Clipmarks | akarra's 'philosophy' clips

Nietzsche on "Knowledge for its own sake"

Fri, 09 May 2008 01:58:53 GMT

clipped by: akarra
clipper's remarks: Quote above from "Beyond Good and Evil," trans. Kaufmann.

"Knowledge for its own sake" - that is the last snare of morality: with that one becomes completely entangled in it once more.

Tags: nietzsche, philosophy, knowledge

A Lack of Moral Absolutes in Poetry?

Thu, 08 May 2008 18:12:58 GMT

clipped by: akarra
clipper's remarks: A blogger quotes a critic in order to muse on world and language.

Clip Source: scribblingsandsketches.wordpress.com

Mind seeks echoes between world and language. Every mind does this. Lack of echo leaves us with sullenness and, sometimes, poison. Metaphor is echo. Bronowski stepping into the pond (in the film below) scooping the mud is echo. His act is poetry in motion: simple, dramatic, almost too perfect, but stopping short of perfection and self-admiration. Bronowski understood this. He wrote a study of William Blake that I used as a student when writing a thesis on Blake. Language has led him to the edge. That moment of stepping in is the echo. Poetry is that kind of stepping in, shoes and all. But it cannot afford perfection. It is the lack of absolutes that makes poetry: not smoothness but falling short. Almost a clumsiness. There is an element of uncomfortable soaking in it.

Tags: poetry, criticism, philosophy, literature

The Motives of Men Today....

Tue, 06 May 2008 13:47:48 GMT

clipped by: akarra
clipper's remarks: ...contrasted with the motives of men generally; the clip is from a commentary on Plato's Crito.

Clip Source: inrethinking.blogspot.com

Some men are motivated by beauty, others by justice, still others by the truth. But what if someone just wants to get by and not be miserable? What if someone wants the security afforded by the modern state only - an avoidance of pain more than anything else, the feeling that one is doing one's best within limits? In striving for beauty, or justice, or the Good one typically ends up challenging any number of norms. The teaching Socrates ultimately pushes on Crito, however, is "Obey the law no matter what."

Tags: plato, crito, philosophy

The Will, Satan, and Evil

Mon, 05 May 2008 23:56:08 GMT

clipped by: akarra
clipper's remarks: A blogger takes on the issue of what is the will and whether it can be evil, via St. Anselm, the author of the ontological proof.

Clip Source: orderdisorder.blogspot.com

Obviously, God created satan, and satan's will. It would seem that the will, and its turning from such good to such perversion is incomprehensible. Is it the will, and the turning of the will that is evil? Anselm starts to answer by showing that a will is neither the good nor evil that makes men good or evil. The will is real, maybe not in substance but in essence, and as such a good will is no more real than a bad will, nor is a good will more good than a bad will. Since neither can be more real than the other, and a bad will cannot be considered evil. For if a bad will is evil, it being no less real than a good will, a good will must be evil as well, which is to say it must be nothing - the definition of evil is literally nothing. A Good will cannot be nothing, and as such neither can a bad will be nothing. So, something else must be what makes a person to act evil. Rather person cannot of their will being good or evil be themselves good or evil.

Tags: anselm, philosophy, theology, religion, free will

Knowing what you mean so you can mean what you say....

Mon, 23 Apr 2007 20:22:06 GMT

clipped by: akarra

Clip Source: fringe.tumblr.com

Yamaoka Tesshu, as a young student of Zen, visited one master after another. He called upon Dokuon of Shokoku. Desiring to show his attainment, he said: "The mind, Buddha, and sentient beings, after all, do not exist. The true nature of phenomena is emptiness. There is no realization, no delusion, no sage, no mediocrity. There is no giving and nothing to be received." Dokuon, who was smoking quietly, said nothing. Suddenly he whacked Yamaoka with his bamboo pipe. This made the youth quite angry. "If nothing exists," inquired Dokuon, "where did this anger come from?"

— 101 Zen Stories

Tags: zen, philosophy, enlightenment, teaching

On Aristotle's Ethics

Fri, 20 Apr 2007 15:38:19 GMT

clipped by: akarra

Clip Source: inrethinking.blogspot.com

In speaking of the fact that "good" and "being" are meant in many ways, he uses the categories - ways of being - to demonstrate an inviolable link with the good (i.e. "of what sort" points to the "excellences," "virtues;" the good as "what something is" would be "god" or the "intellect;" questions of amount would point to what "limit;" "relation" makes us wonder about "usefulness," "time" speaks of "opportunity," and "place" brings up "dwelling," which I will refer you to Heidegger to consider). Now he seemingly keeps the scope of being wider than the good, and the good seems to be only one facet of being. Still, since all our opinions about the good seem to derive from being - notice that we don't agree on the gods, or what intellectual truth is, or what is useful, etc. - there is a sense in which "good = being" here.

Tags: aristotle, philosophy, ethics

On Wittgenstein and Progress in Philosophy

Fri, 20 Apr 2007 10:06:37 GMT

clipped by: akarra

Clip Source: www.writingup.com

Which makes me wonder: Is progress in philosophy really possible? Wittgenstein has given us a picture of what it might look like, but he has not decisively routed the objection he posed, which is that some philosophical difficulties could cause the whole of past philosophy to be reconsidered. He has suggested that such a momentous happening would occur because of an emphasis on personal experience, but has used another metaphor, one again dependent on personal experience (imagine how hard it is to sort a library) to try to steer clear of the consequences of the other use of metaphor (again, its persuasiveness being reliant on personal experience).

Wittgenstein is very aware of all that is going on: The difficulty in philosophy is to say no more than we know (BB 45).

Tags: philosophy, wittgenstein

A Comment on Plato's "Lovers"

Wed, 18 Apr 2007 09:23:54 GMT

clipped by: akarra
clipper's remarks: The question of Plato's short dialogue the "Lovers" involves what philosophy is, and what it might challenge.

Clip Source: inrethinking.blogspot.com

Each attempt the interlocutor of Socrates makes to understand philosophy, he's attempting to say a "quantity" of knowledge defines philosophy, but not adjusting appropriately for "quality." The final attempt he makes is with Socrates and is incredibly cryptic. In it, Socrates begins by saying that punishment makes certain animals better - horses and dogs, for example. So it must make people better. But one would have to recognize good and evil in order to see whether people are getting better or how they may be bettered or whether they can actually get better.

Since that "one" would be a person, the same rule that applies to "one" would have to apply to "many," and vice versa (137d). I hold this is the final "quality"/"quantity" confusion, and notice how the "confusion" is, literally, that of morality.

The highest knowledge indeed can be known by all men: that's precisely why it is so valuable, and so rare.

Tags: plato, philosophy, lovers