tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5144051388547159240.post1769293594252364569..comments2024-02-19T10:15:55.380+00:00Comments on CAUTE — Making Footprints Not Blueprints: Study of two pears - or how to be a metaphysical hitchhikerAndrew James Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02693417061963197121noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5144051388547159240.post-45482078454037638772008-09-22T09:03:00.000+01:002008-09-22T09:03:00.000+01:00Thanks for your comments Gerrit. I'm going to post...Thanks for your comments Gerrit. I'm going to post this reply as a separate post as your questions proved rather helpful. Whether you agree with my answers is another matter of course! Anyway, for what they are worth . . .<BR/><BR/>You begin by noting that you don't understand how I get from show, don't say to we should eat organic fruit. I can see how you might think I was making that point - my weak skills of presentation are to blame I think - but I'm not. It is possible that as a consequence of following the course that I (and Freya Mathews) suggests you will end up eating organic fruit but that is not necessarily the case. My basic point is simply that humanity seems pathologically unable to be satisfied with the given and endless seek to modify it according to a process that treats Nature as an object rather than a subject. In other words the encounter with Nature is monological not dialogical - we rarely let her 'speak' to us. (On the matter of nature 'speaking' to us I touch upon this in my most recent address which I'l post later this week.<BR/><BR/>You then as "isn't the hitchhiker in the car like a person born into a system where pears are grown on massive farms?" Yes, quite right. That pears are grown this way is a given. We have to be hitching rides with this fact (and dialoging with it) as much as any other and then see where we end up. The end result may not be organic pears at all. To reiterate - I'm concerned that we simply start treating Nature as an 'other.' I have taken to rephrasing Jesus' call to love God and love neighbour to a call to love God and Nature as ourselves. <BR/><BR/>You next point about separating "our preconceived notions from what is apparently actually there" and that "we can't really draw conclusions like we usually do" is, I think, pretty much spot on. That doesn't mean that we cannot continue to draw those "conclusions" but we have to see then as far from concluding anything but as a snapshot sentence made by one party during a much longer and wide ranging conversation. As the well known aphorism puts it: unquestioned answers are far more dangerous than unanswered questions.<BR/><BR/>Your last point, that maybe, the fly gets out of the bottle and says, "now what?" and the answer very well might be, "You know. Whatever." is, I think, very important indeed. If folk who read this do end up thinking "Whatever" then I will have failed absolutely. What I am hoping is that when people get out of the fly bottle and start to encounter Nature as she presents herself to them (on the dance-floor of existence - this world) their response will be utter wonder at how extraordinary and beautiful she is and that this wonder will cause us to fall back in love with her. As a concluding note remember I follow Spinoza in thinking God is Nature and Nature is God (Deus sive Natura) so to love Nature is to love God. To the subject of my love I can never say "whatever" but only "will you dance" and, later in the evening, to whisper quietly in her ear "thank-you" and "I love you."Andrew James Brownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02693417061963197121noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5144051388547159240.post-25898485550683734712008-09-20T18:27:00.000+01:002008-09-20T18:27:00.000+01:00I don't understand how you get from "show, don't s...I don't understand how you get from "show, don't say," to 'we should eat organic fruit.'<BR/><BR/>Isn't the hitchhiker in the car like a person born into a system where pears are grown on massive farms?<BR/><BR/>Just going on your description, and not having read Wittgenstein, I think the argument he's making is that by showing, not saying, we separate our preconceived notions from what is apparently actually there. So, we learn that we can't really draw conclusions like we usually do because they have more basis in our bias than in the objectivity we try to plant them in. <BR/><BR/>Maybe? <BR/><BR/>Or maybe, the fly gets out of the bottle and says, "now what?" and the answer very well might be, "You know. Whatever."Gerrithttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04404623862027633674noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5144051388547159240.post-77357452901625162232008-09-20T09:03:00.000+01:002008-09-20T09:03:00.000+01:00Thanks Mike. No, I am not familiar with Nietzsche'...Thanks Mike. <BR/><BR/>No, I am not familiar with Nietzsche's argonauts of the ideal but a quick look at it last night suggests that I should explore it further - so thank you for that. I confess that Nietzsche is a philosopher whose work really don't know - except in the most superficial way. Perhaps the time is right to change that . . .Andrew James Brownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02693417061963197121noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5144051388547159240.post-41914039807886394232008-09-19T20:30:00.000+01:002008-09-19T20:30:00.000+01:00I posted your post to reddit. You may like to res...I posted <A HREF="http://www.reddit.com/r/philosophy/comments/72dqs/how_to_be_a_metaphysical_hitchhiker/" REL="nofollow">your post to reddit</A>. You may like to respond to readers there. <BR/><BR/>Also, are you familiar with Nietzsche's argonauts of the ideal? That concept reminded me of the metaphysical hitchhiker though I <I>very much</I> agree with your take on Wittgenstein.Mikehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16213170607107975410noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5144051388547159240.post-46446376866299945782008-09-18T00:05:00.000+01:002008-09-18T00:05:00.000+01:00A pleasure. Glad you liked it.AndrewA pleasure. Glad you liked it.<BR/><BR/>AndrewAndrew James Brownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02693417061963197121noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5144051388547159240.post-29974984211367855362008-09-17T19:49:00.000+01:002008-09-17T19:49:00.000+01:00great post.great post.Mikehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16213170607107975410noreply@blogger.com