Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil, 1971-72 (St. John’s College Annapolis)

http://leostrausscenter.uchicago.edu/sites/default/files/courses/01%20Nietzsche%201%20-%201971-10-06_OPT_0.mp3

http://leostrausscenter.uchicago.edu/course/nietzsche-beyond-good-and-evil-1971-72-st-john%E2%80%99s-college-annapolis

Thinking about the mind: an anti-linguistic turn

http://blog.oup.com/2014/02/philosophy-language-mind/?utm_source=feedblitz&utm_medium=FeedBlitzRss&utm_campaign=oupblog

Thinking about the mind: an anti-linguistic turn

By Bence Nanay

Contemporary philosophy of mind is an offshoot of philosophy of language. Most formative figures of modern philosophy of mind started out as philosophers of language. This is hardly surprising – almost everyone in that generation started out as a philosopher of language. But this focus on language left its mark on the way we now think about the mind – and this is not necessarily a good thing.

Sentences represent the world. As do some of our mental states: thoughts, beliefs, desires. And we understand pretty well how sentences represent the world. So a tempting way of thinking about the mind is that its building blocks are very much like the building blocks of language: that mental states represent the world the way sentences do.

Sentences express propositions. So, again, it is tempting to think of mental states as representing propositions: as propositional attitudes. And, unsurprisingly, this is the standard way of thinking about the mind: that its basic building blocks are propositional attitudes: beliefs, desires, thoughts. The belief that Paris is the capital of France is an attitude to the proposition that Paris is the capital of France. The general suggestion then is that we can capture the functioning of the mind by appealing to this economy of propositions.

It is easy to see that this way of thinking about the mind is based on mirroring language. But are we justified to do so? Language is an important feature of some select subset of minds (adult human minds), but there are non-linguistic minds: animal minds and infant minds. And they can do amazing things. While no-one denies that they lack language, they are still described by (most) philosophers (and even cognitive scientists) as having beliefs and desires – propositional attitudes.

It would be extremely surprising if the way the mind is shaped had anything to do with language as language is such a late addition to our mental life. A much more natural suggestion is that it has a lot to do with the actions the organism performs. We are evolved creatures and what matters in evolution is really whether one performs actions successfully (and not what one thinks). The mind is shaped in a way that would help us to perform actions. What we should expect then is that the structure of the mind is geared towards facilitating actions and not towards representing propositions. Of course, some select minds can also do that – and, may even use propositional thoughts to perfect one’s performance of actions. But it would be a methodological mistake to start with propositions. We should start with actions.

What would then be those representations that have direct impact on the success of our actions? Representations that attribute properties that are directly relevant for the performance of an action. I call these properties action-properties and the representations that attribute them pragmatic representations. Without pragmatic representations, we would be pretty bad at performing actions. And those of our ancestors whose pragmatic representations failed to get things right had very little chance to survive. Correct pragmatic representations have huge evolutionary benefits and incorrect ones make quick extinction very likely.

But what are these pragmatic representations and why do we not have a widespread label for them, like the ones we have for beliefs and thoughts? Suppose that you are trying to drink a sip of water from the cup in front of you. In order to do so, you need to represent the spatial location of the cup. If you didn’t, you would have no idea which direction to reach out towards. You also need to represent the size of the cup, otherwise you would have no information about what grip size you need to approach it with. And you need to represent its weight, otherwise you would have no idea how much force to exert when lifting it. These are some of the action-properties that your pragmatic representation attributes to the cup. But it happens only very rarely that your pragmatic representation attributes action-properties consciously. Most of our pragmatic representations are unconscious mental states, which of course doesn’t make them any less real. But it would explain why they are missing from the conceptual arsenal we use for describing our minds.

How should we resist the mirroring of language when talking about the mind? We should try to identify mental representations that we have independent, language-free reasons to attribute to agents. If we want to avoid falling back on talking about beliefs, desires and other propositional attitudes, we need some genuine alternatives. Pragmatic representations are mental states of this kind and it would be a good idea to take them seriously not only when talking about animal minds and the minds of small children, but also when talking about the linguistically competent adult human mind.

We, adult humans clearly have propositional attitudes — some of us make a living out of them. Nonetheless, our pragmatic representations still play a much more important role in our mental life: they guide and monitor all our actions (including the ones that have to do with propositional attitudes), they determine the way we see the world and shape the way we interact with others and they may even account for our engagement with fictional narratives. Taking them more seriously would amount to an anti-linguistic turn in philosophy of mind.

