I’m trying to get an angle on Heidegger, not in any scholarly way, but only to make progress in my general thinking.
He seems to be dead right in trying to come to terms with our grasp of time as always and inevitably involving an integrated awareness of the present, past and future.
This seems to be part of the dynamic of being thrown into the world.
In turn this formulation of our awareness of time seems to be the very foundation of the possibility of meaning, of one thing referring to or signifying another, as part of our temporal, integrated life world.
Things reveal themselves to us in the course of our projects and within moods.
We inevitably search for the meanings of things in the first instance, that their relationship to other things.
Grasp of meanings become automatic, increasingly so, or perhaps more effectively so, as we become more integrated into the world into which we have been thrown.
Things are revealed to us as we grasp them in our projects.
The significance of things becomes transparent to us.
Only when things don’t naturally and unselfish-consciously seem to serve our projects do we become aware of them in a more objective fashion.
This provokes the mood of interest, a feeling of the dynamic to re-establish meaning relationships, that is relationships integrated with our wider life world.
A purely objective, scientific or theoretic perspective is one in which meaning (its relationship to our life world) has been or is stripped away.
Things are here related to each other but not to our projects. They are related purely formally, solely by measurements whose relationships are expressed mathematically.
Or rather, this is the project of science, which itself is related to a number of other life projects, as relationships discovered or invented theoretically are integrated into a whole range of life projects.
This range of tools is is technology.
Science is integrated with technology which in turn is integrated into a lifeworld.
Our projects and moods rise in us in a mysterious manner, related to the dynamics our thrownness in, and encouragements with, our life world
We may conceive of ourselves as a scientist thrown into a technocratic world, but this is in some sense inauthentic, thinking of the technological world as a given rather than a project.
Science, scientists and technology are important, often dominant parts of lifeworlds, but they do not determine or exhaust them.
The project of philosophy relates to the logical relationship of meanings, the mood of interest in logical coherence, the dynamic to achieve a logically coherent account of some situation revealed to us.
It seems to be theoretical enterprise a fortiori. Even the attempt to formulate the revealed situation clearly involves a dynamic towards objectivity, towards a language which can be shared across lifeworlds.
This will not be the language of mathematical relations.
It may be related to the language of pragmatism. If this is the language ordinary life projects, this might now be too rooted in scientific (and so inauthentic) discourse, as is apparent in much of the so-called “analytic” analytic approach.
Alternatively, its pragmatism may relate to more authentic engagement with more limited philosophic situations.
An authentic, pragmatic (theoretical) approach to the projects revealed to us in our moods of logical interest and wonder.
Wednesday, 4 March 2020
Monday, 11 June 2018
Sceptical Christian 4 -Sport and games
Sport is another human universal, though individuals respond to it in different ways and with different degrees of passion and interest. It is universal in that it is important to all known human societies, throughout history and throughout the world, though some would argue that the term be restricted to the highly organised forms of physical competition which is such a feature of the modern world.
Games have a lot in common with sports. In particular both activities involve arbitrary rules which are designed to make an ordinary human activity (such as getting from A to B) more challenging, by introducing hurdles or placing restrictions on the sort of moves than can be made. It may be argued that many games lack the physicality needed to be a true sport, while other, more playful, physical activities lack the seriousness of intent, or even sufficiently clear rules, to even count as games. No doubt these distinctions are valid, and very important to people and organisations dedicated to particular activities, but from other points of view they can seem arbitrary, which is not surprising since arbitrariness, in the form of arbitrary rules, is at the heart of all the play activities, games and sports known in all human societies. This perhaps explains why every game and sport is seen as puzzlingly pointless to those outside or unmoved by the activity.
It’s possible to give some evolutionary or developmental point or purpose to play, for example, relating it to developing the practical and social skills necessary for participating in society. Similarly, it is easy to make a connection between the celebrated athletics of the Ancient Greeks and the demands of constant inter-city warfare. You could extend this to explain the universal attraction of hunting (incidentally, the activity which gave us the words ‘game’ and ‘sport’). No putative explanation along these lines is ever very convincing, however, except at the most general level, and none explains the excitement of watching or following a game or a sport.
Sport seems practically always to have taken place in the context of competition between individuals or groups, or man and animal, or man and nature. At the level of the individual participant, it obviously involves the need to develop and refine control over all aspects of the body’s functioning. This can be extended to your precise physical and moral contribution to a group effort. It is clear that pleasure in physical activity relates to complex, precise and global internal and external sense mechanisms and reactions. Whatever it is, it gives immense pleasure even at the cost of enormous pain. Excited onlookers and honour and glory for the winners are part of the cultural life of every society, as are constantly retold tales of struggle, defeat and victory, at the national, local and family levels. It is a curious activity.
