Comments for Common Ground http://www.alfredkappler.com Exploring the Strategies of Human Intelligence and Their Consequences Mon, 21 Jun 2010 07:32:35 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 Comment on The Socratic Paradox II by Bob Godbey http://www.alfredkappler.com/?p=1398&cpage=1#comment-423 Bob Godbey Mon, 21 Jun 2010 07:32:35 +0000 http://www.alfredkappler.com/?p=1398#comment-423 Wait! What happened to the question of whether moral knowledge lies beyond the reach of language? You aren't just going to leave us hanging on that, are you? Isn't it the case that many things lie beyond the reach of language (at least to some extent)? Is moral knowledge different in this regard from, say, love? Or for that matter, the Grand Canyon, which language can never fully describe? Isn't the harder issue whether moral knowledge lies beyond the reach of reason? Love may well be beyond reason, something that is profoundly intuitive but not logical. Is the same true of moral knowledge? If many significant things are beyond language, is the more useful dichotomy perhaps to identify those things that are beyond reason? Wait! What happened to the question of whether moral knowledge lies beyond the reach of language? You aren’t just going to leave us hanging on that, are you? Isn’t it the case that many things lie beyond the reach of language (at least to some extent)? Is moral knowledge different in this regard from, say, love? Or for that matter, the Grand Canyon, which language can never fully describe?

Isn’t the harder issue whether moral knowledge lies beyond the reach of reason? Love may well be beyond reason, something that is profoundly intuitive but not logical. Is the same true of moral knowledge? If many significant things are beyond language, is the more useful dichotomy perhaps to identify those things that are beyond reason?

]]> Comment on Ayn Rand: Nietzsche on Wall Street by Ed Santoro http://www.alfredkappler.com/?p=816&cpage=1#comment-321 Ed Santoro Sun, 06 Jun 2010 16:18:25 +0000 http://www.alfredkappler.com/?p=816#comment-321 Today I decided to do an Internet search on Ayn Rand to see if anyone has written about how the financial types have misappropriated her. My reading of Rand informs the notion that she would be appalled at the Wall Street of today and not so much at the Wall Street of the 1950s, when the Street stood for something that had real value. I greatly admire her Howard Roarke, who would relinquish himself happily to backbreaking labor in the rock quarry rather than conform to a sheepish mentality. Rand's _Atlas Shrugged_ and _The Fountainhead_ championed individuals who stood for something that created real value. The people today claiming Rand as a an intellectual touchstone are suckers of their own delusion. Rand's Roarke created buildings that made these people feel exactly what they are: small, fearful, petty, inconsequential. Your post doesn't corroborate my view here, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. Today I decided to do an Internet search on Ayn Rand to see if anyone has written about how the financial types have misappropriated her. My reading of Rand informs the notion that she would be appalled at the Wall Street of today and not so much at the Wall Street of the 1950s, when the Street stood for something that had real value. I greatly admire her Howard Roarke, who would relinquish himself happily to backbreaking labor in the rock quarry rather than conform to a sheepish mentality.

Rand’s _Atlas Shrugged_ and _The Fountainhead_ championed individuals who stood for something that created real value. The people today claiming Rand as a an intellectual touchstone are suckers of their own delusion. Rand’s Roarke created buildings that made these people feel exactly what they are: small, fearful, petty, inconsequential.

Your post doesn’t corroborate my view here, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.

]]> Comment on Euripides, Nietzsche, Foucault by Bob Godbey http://www.alfredkappler.com/?p=1128&cpage=1#comment-119 Bob Godbey Fri, 26 Feb 2010 20:22:00 +0000 http://www.alfredkappler.com/?p=1128#comment-119 Fire and Ice Some say the world will end in fire, Some say in ice. From what I've tasted of desire I hold with those who favor fire. But if it had to perish twice, I think I know enough of hate To say that for destruction ice Is also great And would suffice. -- Robert Frost Fire and Ice

Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I’ve tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.

