We all are engaged in many activities:
- Building an addition to your house
- Raising animals
- Working as a chemist
- Raising children
- Nurturing friendships
- Playing in a band
The above abstract post is global. So it is tempting, at any given moment, to think of a different activity when reading your post with its analogies to apply them to a particular activity. And as you can see by the list, they invite, I think different judgments. For me, it has always been hard listening to someones abstractions of deeply personal insights -- they aren't my abstractions, they aren't how I feel and experience them. I see pitfalls uncovered when applied to the particulars of my life. It is difficult to talk about these things. Grounding philosophy with particulars helps me a great deal.
Hmm. I am not sure I understand your comment... I think your point that philosophy ought to be grounded in specifics is a very good one. (My sometime colleague Phil Agre and I, frustrated by the abstractions of mainstream phenomenology, started a "phenomenology of breakfast" project. We learned some useful things.)
The page you commented on is from the introductory overview to the book. The introductory overview is general and abstract (as is common for introductory overviews). Later the book gets more specific. (Maybe it won't be as specific as you'd like.)
The underlying problem is that I'm dribbling out the introduction over a period of months, when the whole of it ought to be read in a half hour. The individual pages of the introduction don't stand well alone. They aren't like blog posts.
The web really may not be the right format, after all... Or I should concentrate on writing just one thing at a time, rather than trying to interleave four sites.
I sometimes publish in a branch of philosophy called phenomenology. After publishing my first paper in this subject, I felt deeply hurt when, at a meeting of the Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy, I was rudely told in no uncertain terms that everything I wrote in my paper was well known. This scenario occurred more than once, and I was eventually forced to reconsider my publishing standards in phenomenology.
It so happens that the fundamental treatises of phenomenology are written in thick, heavy, philosophical German. Tradition demands that no examples ever be given of what one is talking about. One day I decided, not without serious misgivings, to publish a paper that was essentially an updating of some paragraphs from a book by Edmund Husserl, with a few examples added. While I was waiting for the worst at the next meeting of the Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy, a prominent phenomenologist rushed towards me with a smile on his face. He was full of praise for my paper, and he strongly encouraged me to further develop the novel and original ideas presented in it.
Rota was, in striking ways, similar to a Tantric Vajra Master (only, of course, with respect to discrete mathematics and Husserlian phenomenology). There are many remarkable stories about him. I have a vague intention of writing something about him someday.
It occurs to me that I studied category theory with Rota. Category theory is often described as the most abstract discipline there is—more abstract than any other branch of mathematics, and possibly even than phenomenology...
As you can see, I'm reminiscing, instead of working on the next page of the introduction, like I should be. On the other hand, you said you wanted autobiographical details, so—there you are!
That was fascinating and ironic. Thanx for the personal element. Very interesting.
I have always wanted to study discrete mathematics more after reading Wolfram's
"A New Kind of Science".
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We all are engaged in many
18 Dec 2010
We all are engaged in many activities:
- Building an addition to your house
- Raising animals
- Working as a chemist
- Raising children
- Nurturing friendships
- Playing in a band
The above abstract post is global. So it is tempting, at any given moment, to think of a different activity when reading your post with its analogies to apply them to a particular activity. And as you can see by the list, they invite, I think different judgments. For me, it has always been hard listening to someones abstractions of deeply personal insights -- they aren't my abstractions, they aren't how I feel and experience them. I see pitfalls uncovered when applied to the particulars of my life. It is difficult to talk about these things. Grounding philosophy with particulars helps me a great deal.
Abstraction
18 Dec 2010
Hmm. I am not sure I understand your comment... I think your point that philosophy ought to be grounded in specifics is a very good one. (My sometime colleague Phil Agre and I, frustrated by the abstractions of mainstream phenomenology, started a "phenomenology of breakfast" project. We learned some useful things.)
The page you commented on is from the introductory overview to the book. The introductory overview is general and abstract (as is common for introductory overviews). Later the book gets more specific. (Maybe it won't be as specific as you'd like.)
The underlying problem is that I'm dribbling out the introduction over a period of months, when the whole of it ought to be read in a half hour. The individual pages of the introduction don't stand well alone. They aren't like blog posts.
The web really may not be the right format, after all... Or I should concentrate on writing just one thing at a time, rather than trying to interleave four sites.
Gian-Carlo Rota on phenomenology
18 Dec 2010
Purely by coincidence, I just came across something relevant and funny, from an amusing talk about mathematical careers by one of my professors, Gian-Carlo Rota:
Rota was, in striking ways, similar to a Tantric Vajra Master (only, of course, with respect to discrete mathematics and Husserlian phenomenology). There are many remarkable stories about him. I have a vague intention of writing something about him someday.
Abstract nonsense
18 Dec 2010
It occurs to me that I studied category theory with Rota. Category theory is often described as the most abstract discipline there is—more abstract than any other branch of mathematics, and possibly even than phenomenology...
In fact, it is referred to humorously as "generalized abstract nonsense."
As you can see, I'm reminiscing, instead of working on the next page of the introduction, like I should be. On the other hand, you said you wanted autobiographical details, so—there you are!
A New Kind of Science
25 Dec 2010
That was fascinating and ironic. Thanx for the personal element. Very interesting.
I have always wanted to study discrete mathematics more after reading Wolfram's
"A New Kind of Science".
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