I Have a Blog?!
(The title of this post should be read with an expression of slightly irritated astonishment, in order to pay homage to Prince John's line in Robin Hood: Men in Tights: "I have a mole?!") Welcome to my blog! Before I get down to anything serious, I should make a few caveats. First, those who know me can attest to the fact that, despite my being a philosopher, having a blog, and having given said blog a seemingly pretentious title and description, neither I nor my blog is accurately described as pretentious. In fact, it is my view that, as far as purportedly philosophical blogs go, it is a general truth (perhaps nomological!) that pretension and quality of philosophical inquiry are inversely proportional. Furthermore, I think it is also a fact that the philosophical quality of blogs often varies more-or-less directly with their jocularity. Hence, my Augustian advice for interpretation of this blog: if it appears pretentious to you, reinterpret the offending lines in a manner such that it is obvious that they are intended humorously.
Now, with that out of the way, why am I making a blog? As far as I can see, there are at least three advantages (can you tell that I'm an analytic philosopher now?). First, there's the obvious but important fact that it will provide me with an excellent way to pretend to get something productive accomplished when I don't feel like doing serious work. Second, I've noticed that, since beginning graduate school, the quality of my thinking has increased while the quality of my writing has decreased, so I'm hoping that writing in a less formal style will help to improve my serious writing as well. Third, this blog should give me a forum in which to write about things which I find philosophically interesting, but that don't really fit into the sorts of discussions that I have normally. I'll do my best to be clear, but prepare yourself for some ideas that may be less than half-baked.
Finally, I'll offer an explanation as to the title of this blog. I once saw a bumper sticker that advised (commanded? I can never tell how forceful the imperatives in bumper stickers are supposed to be) that I "Live an Incredible Life." That's not a bad slogan, I suppose, but I think a much better slogan is: "Live an Incredulous Life." Now, I'm hardly a committed skeptic or anything like that, but I think that's more-or-less the rule that I live by (whether I want to or not!)--the world just strikes me as a profoundly strange place, which presents more fascinating questions than could possibly be answered (or even asked) in a lifetime. Philosophy is, I think, ultimately about confronting this strangeness. I think Wilfrid Sellars expressed this sentiment (or something quite similar) better when he noted that: "The aim of philosophy is to understand how things in the broadest possible sense of the term hang together in the broadest possible sense of the term."
Now, with that out of the way, why am I making a blog? As far as I can see, there are at least three advantages (can you tell that I'm an analytic philosopher now?). First, there's the obvious but important fact that it will provide me with an excellent way to pretend to get something productive accomplished when I don't feel like doing serious work. Second, I've noticed that, since beginning graduate school, the quality of my thinking has increased while the quality of my writing has decreased, so I'm hoping that writing in a less formal style will help to improve my serious writing as well. Third, this blog should give me a forum in which to write about things which I find philosophically interesting, but that don't really fit into the sorts of discussions that I have normally. I'll do my best to be clear, but prepare yourself for some ideas that may be less than half-baked.
Finally, I'll offer an explanation as to the title of this blog. I once saw a bumper sticker that advised (commanded? I can never tell how forceful the imperatives in bumper stickers are supposed to be) that I "Live an Incredible Life." That's not a bad slogan, I suppose, but I think a much better slogan is: "Live an Incredulous Life." Now, I'm hardly a committed skeptic or anything like that, but I think that's more-or-less the rule that I live by (whether I want to or not!)--the world just strikes me as a profoundly strange place, which presents more fascinating questions than could possibly be answered (or even asked) in a lifetime. Philosophy is, I think, ultimately about confronting this strangeness. I think Wilfrid Sellars expressed this sentiment (or something quite similar) better when he noted that: "The aim of philosophy is to understand how things in the broadest possible sense of the term hang together in the broadest possible sense of the term."
posted by Matt Carlson at 12:15 PM
2 Comments:
I could not agree more: profoundly strange. And even stranger as we move forward, since our points of reference will have necessarily multiplied, making the entire ensemble systemically more complex.
(Then add "the other" into the equation, not as an abstract problem, but, as with one's own children, as created souls who one feels are more important than oneself, and whose point of view one MUST make sense of. Try factoring THAT into your points of reference!)
I find Henri Bergson interesting in this regard (see, for instance, the first chapter of "Creative Evolution"). He seems to catch the essential queerness of our very existing from moment to moment (or THROUGH moments, he might insist).
I sometimes think Bergson is dismissed by a good many philosophers today precisely because he has hit so squarely on the profoundest question of our being in the world, and he just won't get off it. He insists that we begin our philosophizing THERE (in some realm where a moment is and is not moment, but a duration of . . .what? More moments?)and contemplating that puzzle is indeed profoundly disabling in one regard but enabling in another, since we feel that even if we cannot comprehend this place, at least it is the right place to be.
(Apologies for the unclarity of these statements!)
i don't know you.
Post a Comment
<< Home