tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post4406394756230883640..comments2024-03-18T22:33:57.428-04:00Comments on The Philosopher's Stone: BOYHOOD MEMORIESRobert Paul Wolffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11970360952872431856noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-10536594370558522412017-08-08T15:59:08.581-04:002017-08-08T15:59:08.581-04:00You also seem to think that ... Aristotelian logic...<i>You also seem to think that ... Aristotelian logicians wish to restrict the world to what in ordinary language are called “opposites.” Your view, however, is the result of the most elementary misreading of Aristotle and the logicians. In fact, it is so simple a mistake that I am afraid it will almost come as an anti-climax. To state it as simply as possible, no one ever claimed that water was either hot or cold. They either claimed that it was hot or not-hot. And by not-hot is meant anything but hot, including lukewarm.</i><br /><br />Then, much later, the post-structuralists came along and decided that the world -- or rather discourse, which to a large extent (acc. to them at any rate) constructs the world -- was full of opposites albeit (probably) in a looser sense than the opposition 'cold/hot', except they called these "binaries," and proceeded to argue for the destabilization of hegemonic discourses by inverting the values attached to the two poles of certain binaries. (Offhand I can't think of an 'authentic' example from Derrida or whoever, but I suppose "civilized/uncivilized" might work as an example.) <br /><br />That being at any rate the doubtless somewhat simplistic, Cliffs-Notes-style version that I was exposed to as a grad student, though I spent the smallest possible amount of time on it and went on to things that I found more interesting.LFCnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-86617661850961791132017-08-07T11:28:32.830-04:002017-08-07T11:28:32.830-04:00Educational standards have clearly relaxed immense...Educational standards have clearly relaxed immensely since you were 19, Professor! (I speak from personal experience - I am 35 - not in judgement of current 19-year-olds.)TheDudeDiogeneshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11613928663752680375noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-76611049555395567672017-08-07T11:02:20.472-04:002017-08-07T11:02:20.472-04:00nineteen, but it was a long time ago.nineteen, but it was a long time ago.Robert Paul Wolffhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11970360952872431856noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-74418674135928717872017-08-07T10:23:06.513-04:002017-08-07T10:23:06.513-04:00You were a very adult 20 year old. You were a very adult 20 year old. s. wallersteinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17448905469871566228noreply@blogger.com