[lit-ideas] Re: Violence as Destruction of Doubt

> [Original Message]
> From: Robert Paul <robert.paul@xxxxxxxx>
> To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Date: 9/15/2005 11:52:58 PM
> Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: Violence as Destruction of Doubt
>
> I'm sorry, but I just managed to lose Andy's reply to my suggestion that 
> he translate the paragraphs in question into plain English,


A.A. We crossed in the mail.  I explained those paragraphs in plain
English. 



 the one in 
> which he says that he's read a lot of philosophy that appears senseless, 
> etc. However, I do remember his saying that, and it is no response at 
> all, but an instance of the following bad argument.
>


A.A. I never said I read a lot of it, just that a lot of what I read was
indecipherable.  I don' t do indecipherable.



> Some philosophers revel in nonsense.
> Paul is a philosopher.
> Therefore, Paul revels in nonsense.
> A lot of philosophy is indecipherable.   


A.A. If you insist.  You're twisting my point, which is that you, as a
philosopher, specialize in abstractions.  That's not a put down, trust me. 




> So, that I'm a philosopher doesn't mean that I must defend the writings 
> and rantings of philosophers always and everywhere. (I did say that 
> whatever can be said can be said clearly, but let it pass, let it pass.)
>


A.A. Clarity is not philosophy's strongest point.



> And I'm no friend of abstractions, unless they can be taken apart in 
> such a way that one can pick out instances of them in the real world. 


A.A. I did that in my post prior to this one.  



My 
> instinctive nominalism leads me to suspect the (Socratic/Platonic) idea 
> that there must be a substance answering to every substantive. That 
> there are purposive mental processes which take place without our being 
> aware of them?trying to remember a name or phrase in the evening, and 
> finding it 'in one's mind' immediately upon waking the next morning, 
> e.g.?I have no doubt. 


A.A. We're agreed then.



That there are actual things answering to the name 
> 'ego,' 'id,' etc. I have all the doubt in the world.
>


A.A.  Freudianisms are passe for the most part.  It's funny though.  The
older I get the more I think the id is what I term war genes.  That certain
something that predisposes people to violence.  And with that, I'm off to
bed.


Andy Amago




> Catch you later.
>
> Robert Paul
> Reed College
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