Category: Quotes

The Problem of Nothingness (bonus pts if you guess the source-it should go without saying.)

An abstraction is made when something not capable of existing in isolation is thought of as in an isolated state.

Consciousness is an abstraction.

The concrete can be only the synthetic totality of which consciousness, like the phenomenon, constitutes only moments. Effecting a phenomenological reduction will not succeed in restoring the concrete (of consciousness) by the summation or organization of the elements which we abstracted from it. The relation of the regions of being is an original emergence and is a part of the very structure of the beings.

“Is there any conduct which can reveal to me the relation not man with the world?”

We have established a Parallelism between the types of conduct man adopts in the face of Being and Non-Being. We’re tempted to consider being and non-being as two complementary components of the real: like dark and light.

Two contemporary notions which would somehow be united in the production of existents and which it would be useless to consider in isolation. Pure being and pure non-being would be two abstractions which could be reunited only on the basis of concrete realities.

There is nothing in heaven or on earth which does not contain in itself Being and Nothingness.

What the Technical Meaning of ‘Emergence’ means to me (3 Things)

EMERGENCE

system: combination of components can form a more complex organization, that can be termed a system. E.g. of biological systems: cells > organism > ecosystem. To understand how biological systems work, it is not enough to have a complete “parts” list.

emergent properties of systems: with each upward step in the hierarchy of biological order, novel proerties emerge that are not present in the level just below. They are due to the arrangement and interaction of parts as complexity increases. E.g. thoughts, memories are emergent properties of a complex network of nerve cells.

reductionism

reducing complex systems to simpler components that are manageable to study (horseapples: I say) The dillema of understanding biological breaks down thusly:

1. We cannot fully explain a higher level of order by breaking it down into its parts

2. Something as complex as organisms and /or cells cannot be analyzed without observing them take their own selves apart.

Zagreus (oft confused with a dude up a tree)

Camus’ Zagreus once “laughed and added, ‘You see Mersault, all the misery and cruelty of our civilization can be measured by this one stupid axiom: happy nations have no history,’ ” incorporating time and nations into the excruciatingly existential search for ‘metaphysical truth.’

res ges’tae (Latin)

Inclination of the Needle

(dip of the magnetic needle)

illude

(trick, delude)

illudere

(promising)

illywhacker

(confidence trickster)

Illocution

(an action performed by saying or writing something. promise)

idempotent

( < math. an element of a set which is unchanged in value when operated

on by itself )

idem

( < Latin. ‘same‘ ; French. ‘somme‘ )

idée fixe

( obsession < French lit. ‘fixed idæ‘ )

idée reçue

( generally accepted concept < French lit. ‘received idæ’ )

Watch “Jay Baruchel on why he’ll always love the Montreal Canadiens” on YouTube

Thanks CBC and Q.

Upcoming book, Born Into It, by Jay Baruchel sounds great.

Really thoughtful interview.

Cheers.

Foucault’s Pendulum (Quotes from 1st reading)

Umberto Eco’s Foucault’s Pendulum is DENSE and cryptic. Will not be through this one anytime soon.

Had to stop by page 18! mainly because my brain exploded when I read that last quote.

The Pendulum told me that, as everything moved-earth, solar system, nebulae and black holes, all the children of the great cosmic expansion-one single point stood still: a pivot, bolt, or hook around which the universe could move.

It proves the rotation of the earth. Since the point of suspension doesn’t move. p5

By fleeing to another; you cannot escape the revelation of the identical by takeing refuge in the illusion of the multiple.p7

It is as if the progeny of Reason and Enlightenment had been condemned to stand guard forever over the ultimate symbol of Tradition and Wisdom.p8

This catoptric theater was only contrived to take away your identity and make you feel unsure not only of the very objects standing between you and the mirrors.

Then suddenly I saw myself upside down in a mirror.

Intolerable.p13

I was penetrating to the heart of a secret message in the form of a rationalist theatrum.p15

The first Sefirah is Keter, the Crown, the beginning, the primal void. In the beginning He created a point, which became Thought, where all the figures were drawn. He was and was not, He was encompassed in the name yet not encompassed in the name, having as yet no name other than the desire to be called by a name.p18

Hartz. American Exceptionalism: The Consensus Thesis. Introductory Notes

American Exceptionalism, as Louis Hartz writes about it, asserts that the U.S. varies qualitatively from other nations. As citizens of the first extended republic, white U.S. men were the first to enjoy nearly universal suffrage; and, also the first to form political parties. As compared to working classes of other countries, the American working class has been politically cautious. For example, the scope of America’s social welfare programs has been distinctly limited.

The U.S. is a paradox of change and continuity. Despite rapid political and economic development, there has been profound resistance to social movements and policies that were typically elicited elsewhere by a dynamic capitalist economy.

The most pervasive explanation for this pattern of development and resistance is that a belief in individual freedom, private enterprise, and republican institutions founded by popular consent has made it difficult for competing collectivist movements and policies to take hold. Hartz frames this as a constraining cultural consensus.