This doesn’t mean that we should no longer talk about beliefs and thoughts — these are clearly important constituents of the human mind. So the anti-linguistic turn I am proposing is more like an anti-linguistic half-turn. But linguistically structured representations are late, last minute additions to our mental life — in the same way as humans are last minute additions to our planet. And while humans radically transformed the way the Earth looks, it would be a mistake to try to understand the planet merely focusing on human-made features. Similarly, while language and propositional attitudes radically transformed the way our mind works, even for appreciating just how radical this transformation was, we need to be able to understand the pre-linguistic mind.

Bence Nanay is Professor of Philosophy and BOF Research Professor at the University of Antwerp and Senior Research Associate at Peterhouse, Cambridge University. He received his PhD at University of California, Berkeley in 2006. He is the Editor of Perceiving the World, and author of Between Perception and Action. He published more than seventy articles on philosophy of mind, philosophy of biology, and aesthetics.

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Human all too human

http://nietzsche.holtof.com/Nietzsche_human_all_too_human/sect1_of_first_and_last_things.htm

Human, All Too Human

SECTION ONE

Of First and Last Things1

1

Chemistry of concepts and feelings. In almost all respects, philosophical problems today are again formulated as they were two thousand years ago: how can something arise from its opposite--for example, reason from unreason, sensation from the lifeless, logic from the illogical, disinterested contemplation from covetous desire, altruism from egoism, truth from error? Until now, metaphysical philosophy has overcome this difficulty by denying the origin of the one from the other, and by assuming for the more highly valued things some miraculous origin, directly from out of the heart and essence of the "thing in itself."2 Historical philosophy, on the other hand, the very youngest of all philosophical methods, which can no longer be even conceived of as separate from the natural sciences, has determined in isolated cases (and will probably conclude in all of them) that they are not opposites, only exaggerated to be so by the popular or metaphysical view, and that this opposition is based on an error of reason. As historical philosophy explains it, there exists, strictly considered, neither a selfless act nor a completely disinterested observation: both are merely sublimations. In them the basic element appears to be virtually dispersed and proves to be present only to the most careful observer.
All we need, something which can be given us only now, with the various sciences at their present level of achievement, is achemistry of moral, religious, aesthetic ideas and feelings, a chemistry of all those impulses that we ourselves experience in the great and small interactions of culture and society, indeed even in solitude. What if this chemistry might end with the conclusion that, even here, the most glorious colors are extracted from base, even despised substances? Are there many who will want to pursue such investigations? Mankind loves to put the questions of origin and beginnings out of mind: must one not be almost inhuman to feel in himself the opposite inclination?

1. "Last Things" (die letzten Dinge) refers to eschatology.
2. Ding an sich: the thing in itself, in Kant's Critique of Pure Reason (1781), refers to the existent as it exists independently of our knowledge; a noumenon, a thing of the mind rather than of the senses; that which a thing is when there is no human perception of it, i.e., when it is in "essence" rather than in "appearance."

2

Congenital defect of philosophers. All philosophers suffer from the same defect, in that they start with present‑day man and think they can arrive at their goal by analyzing him. Instinctively they let "man" hover before them as an aeterna veritas,3 something unchanging in all turmoil, a secure measure of things. But everything the philosopher asserts about man is basically no more than a statement about man within a very limited time span. A lack of historical sense is the congenital defect of all philosophers. Some unwittingly even take the most recent form of man, as it developed under the imprint of certain religions or even certain political events, as the fixed form from which one must proceed. They will not understand that man has evolved, that the faculty of knowledge has also evolved, while some of them even permit themselves to spin the whole world from out of this faculty of knowledge.
Now, everything essential in human development occurred in primeval times, long before those four thousand years with which we are more or less familiar. Man probably hasn't changed much more in these years. But the philosopher sees "instincts" in present-day man, and assumes that they belong to the unchangeable facts of human nature, that they can, to that extent, provide a key to the understanding of the world in general. This entire teleology is predicated on the ability to speak about man of the last four thousand years as if he were eternal, the natural direction of all things in the world from the beginning. But everything has evolved; there are no eternal facts, nor are there any absolute truths. Thushistorical philosophizing is necessary henceforth, and the virtue of modesty as well.

