puts the onus of doubt back on any given individual. She talks of what can or cannot be seen/perceived at this time. She does not have to state a belief position. This frees the mind in the sense that here belief follows one’s own perceptions, and, perceptions may be addressed through the process of doubt. I do not choose my beliefs as much as I become aware of them. I do not choose to believe based on what I have or have not perceived.

My beliefs are revealed to me by the things I perceive and then I am unable to doubt them. What I see allows me to come to know my beliefs and tweak them. My belief in the possibility of things does not necessitate their appearance.

I’ll see less things on earth than things I will see in this lifetime. Shall I really constrain myself to such a small set of experiential data?

I’ll see it when I believe it : I think therefore I am.

I’ll believe when I see it : I’m seen therefore I am.

I am a trenchant blade.

The kunst of a trenchant blade.

Unity does not provide

immunity, imp.

Impunity.

I am held fast, tonight, by unseen forces.

Letting letters flash before my eyes. Solitary reverie.

A silent moment un-obfuscated by the conversations of idle chatter.

I got nothing to talk to anybody about

on this Night Ride Home.

[]

An attempted review of causal factors.

A language within a language.

An odd mood becomes me these past couple of nights.

An internal bio-rhythm harkening me. But what does it signal? To what effect?

Am I being daft?

I know that which I miss, but what am I missing?

What did I miss?

Miss his hiss.

Misses Hiss.

[]

The corona is the crown of a head. Not a crown worn on a head.

Korone, garland wreath,

bursting from your skull as effulgent plumes, loops,

and multiform streams.

Plasma was found to be the fourth type of matter in the 1920’s.

Plasma derived from the ancient Greek word meaning

moldable substance.

Lightning and neon light produces plasma.

Corona is an aura of plasma

that surrounds the Sun and other stars.

[]

I am unrelenting not ceaseless. I am the yield of not yielding in strength, severity, or determination.

However, constant and unending?

Like a northern star?

Where’s that at? If you want me I’ll be in the bar.

[]

Wandering star, Venus.

The Greeks came to accept

what the Babylonians had already known.

The Status Quo and Muddy Waters.

They dedicated

The

Wanderer

To Aphrodite.

–

Vespers:

Supper

Prayers to the

Evening Star in the

West.

Roman Hesperus and Phosphorous.

.Hesperus is to Venus. :: .Phosphorus is to Eosphorus.

nOn Sense and Reference.

《》

INTERPRETATO GRÆCA :: INTERPRETATO ROMANA

“Greek/Roman translations.” Interpretations by means of Greek/Roman models.

A discourse that is a comparative methodology used to look for

equivalence/s

correspondence/s

resemblance/s

《Pliny the Elder》

NOMINA ALIA ALIIS GENTIBUS

The translatability of deities as different names to different people.

The syncretism of the Hellenistic.

《》

Die Krisis der europäischen Wissenchaften und die transzendentale Phänomenologie.

Telos: an ultimate object or aim

Entelech: realization of potential ; the supposed vital principle that guides the development and functioning of an organism or system

The sēmeion as the signal evidencing the daimonion.

A Phædo.

Speakeasy Alleys

The fan at the bar who

drank zero drinks for

hours

leaps to his feet

/baby says she’s mine/

/you know she tells me all

the time/

/you know she said so/

He flashed a fiver

and dances up the length

of the bar’s entrance

and back down again.

Pro-offered & finally

accepted.

A silver fox takes his

hand.

Howl they dance.

She dances with him

through the next three

covers.

Not a bad turn around on

investment, in this fool’s eyes.

A girl dances along-side

them and begins waving.

Then, she plays it off.

She did not know to

whom she waved.

But, maybe she will.

Ever-one jumps up and

rushes to dance to CCR.

I say: I like the smell of

your leather.

He says: you’re the girl in

the black dress.

I say: there’s some white

crosshairs on here.

He smiles; and, I walk away.

I espy the Dance Partner

give her number away

while all ages free-dance

I overhear: it is what it is

Howl yes

It is

And, the band howls:

Here it comes

/well nothing I do don’t

seem to work, <howl>, it

only seems to make

matters worse/

The bassist nails the

outro.

Then, on the next song,

the band changes singers.

They break into

Rebel, Rebel. They

miss a line.

They redeem the

recapitulation of

Ziggy Stardust

/gurl, I want to be with

you/

It is funny

Go across an ocean and

they sing southern, u.s. rock.

Come back home and all they wanna sing

is the British invasion.

A breeze blows from

The Sound

as I walk home alone.

Swallows are Birds

I heard that hard swallow at being told: no, you can’t;

The situation is too volatile.

Vulnerability.

(It’s okay to be enraged at potentially outrageous situations).

A shot fired. Guns.

A shot snapped. Cameras.

A shot of courage. Liquor.

Vaccinated but not contaminated.

The etymology of the epidemiological epistemology of existentialism.

The dose is the poison.

The poison is the dose.

Salk knew it.

“The dose reveals” says the allegory of Watson & Crick.