American Exceptionalism: The Consensus Thesis

Starts liberal, stays liberal.

This thesis is rooted in Tocqueville’s discussion of American social relations.

I think there is no other country in the world where there are so few ignorant and so few learned individuals.

Special material conditions, Tocqueville thought, helped produce this result.

Even though a “few great lords” migrated to the thirteen colonies, the soul of America absolutely rejected a territorial [landed] aristocracy.

But social relations and conditions were crucial factors. Even the southern planters lacked the traditional-and inherited-privledges distinguishing aristocrats from commoners, and because their workers were African slaves, the land Master lacked the usual patronage relations aristocrats had with ordinary citizens in Europe.

Tocqueville:

The inhabitants hardly know each other, and each man is ignorant of his nearest neighbor’s history…no man enjoys the influence and respect due a whole life spent publically in doing good deeds.

Americans enjoyed bourgeois liberty, “not the aristocratic freedom of their motherland, but a middle-class and democratic freedom.” (Hartz)

The U.S. had learned to combine liberty and democracy in a manner the French had not. They didn’t suffer a democratic revolution. They all belonged to the middle class. There had been no prolonged struggle to bring down aristocracy.

Americans are… born equal instead of becoming so.

Time to Revive Hartz & rexamine American Exceptionalism?

Embodying an absolute moral ethos, “Americanism,” once it is driven onto the world stage by events, is inspired willy-nilly to reconstruct the very alien things it tries to avoid. Its Messianism is the polar counterpart of its isolation. Americans seem to oscillate between fleeing from the rest of the world and embracing it with too ardent a passion. An absolute national morality is inspired to withdraw from “alien” things or to transform them-It cannot live in comfort constantly by their side.

Louis Hartz. American Exceptionalism. 1955.

Thoughts are with those hurting tonight after the violent events.

Let’s try harder to do better.

A Pretty Beautiful Poem

Conviviality: C17 from Latin convivialis “a feast”

“fit for a feast”

(of an atmosphere or event) friendly, lively, enjoyable

potential. hy/Poten/use

potentiate

potent. pot. Portia (circa Antigone)

portent (n) ; portend (vb)

– portentious

port

porter

Deceit…. disgust

Conceit…. disguise. (dis/g -)

Receipt… despise

(- cei/P/t)

DISAMBIGUATION

Pretext: ostensible reason (false) used to justify an action.

Pretense: act of pretending, false ambitions / claim

Pretend: imaginative same / fantasy

Pretension: claim of aspiration to something pretentious

Pretentious: attempting to impress with falsehood

Prevaricate: act or speak in an evasive way

Prima facie: (law) at first sight [ / site / cite]; accepted as so until proven otherwise

The Old English spelling of pretty = prættig, meaning

‘cunning or crafty’ coming as it did from a West Germanic base meaning

‘trick’.

By the Middle Ages, pretty had come to mean ‘clever, skilful, or ingenuious’.

The sense development [ deceitful, cunning, clever, skilful, admirable, pleasing, attractive ] has parallels in adjectives such as nice.

PRETTY

1. attractive in a delicate way, without being truly* (common) * beautiful. *author’s change*

2. used ironically to express displeasure: fairly ; trinket ; (used condescendingly) attractive person.

Pretty is to prevericate in order to increase Prestige?

A pretty face is a prentious face?

Pretty is pretension?

Beauty is.

Is being pretty pretentious? or prestigous?

The pretension of the face being ‘pretty’ was pretentious?

Pretty is prevarication to gain? [Prevaricate and procrastinate have similar but not identical meanings.

Prevaricate means ‘act or speak in an evasive way’.

Procrastinate, on the other hand, means ‘put off doing something’.

Prestigious.

A face being pretty is a pretension.

That’s beautiful, that is, Pretty!

PRESTIGE entered English in the mid 17th century (tricksy, cuz it means the 1600’s) from French, and ultimately derives from the Latin plural noun praestigiae ‘conjuring tricks’.

It took on its modern meaning in the 19th century (the 1800’s) by way of the sense ‘dazzling influence, glamo/u/r’, which at first [only] had a derogatory implication.

Aren’t we beautiful, Pretties?!

Extra Credit: speak the 17 words below aloud. Wild right? They kinda stopped making sense after a while. Lovesome.

Pretty ; Prettify ; Prettifies ; Prettifying

Prettified ; Prettification ; Prettifier ;

Prettier ; Prettiest ; Prettyish. . . . . Prettyboy.

Prettily ; Prettiness ; Prettyish ;

Pretties.

Prettied.

Prettying.

* Knock Knock…Orange… Orange you glad the other (stars) astericks didn’t make you scroll all the effing way down here? Hyuck.

I. All words cited from OED Concise (pic below-citations take forever)

II. All 17 “Pretty” derivations were taken from 3 dictionaries.

Watch “Joni Mitchell – A Case Of You – Live 1974” on YouTube

what a song is this one. a live version cuz I feel good.

I could drink a case of you, darling and I would still be on my feet.

Genius! What a perfect thing to say.

