> [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 > ------------------------------------------------------------------ > To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off, > digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html ------------------------------------------------------------------ To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off, digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html