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Nov. 9th, 2005 12:58 amPhilosophy might be useful. This morning on the radio John McCain was trying to explain how it could be the case that America "doesn't torture" prisoners of war when, in fact, we have. If only a philosopher was on call to explain the difference between normative and descriptive uses of "we don't..." statements. (I remember as a kid thinking of rejoinders like that--"we don't talk during quiet time"; "well, obviously we do, because people are"; and I remember seeing how they missed the point.)
Nighttime and isolation: Maybe I started staying up late when I started studying philosophy in order to preserve the sense of isolation necessary to find our attunement in our words (and all those other subjects of philosophical wonder) so startling. (Probably not, because I started staying up late before that whenever I had projects I cared about; it's frequency just increased dramatically when I started studying philosophy.) But nighttime does promote a sense of isolation--the little distractions of daytime fade away--and focus. I used to feel a sense of connectedness with humanity at night, a sense of what the important questions were. (It's trivia that separates us.) All the memories I have of reading philosophy, wherein something about it impressed me, or of writing new things, are of night. (During the day I can only make explicit what I thought up at night.) If there is anyone who can get through a project without at least one night with it, I'm impressed by them. Maybe we should stay in the cave. Or maybe ordinary language philosophy, since it deals with the everyday, should never be done at night.
Nighttime and isolation: Maybe I started staying up late when I started studying philosophy in order to preserve the sense of isolation necessary to find our attunement in our words (and all those other subjects of philosophical wonder) so startling. (Probably not, because I started staying up late before that whenever I had projects I cared about; it's frequency just increased dramatically when I started studying philosophy.) But nighttime does promote a sense of isolation--the little distractions of daytime fade away--and focus. I used to feel a sense of connectedness with humanity at night, a sense of what the important questions were. (It's trivia that separates us.) All the memories I have of reading philosophy, wherein something about it impressed me, or of writing new things, are of night. (During the day I can only make explicit what I thought up at night.) If there is anyone who can get through a project without at least one night with it, I'm impressed by them. Maybe we should stay in the cave. Or maybe ordinary language philosophy, since it deals with the everyday, should never be done at night.
