Now this one is my favourite of today's comics. Being doesn't realise that slow and steady really does win the race. Especially when Zeno makes the rules. See more here ----> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeno's_paradoxes
So here are the last installments of the Being & Tim advent calendar, just in time for Epiphany and the total end of the festive season. TAKE YOUR CARDS DOWN TODAY OR BAD LUCK WILL FOREVER FOLLOW YOU. Thems the rules folks.
If you've enjoyed the advent calendar I'll be self-publishing a limited edition hand-bound, all colour, BOOK, as well as individual prints, at my etsy shop, which is here:
And we're back on track! Here's K for Knowledge (which was supposed to go up on 11th December, with L for LolKants as today's post, oops). Despite all the confusion I do feel I have adhered to the reality, if not the principle of advent calendars: y'know, opening the wrong door on the wrong day, forgetting about it for a few days and then gorging on tiny little chocolates. So, enjoy the metaphorical chocolate!
This one doesn't require a huge amount of philosophical knowledge, but for those of you who are interested (hi mum and dad!) you may be interested to know the definitions of the terms in question here. A posteriori is another term for empirical, a posteriori knowledge is that which requires experience to justify it, e.g we know from experience that water boils at 100 degrees centigrade, but only after we've tested our hypotheses. A priori knowledge is knowledge which doesn't require external justification, either because it is innate, or already contained in the terms in question . The famous example is the phrase 'all bachelors are unmarried' which is true by definition. Maths can also be said to a priori in the same sense (although that is more controversial).
If what Being is saying is true though, we have a problem, most famously elucidated by David Hume: it seems that facts can either be a priori, known beforehand and somehow necessary, (what Hume calls 'relations of ideas'), or empirical a posteriori facts known in experience ('matters of fact'). The problem is that there's no a priori reason why empirical facts should be related, or should continue to be related. We might find the next time that we boil water that there is an unknown variable which alters the boiling point. It is not logically necessary that water boils at 100 degrees C.
Kant of course, tried to bridge this fork by claiming that we also have synthetic a priori knowledge, that our perception (which requires external stimulus) is already internally structured and therefore contains a priori categories (I.e, in order to say that we 'perceive' something we have to presuppose a priori structures of space and time and causality etc). But that's a whole other kettle of very complicated fish. Let's just look at Tim shaking his booty!
Being & Tim at 'PhilosophyLand' with Marcel Mouse!
Rather than being a real mouse, Marcel Mauss was an anthropologist whose most famous text was
The Gift, in which he analysed the sociological construction of gift-giving, especially in relation to non-capitalist societies. Just a cursory glance through the wikipedia entry shows how interesting a text it is:
Mauss argued that gifts are never "free". Rather, human history is full of examples that gifts give rise to reciprocal exchange. The famous question that drove his inquiry into the anthropology of the gift was: "What power resides in the object given that causes its recipient to pay it back?" (1990:3). The answer is simple: the gift is a "total prestation", imbued with "spiritual mechanisms", engaging the honour of both giver and receiver... Such transactions transcend the divisions between the spiritual and the material in a way that according to Mauss is almost "magical". The giver does not merely give an object but also part of himself, for the object is indissolubly tied to the giver: "the objects are never completely separated from the men who exchange them" (1990:31). Because of this bond between giver and gift, the act of giving creates a social bond with an obligation to reciprocate on part of the recipient.
As I have never read the text I don't want to comment on the ins-and-outs of Mauss's theory: but even the short quotations in the above wikipedia entry show its parallels to Marx's early writings, particularly this quotation from Comments on James Mill. Marx has just outlined the way that commodity exchange under capitalism alienates us from each other: when I buy something what is important to me is the object I am purchasing, not the human act of labour that stands behind the object in question. Under this form of exchange human beings are valuable only as instruments that create objects; as an alternative to this Marx puts forward this idea:
Let us suppose that we had carried out production as human beings. Each of us would have in two ways affirmed himself and the other person. 1) In my production I would have objectified my individuality, its specific character, and therefore enjoyed not only an individual manifestation of my life during the activity, but also when looking at the object I would have the individual pleasure of knowing my personality to be objective, visible to the senses and hence a power beyond all doubt. 2) In your enjoyment or use of my product I would have the direct enjoyment both of being conscious of having satisfied a human need by my work, that is, of having objectified man's essential nature, and of having thus created an object corresponding to the need of another man's essential nature. 3) I would have been for you the mediator between you and the species, and therefore would become recognised and felt by you yourself as a completion of your own essential nature and as a necessary part of yourself, and consequently would know myself to be confirmed both in your thought and your love. 4) In the individual expression of my life I would have directly created your expression of your life, and therefore in my individual activity I would have directlyconfirmed and realised my true nature, my human nature, my communal nature.
