T U and the End of the World!

So here are yesterday's and today's advent calendar offerings: T for Thus Spake Zarusthustra and U for Unhiddenness. I know the hermeneutic process of uncovering the un-hiddenness of Being is probably a lot less simple than the image implies, but I thought it'd be nice to let Being have a bit of fun for a change!

As for the Zarashustra quotation in the top cartoon the reference is from p 77-78 of the R.J Hollingdale 1969 translation, published by Penguin in the UK. Even after having done an MA dissertation on Nietzsche I still don't feel comfortable with Thus Spake Zarasthustra as a text. It is by turns philosophically perceptive and (dare I say it!) moving, but also confusing, obscure and downright mental in parts. I may do a week of cartoons based on TSZ, just because I feel it's a text that deserves more recognition: it's very multi-faceted, and you'd be surprised how radically different it is from the popular reading of Super-Nazi-Over-Men that gets thrown around. I also think Being & Tim could have some fun with Zarasthustra's Eagle....!

Lastly, a very quick sketch dedicated to the Mayans and the collective sigh of relief we all breathed at 11.12 today when the world didn't end. The inspiration is the following Kierkegaard quotation, which may or may not be correctly attributed, coming as it does from www.goodreads.com. It certainly sounds like something Soren'd say.

“A fire broke out backstage in a theatre. The clown came out to warn the public; they thought it was a joke and applauded. He repeated it; the acclaim was even greater. I think that's just how the world will come to an end: to general applause from wits who believe it's a joke.” Kierkegaard

I don't like to end on a downer, so here's a song....(those of you confused by the above sketch just skip ahead to 4.26)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0ikNY3712g

OLD SCHOOL!

Becca x

ps. I'll be away from a scanner for the next few days, so you'll have to wait 'til Sunday for V and W. I can only blame the little baby Jesus and the annual celebrations of his birth.

Day 16: P is for Play!

Reference: Being & Time, XXVII p310 (I've mislaid my copy of B&T but as soon as I find it i'll update the reference!)

December 13th: M is for Marcuse

Being & Tim don't normally reference me, although it has been known to happen. http://www.beingandtim.com/2010/05/death-of-author.html (we're so post-modern here).
Otherwise we have another silly silly silly cartoon that is fairly self-explanatory.

Clearly a one-dimensional man would look more like this:

__________________________________

Right ?? Anyone know about dimensions? I've not read One-Dimensional Man, sometimes I just like to imagine how books would be (with cardboard cut-outs and pretend moustaches) and just keep that like a holy vision in my mind. Maybe that'd be a good project, front covers for how philosophy texts should be. I think Tractatus Logicus Philosophicus sounds a bit like an 80s computer game myself.

Tomorrow. N for......... ah ha! Not going to spoil the surprise this time. Wanna guess?

Becca x

ps. We're getting pretty heated over at 'K is for Knowledge and metaphorical chocolate' on the subject of a priori/a posteriori. Consider this a formal invitation to come stick your oar in!

K is for Knowledge and metaphorical chocolate

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!

Tomorrow, M is for Marcuse!

Becca x

C is for...

This is 100% SOLID FACT: Descartes did some of his thinking in an oven. Except it probably wasn't a Zanussi Electric model. Intrigued? Watch this video for some fun-time learning from Mr Mark Steel. The oven features at about 1.19 (which is pretty good going for an oven). Just goes to prove that fact is stranger than fiction. Certainly useful for justifying going to the sauna more often anyway...woohoo! Becca x

Being towards...er...Jeff Goldblum

Heidegger talks alot about Being-towards-Death...there was obviously some mix up at Being & Tim HQ when this meeting was arranged. That said, Jeff Goldblum is pretty cool, especially in Independence Day and Jurassic Park. I'd rather meet him than Death I think...

See you tomorrow for Day 3! Becca x