Aunt Helen passed away Saturday night shortly before midnight. I have been thinking about it a lot since then. One observation is that it seems kinda fitting for her as a SDA to enter into her rest on Saturday, the day of rest.
Death makes me restless. I woke up this morning with it on my mind. Not sure what I dreamed last night, but as I was waking I was thinking to myself how soon it will be my turn and how little, to date, I have accomplished. At this rate it will take me forever to get anything worth-while done.
I can hardly help myself from thinking that I will live forever. It just seems right that we are not meant to be such temporary creatures. This verse has been echoing through my thoughts...
"He has made everything appropriate in its time. He has also set eternity in their heart, yet so that man will not find out the work which God has done from the beginning even to the end." New American Standard Bible (©1995)
Monday, October 19, 2009
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Mikel Dufrenne "The World of the Aesthetic Object"
Mikel Dufrenne attempts to clarify a rather confusing area where the representational world meets the actual world. In describing the aesthetic world there are clear differences which can be illustrated in many ways such as the theatre and cinema. On the one hand theatre and cinema provide only enough background to meet the needs of the plot or to provide necessary location and even an illusion of depth. On the other hand in the written word there is a need for descriptive language that fills in the background to the extent that it seems like it could be a real world.
While describing a forest it is pointed out that all of the shadow and underbrush creates the since of the forest and as Dufrenne says “The forest prevents us from seeing the tree and the forest itself is seen only through its atmosphere.” He describes the need for the illusion, however he also points out, that the illusion should not be allowed to degenerate into a dream. There is a “perception only” of reality but perception enough that the aesthetic object seems to be real.
In theatre as in film it is not “at all necessary that the setting creates the illusion of reality …and does not need to compete with the dramatic object.” Similarly on the canvas the background only is useful to the extent that it gives attention to the object. This can be seen clearly in works such as the Mona Lisa or in the case of the Madonna. The city is there only to give the Madonna the necessary reverence from the surrounds. Whether in word or on the canvas it is apparent that the aesthetic object is the focus of attention and that the lack of clarity of other areas outside this object is certainly by design.
Friedrich Nietzsche On Truth and Lie in an Extra-Moral Sense
As many times as I have heard the question "What is truth?" I have never heard this outrageous of an argument against the very existence of truth. I was watching all of the way through this reading for that very question, but alas it was nowhere to be found. Nietzsche began with a grandiose fairy tale of how knowing was first created in a galaxy far, far away and although he proceeds to build an extravagant case against the very existence of truth. In the construction of his argument he explains that words are not able to be true. Each word can only completely describe one item, any other item would have to be exactly the same in order to have the same word assigned to it and practically without exception everything has some variation.
If word themselves cannot express truth then every point which Nietzsche endeavors to make is made void by the very argument which he is trying to make. Right from the very first paragraph, in an effort to accuse all of humankind and to scoff at one of the characteristics which humans have which generally elevates us to a higher level than the rest of creation; Nietzsche has the audacity to describe human intellect as proud and deceived.
It would appear to me that it would be difficult to surpass the arrogance and dishonest pretense of one who would propose an argument which disallows all opposition by asserting that any words which might be proposed would by their nature be untrue. It would appear that the fairytale which is most obvious in this reading is the world in which Nietzsche has endeavored to ponder.
Martin Heidegger, The Origin of the Work of Art
Martin Heidegger crafts an argument around what amounts to “which came first the chicken or the egg.” You can't have an egg without a chicken and so on. Heidegger makes what I consider an equally impressive (a little sarcasm) argument saying “what is meant by the word (art) could exist only on the basis of the actuality of works and artist. Or is the converse the case? Do works and artists only exist as their origin?” This whole concept is totally made from straw.
I drew a picture just today. Now suppose it could be considered art. Does Heidegger mean to tell me that the picture was art, therefore I drew it? He calls it circular and says that anyone can see it. That I can agree on, but the rest of his article had little else that I could see. Heidegger almost turned the tables on me (again sarcasm) when he pointed out that art was “thingly.” At that point I gave up, as far as looking for enlightenment, and could pretty read the remainder of the article with an eye toward finding any tidbit substantive information.
I'm sorry if this offends, but judging from this article, I think I could understand art better than he. It works like this: art exist because we are creative, the more creative we are, or are allowed to be, the better the art which is produced. Even Hans-Georg Gadamer could pretty much reason that we are creative and animals are not. If you look in a cows stall you will see that they produce stuff, but art is not to be found. Art is greater than the some of its parts in fact it plainly is a creation, it is new, and it is unique.
The one phrase that Heideger uses that I find entirely applicable is “that question of the origin of the work of art becomes a question about the nature of art.” But it doesn't follow in my mind that there is a question about “how art in general exists,” duh.