Our products would be so many mirrors in which we saw reflected our essential nature.
In this wonderful quotation, Marx seems to be envisaging a type of exchange where the act of individual labour (what he views as our 'species-being') is what gives the object value, where the work on the object itself is a form of dialogue (or dialectic) in which our relationship is continually redefined and our humanity made visible in ever different creations. Compare this to what Mauss says in The Gift "the objects are never completely separated from the men who exchange them" (1990:31).
Marx seems to move away from this view by the time he gets to Capital, but I think it's a compelling place to start thinking about what economy means, and how we might be able to intervene within capitalism. Derrida and Adorno both return to this idea of the gift, Derrida in Given Time (see context here ) and Adorno in Minima Moralia, Section 21. But they're both weirdoes....haha xx
I've not read the Theory of the Novel, and my current favourite thing about Georg Lukacs is the inescapable link to another, more contemporary philosopher. So I can't comment much on the specific context of the following quotation:
'A considerable part of the leading German intelligentsia, including Adorno, have taken up residence in the ‘Grand Hotel Abyss’ which I described in connection with my critique of Schopenhauer as ‘a beautiful hotel, equipped with every comfort, on the edge of an abyss, of nothingness, of absurdity. And the daily contemplation of the abyss between excellent meals or artistic entertainments, can only heighten the enjoyment of the subtle comforts offered.’ (Die Zerstörung der Vernunft, Neuwied 1962, p. 219)'
Nevertheless, I think there might be something quite keen in his criticism of Adorno, whose philosophy, as compelling and formidable as it is, offers (by Adorno's own standards I think it should be added) very little in the way of 'bridge' over the abyss which is the inherent self-contradictions of capitalism. Rather the activity of Negative Dialectics seems to involve precisely dwelling on these contradictions: that in writing and attending to them we bear witness to a future in which these contradictions are no longer apparent: where the objects we speak of, and particularly the subjects, can exist as ends in themselves rather than as means towards profit.
If anything compels me to return to University for a phD it's the tension between thinkers like Adorno (and Simone Weil) on one side who seem to value contemplation, and perhaps more ACTION-BASED philosophers, like Nietzsche perhaps. Or Gillian Rose. Something like this anyway.
Here's another new version of an old cartoon, that's also going to be in the 2011 diary. It's a very obvious pun on the last line of the Communist Manifesto: 'Workers of the world unite: you have nothing to lose but your chains!'
Mark Steel has a very funny lecture about Marx. Check out the first part here, if you have time. It's great!
Here's another one! Inspired by Sartre's use of the term 'l'etre-pour-soi' (see the Blackwell Dictionary of Western Philosophy for a proper account, although there is as yet no sign of Nothingness in this cartoon...maybe Being's detachment from the world will cause him to emerge tomorrow?!!!)
Extra points will be given for knowing which philosopher inspired the Existential porn mag 'The Body in its Sexual Being'. Without using Google, you big cheats. xo
And while we're on the subject of technology, check out this website that my brother and dad are setting up: www.carebook-dev.org.The idea is that it's a support network for patients and carers, as well as providing information and medical advice. Like Facebook, for cancer!
becca xo
(P.S Geeky favourite thing about this cartoon: Kierkegaard is on facebook chat as idle, because of what he says about idleness!! ;-) )
I got back from Sweden & Dragonfly festival yesterday morning at about 6am, but thought I'd wait until after a long sleep to update the blog! (Didn't want to drool on the keyboard for one thing!)
The festival was great, set in a forest near Falköping, what I didn't realise was that the forest is home to a reconstruction of a pre-historic village! So Being & Tim were exhibited, and I was sleeping in, an actual hut. (Although I like to think of it more as a hobbit hole.)
Outside the hobbit hole!
Inside the hut (Being & Tim on your right!)
Oh, before I go rabbiting on, here's the actual cartoon for today. Being-not-at-home. It's a Heideggerean term (again) about feeling das unheimlich: out of place in the world (literally 'not-at-home'). Part of Dasein's authenticity is its ability to recognise its displacement from the objective world, its own particularity and individuality...I'm sure a Heideggerean could explain better than that. Actually, does Heidegger actually use that word or am I getting him confused with Freud? Gosh I really should read Being & Time...
Anyway, Being's using the term to try and avoid Heidegger. What larks!