Today many of these traditional activities have been refined and institutionalised (most notably in the Olympic Games, the World Cup, Wimbledon and the like, but extending to all levels below down to casual games in a park or on village green. They involve immense riches, often obscure powerbrokers and dubious politics, and the active or passive participation of billions throughout the world. For many millions it is the most important of all human activities. Millions of others are indifferent to what seems a pointless activity and are bemused by the hype or outraged at the squandered resources, the corruption and cheating and the endless scandals at the top. Millions of sports fans are similarly outraged, but never lose sight of the joy and the hope, the excitement and despair, not to mention the routine pleasure that physical activity seems mysteriously to bring with it.
Games have a lot in common with sports. In particular both activities involve arbitrary rules which are designed to make an ordinary human activity (such as getting from A to B) more challenging, by introducing hurdles or placing restrictions on the sort of moves than can be made. It may be argued that many games lack the physicality needed to be a true sport, while other, more playful, physical activities lack the seriousness of intent, or even sufficiently clear rules, to even count as games. No doubt these distinctions are valid, and very important to people and organisations dedicated to particular activities, but from other points of view they can seem arbitrary, which is not surprising since arbitrariness, in the form of arbitrary rules, is at the heart of all the play activities, games and sports known in all human societies. This perhaps explains why every game and sport is seen as puzzlingly pointless to those outside or unmoved by the activity.
It’s possible to give some evolutionary or developmental point or purpose to play, for example, relating it to developing the practical and social skills necessary for participating in society. Similarly, it is easy to make a connection between the celebrated athletics of the Ancient Greeks and the demands of constant inter-city warfare. You could extend this to explain the universal attraction of hunting (incidentally, the activity which gave us the words ‘game’ and ‘sport’). No putative explanation along these lines is ever very convincing, however, except at the most general level, and none explains the excitement of watching or following a game or a sport.
Sport seems practically always to have taken place in the context of competition between individuals or groups, or man and animal, or man and nature. At the level of the individual participant, it obviously involves the need to develop and refine control over all aspects of the body’s functioning. This can be extended to your precise physical and moral contribution to a group effort. It is clear that pleasure in physical activity relates to complex, precise and global internal and external sense mechanisms and reactions. Whatever it is, it gives immense pleasure even at the cost of enormous pain. Excited onlookers and honour and glory for the winners are part of the cultural life of every society, as are constantly retold tales of struggle, defeat and victory, at the national, local and family levels. It is a curious activity.
Today many of these traditional activities have been refined and institutionalised (most notably in the Olympic Games, the World Cup, Wimbledon and the like, but extending to all levels below down to casual games in a park or on village green. They involve immense riches, often obscure powerbrokers and dubious politics, and the active or passive participation of billions throughout the world. For many millions it is the most important of all human activities. Millions of others are indifferent to what seems a pointless activity and are bemused by the hype or outraged at the squandered resources, the corruption and cheating and the endless scandals at the top. Millions of sports fans are similarly outraged, but never lose sight of the joy and the hope, the excitement and despair, not to mention the routine pleasure that physical activity seems mysteriously to bring with it.
Tuesday, 5 June 2018
Sceptical Christian 3 - Mathematics and logic
Mathematics is a bit like music, most obviously in its abstract structure, though considerations of beauty and elegance are also important to many participants in mathematical activities. Originally concerned with the ordinary human activities of counting, measuring and comparing, mathematicians have for thousands of years investigated a vast, mysterious world of abstract objects such as the many types of numbers, though these by no means exhaust the mathematical world. There are discoverable principles and processes relating these strange objects to each other. These too are part of this abstract, but very real, world.
Of course, mathematics has continued to be crucially important in counting, measuring and comparing, especially in science, engineering, economics, statistics and all aspects of the modern world, including information technology. In all these areas, mathematicians have been vastly successful in developing mathematical models which model curious aspects of more concrete reality.
Nevertheless, mathematics is not dependent on this physical word, but have a reality and validity of their own, depending on clarity, consistency and completeness. It is indeed amazing that bizarre mathematical objects and their equally curious relationships have been found to model the behaviour of, say the fundamental particles of quantum mechanics. Nonetheless, the investigation and discovery of the maths often pre-dated, and are therefore independent of the physics. It shouldn’t have to be said that physics doesn’t deal with or exhaust all reality. There may be a dependence but it is not clear what the nature or direction of this relationship is.