Underwriting College Electorates

Glass blown to be exploded and recapitulated;

An album sleeve painted on a deadline;

The record of your time-frame.

A jewel-disc case

is resonant to a cassette; but,

it is not the book.

Provide an open-secret viz a viz a well-demarcated rabbit~hole.

Spray painted peri-

meter to warn that:

YOU FALL AT YOUR

OWN RISK.

own your risk.

Quote Like Song Lyrix Stuck in my Head

Eclecticism is self-defeating not because there is only one direction in which it is useful to move, but because there are so many: it is necessary to choose.

THE INTERPRETATION OF CULTURES: Selected Essays. Geertz, Clifford. Basic Books, Inc., Publishers. New York, 1973.

Means and Ends: The Way of CHUANG TZU

As is a practice, I flipped through a book snapped from the shelf at random.

There was a metro ticket from a trip taken.

It fell before the start of this reading.

It fell at the end of the other reading included.

As an investigator of method, Tao, mysticism, I found it of interest. Surprise, right? Giggle.

A couple of extra quotes from different readings included below.

MEANS AND ENDS

The gate keeper in the capital city of Sung became such an expert mourner after his father’s death, and so emaciated himself with fasts and austerities, that he was promoted to high rank in order that he might serve as a model of ritual observance.

As a result of this, his imitators so deprived themselves that half of them died. The others were not promoted.

The purpose of a fish trap is to catch fish, and when the fish are caught, the trap is forgotten.

The purpose of the rabbit snare is to catch rabbits. When the rabbits are caught, the snare is forgotten.

The purpose of words is to convey ideas. When the ideas are grasped, the words are forgotten.

Where can I find a man who forgotten words? He is the one I would like to talk to.

[xxvi. 11.]

THE USELESS

Hui Tzu said to Chuang Tzu:

“All your teaching is centered on what has no use.”

Chuang replied:

“If you have no appreciation for what has no use

You cannot begin to talk about what can be used.

The earth, for example, is broad and vast

But of all this expanse a man uses only a few inches

Upon which he happens to be standing.

Now suppose you suddenly take away

All that he is not actually using

So that, all around his feet a gulf

Yawns, and he stands in the Void,

With nowhere solid except right under

each foot:

How long will be he able to use what he is using?”

Hui Tzu said:

“It would cease to serve any purpose.”

Chuang Tzu concluded:

“This shows

The absolute necessity

Of what has ‘no use.'”

[xxvi. 7.]

Keng’s Disciple

The disciple got some supplies,

Traveled seven days and seven nights

Alone,

And came to Lao Tzu.

Lao asked: “Do you come from Keng?”

“Yes,” replied the student.

“Who are all those people you have

brought with you?”

The disciple whirled around to look.

Nobody there. Panic!

Lao said: “Don’t you understand?”

The disciple hung his head. Confusion!

Then a sigh. “Alas, I have forgotten my

answer.”

(More confusion!) “I have also forgotten

my question.”

Lao said: “What are you trying to say?”

The disciple: “When I don’t know,

people treat me like a fool.

When I do know, the knowledge gets me in trouble.

When I fail to do good, I hurt others.

When I do good, I hurt myself.

If I avoid my duty, I am remise,

But if I do it, I am ruined.

How can I get out of these contradictions?

That is what I came to ask you.”

Lao Tzu said: You are trying to sound

The middle of the ocean

With a six foot pole…

You have got lost, and are trying

To find your way back

To your own true self.

You find nothing

But illegible signposts

Pointing in all directions…

If your obstructions

Are on the outside,

Do not attempt

To grasp them one by one

And thrust them away.

Impossible! Learn

To ignore them.

If they are within yourself,

You cannot destroy them piecemeal,

But you can refuse

To let them take effect.

If they are both inside and outside,

Do not try

To hold on to Tao–

Just hope that Tao

Will keep hold of you.”

The disciple asked:

“Is this perfection?”

Lao replied: “Not at all. If you persist in trying

To attain what is never attained

(It is Tao’s gift!)

If you persist in reasonsing

About what cannot be understood,

You will be destroyed

By the very thing you seek.

To know when to stop

To know when you can get no further

By your own action,

this is the right beginning!”

[xxiii. 3-7]

Merton, Thomas. The Way of Chuang Tzu. Shambhala Publications, Inc. Boston & London. 1992.

Copyright 1965 by the Abbey of Gethsemani

Attempt @ Recap of Gödel & Formal Systems

Trying to learn mathematics. Comments and corrections welcome. Piece of a work in progress.

All consistent axiomatic formulations of number theory include undecideable propositions.

The single, circular ‘loop’ of the statement above is the assertion that, although the statement is true, it cannot be proven to be true. This parallels the way Principia Mathematica contained mathematical statements of truth that could not be proven through the text itself.

Gödel showed that probability is a weaker notion than truth. His sentence G showed that no fixed system could adequately represent the complexity of whole numbers-no matter how complicated or elegant. No connective set of principles could explain ‘a whole’. ‘A whole’ is a sum greater than its constituent parts.

See Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians which makes the point that although sun, water, and soil are required and can explain growth, they are not growth itself. Growth results in death (sic. cell senescence) which returns as birth/reproduction.

The main paradox in math is trying to enliven our intuitive realizations with formalized, axiomatic explanations?

Fie While Effie Rages

All you are is a one, signifying a specific

attribution

You are what came before while also what

will be.

But, ‘you’ now is a virtual reality.

You came from Australopithecus or else some PAST ERECTUS.

A sapien is, in sum, a predecessor

pantheon.

Fie grinded with rage.

“I hate you and your face. I hate your ears. I hate all sound.”*

*of course, all anyone could make-out were strings of gashing, ferocious garbles spewing wildly from his lips.

 

 

“I already met Fie. Fie?”

Effie paged backwards through the notepad, until she found out where she had met Fie, as his two brothers, Foe ampersand Fum.

Disambiguation…

The line is not: You pay for what you get.

The steganographia is not the encryption is not the transcryption,

Nor is it the ostensible coding.

Encoding=scribing.

The poison is the dose.

The doz>s>e is the poison.

The map is not the region.

“Here I do have a theory: Perhaps we got across because we sailed on the ocean and not on a map.”

THE RA EXPEDITIONS

Thor Heyerdahl

DOUBLEDAY publishing

Page (ostensibly) 341 aka M(42)

Imagine that ( x ) = x in subSCRIPT

Here you find (sub)SCrypçione

The lyric is: you get what you pay for.

An honest question from an ignorant me.

Empiricism is the imperialistic prerogative…at least as my mind marks it, and, it does so pseudo-empirically.

But, my concern is: if the observation of an object of inquiry actually changes the behavior of the object itself, what can be said for the metaphysical methodological underpinnings of ‘social science’?

The most basic of examples may be found in the early writings of Margaret Mead. The locals sang a different tune to her than the true song by which they lived.

Reading Hermit}One Leafe Left In A Study

I once thought to myself, in one of those moments of passing lucidity: Is the point of life to remember how to enjoy breathing? Is it the most basic pleasure?

Breath.

Breathe.

Breather.

Breathers.

Did you know the word “panic” does derive from Pan?  Look it up, might be buried deeper than a single dictionary.

Did you know that Freud posited that the idiosyncratic, neuroses afflicting individuals in society are a result of human civilization itself, not some inherent biology deficiency?

Involuntary loss of control over voluntary processes. Inability to breath.

Breathless. Is that not the quintessence of smoking, smoking anything, inhaling anything?

Taking in the air around you seems inane or futile. Breathing reaffirms life.

Music and speech force breath and leave breathless. Breathing through your nose,

closing your throat to prevent air slipping through

renders speechless.

Ineffable

Here are the things I’ve been thinking/reading over the last few years:

iPagan. Edited by Trevor Greenfield, 2018. Textbook for learning organizational & historical of “naturalist” sects.

The Glass Bead Game (Master Ludi). Hermann Hesse, 1990. Henry Holt

Foucault’s Pendulum. Umberto Eco, 1988. “A Helen and Kurt Wolff book.”

On Literature. Umberto Eco.

The Confessions of St. Augustine. find the Oxford version. Read it as though your narrator is being completely ironic. 

Kierkegaard’s Fear and Trembling

Kantian Reason

Bertrand Russell’s efforts to formalize systems

Sartre’s Being and Non-Being

Consider: Euclidean/Non-Euclidean Space ; Gödel’s sentence G ; a priori methods formalizing almost axiomatically ; the difference between linear/non-linear equations ; consider the different types of numbers and the number line ; consider the difference between permutations and combinations

Incompleteness: The Proof and Paradox of Kurt Gödel. Rebecca Goldstein 2005.

Gödel Escher Bach ; Metamathematical Themas ; Mind’sI. Douglas R. Hofstadter

Gödel’s Proof. Ernest Nagel, James R. Hofstadter, 2001

 A Mathematician’s Apology. G.H. Hardy, 1940

Introduction to Logic. Patrick Suppes, 1957

Short Stories: The Circular Ruins (Jorges Borges) ; The Beautiful Dream  (Hermann Hesse) ; The Dream of Poliphilius ; The Great God Pan Arthur Machen

Consider and draw the Sephirotic Tree.

Consider the nature of words and language: Use Don Miguel Ruiz’s The Four Agreements as introduction

Consider Parzifal (A.T. Hatto’s translation of Wolfram Von Eschenbach)

Danse Macabre. Stephen King.

Plato-Socrates: The Apology, Phaedo, Swan’s Song,

Random Rabbit Holes: the concept of godess/godheads, female and male sexuality/Hesperus is Phosphorus/a book’s copyright page, Odysseus, Ajax.

The Ecstasy Beyond Knowing: A Manual of Meditation. Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan, 2014.

The most interesting question that comes from all this reading, in my opinion: What is the subliminal symbolism of sexuality?

 

 

 

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