Tantalizing tidbits galore
It's amazing the things you can learn while not writing a paper on the nature of the self and the phenomenal world.
Here's a sample, no particular order, and in a nested list because organization is key:
I was going to post the paper I just wrote for Indian philosophy because I think that, while it kind of missed the point as far as the assignment went, it did manage to outline my current stance on epistemology and metaphysics. I'm pretty happy about that, since I went into this year wanting to resolve that part of my intellectual life (one of the reasons for joining Interfaith house...), and it's nice to think that I made progress. Assuming I don't discover any glaring holes in it, I think I may be ready to move on to moral philosophy. I think that this is probably a more daunting task, partly because I cheated and went pragmatist, so I put some of the epistemic burden onto the moral side. But I have some ideas about where to go that might patch over those oversights.
This is a long post. Apologies.
Here's a sample, no particular order, and in a nested list because organization is key:
- There are some guys at Northwestern who are good at both singing and making math puns. One of them is apparently my friend's math TA.
- Fun facts about Karl Popper, who is my new favorite philosopher-I've-never-read-anything-by
- He taught George Soros, who claims that he based his investment strategies on a Popperian agenda of falsification
- He had a "philosophical nemesis," Ludwig Wittgenstein. How fucking sweet is that? How do I get a "philosophical nemesis"? Rather, how do I get Ludwig Wittgenstein to be my philosophical nemesis? I guess by being as kickass as Karl Popper...
- I went on another gnosticism and occultism Wikipedia binge. Part of me is appalled at the epistemic irresponsibility of these people, but the rest of me keeps reading. After this term's Indian philosophy class that covered a lot about the nature of consciousness, I think there's probably enough to it (alternate states of consciousness) to give it credibility. Fun facts? Of course. But for some reason they all involve Timothy Leary
- who was a member of the Illuminates of Thanateros, an order of "chaos magicians", which is a group of occult practicioners whose big schticks are:
- the "Gnosis state," which is essentially like every other meditative trance state ever dreamt up by people and is, I think, by this time a pretty well-documented scientific phenomenon, minus, of course, the claims of omniscience and omnipotence sometimes attaches to it.
- "Paradigm shifting," which means, essentially, that they dispose of epistemic standards altogether and "shift paradigms" whenever they want. This is handy if you're an occultist with a belief system that dissolves under scrutiny. On the other hand, my understanding is that the paradigm shifting also contributes to the psychological effects they're going for. I.e., if you believe you are going to do some astral projection shit, you're more likely to have the psychological effects you want. I'm getting kind of sympathetic to this because despite myself I'm becoming a pragmatist, which I was upset about until I saw Quine's. So I guess things are all right there. Where was I? Oh yeah...
- Timothy Leary is also the godfather of entrepreneur Joi Ito, who is on the board of Creative Commons, who I totally want to work for or with at some point, assuming further research into intellectual property economics this summer doesn't drain me of my idealism.
- who was a member of the Illuminates of Thanateros, an order of "chaos magicians", which is a group of occult practicioners whose big schticks are:
- I really want to read this book. Also, I want to write a short novel. I have a collaborator in mind, but he doesn't know it yet. In the past, virtually all of my spontaneous creative projects have been ill- (or maybe just un-) fated, and my attempts to drum up collaborate for mutual support and momentum have failed. But there's always hope.
- Politics!
- An article about the cultural backlash instigated by the conversation elite that rallied the working class against the perceived liberal elite.
- An article about anti-abortion advocates fucking mules
- And as a refreshing twist, information about the Official Monster Raving Loony party in the UK, which has had a political impact like only a British absurdist party can have. Hot damn I wish we had a parliament.
I was going to post the paper I just wrote for Indian philosophy because I think that, while it kind of missed the point as far as the assignment went, it did manage to outline my current stance on epistemology and metaphysics. I'm pretty happy about that, since I went into this year wanting to resolve that part of my intellectual life (one of the reasons for joining Interfaith house...), and it's nice to think that I made progress. Assuming I don't discover any glaring holes in it, I think I may be ready to move on to moral philosophy. I think that this is probably a more daunting task, partly because I cheated and went pragmatist, so I put some of the epistemic burden onto the moral side. But I have some ideas about where to go that might patch over those oversights.
This is a long post. Apologies.