3. eternal truth

3

Esteeming humble truths. It is the sign of a higher culture to esteem more highly the little, humble truths, those discovered by a strict method, rather than the gladdening and dazzling errors that originate in metaphysical and artistic ages and men. At first, one has scorn on his lips for humble truths, as if they could offer no match for the others: they stand so modest, simple, sober, even apparently discouraging, while the other truths are so beautiful, splendid, enchanting, or even enrapturing. But truths that are hard won, certain, enduring, and therefore still of consequence for all further knowledge are the higher; to keep to them is manly, and shows bravery, simplicity, restraint. Eventually, not only the individual, but all mankind will be elevated to this manliness, when men finally grow accustomed to the greater esteem for durable, lasting knowledge and have lost all belief in inspiration and a seemingly miraculous communication of truths.
The admirers of forms,4 with their standard of beauty and sublimity, will, to be sure, have good reason to mock at first, when esteem for humble truths and the scientific spirit first comes to rule, but only because either their eye has not yet been opened to the charm of the simplest form, or because men raised in that spirit have not yet been fully and inwardly permeated by it, so that they continue thoughtlessly to imitate old forms (and poorly, too, like someone who no longer really cares about the matter). Previously, the mind was not obliged to think rigorously; its importance lay in spinning out symbols and forms. That has changed; that importance of symbols has become the sign of lower culture. Just as our very arts are becoming ever more intellectual and our senses more spiritual, and as, for example, that which is sensually pleasant to the ear is judged quite differently now than a hundred years ago, so the forms of our life become ever more spiritual--to the eye of older timesuglier, perhaps, but only because it is unable to see how the realm of internal, spiritual beauty is continually deepening and expanding, and to what extent a glance full of intelligence can mean more to all of us now than the most beautiful human body and the most sublime edifice.

4. Artists and aesthetes, as opposed to scientists.

4

Astrology and the like. It is probable that the objects of religious, moral, and aesthetic sensibility likewise belong only to the surface of things, although man likes to believe that here at least he is touching the heart of the world. Because those things make him so deeply happy or unhappy, he deceives himself, and shows the same pride as astrology, which thinks the heavens revolve around the fate of man. The moral man, however, presumes that that which is essential to his heart must also be the heart and essence of all things.

Dia Fall Gala

http://panacheprivee.com/Web/BeSeen/DiaFall09/Dia_Foundation_Fall_Gala.asp

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TIME+TIEM_THYME=YOUKNOWALREADY

“Time is the substance I am made of. Time is a river which sweeps me along, but I am the river; it is a tiger which destroys me, but I am the tiger; it is a fire which consumes me, but I am the fire.”

― Jorge Luis Borges, Labyrinths: Selected Stories and Other Writings

19 Things I Wish Someone Had Told Me Before I Turned 20 so I Didn’t Waste a Decade

Because words are magic spells and sometimes we need to be told things because we all had parents, what would be the reason to learn if we weren't taught that learning is the only way, that listening is the first step to saying.  You only have one mouth and two ears, this is what a grandmother could say to a child, as in 'shut-up', but this is what a great talker must do, first they must care, endlessly, tremendously caring, in order to say, in order to messenger you must first have ears and eyes, the holes in your head, the dark places where the world creeps in to light a path, a way out or a way in, depending. The hand that writes is just the slave of the eye that originally watched, wanted.  The lover waits.  The writer is the lover of everything.


http://www.cleypmwg.com/in-the-news/2014/1/27/19-things-i-wish-someone-had-told-me-before-i-turned-20-so-i-didnt-waste-a-decade

 A list poem for working-class  girls trying to grow up and into themselves 

(Source:  http://msmensen.tumblr.com/post/74362797773/19-things-i-wish-someone-had-told-me-before-i-turned-20 )

1. It is okay to leave anyone and anything and anyplace that makes you feel like shit.  It’s hard, but it’s okay.  And bump explaining anything to anyone, unless you want to.  Let them wonder.

 2. Know who you are.  Not just on some touchy-feely fuzzy pretty-on-the-inside tip, but knowing who you are racially, culturally, in relationship to your sexuality, gender and your class- is a source of your power.  You define that for you.   Don’t ever let anyone else tell you who you are.  This may change in time, as you grow and learn more.  That’s okay.  Manage any shame or guilt you may feel through acts of accountability.

 3.  Be accountable for what you do.  This means owning up to how you mess up, just as much as it means owning and defending the contested space you fill.  You will mess up, and only you can seek atonement for this.  You will need to defend yourself, and rarely will anyone do that work for you.  Acknowledging both your mistakes and your rights as equally important.

 4. They will call you crazy.  You are a woman.  There is no way of going through the world in the moment we live in and not get called crazy by someone, often someone you wish would see you as deeply sane.  You are not crazy.  The world is crazy.  If you are affected by this imbalanced, unjust world, it only proves that you are a sentient being with some sense of empathy.