It sounds like a compliment and then you realize it’s a backhanded compliment.

She can drink a freaking case and still stand? He must not be that strong or intoxicating. Bit of a light weight really.

Of course, maybe she just handles her booze more adeptly than most and can ‘hang’ like a tender tent pulled in tension on tenter hooks takes the dimension of volume whereas before it only had two: length and height.

Watch “James Brown – Mind Power” on YouTube

don’t own rights, paying homoge

The man’s a poetic revolutionary. Just read those lyrics (a smattering taken from my recent listen through) below out loud and tell me it’s not true.

There’s a reason why the American literature scene gets slammed on the international scene (despite having some incredible pens that will get their due in time: horror genre). It’s because most of our pens became musicians or songwriters. They had no choice-they were needed by the norms. Norms hate reading. No one hates music. Why? Cuz it’s got a good beat and it’s easy to dance to.

About the pronunciation and the realization

Vibe, vibrations.

What it is and what it is.

If you can’t work you can’t eat

So you’ve got to have mind power to deal with starvation

Two little fishes, yeah

Dig where I’m coming from

Lay it on me.

Mind power.

What it is what it is

It is what it is

It is what it is

That’s what it is

It is what it is

That’s what it is

Give me some flute!

ABBA-ZABA, you my only friend! (D. Chappell)

Still Life With Woodpecker. Tom Robbins. 1980

America is full of metaphysical outlaws.

Inessential insanities get one in trouble with oneself.

Essential insanities get one in trouble with others.

It’s always preferable to be in trouble with others.

In fact, it may be essential.

Tunnelvision is a disease in which perception is restricted by ignorance and distorted by vested interests. Tunnelvision is caused by an optic fungus that multiplies when the brain is less energetic than the ego.

Equality is not in regarding things similarly.

Equality is regarding things differently.

People who sacrifice beauty for efficiency get what they deserve.

Ma’Kheru: The Word of Truth (from The I Ching)

Ma’Kheru (or Maat).

The superior man abides in his room.

If his words are well spoken, he meets with assent at a distance of more than a thousand miles. How much more then from near by!

If the superior man abides in his room and his words are not well spoken, he meets with contradiction at a distance of more than a thousand miles. How much more then from near by!

Words go forth from one’s own person and exert their influence on men… Must one not, then, be cautious? –

The I Ching 15

Goethe Quotes

He who possesses science and art also has religion; but he who possesses neither of those two, let him have religion.

The Devil himself names as his adversary, not what is holy and good, but Nature’s power to create, to multiply life – that is Eros.

The One and the Many,  Isaiah Berlin 2007

One belief, more than any other, is responsible for the slaughter of individuals on the alters of the great historical ideals – the belief that somewhere, in the past or future, in divine revelation or in the mind of the individual thinker, in pronouncements of history or science or in a simple heart, there is a final solution.

If, as l believe, the ends of men are many and not all of them are in principle compatible with each other, than possibility of conflict can never wholly be eliminated from either personal or social human life.

Choosing between absolute claims is the inescapable characteristic of thre human condition.

 

 

Love and Do What Thou Will. St. Augustine

Every man and every woman is a star.

Every number is infinite; there is no difference.

In the sphere I am everywhere the center, as she, the circumference, is nowhere found.

I am the axle of the wheel, and the cube in the circle.

Pt2 Steppenwolf

A wild longing for strong emotions and sensations seethes in me, a rage against this torreless, flat, normal, and sterile life. I have a mad impulse to smash something. P 27

It is remarkable all that men can swallow… Steppenwolves could sipalittle heart and courage from their glasses. p34

Of all the things that pleased and charmed me about her, the prettiest and most characteristic was her rapid changes from the deepest seriousness to the drollest merriment, and this without doing herself the least violence, with the facility of a gifted child. P107

[Hemine to the steppenwolf/Harry] the reason why I please you and mean so much to you is because I’m a kind of looking glass for you, because there’s something in me that answers to you? Really, we ought all to be such looking glasses to each other and answer and correspond to each other, but such owls as you are a bit particular. P108

I felt my partner’s taut hips, her quick and pliant knees, and looking in her radiantface I owned that this was the first time in my life that I had really danced. Harry quote P122.

I am going to teach you to dance and play and smile, and still not be happy. And you are going to teach me to think and to know and yet not be happy… We have fallen out of nature and hang suspended in space… Every human being it says, consists of ten, or a hundred, or a thousand souls. P126

You have a dimension too many. Whoever wants to live and enjoy his life today must not be like you and me. P151

“…the laughter of the immortals. It was a laughter without an object. It was simply light and lucidity…and eternity was nothing else than the redemption of true, its return to innocence, so to speak, and its transformation again into space. P154

Never did sinner show more haste to get to hell. P164

Such contrasts, seen from a little distance, always tend to show their increasing similarity. P206

Quote from Tao te Ching

Thirty spokes will converge

in the hub of a wheel;

But the use of the cart

will depend on the part

of the hub that is void.

So advantage is had

from whatever is there;

But usefulness rises

from whatever is not.