Logic is another abstract realm, not obviously dependent on other aspects of reality. Logic is historically based on figuring out how one statement implies or excludes another. It was once thought it would possible to show that all of maths, or at least number theory, could be derived from logic, ultimately the law of the excluded middle. This says it is not possible to hold that X and not-X are both true. Of course, you can add qualifications to the X on either side to make this seem plausible, but in the bald case, if you say X and not-X at the same time, the result is you are saying nothing. This logical enterprise was not successful but a whole new world of formal, or mathematical, logic was opened up, much of it forming the basis of information theory. Interestingly, progress in IT has often been by way of finding effective and efficient physical models of the abstract findings of mathematical logic - the opposite of what has been the case with physics.
Mathematics and logic, therefore involve grappling with an abstract realm reflecting upon and related to, but not dependent upon, activities of counting, measuring, comparing, reasoning, etc within a rich set of well-grounded traditions passed on in schools, universities, professional bodies professions jobs and enthusiasts.
Of course, mathematics has continued to be crucially important in counting, measuring and comparing, especially in science, engineering, economics, statistics and all aspects of the modern world, including information technology. In all these areas, mathematicians have been vastly successful in developing mathematical models which model curious aspects of more concrete reality.
Nevertheless, mathematics is not dependent on this physical word, but have a reality and validity of their own, depending on clarity, consistency and completeness. It is indeed amazing that bizarre mathematical objects and their equally curious relationships have been found to model the behaviour of, say the fundamental particles of quantum mechanics. Nonetheless, the investigation and discovery of the maths often pre-dated, and are therefore independent of the physics. It shouldn’t have to be said that physics doesn’t deal with or exhaust all reality. There may be a dependence but it is not clear what the nature or direction of this relationship is.
Logic is another abstract realm, not obviously dependent on other aspects of reality. Logic is historically based on figuring out how one statement implies or excludes another. It was once thought it would possible to show that all of maths, or at least number theory, could be derived from logic, ultimately the law of the excluded middle. This says it is not possible to hold that X and not-X are both true. Of course, you can add qualifications to the X on either side to make this seem plausible, but in the bald case, if you say X and not-X at the same time, the result is you are saying nothing. This logical enterprise was not successful but a whole new world of formal, or mathematical, logic was opened up, much of it forming the basis of information theory. Interestingly, progress in IT has often been by way of finding effective and efficient physical models of the abstract findings of mathematical logic - the opposite of what has been the case with physics.
Mathematics and logic, therefore involve grappling with an abstract realm reflecting upon and related to, but not dependent upon, activities of counting, measuring, comparing, reasoning, etc within a rich set of well-grounded traditions passed on in schools, universities, professional bodies professions jobs and enthusiasts.
Wednesday, 30 May 2018
Sceptical Christian 2 - Music, etc
Music can be a bit like storytelling; first there is one sound, then another and we wonder what is going to happen next, and so on until a sound tells us the adventure has ended. Just as obviously, all this, like storytelling, depends on overlearned traditions about how sounds are put together, how sequences start and end. Performers can then delight or confuse us by playing with our expectations, confirming or subverting the conventions, extending them to new sounds or subtly undermining them. Moreover, we can easily imagine music originally accompanied real stories, as in song or ritual. Even today a lot of music, perhaps most, plays this role, especially in popular music and film.
Nevertheless, music has always had an obviously independent character. It is still mysterious how certain sequences of sound can be heard once and never be forgotten. For individual sequences, this might be culturally dependent, but the strangeness of the phenomenon is universal. It happens when you hear the melody of “The Long and Winding Road” once, and it stays in your brain for life. In traditional folk music, a tune can have so much of this power that new words and new uses are produced for it - indicating the independence of the music.
Another obvious feature of music is it’s ability to stir (and manipulate) our emotions and thought, often independently of any song or narrative or drama. In these circumstances we might invent our own narratives to explain our emotions to ourselves, but this not necessary and usually not adequate. The music seems to be saying so much more.
And of course, music isn’t really the sound of anything; we hear it directly. It is a particular arrangement of heard tones, organised around principles that have now been well mapped out, but are still mysterious. These include tone, pitch, timbre, rhythm, dynamics, harmony. The “science” of musical theory can rival physics in its complexity, but it is dealing with the heard (and felt) sounds of the musical world. Of course, these are all produced by processes studied by physics and musical technology (and heard by processes studied by physiological science, in contexts studied by the social sciences) but they are not about these processes, they are about the world of music, a world which powerfully acts on us, but which is entirely autonomous in its logic.
This world has been investigated by performers since the beginning of time, and over the last few centuries by composers, but still seems inexhaustible and wondrous, with no end in sight to the discoveries yet to be made. It is hard to say what this world is they are exploring, other than “music”, and hard to say how they go about discovering anything in this world other than to say “they create” new music. After listening to the Jupiter Symphony, you’d be tempted to call it a revelation.
