I would incline to share the penchant displayed by Kusturica for serious
science being very or even much philosophical.
The other fake disciplines like anthropology implicaturology general garbage
from the Guinness book of records do waste time.
It is rather sad that many imbecils, I have in mind the Guattary or the Zizek
of the universe finding themselves unable to sell vacuum cleaners they sell
advertising, new concepts of vacuum cleaners and related amenity. Yet others
having nothing to say decide to pursue a career in escorting Hitler as nazi
party members, devoted to being sheperds of shit with a Drang nach Osten
orientation n since, didn’t you know, the slavs the jews the lesbians, even the
nuns who did not suck them were to be eliminated since they were modernist,
perverse, watching Blau Reiter painting, worse listening to anton Webern.
Yes, better watch galaxies.
From: lit-ideas-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:lit-ideas-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On
Behalf Of Omar Kusturica
Sent: 11 April 2015 08:52
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: [lit-ideas] Re: [lit-ideas] Re: [lit-ideas] Re:
[lit-ideas] Re: [lit-ideas] Re: Æsthesis
I have found the discussions of Popper somewhat helpful as to the understanding
of science at least, others less so. On the other hand, I wonder if all
intellectual pursuits have to be conducted on the model of practical science. I
have read some of Stephen Hawking recently and I have been struck by how
philosophical it is, as the matter of fact. Mike's complaint and yours seem to
come from opposite ends; he is looking for answers to deep existential
questions such as why we are here, while you are looking for solutions to
practical problems. To put it somewhat simplistically, Mike expects philosophy
to replace God, while you seem to expect it to make vacuum cleaners. It may be
that the disappointment is the result of exaggerated and / or misplaced
expectations. On the other hand, I admit that I often find philosophy tedious,
but it may say more about me than about philosophy. (Although I believe that
philosophy took the wrong turn at some point in the 20th century.)
O.K.
On Sat, Apr 11, 2015 at 3:52 AM, John McCreery
<john.mccreery@xxxxxxxxx<mailto:john.mccreery@xxxxxxxxx>> wrote:
On Fri, Apr 10, 2015 at 9:46 AM, Mike Geary
<jejunejesuit.geary2@xxxxxxxxx<mailto:jejunejesuit.geary2@xxxxxxxxx>> wrote:
Philosophy has fascinated me since high school, through college and even
somewhat today. It has fascinated me because it seemed to feed into my desire
(need) to know if there is any reason or goal or purpose to our existence or is
it all just a phantasmagorical dance of electromagnetic radiation? I had hoped
that buried in the arcane propositions of philosophy there might me a rational
response to my need to know.
Mike,
I was fascinated in the same way. What life has taught me, as I see it, is that
confining "rational response" to absolute certainty is fundamentally
irrational. We live in an uncertain but not entirely unpredictable world. At
the end of the day, the search for meaning is not that old adolescent dream, a
quest for the Holy Grail, but a matter of accumulating heuristics that mostly
work until they don't, then asking how they need to be changed to fit new
circumstances. In science, they call the heuristics theories and try
systematically to falsify and refine them. That is what science does and, on
available evidence, does pretty well.
Does going round and round in circles from Grice to Popper to Wittgenstein
improve our understanding. Not as far as I can see. After months and years of
the same debates, the same old chestnuts are hauled hot and roasted again, time
after time after time. Which to me spells waste of time. That is why I now
return here mainly for the poetry provided by Helm, Geary, and Richie's
chickens and the occasional word of wisdom from Robert Paul. For thoughts, that
is, that may be fleeting, but resonate in interesting ways.
Cheers,
John
--
John McCreery
The Word Works, Ltd., Yokohama, JAPAN
Tel. +81-45-314-9324<tel:%2B81-45-314-9324>
jlm@xxxxxxxxxxxx<mailto:jlm@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
http://www.wordworks.jp/
