The Unmarked Font of Metaphysics and Truth: Helvetica and Belief

  The Metaphysics of Fonts My last post on the documentary Helvetica (2007) had me musing deeply today. Not only does one suddenly begin to notice fonts used in public signage, in omnipresent fashion that invokes thoughts of Ideology (a cultural perspective taken that must be taken for things to be seen clearly, coherently) – “No [...]

Heidegger’s Confusion Over “Truth”

The Blanketing of the Truth The problem is that Heidegger as he examines the Greek concept of truth (aletheia), even as it is investigated by Plato in The Sophist, begins with Aristotle. We can see this plainly in his recounting of the “history” of truth in his lectures on the Platonic Dialogue, as he moves as [...]

Sarah Silverman’s Subversive Loyalty to the Pledge

I found comedian Sarah Silverman’s “solution” to the church/state inclusion of the phrase “one nation, under God…” in the pledge of allegiance both hilarious and penetrating. (It is located at the 3:45 minute mark in the above clip.) Someone like Zizek finds in this quotational subversion a deeper entrenchment of belief, a disquieted distancing of [...]

Davidson, Spinoza, Aristotle: Veridicality and Organs

A ruminating thought floats behind these considerations. Is there a connection between a). Davidson’s world thought to be the cause of our beliefs which assumes an inherent verdicality of belief, making of a triangulating community of language users a kind of organ of truth, b). Spinoza’s (proposed) expectation that interactions with his Ethics, that would cause increases in our [...]

Pythagorian Spinoza?

Leibniz’s Summation Of some significance, here I post a summation of Spinoza’s philosophy, as passed through the mouth of a loyal friend, Tschirnhaus, and as relayed to Leibniz in 1675, originally published in English by Wim Klever. It draws out some curious Klever might say esoteric aspects of Spinoza’s thinking. Most distinct about it is [...]

Rorty and Davidson Talk

See and hear this 1997 conversation between philosophical fellow travelers Richard Rorty and Donald Davidson, posted by Gundlegung, which ends: Davidson: “Well, it sounds to me that by your standards I am a straight-forward pragmatist.” Rorty: “Even in the romantic sense?” Davidson: “Even in the romantic sense.” Rorty: “That’s nice.” One gets the dramatic sense that these [...]

The Objective truth of Rorty

Richard Rorty, more than any other philosopher, perhaps due to his apostasy from strict Analytic Philosophy, has become the symbol of a seen-to-be corrosive Relativism, one that distains any notion of truth or objectivity, besides the pragmatic regulative of “sentences which work”. This manifested itself in a more than decade long debate between himself and Donald [...]

Anselm’s Proof of God, Wittgenstein’s Lion, Davidson’s Belief

 The Mystery of the word Understands Anselm’s Ontological Proof of God Cordelia: Unhappy that I am, I cannot heave My heart into my mouth: I love your majesty According to my bond; no more nor less. This is the fairly concise wikipedia summation of his argument, taken from the second chapter of his Proslogion: Anselm [...]

Davidson’s Razor, Vico’s Magnet

    Ὁ ἄναξ οὗ τὸ μαντεῖόν ἐστι τὸ ἐν Δελφοῖς, οὔτε λέγει οὔτε κρύπτει, ἀλλὰ σημαίνει. The lord whose oracle is at Delphi, neither tells nor conceals, but indicates. – Heraclitus, fragment 93     This study takes as its basis the stark distinction made by philosopher Donald Davidson in his essay “What Metaphors [...]

Cookery, Cuisine and the Truth: Plato’s Gorgias

  From Plato’s Gorgias: Polus: But what do you consider rhetoric to be? [462c] Socrates: A thing which you say–in the treatise which I read of late–”made art.” Polus: What thing do you mean? Socrates: I mean a certain habitude. Polus: Then do you take rhetoric to be a habitude? Socrates: I do, if you [...]