By now there are worldwide communities and networks dedicated to investigating, performing, listening to, studying and commenting upon the phenomenon of music in buildings ranging from the magnificent to the insignificant. It has millions of followers ranging from the lukewarm to the fanatic. It could almost be a religion.
The same is true of all other artistic activities of human societies, such as dancing, drama, painting, pottery, sculpture, jewellery, and many others. All depend upon rich traditions of production and participation, coupled with innovation and invention. All involve grappling with issues of feeling, expression, fittingness, appropriateness and other values related to a general concept of beauty. Most artists feel there is logic and structure to their art, though in none has the abstract structure and logic been so well worked out as in music. Even here it is clearly not fully understood, and is only the precondition of the art. Least of all understood are the mysterious processes of the imagination in creation and invention, or the perception f the work as saying something not sayable in other ways.
Nevertheless, music has always had an obviously independent character. It is still mysterious how certain sequences of sound can be heard once and never be forgotten. For individual sequences, this might be culturally dependent, but the strangeness of the phenomenon is universal. It happens when you hear the melody of “The Long and Winding Road” once, and it stays in your brain for life. In traditional folk music, a tune can have so much of this power that new words and new uses are produced for it - indicating the independence of the music.
Another obvious feature of music is it’s ability to stir (and manipulate) our emotions and thought, often independently of any song or narrative or drama. In these circumstances we might invent our own narratives to explain our emotions to ourselves, but this not necessary and usually not adequate. The music seems to be saying so much more.
And of course, music isn’t really the sound of anything; we hear it directly. It is a particular arrangement of heard tones, organised around principles that have now been well mapped out, but are still mysterious. These include tone, pitch, timbre, rhythm, dynamics, harmony. The “science” of musical theory can rival physics in its complexity, but it is dealing with the heard (and felt) sounds of the musical world. Of course, these are all produced by processes studied by physics and musical technology (and heard by processes studied by physiological science, in contexts studied by the social sciences) but they are not about these processes, they are about the world of music, a world which powerfully acts on us, but which is entirely autonomous in its logic.
This world has been investigated by performers since the beginning of time, and over the last few centuries by composers, but still seems inexhaustible and wondrous, with no end in sight to the discoveries yet to be made. It is hard to say what this world is they are exploring, other than “music”, and hard to say how they go about discovering anything in this world other than to say “they create” new music. After listening to the Jupiter Symphony, you’d be tempted to call it a revelation.
By now there are worldwide communities and networks dedicated to investigating, performing, listening to, studying and commenting upon the phenomenon of music in buildings ranging from the magnificent to the insignificant. It has millions of followers ranging from the lukewarm to the fanatic. It could almost be a religion.
The same is true of all other artistic activities of human societies, such as dancing, drama, painting, pottery, sculpture, jewellery, and many others. All depend upon rich traditions of production and participation, coupled with innovation and invention. All involve grappling with issues of feeling, expression, fittingness, appropriateness and other values related to a general concept of beauty. Most artists feel there is logic and structure to their art, though in none has the abstract structure and logic been so well worked out as in music. Even here it is clearly not fully understood, and is only the precondition of the art. Least of all understood are the mysterious processes of the imagination in creation and invention, or the perception f the work as saying something not sayable in other ways.
Tuesday, 29 May 2018
Sceptical Christian 1 - Storytelling
I am a Christian in the same way that I am an English speaker. I learned to be both in exactly the same way. I was born into an English-speaking Christian family. I began to learn to speak English with my mother and developed my abilities over the years with the help of my family and friends neighbours and workmates, school and university and the wider world of books, plays, film, television and radio. I am now pretty competent at it, and although I have made some progress in other languages, it is still the crucial medium in which I think, reason and pursue many of my interests. Without the English language I would have little or no social or intellectual life, and all other aspects of life would be so much sparser or more opaque, without the ability to think about them or talk about them in English. I am a tourist in other languages but I am at home in English. I sometimes have a dream of feeling equally at home in French for Spanish but this is just a dream, available only to those born into a bilingual family or who move permanently or for a substantial time to another linguistic community.
For this is how you learn a language; you are inducted into a community. Of course, you learn to pronounce the sounds of the language in your own way, using the vocal apparatus you were born with, along with your own natural preferences . You develop your own distinctive voice, recognisable to all who know you. Nevertheless, you will not be able to wander too far away from traditional sounds without becoming unintelligible to all other people. Similarly, with words, expressions, grammar, tones of voice, and all aspects of language use, you will develop your own preferences and peculiarities, but all recognisable as English, and, so long as they don’t wander too far from the usages you inherited, you will be able to communicate with all others born or inducted into the same linguistic traditions.
