Combining Philosophers

Ideas for Rescher,N/Oppenheim,P, Albertus Magnus and Friedrich Nietzsche

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4 ideas

19. Language / D. Propositions / 1. Propositions
Thought starts as ambiguity, in need of interpretation and narrowing [Nietzsche]
     Full Idea: A thought in the shape in which it comes is an ambiguous sign that needs interpretation, more precisely, needs an arbitrary narrowing-down and limitation, until it finally becomes unambiguous.
     From: Friedrich Nietzsche (Unpublished Notebooks 1885-86 [1886], 38[01])
     A reaction: This is exactly my view of propositions, as mental events. Introspect your thinking process. Track the progress from the first glimmer of a thought to its formulation in a finished sentence. Language, unlike propositions, can be ambiguous.
19. Language / F. Communication / 1. Rhetoric
Great orators lead their arguments, rather than following them [Nietzsche]
     Full Idea: For me there are no true orators and super-orators unless they can convince the arguments themselves to run after them.
     From: Friedrich Nietzsche (Unpublished Notebooks 1881-82 [1882], 22[01])
     A reaction: I translate this as great orators generating the mere appearance of good arguments. Both reason and feeling must be irrationally swept along. Nice.
It is essential that wise people learn to express their wisdom, possibly even as foolishness [Nietzsche]
     Full Idea: It is not yet enough to prove a thing, one must seduce people to accept it or raise them up to it. That is why a knowledgeable person ought to learn to speak his wisdom: and often in such a way that it sounds like foolishness.
     From: Friedrich Nietzsche (Dawn (Daybreak) [1881], 330)
     A reaction: Kant comes to mind. He has needed endless exegesis by people who write better than him. Have there been even greater philosophers who couldn't express their wisdom at all? Cratylus, perhaps!
19. Language / F. Communication / 5. Pragmatics / b. Implicature
The pragmatics of language is more comprehensible than the meaning [Nietzsche]
     Full Idea: The most comprehensible part of language is not the word itself, but rather tone, force, modulation, tempo, with which a series of words is spoken.
     From: Friedrich Nietzsche (Unpublished Notebooks 1881-82 [1882], 3[296])
     A reaction: He exaggerates. If you watch someone talking vociferously in an unknown foreign language, the feeling of the exchange is obvious, but the content is quite unknown. I see his point that we underestimate body language etc.