Combining Texts

All the ideas for 'Mahaprajnaparamitashastra', 'The Scientific Image' and 'Implications'

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5 ideas

1. Philosophy / H. Continental Philosophy / 6. Deconstruction

8210	Deconstructing philosophy gives the history of concepts, and the repressions behind them [Derrida]
	Full Idea: To 'deconstruct' philosophy would be to think the structured genealogy of philosophy's concepts, but at the same time determine what this history has been able to dissimulate or forbid, making itself into history by this motivated repression.
	From: Jacques Derrida (Implications [1967], p.5)
	A reaction: All of this type of philosophy is motivated by what I think of as (I'm afraid!) a rather adolescent belief that we are all being 'repressed', and that somehow, if we think hard enough, we can all become 'free', and then everything will be fine.

8211	The movement of 'différance' is the root of all the oppositional concepts in our language [Derrida]
	Full Idea: The movement of 'différance', as that which produces different things, that which differentiates, is the common root of all the oppositional concepts that mark our language, such as sensible/intelligible, intuition/signification, nature/culture etc.
	From: Jacques Derrida (Implications [1967], p.7)
	A reaction: 'Différance' is a word coined by Derrida, and his most famous concept. At first glance, the concept of a thing which is the source of all differentiation sounds like a fiction.

10. Modality / B. Possibility / 7. Chance

23900	Chance is compatible with necessity, and the two occur together [Weil]
	Full Idea: Chance is not the contrary of necessity; it is not incompatible with necessity. On the contrary, it never appears except at the same time as necessity.
	From: Simone Weil (The Scientific Image [1941], p.175)
	A reaction: She illustrates it with the six terminating results of a die throw, and the innumerabe ways the throw can occur. This thought strikes me as relevant to discussions of free will. …But I'm not sure I fully understand it.

21. Aesthetics / A. Aesthetic Experience / 4. Beauty

23899	The secret of art is that beauty is a just blend of unity and its opposite [Weil]
	Full Idea: A just blend of unity and that which opposes it is the condition of the beautiful, and it is the secret of art.
	From: Simone Weil (The Scientific Image [1941], p.169)
	A reaction: Rather sweeping, but the observation strikes me as fairly accurate. It seems to work for most novels, paintings and music, though more recent art may provide counterexamples.

23. Ethics / C. Virtue Theory / 3. Virtues / a. Virtues

7903	The six perfections are giving, morality, patience, vigour, meditation, and wisdom [Nagarjuna]
	Full Idea: The six perfections are of giving, morality, patience, vigour, meditation, and wisdom.
	From: Nagarjuna (Mahaprajnaparamitashastra [c.120], 88)
	A reaction: What is 'morality', if giving is not part of it? I like patience and vigour being two of the virtues, which immediately implies an Aristotelian mean (which is always what is 'appropriate').