December 2008
141 posts
If I put pen to paper because I have time and because there is paper and space must be filled, with what should I fill it. Should it please me or please another or express the me that is me or the me that is not me, or lay somewhere in between, curdling, stewing, in milk that is not milk and water whose vital substance has been altered — but this also, by experimentation.
And this attempt...
Reflections on Heidegger
Points of critique
(1) Improper lack of distinctions between truth and substance/being (2) No discussion of freedom in relation to humanism (3) No taxonomy/typology of being (4) Philosophy is only metaphysics (5) Way to language is backwards and not forwards
It is often claimed that Heidegger’s philosophical apparatus leads directly to totalitarianism — it seems that by failing to...
Economist | 8 Young Economists →
Some days ago
Across from Kandininsky my definition blurs, the colors leap from the ground, swirl, and stick like velvet patches to my interior. Is the dissolution the resolution? I cling stubbornly to my questions; i recollect on marble steps, until interrupted by thoughts of where i will sleep tonight. There is a bicycle here. It is blue with pink basket. I have no bicycle. The sun is bright. I cycle thorugh...
The ITunes genius sidebar matches Ah Bing’s rendition of ‘Songs for Birds In A Desolate Mountain’ with several songs by Kanye West and Beyonce. Thankfully I have a fresh supply of green tea including 玄米茶。I review old poems. I putz around. I write the first part of an essay on ‘Approaching Heidegger.’
For the nation
One must die or everyone will believe and Caesar will take it away.
“Das Weibliche siegt immer
durch seine Stille über das Männliche.”
– Laozi 61
“大
國
者
下
流
天
下
之
交
天
下
之
牝”
– Laozi 61
“人
之
無
良
我
以
為
君”
– Shijing 49
Israel’s military operations are the lifeblood of Hamas … and the Israeli army’s incursions are what give Hamas its right to exist. The equation is simple: If there were peace and prosperity in the Gaza Strip, Hamas would have no power. If such were the case, the people there would no longer follow the medieval Islamists but would, instead, start planning their future. Rather...
“縱
我
不
往
子
寧
不
嗣
音”
– Shijing I. 7. (91)
“The lack of a tradition of thought makes it improbable that questions of justice...”
– George Parkin Grant
Tallis | Lamentations of Jeremiah (Tallis Scholars)
“The time draws near the birth of Christ,
The moon is hid; the night is still;...”
– Tennyson
I have a moment to reflect before I head off to a friend’s place, who has graciously invited me for Christmas. What am I doing next? Unsure. I have enrolled in another two months program and sent off several job applications. Most likely part-time while I do more classroom study. Still much uncertainty about here and what next. Several days wandering in the villages before this. Little time...
“Beauty is nothing but the beginning of terror which we are barely able to endure...”
– Rilke, via the Economist
“Innovation, like “change,” has no inherent value … The administration...”
– J. Stiglitz
O little town of Bethlehem, how still we see thee lie! Above thy deep and dreamless sleep the silent stars go by.
“One pays heavily for coming to power: power makes stupid … The...”
– Nietzsche
“I am a pure-blooded Polish nobleman, without a single drop of bad blood,...”
– Nietzsche
Nation | Other Side of Katrina →
“Geh nicht in den Wald, Mein Liebes Kind!”
Richard Rorty
Selections from Trotsky… :
But the fact that ideas have consequences does not mean that we philosophers, we specialists in ideas, are in a key position. We are not here to provide principles or foundations or deep theoretical diagnoses, or a synoptic vision.
What is on offer then?
The Chicago faculty was dotted with awesomely learned refugees from Hitler, of which Strauss was...
Reply to MCS on M. Arnold and Aesthetics
Perhaps the question of suffering, in any of these aesthetical issues, could be a means of re-integrating aesthetics and then integrating it with ethics? Are we re-entering a Medieval period of sorts?
I’ve not sure what ‘of sorts’ refers to and can’t answer this question. M. Arnold does repeatedly and correctly bring up the idea of...
I’ve no ambitions or desires. // My being a poet isn’t an ambition. // It’s my way of being alone. — Fernando Pessoa
The rain falls; Christmas approaches. Unhappy. Mental concentration lapsed last week and I seem to be losing my perennial struggle towards productivity, which displays itself every morning when I struggle to get out of bed. Perhaps unique to the Christmas season and three and a half months here — ‘Allein. Allein.’ as the German pop song reminds me. Although not quite.
One...
“To the mystery of the superior global power of the unthought essence of...”
– Heidegger
Brussels Journal | From Meccania to Atlantis →
Commentary on Classical Music and the Chinese
“My way of joking is to tell the truth. It is the funniest joke in the world.”
– George Bernard Shaw
Die reichen Leute, die gewinnt man nur durch platte Schmeichelein – das Geld ist platt, mein liebes Kind, und will auch platt geschmeichelt sein.
Das Weihrauchfaß, das schwinge keck, vor jedem göttlich goldenen Kalb; bet an im Staub, bet an im Dreck, vor allem aber lob nicht halb.
H. Heine
Spiegel | German Language Association vs.... →
Aesthetics (continued)
S:
Not sure what you mean by energy conveyance not being ‘definitive’ — it may not be the Kantian view to which you subscribe — but I see no reason to accept your counter definition as ‘judgment’ as it does not capture the phenomena I am attempting to describe. Is there a quantity here? Perhaps with relation to energy quantity, although I provide no way of measuring this, at least at present —...
Aesthetics (continued)
S:
Seems I wasn’t clear. I really don’t have a theory of aesthetics; I just a have a criticism of yours. Let me distill what I was saying; sorry I don’t have many quotes from you, so I may not be completely fair. - Judgments. I describe judgments because your presented view of beauty has no unit. Note I say that whenever we speak of beauty (not the object of, but the...
(d) Consequently, there is no reason for trust — except previous trustworthiness.
Trust is rarely a rational proposition. If it were reducible to ingredients, we would be able to buy it like we can a cake or baking mix.
A large part of market mechanisms work off of claims to efficiently price default risk, which is essentially related to ‘trust’ in a companies ability and willingness to...
Problems Related to Finance Cont.
S contributes more to the discussion begun here :
(c) Thus, persons maximize their own self-interest until they are reigned in by legal structure.
No; I am sure you don’t believe this. I “jaywalk” all the time, but my jaywalking is not regulated by legal norms (though there are laws) - it’s regulated by my understanding of whether or not I will be hit by a car. There is no innate...
“Decline… is overrated.”
– Robert Kaplan
Germany and China together? →
via TT
CSM | NarcoEducation →
Risk Management
You stand before a professional magician. He hands you a deck. You check to make sure that it is regular.
“What card would you like my friend?” he asks you. “The Ace of Hearts.”
He takes the deck back, shuffles it back and forth, then pulls out a card.
What is the chance that it is the Ace of Hearts? (for answer check here)
Economist | Hero for the Information Age →