A Definition of Philosophy

[John Cole]

I understand it as a willingness to think not about something other than what ordinary human beings think about, but rather to learn to think undistractedly about things that ordinary human beings cannot help thinking about, or anyway cannot help having occur to them, sometimes in a fantasy, sometimes as a flash across a landscape; such things, for example, as whether others really know the nature of one's own experiences, or whether good and bad are relative, or whether we might not now be dreaming that we are awake, or whether modern tyrannies and weapons and spaces and speeds and art are continuous with the past of the human race or discontinuous, and hence whether the learning of the human race is not irrelevant to the problems it has brought before itself. Such thoughts are instances of that characteristic human willingness to allow questions for itself which it cannot answer with satisfaction. Cynics about philosophy, and perhaps about humanity, will find that questions without answers are empty; dogmatists will claim to have arrived at answers; philosophers after my heart will rather wish to convey the thought that while there may be no satisfying answers to such questions in certain forms, there are, so to speak, directions to answers, ways to think, that are worth the time of your life to discover.

-- Stanley Cavell, "The Thought of Movies"

Think about this the next time you're ready to write "It's not even close."

[Zeno]

[ QUOTE ]
I understand it as a willingness to think not about something other than what ordinary human beings think about, but rather to learn to think undistractedly about things that ordinary human beings cannot help thinking about, or anyway cannot help having occur to them, sometimes in a fantasy, sometimes as a flash across a landscape; such things, for example, as whether others really know the nature of one's own experiences, or whether good and bad are relative, or whether we might not now be dreaming that we are awake, or whether modern tyrannies and weapons and spaces and speeds and art are continuous with the past of the human race or discontinuous, and hence whether the learning of the human race is not irrelevant to the problems it has brought before itself.

[/ QUOTE ]

For the [censored] Love of God it took this Stanley Goofball one hell of a long time to find a [censored] period. Jesus Christ on Roller Stakes; who does he think he is, Ralph Waldo Emerson?

[ QUOTE ]
Such thoughts are instances of that characteristic human willingness to allow questions for itself which it cannot answer with satisfaction.

[/ QUOTE ]

Praise the Lord for the short sentence. And it's not even close because his grammatical sins continue on unabated, take a gander at the next sentence where Stantley prattles on and on in the most insaluborious manner:

[ QUOTE ]
Cynics about philosophy, and perhaps about humanity, will find that questions without answers are empty; dogmatists will claim to have arrived at answers; philosophers after my heart will rather wish to convey the thought that while there may be no satisfying answers to such questions in certain forms, there are, so to speak, directions to answers, ways to think, that are worth the time of your life to discover.


[/ QUOTE ]

This moronic meddlesome pinhead named Stantley Cavell needs to have his arms chopped off so he can't write anymore. His style is vuglar and offensive. And its not even close John; I'm happy to say.

Le Misanthrope

[PairTheBoard]

zeno --
", take a gander at the next sentence where Stantley prattles on and on in the most insaluborious manner: "


Did you mean "insalubrious"? Cool word. Never heard of it before but I think I'm going to start using it a lot.

Do you see why?

PairTheBoard

[John Cole]

Zeno,


I suggest a healthy and steady diet of Cavell; he may have a salubrious effect upon you and help you shed some of those misanthropic tendencies--or at least some of those lycanthropic impulses.

[PairTheBoard]

[ QUOTE ]
Zeno,


I suggest a healthy and steady diet of Cavell; he may have a salubrious effect upon you and help you shed some of those misanthropic tendencies--or at least some of those lycanthropic impulses.

[/ QUOTE ]

Lycanthropy sounds kind of fun to me. As long as it's not too insalubrious.

PairTheBoard

[Zeno]

[ QUOTE ]
Did you mean "insalubrious"?

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah, the extra o was just for looks [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]
[Damn lunchtime posts always have typos [img]/images/graemlins/blush.gif[/img]]

I agree, it's a great word.

But use with caution - so the word doesn't lose its punch.

[ QUOTE ]
Do you see why?

[/ QUOTE ]

Aye.

-Zeno

[Zeno]

[ QUOTE ]
.......or at least some of those lycanthropic impulses.

[/ QUOTE ]


Woof-Woof. GRRRRRrrrrrrrrrrr. AAAHHHoooooooooooooooo.


[img]/images/graemlins/smirk.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[PairTheBoard]

zeno --
"Yeah, the extra o was just for looks "

I thought it was kind of cool way to combine the words "insalubrious" and "boring" for added commentary and extra comedic effect.

PairTheBoard

[Phat Mack]

Maxwell Staniforth, in his introduction to Meditations, on Marcus Aurelius's concept of philosophy:

"It was not a pursuit of abstract truths, it was a rule for living."

D-
Failed to meet required length.
Max, see me after class.

[Scotch78]

Intellectual mastication.

Snakes swallow their food whole and then spend days digesting a single meal. We chew our food and finish digestion in a few hours. Socratic philosophy (the type I practice) performs the same function, but for intangibles.

Put another way . . . we have a bucket of legos, but instead of the instructions all we have is a completed model of what we want to build. I don't know about you, but if the thing is large and complex the only way I'm going to learn is by taking apart the model. Socratic philosophy not only does just this, but it breaks ideas up into productive building blocks (imagine hitting the model with a hammer instead of taking it apart piece by piece).

Scott