Tuesday, June 29, 2004
What is the purpose of philosophy? To discover truth by thinking about it hard enough? "Adjust argument 13 degrees theta. Aha! There it is!" cries one enlightened disciple of Plato as he stumbles out of the cave. To which the rejoinder comes, "Nay my brother, but the fullness of truth lies just beyond you! There! In the meadow! Frolic in the meadow!" Whereupon a third party necessarily replies, "You're both wrong! Nay, you're both right! For you see, the real truth is indeed between your positions. Albeit, certain of your elements are misguided and should be discarded."
Of course, the philosophers who have had part of their arguments discarded take it as a personal affront, and feel obliged to render a defense of themselves. And so the cycle continues in a swinging pendulum of perpetual motion, which might be pictured as follows.
A scale is tipped at a forty-five degree angle with one philosopher on one side, and one on the other. Another balances himself on the fulcrum. A thin layer of horizontal fog drifts between the upper and lower philosopher.
"Eureka! I'm on level ground" exclaims the philosopher on the low end.
"Look! I have broken into a new sphere!" cries the philosopher who stands above the fog. By golly, it must be an alternate reality. The ground looks like fog, and the sun shines through, illuminating everything.
"You're both wrong" argues the man in the middle. "What you guys need is some balance!" You would think that this is enough disparity. Not so fast. Another Platonist hangs from the bottom of the pendulum Spiderman style.
"I don't know if I can agree with that," he remarks wisely. "Look at it from this perspective. You seem a bit out of plumb, Bob."
"Ha! Fine one to talk, upside-down as you be!"
"How do you know it’s not you who’s upside-down?" And so the banter goes.
Oh, if only I could philosophize like Plato, Descartes, Boethius, and Kant. Perhaps I would be considered one of the wise men of the world! Actually, if that's intelligence, I think I prefer the whole fool thing.
¶ 9:17 PM
Of course, the philosophers who have had part of their arguments discarded take it as a personal affront, and feel obliged to render a defense of themselves. And so the cycle continues in a swinging pendulum of perpetual motion, which might be pictured as follows.
A scale is tipped at a forty-five degree angle with one philosopher on one side, and one on the other. Another balances himself on the fulcrum. A thin layer of horizontal fog drifts between the upper and lower philosopher.
"Eureka! I'm on level ground" exclaims the philosopher on the low end.
"Look! I have broken into a new sphere!" cries the philosopher who stands above the fog. By golly, it must be an alternate reality. The ground looks like fog, and the sun shines through, illuminating everything.
"You're both wrong" argues the man in the middle. "What you guys need is some balance!" You would think that this is enough disparity. Not so fast. Another Platonist hangs from the bottom of the pendulum Spiderman style.
"I don't know if I can agree with that," he remarks wisely. "Look at it from this perspective. You seem a bit out of plumb, Bob."
"Ha! Fine one to talk, upside-down as you be!"
"How do you know it’s not you who’s upside-down?" And so the banter goes.
Oh, if only I could philosophize like Plato, Descartes, Boethius, and Kant. Perhaps I would be considered one of the wise men of the world! Actually, if that's intelligence, I think I prefer the whole fool thing.
¶ 9:17 PM