Aristotle: Nicomachean Ethics
Aristotle embarks on a lengthy and tedious discussion of the relationship between knowledge and wise and right acts on the one hand, and lack of restraint and judgment on the other hand. He spends much time making sharp divisions between terms and how they relate to one another and how the end result can be correct and yet not right as in established on truth.
There is a theme throughout this reading that everything that people do is somehow for the good although everyone has a different view of what is good. As I read this I found myself reminded of Spock, of Star Track notoriety, referring to the “good of the many” and similarly Aristotle delves into dividing and comparing which “good” is of more consequence than the other good. I was still thinking “live long and prosper.” Although as Aristotle points out wealth doesn't equate to happiness and only benefits a few and not “the many.”
Virtue and knowledge seem to be on the top of the heap as far as the greatest good and Aristotle devoted much time showing how deliberation and choice are the foundations for our personal responsibility to acquire knowledge. And how knowledge was as a commodity which can be acquired is in and in turn can be taught as well as able to be learned.
At the end or near to it at least, Aristotle expresses a thought which I felt could be said to transcend the centuries from the time he penned it as he concluded that it is “not possible to be good in the governing sense without practical judgment, nor to have practical judgment without virtue of character. And as far as I could tell he deemed virtue of character to be the greatest possible good one could possess.
Hans-Georg Gadamer The Play of Art
Hans-Georg Gadamer discusses the play “of art,” as in the creative process that a child would have and its relationship to art. Beginning with thoughts of how studies of animal behavior find similarities between human kind and animal kind. He wonders if “what we claim to be the exercise of free and conscious human choice cannot be much better understood in terms of animal behavior and its controlling instincts.”
Fortunately Gadamer is able to make some distinctions between the play of animals and that of humans by evaluating the rules that humans form to govern their play. Also there is the seriousness of play which is found in “the most serious kinds of human activity: in ritual, in the administration of justice, in social behavior in general.” This is a demonstration of how play can transcend creativity and can surpass the instinctive playful actions of animals in that human play becomes in itself a creation. Not just in the sense of producing something but that which is produced becomes a unique and separate object which is in itself an expression.
Gadamer states that art “is not simply what it is, but rather something that it is not.” Art is not just a product, but possesses the character of play. As play becomes an extension of one’s abundance of life it is interwoven into all aspects of life from seriousness to bliss and art as an expression of play then transcends all other aspects of life.
Socrates and Ion
Socrates and Ion have a discussion when Ion returns from a visit in Ephesus. Socrates asks leading question with the intent of eroding the ground of Ions boasts. Socrates says he envies Ion’s profession, both because he is able to get all dressed up, and also because he must be able to represent the poets, especially Homer. Socrates asked (what I would consider) leading questions and then manipulates the answers in order to pull them out into a more difficult to support position. Socrates encourages Ion to get out on a limb, then he proceeds to make Ion look silly.
The strongest feeling that I get from this reading is the recollection of conversations with individuals who tended to treat the conversation like Socrates did. When ever I have realized that a conversation has moved in this direction I have bowed out of the exchange. This is not the type of conversation that true friends are inclined to have, but the sort of conversation which comes in the presence of an manipulative enemy. I think this is a beguiling method of conversation.
Monday, July 27, 2009
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Saturday, July 4, 2009
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Monday, May 25, 2009
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Sunday, May 17, 2009
I drove my XB-600 to church today.
Saturday, May 16, 2009
Horizontal is fuel on!
The odd thing is that the the petcock itself is miss-marked. If I twist it down to the horizontal position the fuel icon with a bar across it shows shows on top, and also a small red mark lines up om the top of the valve, so it stands to reason that it should be off, but in this position it runs and and runs. If I turn the knob to the verticle position it will run out of gas in a couple of minutes. I have never seen a petcock so ambiguous.
All I have to remember is if it looks off, it is on, and vice versa!
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Church is out, wake up, lets go!
Today I am just sitting in the car waiting for the rest of the family to come out to the car so I can get going.
Saturday, May 9, 2009
I made a foil dinner minus the foil. I t
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Riding a XB-600 and getting a face o'snow.
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Friday, March 6, 2009
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Friday, February 20, 2009
Oh the nerve of some people!
Nerves would be dumb in a world without pain (or anxiety.) Do you think there was anxiety in the garden?
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Friday, January 16, 2009
Xtreme XB-600! Brain Freeze!
Major Brain Freeze!
I have been missing my early morning ride to work on the Xtreme XB-600 so this morning I pulled it out of the garage. Soon I set out to get a case of major brain freeze. it was about 28° out side but the ice was off the road. It turned out to be a totally georgeous day, but just before I headed home a bank of fog rolled in and all of the sudden it started to feel really cold.
Monday, January 5, 2009
Installed a ceiling fan today.
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