|
My Blog
some deep quotes i've been carrying around
Mon, May 12, 2008 - 1:50 AM"You see, when I come across some unusual ideas, I try them out. And my way of trying them out is to push them to the extreme. There is not a single idea, no matter how absurd and repulsive, that has not a sensible aspect, and there is not a single view, no matter how plausible and humanitarian, that does not encourage and then conceal our stupidity and our criminal tendencies."
(wow!) (note: Paul Feyerabend is noted amongst anarchists as being one of the main challengers to scientific method; read him in the book _Against Method_!)
Ezra Pound:
"Before deciding whether a man is a fool or a good artist, it would be well to ask, not only: 'is he excited unduly?', but: 'does he see something we don't?"
"...artists are the antennae: an animal that neglects the warnings of its perceptions needs very great powers of resistance if it is to survive.
"A nation [or group] which neglects the perceptions of its artists declines. After awhile it ceases to act, and merely survives. There is probably no use in telling this to people who can't see it without being told.
"Artists and poets undoubtedly get excited and 'over-excited' about things long before the general public.
"Is his curious behavior due to his feeling an oncoming earthquake, or smelling a forest fire which we do not yet feel or smell?"
From _ABC of Reading_ by Ezra Pound, pages 82-83.
Mon, May 12, 2008 - 1:50 AM -
permalink -
2 Comments
2 Comments |
add a comment |
|
Mon, May 12, 2008 - 8:46 AM
I see no reason not to affirm the Scientific Method: It is, if Thomas Kuhn has called the situation as well as I think he has, the current paradigm for a good reason, as current paradigms always exist for good reasons, namely, that a better paradigm--one that answers the most old questions thus far while posing the fewest new ones thus far--has not yet been proposed and tested and shown to be consistent in its results.
But Methods are not necessarily meant to be applied across disciplines, which is where Pound comes in, no? These quotations from Pound are particularly apt, and even somewhat comforting, for me as I go through the emotional turmoil in which I find myself right now, especially when I substitute the word "instinct" for "artist" regarding my own struggles. As for the wider world, that substitution applies, too, since artists are the intuitives/intuition of the world, are we not? Isn't that our *de facto* role in society? (Though surely I did not manifest artistry for any utilitarian purpose, either private or public--it's just what I was "called," so to speak, to be. The role/significance of my being an artist became useful after the fact. I certainly did not seek it out.) |
|
Wed, May 21, 2008 - 5:03 PM
Khrysso, you said:
I see no reason not to affirm the Scientific Method: It is, if Thomas Kuhn has called the situation as well as I think he has, the current paradigm for a good reason, as current paradigms always exist for good reasons, namely, that a better paradigm--one that answers the most old questions thus far while posing the fewest new ones thus far--has not yet been proposed and tested and shown to be consistent in its results. --- Hmmm...well, here's a quote from Kuhn that i've kept over the longhaul...Note the end, especially: Thomas Kuhn's "Old Paradigms Die Hard" (See also: Michael Polanyi and Andreas Ehrencrona. Found an excerpt about Thomas Kuhn: "Thomas Kuhn changed the view of scientific progress totally. Where once the history of science was seen as a steady progression where theory is added to theory until the truth is found, Kuhn saw a series of revolutionary changes of the world-view of science, where the view of one period had very little in common with the previous. Most importantly, he questioned the possibility for science ever to find a truth." Anyway, i disagree that the current paradigm exists for "good reason"; unless you're talking in the context of either the evil of religious dogma or the evil of open tyranny. You know what i'm sayin' here? ...Gee...the rest of that...sounds so damn topically (but "well educated") liberal to me...as if Eastern civilizations' scientific paradigm is nonexistent; and as if the indigenous paradigm never was! What hogwash! Sorry to pick this into you in light of your having your challenges rite now, tho. But sometimes you come across as such a superficially aware person, Khryss-o! Well, we're *all* products of our programming, eh?! (and *i* have *my* blindspots too!) }These quotations from Pound are particularly apt, and even somewhat comforting, for me as I go through the emotional turmoil in which I find myself right now, especially when I substitute the word "instinct" for "artist" regarding my own struggles. --- Good to hear! }As for the wider world, that substitution applies, too, since artists are the intuitives/intuition of the world, are we not? Isn't that our *de facto* role in society? (Though surely I did not manifest artistry for any utilitarian purpose, either private or public--it's just what I was "called," so to speak, to be. The role/significance of my being an artist became useful after the fact. I certainly did not seek it out.) --- i see "being an artist" in more and more of a critical light as time flies. i think everyone is an artist in their own varying ways, and this idea that some have a gift while others don't i think is another way to pull wool over the eyes of we whom are to serve interests which are not our own. If those interests can convince us that we are "different" in qualitative ways from everyone else, then we can be manipulated to think of ourselves as "special" while others ain't. Hooo boiii, that's a trick to play on us! Then we get all these grooming points (and superficial "wealth") while everywhere else we find ourselves more and more alienated. And then when the masses reveal their pain at us, we "artists" (and all other reduced-downs/specialists) "naturally" choose "the side" that "wins" (often, the status quo). Side note to the other readers: Hey, those who don't "get" what i'm saying, and such, try reading this as tho you're on a river, and stop thinking about how many grammatical errors or such other shit my writing supposedly has! (but maybe you're not supposed to understand me, eh?!!!) Feeling cantankerous today, after dealing with a whole lotta bullshit while doing email (someone else was using my email as i did, apparently, sending out spam-type posts and etcetera while i composed mail! Want details? Ask) |