— Robert Frost

]]> Comment on Turning a Blind Eye So As To See by Bob Godbey http://www.alfredkappler.com/?p=1096&cpage=1#comment-112 Bob Godbey Fri, 19 Feb 2010 05:12:53 +0000 http://www.alfredkappler.com/?p=1096#comment-112 Well, I'm certainly not sure that the Japanese are more in tune with what human beings are about. But they certainly have some traditions I admire. I like their appreciation of elegance and simplicity in art, and also the integration of art and craft. And I like their acceptance and appreciation of transience as part of life. Donald Richie, in his "Tractate on Japanese Aesthetics" quotes an early essayist, Yoshida Kenko (1283-1340) as saying: "If man were never to fade away. . . but lingered on forever in the world, how things would lose their power to move us. The most precious thing in life is its uncertainty." Then Richie summarizes his sense of this aspect of Japanese culture: "Most people everywhere spend their whole lives trying to escape the thought that one day they and all of theirs will be no more. Only a few poets look at the fact, and only the Japanese, I believe, celebrate it. The commemoration takes many forms but the most common might be looking into a mirror, seeing one more gray hair, discerning one more wrinkle, and then saying to oneself: 'Good, all is well with the world -- things are proceeding as they must.'" I like that. Well, I’m certainly not sure that the Japanese are more in tune with what human beings are about. But they certainly have some traditions I admire. I like their appreciation of elegance and simplicity in art, and also the integration of art and craft. And I like their acceptance and appreciation of transience as part of life. Donald Richie, in his “Tractate on Japanese Aesthetics” quotes an early essayist, Yoshida Kenko (1283-1340) as saying: “If man were never to fade away. . . but lingered on forever in the world, how things would lose their power to move us. The most precious thing in life is its uncertainty.” Then Richie summarizes his sense of this aspect of Japanese culture: “Most people everywhere spend their whole lives trying to escape the thought that one day they and all of theirs will be no more. Only a few poets look at the fact, and only the Japanese, I believe, celebrate it. The commemoration takes many forms but the most common might be looking into a mirror, seeing one more gray hair, discerning one more wrinkle, and then saying to oneself: ‘Good, all is well with the world — things are proceeding as they must.’” I like that.

]]> Comment on Turning a Blind Eye So As To See by Alfred Kappler http://www.alfredkappler.com/?p=1096&cpage=1#comment-111 Alfred Kappler Fri, 19 Feb 2010 00:43:40 +0000 http://www.alfredkappler.com/?p=1096#comment-111 Many thanks for the generous, and thought-provoking, comment. First of all, I would be interested in hearing more about "sabi". Beyond that, however, would you be prepared to generalize it. Is Japanese culture fundamentally more in tune than ours with what human beings are about, namely struggling against the apparently impossible? Do they have more heart than we do, or more respect for a tradition that tells them what is what? What I wrote in that post is a repeat of a message nearly 7000 years old: it's the gist of the Epic of Gilgamesh. But for us that's academic stuff, largely irrelevant to reality as we live it. Is that the problem? Is that the difference between the West and the Japanese? Many thanks for the generous, and thought-provoking, comment. First of all, I would be interested in hearing more about “sabi”. Beyond that, however, would you be prepared to generalize it. Is Japanese culture fundamentally more in tune than ours with what human beings are about, namely struggling against the apparently impossible? Do they have more heart than we do, or more respect for a tradition that tells them what is what?
What I wrote in that post is a repeat of a message nearly 7000 years old: it’s the gist of the Epic of Gilgamesh. But for us that’s academic stuff, largely irrelevant to reality as we live it. Is that the problem? Is that the difference between the West and the Japanese?

]]> Comment on Turning a Blind Eye So As To See by Bob Godbey http://www.alfredkappler.com/?p=1096&cpage=1#comment-110 Bob Godbey Thu, 18 Feb 2010 23:20:17 +0000 http://www.alfredkappler.com/?p=1096#comment-110 A lovely meditation! This may be a Western perspective. The Japanese aesthetic embraces transience in a way we do not in the west. I think "sabi" is one term describing this. The Japanese perspective on built things is different, too: for example, the shrines at Ise Jingu are rebuilt every twenty years, reflecting the impermanence of all things (and ensuring a new generation of craftsmen always know how to rebuild the shrines). I wonder if embracing the transience of life may not be wiser than fleeing from it, as you quite rightly say we do. A lovely meditation!

This may be a Western perspective. The Japanese aesthetic embraces transience in a way we do not in the west. I think “sabi” is one term describing this. The Japanese perspective on built things is different, too: for example, the shrines at Ise Jingu are rebuilt every twenty years, reflecting the impermanence of all things (and ensuring a new generation of craftsmen always know how to rebuild the shrines). I wonder if embracing the transience of life may not be wiser than fleeing from it, as you quite rightly say we do.

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