Part of the point of not posting while I was away was to catch up with some new cartoons. Unfortunately Ryanair's baggage policy (one lunchbox each) made it impossible to take my big sketchbook so I spent a lot of time just doodling really, plus being inspired by one of my fellow artists at the festivals, the lovely Emma. You can see her work at www.emmaekstam.com, it really is amazing. It's inspired me to start drawing things again, (I put a picture of my hands here for comedy value!), plus we talked about doing some illustrations together of Thus Spoke Zarasthustra. It's a pretty Romantic book (well I'd say it was satirical more than Romantic, but let's not split hairs right now) but the point is that all the references to dancing stars and tightrope walkers and hurdy gurdy songs would lend itself well to illustration. Y'know, spreading the word through imagery, like stained-glass windows! haha. Anyway, I'm going to try and put some more sketches up on here, to develop my style abit. But tell me if you just want more Being & Tim! (I don't really know the etiquette of blogs, can I change subjects a bit? Is that a betrayal?!)
Anyway, here are some more photos, in case you're interested. You can also see an animation I made at the festival on my youtube account. It's about my bandmates Jimmy & El, who in many ways are similar to Being & Tim!
A proper fairy tale mushroom (there's a pixie under there if you look hard enough)
Anyway, I'll update tomorrow, just to make up for the lack of posts over the holiday. (I'll also forgive you for not voting on my poll. haha)
becca xo
another hut
susanna gets her prehistoric skills on, cooking on an open fire!
a viking boat at the Gothenburg City Museum
Gothenburg
Susanna & Sara dancing in the Main Tent at Dragonfly
Well, I'm gonna come clean. I've not done a Being & Tim for today. I've been super-busy working on a poster/flyer thing for my friend's organisation compARTment (see left). They work to use derelict sites for workshops and community events and brilliant stuff like that. Anywayses, they've got some stalls at our local market, and said I could do a zinefest there if I made a poster. I kinda like it, and I definitely enjoy geeking out on photoshop! (the words are gonna go in the blue bit, I don't know what they are yet!)
But, just so you're not entirely bereft of some bad philosophy puns and toilet humour, I've also included a couple of very old sketches of Being & Tim, back when I was still working out how to draw them. They'll probably never make it into final pieces. But you never know, I've got to run out of ideas at some point!The second one's for all the Cavellians in the house....good old Stan :-)
(although for the record, his reading of Nietzsche in Cities of Words is appalling. E-mail if you wanna discuss...!)
Anyway I'll do my best to do a proper one for Monday, have a good weekend in the meantime!
oh dear. Not only did I miss our appointment last thursday, but once again I've left this late so I have had neither time to properly clean it up, nor to think of anything interesting to say, and as such, Being in particular looks a mess. Although in my defence, I was 'experimenting with a new style'....y'know, messy!
Anyway, the joke here is about confusing the relative with the absolute, but this is a silly philosophy pun, so instead I will talk about Apophatic Theology, in order to use long words and feel clever. Ready? Apophatic theology is a posh name for Negative Theology, that wot I mentioned in my last post, the idea that God is so awesome and infinite that language can't describe him, we just have to say what he's not like, in a gesture towards him. Sort of like saying, 'oh our language is so rubbish, but there is this thing beyond it that is not rubbish.' That's a direct from Julian of Norwich that is.
Also behold how I have put the three sections in three different parts! This is to build DRAMATIC TENSION, and not because it's too fiddly to put them altogether on photoshop...!!!! Let me know if you think it works, see you on thursday! becca xo
Hello there. Here's my post for this Monday, at a much more reasonable time than last week! I saw this video at the gym the other day. Apparently it's from 2008 but I hadn't heard it before although it is said to have 'taken the world by storm' or got 22 MILLION hits on youtube, which I guess is about the same thing. And yet, as so often happens in popular culture, the lyrics contain a ridiculous use of the word 'infinity.' (See the cartoon). Another example is in cult-classic movie Forbidden Planet, where the oh-so-super-intelligent scientist claims that the aliens managed to increase their energy supply: 'almost literally to the the power of infinity'. This latter example is made even more amusing by the use of the word 'almost' at the beginning!
Now I don't want to come across as a snob, if anything I'm just a pedant, but the philosophical and mathematical point of the term infinity is that it represents that which is beyond what we can describe or calculate, and as this can't have a conceivable upper limit then infinity cannot be said to be fixed point or a quantity! Rather it's a quality: so you can't multiply by the power of infinity anymore than you can multiply by the power of blue. Also the question of how we can know that infinity really exists when it is precisely that which exceeds and resists knowledge is a question that has been pondered by many philosophers and theologians. I don't think any of these thinkers thought that the answer might be 'Guru Josh'...
