I haven't finished this essay yet. I will, I promise. I wanted to remark that I primarily have two reasons for reading anything. Fiction or non-fiction.
1. Is to receive information that I require to solve a problem.
Some fiction falls into this category and some non-fiction doesn't meet this need whatsoever.
2. To enter a state of consciousness that is outside of reality.
Some people take LSD or DMT or drink or smoke or hit themselves in the head to achieve the sort of detachment from reality that 11 year old me achieved reading Piers Anthony stories about sexy Centaurs or Newberry Award winning books I probably bought at various book fairs.
I find your writing to be compelling, because there's Truth in it and you're very competent. You're also very likeable and it's pleasant to allow you into my headspace.
That said, the drive to continue reading is because I get a little or a lot of both my reasons for reading. I'm trying to understand what is happening in 2022 and why it is happening. I'm also trying to ascend spiritually to a reality other than this one. So thank you for allowing me to read your words. I'll go back to the essay now.
I've had trouble going back to Xanth. Piers Anthony was a working writer. He'd knock out novels in a month and a half. He is probably writing porn as we speak.
From reading this I can say I would have a beer with you.
'The most “philosophical” part of my life was when I was 20, and I would go drinking every couple of days with my best friend at university, and we’d just get fucking hammered on beer and vodka, play chess and smoke 40 cigarettes each.' Apart from the chess part this was my 'he's just like me, fr fr' moment.
Philosophising while hungover, smoking multiple packs of (then affordable) cigs per day in a world before the smoking ban. Halcyon days, in retrospect.
Anyway, this was really good, but I suspect you knew that already.
I opened Tractatus just now (never read it before) and skimmed the first few pages, and the last few pages, and had that moment. It was very exhilarating. Added it to the list.
Loved the essay. It’s uncanny how similar your worldview is to nietzsche’s on other philosophers. I linked a particularly relevant passage, but the whole chapter (chapter 1 in beyond good and evil) is almost exactly what you express here.
dope post man. Made me think about why grabbing a beer with the homies hits different now, 10 years ago when i was 15 we clicked so much, "real philosophy" was made then. I forgot about what we even talked about, but I know we were "on some real shit" (not even profound topics. i just know - well, more of a hunch, but still - that we were keeping it more real. maybe it's just that, a hunch, and i'm misremembering tho). Now it doesn't feel that way, now it feels like we're stuck. Well, maybe it's just me who feels stuck.
I don't read books books anymore, i just watch videos and shit like that, I've gotten too used to that 100% beer concentrate served intravenously. Don't think that's an issue tho, that's my cope. The real issue is why the fuck do i need to plug myself into the beer machine instead of getting satiated with some beers
One of the things I think people get really mixed up about is solved and unsolved games. People look at stuff like chess and programming and think "Oh they solved chess, everything has been solved" and then look at people and think "Oh so people are solved", on all sides of discourse, and it's so silly as soon as you talk to an actual person that they have no clue what is going on in their own life, that nothing is solved, that you really can just wing your way thru it all as long as you're enjoying the game and paying attention. There's a zillion dollars laying on the street and book nerds are telling you you can't pick it up cuz they never tried. Keep it coming Randy.
How does one escape the neediness (to be loved/to always win), as you described, which leads to parasocial and artificial relationships? See a psychologist?
I was linked to this article in a Discord thread centered around philosophy, so if you're wondering who the fuck I am and why I'm commenting so late, that would be why.
It was a good read, I thoroughly agreed with most of it, but I think the first half was much stronger. Ironically, or I guess the opposite of ironically, I was going "god... he's just like me" despite, I suspect, our very different overall worldviews, upbringings, and identities.
" The appeal of reading for me is like when someone tells you about a dream they had. Not actually the retelling of the dream, which is usually very tedious and boring. But the very specific point where you feel like they have accidentally revealed more about themselves than they thought. When they accidentally tell you something revealing and embarrassing and you suddenly feel like you know something, know too much perhaps, about them. That, except, intentional. The feeling of being trusted with something intimate and important, from someone else who understands the stakes of what’s going on. "
This is why I write. I try to make stories just for stories, but I cant be so impersonal. I always want to inject myself into it. Its scary to see how impersonal media and art in our modern day is affecting people as a result. Things made not by individuals but by machines. The author has died in multiple places; when the media is interpreted by a selfish audience, and when its made in the first place.
I feel the latter half of this article, while still very true, has an oddly traditionalist and gender-biased view on what philosophy is, as if the idea of "sitting around and pondering with friends" is exclusive to men, and our conceptions of men throughout culture and tradition, which suggests philosophy being something that got pooted out of our weird culture machine rather than something we are inherently, biologically born with, as you suggested earlier. It did, however, hammer in the point that philosophy is personal, and you injecting your person into this explanation was effective. Though it had its drawbacks, of course, when read by someone who is not a man. Yes, again, that may be a part of your point, but it went as far as to confuse your claim, it seems.
Regardless, you seem nice to have a beer with. I'd probably stick to some sugary non-alcoholic teeth-melting concoction instead though.
this article will be cited in my phil phd thesis, excellent as always randy
This article will be my phil phd thesis
I haven't finished this essay yet. I will, I promise. I wanted to remark that I primarily have two reasons for reading anything. Fiction or non-fiction.
1. Is to receive information that I require to solve a problem.
Some fiction falls into this category and some non-fiction doesn't meet this need whatsoever.
2. To enter a state of consciousness that is outside of reality.
Some people take LSD or DMT or drink or smoke or hit themselves in the head to achieve the sort of detachment from reality that 11 year old me achieved reading Piers Anthony stories about sexy Centaurs or Newberry Award winning books I probably bought at various book fairs.