 5. Empathy is built.  You need to learn to really listen.  This means listening without thinking about how it relates to you, or planning the next thing you are going to say.  This means seeing everyone, regardless of who they are, as a human being.  You cannot really be a human being unless you regard everyone as such, even your greatest nemeses and the gravest perpetrators.  All of our damage comes from somewhere.  Yours and everyone else’s.  Learn to listen to others.  Learn to listen to yourself.  Empathy cannot exist without really, deeply listening first.

 6. You are going to have moments of unbearable pain.  It takes time to learn how to heal yourself.  And healing sometimes still leaves scars.  Healing is sometimes incomplete.  Think of your scars as battle-wounds – evidence of how much wiser you are now- maps of where not to return.  Cherish these scars and honor them.  There will come times when they are the only reminder of where you have been, and how much you still need to grow.

 7. You are going to have moments of unbearable loneliness.  You need to learn how to love being with yourself, because ultimately, no one has the potential to love you like you can.  It is beautiful to love and be loved, but these are just hints as to how to regard yourself.  If you regard yourself highly, and learn to turn loneliness into soothing solitude, you will be capable of giving and receiving truly transformative love.

 8. Find something that makes you feel like the world makes sense, even if you can’t justify it intellectually to yourself or anyone else.  Personally, if I don’t rock a wall, get up, get laid, get down on a dancefloor, read a good book, write a poem, listen to a mind-blowing record or have a soul-shaking, satisfying conversation at least once a week, the world doesn’t make sense to me and I am unmoored.  If I don’t get these things for a month, I become a total, inconsolable, incomprehensible wreck.  This wreck can easily snowball into all kinds of self-destruction.  Find what works for you and be loyal to it as a loyalty to yourself.

 9. The world you live in is sick.  This sickness creeps into all of us, and in many it manifests as an inability to love oneself, let alone others.  Some of those afflicted with a parasitic strain of this illness will latch onto you as a host.  You may believe it is part of your nature to nurture and support endlessly.  These people will eat your love whole, and you with it, and leave you as a husk.  You can grow again from your husk, but it will be hard, and it takes time and the training of betrayal and heartbreak to learn to trust yourself enough to determine who is worthy of your trust.  Do not let anyone ride you.  Only walk with those who will walk side by side with you, as an equal.

 10. Do not mess with lovers that don’t prioritize your pleasure.  That can look like a lot of different things, and you’re probably still figuring it out.  Don’t put up with lovers that don’t give you room to explore, to express, and above all – if a lover is only focused on using you as a vessel to reach their plateau –be out.  This doesn’t mean to ignore your partner’s pleasure, but rather to see yours as of equal worth.

 11.  You are not responsible for the actions of those who hated themselves so much that they hurt you.

 12. Collectivism is a beautiful concept, and something worth constantly striving toward and building.  Collectivism has radically changed and challenged unjust structures and institutions.  But if you sacrifice your own survival for the benefit of the whole, you will find yourself wringing your hands and questioning the meaning of your life and doubting the worth of others in light of their unabashed self-interest.  Find a balance.

 13.  Do not carry broken people who are not in the process of rebuilding themselves.

 14. You are not your job.  Your job is simply a paycheck, and you are probably not compensated what you are worth and it is not your fault- you inherited a broken economic system, and you will not be the first generation to fight for your right to live.  But you need to fight for your right to live, in solidarity, with those around you who are also struggling.

 15.  Going to college is an accomplishment.  It does not, however, make you better than anyone else.  It doesn’t make you essentially more intelligent.  You never really make it “out” of the class you came from, and you never really make it “in” to the class you aspired to.

 16.  If you cannot translate what you have learned from whatever access you’ve had back to wherever you came from, then you have not gained anything- you have changed.  Assimilation is a choice.  Seek to be a translator.  Seek to share your access to those who you may have left behind.  Seek to disrupt the structures that taught those of us who gained more access that we are worth more than where we left, and less than what we found ourselves among.

17. Never take validation too deeply to heart.  This is especially true of those who came up entrenched in the age of social media.  The gaze of hegemony is always on us.  Find validation in the ratio between how positively you impact yourself and others versus how you mess up and hurt others.  You will hurt others.  Be accountable for this, when you need to be, and always be mindful of how often that happens in relation to those you help grow.  None of us can be saints, but we can be salient and sentient.

 18. Take your struggle to your community, and find community in those whose struggles intersect.  It is only within one another that we will make any sense of this destroyed world and it’s corrupt ideology that we’ve inherited.  Fight.  Fight.  Fight.

 19.  You are inherently valuable.  You have worth.  Ask no one for permission.