Expect the blog to be slow for the next ten to twelve days. I am in full prep mode, trying to finish an essay that I am due to share publicly at the end of next week. I have no illusions of grand success; but I devoutly hope not to waste my audience’s time–and there is a real danger that I will do so. –Some days I fear Lady Philosophy has in fact and finally relegated me to the Friend Zone.
(Cracking up over here!) As everyone sings to me these days: bon courage! (It occurs to me that the friend zone, as the site of Platonic relations, may be an auspicious place to write from . . . ) You’ll shine.
Thanks kindly, C! I hadn’t thought of the Platonic angle.
My thoughts have been with you much of late.
I have to say: I find this so queer. It doesn’t sit right when someone I think of as a master has doubts like these. But then, it’s recorded that even Wittgenstein dealt with these doubts. Reference here at the 3:25 mark.
Michael, it is kind of you to think of me as a master, even if I am not, even if I am, as I am, a beginner among beginners. My way of doing philosophy in fact begins in doubt, but not in Cartesian doubt, rather in self-doubt.
Like ego death?
Maybe. But I had in mind nothing profound, just garden variety unsureness about yourself and your ability to understand, to make yourself understood, to be in any way equal to the task you have set yourself.
Like competence?
Yep. Like that.
The more you learn, the less you know.
Personally, philosophy has always been about finding distinctions and the corresponding questions they force us to acknowledge.
Good to hear from you, WN. Hope all is well. Your more-less comment makes me think of a great line from a Lloyd Cole song, “My world’s getting bigger as my eyesight gets worse.”
Best of luck with the paper, Kelly. Also, best of luck dealing with your love for the lovely lady. She’s can be coy and fickle. But as you know better than I do, she admires persistent sincerity best of all.
WordPress’s comment form, on the other hand, is entirely unforgiving.
She*
Thanks, Justin! Good luck to you too.
Good luck on the paper Kelly. I stumbled upon your blog today, and am enjoying it immensely, especially the poetry. I hope you are well!
~Jacob
Thanks, Jacob. I am well.