Most of the activities these linguistic traditions will be concerned with will be the practical and personal business of everyday life. However, one of the traditions you will be inducted into will be that of storytelling, starting with conversation and folktales and progressing to gossip,jokes, stories, soap operas, series, films and novels, all of which will continue to form part of daily, personal conversation and gossip, though this latter might then be called ‘news’. All of these activities will have great public traditions associated with them (most obviously in films and novels). Many people will try to make their own contribution, maybe asa career, to one or other of these traditions. They will be successful only to the extent that they are recognisably part of the tradition (even if only as a challenge to, or inversion, negation or extension of some of its elements).
One of the streams of the traditions will be to entertain and delight, often with novelty, more often with surprised recognition. Another one will be to attempt to say the unsayable, or at least to grapple with difficult issues, especially of feelings and emotions. Both streams are evident in the attempt to create something beautiful from the resources of the linguistic tradition, whether in the sounds and structures of phrases, as in poetry or prose, or stories, or whole narratives. Beauty seems to be important in all aspects of linguistic activity, though in everyday life it is probably more thought of, when it is noted, as the aptness, or fittingness of a phrase or anecdote.
Most stories are told in a recognisably story-like fashion, to guide as through the narrative, and none so obviously as in the heightened and artificial language of poetry. This is based, of course, on the meanings and structure of phrases, but also very obviously on the their sounds and rythms. Poetry is often associated with song, but, of course sequences, structures and rhythms of sounds have long been found to delight and entertain on their own, without the aid of words. Indeed they seem to be expressive of something beyond words and do indeed say the unsayable, it is claimed.
All human societies have developed traditions of narrative, poetry and music. In order to appreciate any story, poem or piece of music, you need to be familiar with the tradition. In order to contribute to the tradition, you need extend it, challenge it, invert or negate it using any new resources within the framework of the tradition. Music seems peculiarly to be ‘about’ nothing but expression.
For this is how you learn a language; you are inducted into a community. Of course, you learn to pronounce the sounds of the language in your own way, using the vocal apparatus you were born with, along with your own natural preferences . You develop your own distinctive voice, recognisable to all who know you. Nevertheless, you will not be able to wander too far away from traditional sounds without becoming unintelligible to all other people. Similarly, with words, expressions, grammar, tones of voice, and all aspects of language use, you will develop your own preferences and peculiarities, but all recognisable as English, and, so long as they don’t wander too far from the usages you inherited, you will be able to communicate with all others born or inducted into the same linguistic traditions.
Most of the activities these linguistic traditions will be concerned with will be the practical and personal business of everyday life. However, one of the traditions you will be inducted into will be that of storytelling, starting with conversation and folktales and progressing to gossip,jokes, stories, soap operas, series, films and novels, all of which will continue to form part of daily, personal conversation and gossip, though this latter might then be called ‘news’. All of these activities will have great public traditions associated with them (most obviously in films and novels). Many people will try to make their own contribution, maybe asa career, to one or other of these traditions. They will be successful only to the extent that they are recognisably part of the tradition (even if only as a challenge to, or inversion, negation or extension of some of its elements).
One of the streams of the traditions will be to entertain and delight, often with novelty, more often with surprised recognition. Another one will be to attempt to say the unsayable, or at least to grapple with difficult issues, especially of feelings and emotions. Both streams are evident in the attempt to create something beautiful from the resources of the linguistic tradition, whether in the sounds and structures of phrases, as in poetry or prose, or stories, or whole narratives. Beauty seems to be important in all aspects of linguistic activity, though in everyday life it is probably more thought of, when it is noted, as the aptness, or fittingness of a phrase or anecdote.
Most stories are told in a recognisably story-like fashion, to guide as through the narrative, and none so obviously as in the heightened and artificial language of poetry. This is based, of course, on the meanings and structure of phrases, but also very obviously on the their sounds and rythms. Poetry is often associated with song, but, of course sequences, structures and rhythms of sounds have long been found to delight and entertain on their own, without the aid of words. Indeed they seem to be expressive of something beyond words and do indeed say the unsayable, it is claimed.
All human societies have developed traditions of narrative, poetry and music. In order to appreciate any story, poem or piece of music, you need to be familiar with the tradition. In order to contribute to the tradition, you need extend it, challenge it, invert or negate it using any new resources within the framework of the tradition. Music seems peculiarly to be ‘about’ nothing but expression.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)