[MD] Philosophy and Philosophology

[Matt Kundert]

Rorty once wrote that between him and Charles Taylor, 
another larger-than-life philosopher who wrote broad 
narratives about the course of culture and civilization, when 
it got right down to it in trying to decide whose way around 
the debilitating effects of SOM was the best, they'd probably 
end up talking about the details of their favorite poems and 
novels, rather than exchanging arguments about the 
concept of truth.

Gav's list might punch up the best way to describe the 
difference between myself and DMB, and many others 
perhaps (perhaps the differences between any of us)--our 
lists of books and people and places that have impacted us 
diverge.

I like Bjork, and am familiar with Nin and Miller, but my list 
would be quite different.  It too would include stuff people 
had never heard of (like Irvin Yalom's Love's Executioner), 
music (like Neutral Milk Hotel's sublime concept album 
centered around The Diary of Anne Frank, In the Aeroplane 
over the Sea), performers (like Dave Chapelle or Lewis Black), 
off-beat choices (like Allan Ball's Six Feet Under), nerdy stuff 
(like Hans Blumenburg's The Legitimacy of the Modern Age), 
obvious stuff (like Whitman's "Song of Myself" or Emerson's 
"Experience"), less obvious stuff (like Frederick Douglass's 
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass or Dave Eggers' 
Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius), almost perverse 
stuff (like Jhonen Vasquez' Johnny the Homocidal Maniac), 
personal stuff (like my moral compass Julia).

And, of course, the first book that I ever recall impacting my 
life--Robert Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, 
which I only made 90 pages into the first time around, and 
atrributed my distaste to the fact that I'd heard from someone 
that he wrote like Hemingway, whom I also disliked (both 
things having since cleared up).

Matt

> Date: Wed, 29 Jul 2009 07:04:32 -0700
> From: gav_gc at yahoo.com.au
> To: moq_discuss at moqtalk.org
> Subject: Re: [MD] Philosophy and Philosophology
> 
> 
> my favourite contemporary philosophers, well some anyway:
> 
> robert pirsig (writer)
> bjork (musician, actress)
> tim rogers (musician, actor)
> tom brown jr (tracker, writer, teacher)
> eckhart tolle (writer)
> cheryl wilkinson (lady that worked at the hemp farm i just returned from)
> dr wayne dyer (writer)
> bill hicks (comedian)
> michael talbot (writer)
> anastasia/vladimir megre (siberian witch/ businessman turned writer)
> don juan/carlos casteneda (yacqui indian/ anthropologist, writer)
> osho (guru)
> anais nin (writer, artists' benefactor)
> henry miller (writer)
> angela carter (writer)
> david bohm (physicist)
> ram dass (psychologist, writer, spiritual dude)
> coline serreau (actress, director)
> dave buchanan (guy who likes talking in coffee shops)
> the tarot in good hands
> 
> 
> but above and inclusive of all: life in all its dynamic and magical splendour.
> pay attention and it smoothes the way to freedom and happiness, but ignore the signs and beware! 
> 
> the signs...i guess life is like a detective story....we are leaving clues for ourselves all over the place so that we may solve the mystery of our own absence...ironically by giving up the search and becoming the mystery itself.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> --- On Tue, 28/7/09, Matt Kundert <pirsigaffliction at hotmail.com> wrote:
> 
> > From: Matt Kundert <pirsigaffliction at hotmail.com>
> > Subject: Re: [MD] Philosophy and Philosophology
> > To: moq_discuss at moqtalk.org
> > Received: Tuesday, 28 July, 2009, 2:31 PM
> > 
> > Matt said:
> > I don't think there exists a notable parallel in
> > professional 
> > philosophy--certainly not enough to say _there are no real
> > 
> > philosophers anymore_.
> > 
> > DMB said:
> > Okay. How about some examples? Who are the real 
> > philosophers among the
> > professionals and why do you think 
> > they're the genuine article?
> > 
> > Matt:
> > Well, if you'd been listening to anything I've said on the
> > topic 
> > of philosophy/philosophology, you'd know that I think
> > they're 
> > _all_ real philosophers because I don't see the point in 
> > casting an invidious distinction between real and fake 
> > philosophers because philosophy is just the sort of
> > amorphous 
> > thing that defies every attempt to define it
> > (coincidentally, 
> > just like Quality).
> > 
> > The more pertinent question is who Pirsig thinks of as real
> > 
> > philosophers, since the others are just parasites. 
> > Or, as a 
> > second best, who a believer in the distinction thinks.
> > 
> > Matt

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