Chiasmus

[robinturner]

Today we looked at Epicurus, and I was explaining how he used chiasmus (e.g. "Where we are, death is not, and where death is, we are not"). Except that I didn't, because the word "chiasmus" remained firmly glued to the tip of my tongue. Greek words raced through my mind, all, strangely enough, beginning with "A": aporia, asyndeton, ataraxia ... In the end I ended up writing "ABBA" on the board. An ABBA sentence sounds less like "Not the spectacle of the end of society, but the end of the society of the spectacle" and more like "Super trouper dreams are gonna find me."

Comments

[hfx-ben.livejournal.com]

Sorry huh huh huh don't want to spam your journal but reading through my filtered Friends list is like ingesting some potent Andean drug; when I read "Super trouper dreams are gonna find me" it seemed to me some exotic mantra.

Repus Repourt Smaers era Annog dnif em.

Re:

[solri.livejournal.com]

That sounds like Swedish. Which reminds me that I want to post something about a Swedish folk song, but I'm too tired now and I have to teach Rousseau in the morning.

Re:

[hfx-ben.livejournal.com]

I've been on a linguistics vibe since I heard a South Afrikaan [apologies if that seems improper] reporter in a CBC documentary saying how there was not word for "perpetrator" in Afrikaans.

Oh hey, I met an interesting fellow from Sweden very recently: son_of_gabriel was the only respondent to my "salient philospher" poll from coldreason; he and I joked about "church garden / graveyard" after he selected Kierkegaard. (Ok, not a rib-cracker of a joke!)
What can one say about a person who posts "Geography is merely a form of therapy for imperialists. - Galago" as his QOTD!
:-)

Rousseau

[hfx-ben.livejournal.com]

Synchro:
Over coffee 3 hours ago I was reading such as

"On the face of it, there was hardly a meeting of minds between Rousseau and Smith. When Rousseau said that 'ancient treatises of politics continually made mention of morals and virtue; ours speak of nothing but commerce and money', he was referring to certain French economists, but he might just as well have been thinking of Smith."

"The Needs of Strangers" p. 109
Chatto & Windus, London (1984)

Re: Rousseau

[hfx-ben.livejournal.com]

*sigh*

by Michael Ignatieff

Re: Rousseau

[solri.livejournal.com]

He had a fair (if somewhat exaggerated) point.

I do find it ironic that just about the only major philosopher that Ayn Rand admired was Aristotle, a man who denounced commerce as "unnatural wealth acquisition".

Re: Rousseau

[hfx-ben.livejournal.com]

"... the only major philosopher that Ayn Rand admired was Aristotle ..."
Is that so?!
How curious ... really ... makes me want to spend the whole of my life plumbing cog-psych, schema theory, heuristics, conversion experiences ... that's why I want to persue the discourse analysis / argument visualization notion I'm mucking with in gnodal. Maybe it has something to do with arity or gawd knows what, but we're becoming pretty clehvur at plumbing complexity, and how personal philosophy / ideology translates into activity ... that fascinates me in a non-trivial was as a non-trivial problem.

Do check out Ignatieff's little book. I think you'll find it an easy and pleasant read. (1984, so he would have been, what, in his 30s?)

Re: Rousseau

[solri.livejournal.com]

I'll see if I can find it. I've not read any of his books, but I've read quite a few of his articles.

Re: Rousseau

[hfx-ben.livejournal.com]

Do.
I know it was out of print, and found out just recently that it is once again available. This pocket-sized edition is 156 pages, including 13 pages of endnotes.

I had the pleasure of listening to his "Gifford Lectures" on CBC Radio "Ideas" (they often have RealAudio features online, and always have CDs for sale) ... 3 parts on "Democracy in the Age of Terrorism" which, I think, is the theme (and perhaps the title) of his most recent book.

[larksdream]

An ABBA sentence sounds less like "Not the spectacle of the end of society, but the end of the society of the spectacle" and more like "Super trouper dreams are gonna find me."

*splurts drink on screen*

:-D