Now I suppose Guru Josh is being a bit more ''poetic'' than the writers of Forbidden Planet, but nonetheless
this sort of hippy mumbo-jumbo just serves to distract from how exciting the notion of the Infinite is, whether in astronomy or the Negative Theologians for example: Pseudo-Dionysus, Rudolf Otto, Paul Tillich, and then in all the philosophers influenced by the latter, including Heidegger. Gordon Finlayson, a lecturer at my old uni thinks we can even find a type of Negative Theology in Adorno. He presents a persuasive argument in 'On not Being Silent in the Darkness: Adorno's Singular Apophaticism' Adorno and Religion, ed. M. Waggoner, Indiana University Presss (forthcoming 2009). (Check me out with my 'proper' citations and everything!)
Hum. This post started off as a joke but I got a bit serious at the end there...In any case infinity is a serious issue, and cartoons like this need to be seen as the pathetic attempt for easy laughs that they are....
Join me in my quest for linguistic precision in popular culture!
Right then. Well it's still technically thursday in the UK (16 minutes to go as I type!) and, as promised, here's another cartoon. I am too tired to write much, as I spent all evening photo-shopping Heidegger's face. He looks a bit camp, but then he seems to be a bit of a camp icon in this comic, as you may have guessed from the video I made back in March.
In a nutshell, Heidegger's project was precisely to give priority to the question of Being, i.e to explore what it means to actually be, the categories this involves and such. He explores this in Being & Time, the book that started this comic off in the first place! Hence Being's outrage....!
It's worth getting a closer look so you can peer deep into Heidegger's dark photo-shopped pupils, and try to see the ground of Being...
beccaxo
(finished at 23.53- a close call!)
well, it's not a monday, but i have been doing a few little sketches, and got over-excited by my extra-curricular work and thought i'd show you, dearest internet users.
so over <-----there is a sketch of The Cat in the hat, which i will alter for copyright purposes in my upcoming Being & Tim 'Schrodinger's Cat in the Hat'! For those of you who follow my Twitter account, this is the quantum mechanics i've been attempting to get my head around! And it's trying to get it to rhyme which is the real kicker...still, keep you eyes on this page, I reckon it'll be ready sooooonish. Go here if you wish to prepare yourself!
And here ----> is another cartoon sketch of the two characters I hope you are familiar with now, Data Entry Pig and Becca Bumface. (They're going to get their own blog soon, called 'Friends on Benefits', one of those ''social satires'' of the world of work and the benefit system. Ho ho) Here Becca Bumface is attempting to simplify Nietzsche's notion of the Apollonian/Dionysiac. (That's the Birth Of Tragedy in front of her there...!) You can read more about this here, and make your own decision if Art Garfunkel really does represent the orgiastic and ecstatic elements of the Dionysian. So, just another sketch really, for my own amusement...and to mock my friend who said it...!
Well, I was thinking of going all ''low-brow'' today (!), but then my friend Jimmy (on the left with the ukulele) came up with these two ideas, continuing the Beckettian theme of the last post, and it must be added, further limiting the people who will find this funny. So these two are dedicated to all you weightlifting philosophy cartoon fans out there! For everyone else look here! Jimmy seems to think the second one was particularly funny, it being a reference to a Beckett quotation from Waiting for Godot again. I don't know how famous it is, nor how funny it is, but Jimmy insisted. And you can see from the photo that he's a dangerous man.
In 'How to bluff your way in Philosophy' Jim Hankinson describes the main characteristics of Eastern Philosophy in a section called 'How to Be a Mystic':
'1/ Invent a few meaningless paradoxes (such as 'The only true light is the darkness' or 'Each step forward is a step backwards').
2/. Have a line in pointless proverbs (like 'He who talks with the goldfish is lucky to receive an answer', or 'the taller the tree, the thinner the fruit').
3/ Profess a belief in at least one palpable metaphysical absurdity, such as that Everything is All One, or that Ordinary Reality is merely a Base Illusion in Comparison with the True Light of the Godhead. Remember to Talk in Capital Letters.
4/ Intimate in an obscure way that the Road to Enlightenment, though Long and Hard, is Ultimately Traversable, and hint that a good method of traversing it is by entering on a Close Physical Relationship with yourself.
5/ At all times wear a Benign Smile, for practical purposes indistinguishable from the Inane Grin' (1999:56)
You might remember Dasein from an earlier post, here he is again in glorious technicolor! Dasein is a Heideggerian term from Being & Time by Martin Heidegger, the book that 'spawned' Being & Tim! In Being & Time Heidegger attempts to show that any attempt to understand our Being is already regulated by certain concepts. It's helpful to point out that his work exists in the same vein as Kierkegaard's: again an investigation of Being is already dictated by our position as beings. Heidegger says, 'But even if we ask, 'What is Being'?, we keep within an understanding of the 'is',' (1962: 25). Anyway, to cut a long story short, moods are one of the categories necessary to our understanding of our Being, 'in every case Dasein always has some mood' (1962:173).Which is why Dasein is so touchy...(but I think Being might have forgotten his birthday as well.)
