[MD] The Birth of Tragedy/CH2 and the MOQ

Arlo Bensinger ajb102 at psu.edu
Wed Oct 19 12:23:59 PDT 2011


[Arlo previously]
This is basically the same question Phaedrus asked himself about the 
origins of hypotheses, and led him towards Poincare and Einstein. 
Although he doesn't mention them, both Eco and Peirce posit very similar 
answers, as does Nietzsche (and Dewey, and Northrop and James). While 
their analogies differ, the "flash of light" is often painted as a 
sudden, unexpected, pre-intellectual moment of aesthetic awareness. 
...In all cases (I think) it's a question of 'creativity', or to use 
Campbell's word "the birth of something new".

[DMB]
Poincare thought that of all the possible options the most interesting 
and beautiful mathematical solutions were pre-selected by an unconscious 
aspect he called "the subliminal self" and Phaedrus saw his own notion 
of Quality in this. The following passage can be found a few pages from 
the end of chapter 22 of ZAMM... [dmb interjects: the non-arbitrary, 
non-subjective, non-capricious preselection of facts is also an argument 
against relativism.] ...You'll find this same assertion about Quality's 
role in the cutting edge of science at the end of Lila's chapter 29, 
immediately following the explanations about radical empiricism.

[Arlo]
Are you talking to me? ;-)





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