I find your writing to be compelling, because there's Truth in it and you're very competent. You're also very likeable and it's pleasant to allow you into my headspace.
That said, the drive to continue reading is because I get a little or a lot of both my reasons for reading. I'm trying to understand what is happening in 2022 and why it is happening. I'm also trying to ascend spiritually to a reality other than this one. So thank you for allowing me to read your words. I'll go back to the essay now.
I have the same fiction, non-fiction split. Although there has been a lifelong absence of sexy centaurs which makes me think I'm missing a trick...
I've had trouble going back to Xanth. Piers Anthony was a working writer. He'd knock out novels in a month and a half. He is probably writing porn as we speak.
'Many such cases'
From reading this I can say I would have a beer with you.
'The most “philosophical” part of my life was when I was 20, and I would go drinking every couple of days with my best friend at university, and we’d just get fucking hammered on beer and vodka, play chess and smoke 40 cigarettes each.' Apart from the chess part this was my 'he's just like me, fr fr' moment.
Philosophising while hungover, smoking multiple packs of (then affordable) cigs per day in a world before the smoking ban. Halcyon days, in retrospect.
Anyway, this was really good, but I suspect you knew that already.
I opened Tractatus just now (never read it before) and skimmed the first few pages, and the last few pages, and had that moment. It was very exhilarating. Added it to the list.
Great as always Randy, very thought-provoking.
Loved the essay. It’s uncanny how similar your worldview is to nietzsche’s on other philosophers. I linked a particularly relevant passage, but the whole chapter (chapter 1 in beyond good and evil) is almost exactly what you express here.
https://postimg.cc/Dmvm2hQq
dope post man. Made me think about why grabbing a beer with the homies hits different now, 10 years ago when i was 15 we clicked so much, "real philosophy" was made then. I forgot about what we even talked about, but I know we were "on some real shit" (not even profound topics. i just know - well, more of a hunch, but still - that we were keeping it more real. maybe it's just that, a hunch, and i'm misremembering tho). Now it doesn't feel that way, now it feels like we're stuck. Well, maybe it's just me who feels stuck.
I don't read books books anymore, i just watch videos and shit like that, I've gotten too used to that 100% beer concentrate served intravenously. Don't think that's an issue tho, that's my cope. The real issue is why the fuck do i need to plug myself into the beer machine instead of getting satiated with some beers
Seems to me like some time in the process i stopped thinking, and started overthinking. Or at least, went from 75% thinking 25% overthinking, to 25/75
Having studied the new and antique, the Greek and Germanic systems,
Kant having studied and stated—Fichte and Schelling and Hegel,
Stated the lore of Plato—and Socrates, greater than Plato,
And greater than Socrates sought and stated—Christ divine having studied long,
I see reminiscent to-day those Greek and Germanic systems,
See the philosophies all—Christian churches and tenets see,
Yet underneath Socrates clearly see—and underneath Christ the divine I see,
The dear love of man for his comrade—the attraction of friend to friend,
Of the well-married husband and wife—of children and parents,
Of city for city, and land for land.
One of the things I think people get really mixed up about is solved and unsolved games. People look at stuff like chess and programming and think "Oh they solved chess, everything has been solved" and then look at people and think "Oh so people are solved", on all sides of discourse, and it's so silly as soon as you talk to an actual person that they have no clue what is going on in their own life, that nothing is solved, that you really can just wing your way thru it all as long as you're enjoying the game and paying attention. There's a zillion dollars laying on the street and book nerds are telling you you can't pick it up cuz they never tried. Keep it coming Randy.
Excellent comparison, "people are solved", yes
How does one escape the neediness (to be loved/to always win), as you described, which leads to parasocial and artificial relationships? See a psychologist?
Ideally I hope by being loved
I was linked to this article in a Discord thread centered around philosophy, so if you're wondering who the fuck I am and why I'm commenting so late, that would be why.
It was a good read, I thoroughly agreed with most of it, but I think the first half was much stronger. Ironically, or I guess the opposite of ironically, I was going "god... he's just like me" despite, I suspect, our very different overall worldviews, upbringings, and identities.
" The appeal of reading for me is like when someone tells you about a dream they had. Not actually the retelling of the dream, which is usually very tedious and boring. But the very specific point where you feel like they have accidentally revealed more about themselves than they thought. When they accidentally tell you something revealing and embarrassing and you suddenly feel like you know something, know too much perhaps, about them. That, except, intentional. The feeling of being trusted with something intimate and important, from someone else who understands the stakes of what’s going on. "
This is why I write. I try to make stories just for stories, but I cant be so impersonal. I always want to inject myself into it. Its scary to see how impersonal media and art in our modern day is affecting people as a result. Things made not by individuals but by machines. The author has died in multiple places; when the media is interpreted by a selfish audience, and when its made in the first place.
I feel the latter half of this article, while still very true, has an oddly traditionalist and gender-biased view on what philosophy is, as if the idea of "sitting around and pondering with friends" is exclusive to men, and our conceptions of men throughout culture and tradition, which suggests philosophy being something that got pooted out of our weird culture machine rather than something we are inherently, biologically born with, as you suggested earlier. It did, however, hammer in the point that philosophy is personal, and you injecting your person into this explanation was effective. Though it had its drawbacks, of course, when read by someone who is not a man. Yes, again, that may be a part of your point, but it went as far as to confuse your claim, it seems.
Regardless, you seem nice to have a beer with. I'd probably stick to some sugary non-alcoholic teeth-melting concoction instead though.
There's nothing odd about it. Thank you for reading.