This Blog II

Matt listed "complexity" as being one of the points of departure for this blog.
I'd like someone to elaborate!

I just watched this film "My Night at Maud's" by Eric Rohmer. Being a French Film from the sixties, they did a lot of talking about the human condition. Specifically they looked at catholicism and life, mostly in reference to Pascal. In the extras there was a philosopher and priest talking for twenty minutes about Pascal. A couple of interesting points which might work into this "complexity" idea:

1. That Pascal might have "discovered" differential calculus years before it officially emerged (I dont know the history here, or anything about Pascal), but he rejected Mathematics as not being pure enough to describe our existence before he could write about it, however in his writing and his work it was there so that somebody could act as "one looking over his shoulder" and discover it. The philosopher and the priest seemed to say that this was part of his genius, that he left clues for other people to discover (which they did--leibniz? supposedly used Pascal to come to differential calculus... again, excuse my crude understanding of the subject)-- Im troubled by that, and would like to think it is more just a representation of dialogue , emergent conciousness and the foundation and construction of knowledge, especially in times of revolution. (this was all mid 17th century through the 18th century)

2. Hinted at above, but there was the idea that was floated around through the conversation about man as liar. That Pascal wanted to change mankind to what it could be (love, peace, moral), but had to start at what it was (lying, selfish).

Again, COMPLEXITY?

Do any of us know anything about Pascal? Is he worth exploring? or is it a bit "French" and self important. I enjoyed watching people talk about it, but Im convinced I got more out of that than I probably would from reading his writing first hand.

This Blog

I've been reading and writing a lot recently, and boring people with discussion of change, growth and stage of consciousness and self identity. One way i came up with for understanding where i might sit (and i guess other people) is what kind of fundamental paradoxes arise for me, and how i try to solve them. People don't tend to change that much at one time, even the 'correct' answers only make sense if a particular 'question' has arisen within awareness. I think this is the real value of a community like this one. A place where we can post the fundamental issues that concern us, the ones that the mind just can't concieve of an answer being possible, but doesn't want to dismiss. I think these sorts of questions are the real sign of an emergence in consciousness, an deep seated need to solve (or disolve) such questions.

Its good for me to share that. Its silly to face it alone. I don't think they have to appear academicor quote theorists, but often i find it natural to do so. One of my favourite quotes is from a Zen swordmaster Shissai:

"A warrior is measured according to this: That he learns from the dregs of the ancients and extracts clear liquid from them"

Demos=People

Hey, so in that last response to J, I brought up the idea of democracy outside of "politics". This has been on my mind a lot lately, especially in thinking about how to accomplish or make happen what I see as my goals in the future-- do I involve myself in public policy, or do I work through alternative avenues? Does democracy work best through government, or in the day to day ineractions between people and the building of communities? I don't doubt the value of a republic, or federal union-- I just am uncertain of their effectiveness to lead change when change is in the works... it seems revolutions (paradigm shifts, what have you) only occur in democratic governments when the shit has hit the fan, never before. I am wondering if there is another way to go about effecting change, democratically of course. So, how does a democracy work outside a system of politics?

Hey Aaron

So what's the vibe with Obama over there?

I'm excited already, and i don't even get to vote.

Jules

Too Easy

Weren't in to that one?

Okay what about this:

What is consciousness?

The birth of a puppy

Yo animal orchestra team. Bigups to matt for setting this up. I'm excited, where do we begin?
So i'm reading for my honours thesis that Bourdieu says:

“By doing away with giving explicitly to everyone what it implicitly demands of everyone, the education system demands of everyone alike that they have what it does not give. This consists mainly of linguistic and cultural competence and the relationship of familiarity with culture which can only be produced by family culture and upbringing when it transmits the dominant culture.”


He uses this term habitus, which basically means world view/disposition.

A blank canvas

Over the coming months (years) the Animal Orchestra will be posting musings relating to and hopefully linking the fields of philosophy, education, urban design, complexity, politics, collective action and economics.