[lbo-talk] further evidence of the decline of men

ravi gadfly at exitleft.org
Sun May 14 16:08:09 PDT 2006


At around 13/5/06 11:36 am, joanna wrote:
> He was a precocious, talented libertine. Some argue that the language
> had reached such a pitch of perfection by his time that Rochester could
> not but lisp in verse. But I think he really was a first rate poet doing
> his best in a blighted time.
>
> But the philosophy he espouses, is nothing new -- the vanity of man,
> which expresses itself through bondage to the senses, overreliance on
> logic/reason, and foolish imagination.
>
> As for the capitalization. I know it was firmly in place by the 18th
> century -- capitalizing nouns. (Further evidence of our mistaking ideas
> for things, perhaps.) Carrol could probably enlighten us as to why we
> see it in the 17th. with Rochester.
>

Joanna,

you are too kind in responding seriously to my parody: I was imitating, in jest, the same sort of responses as on the Heidegger thread. Bah, he is boring, silly, Nazi, etc. My "subtle" (NOT) point being that unless you are doing pure mathematics (and even there; or some might say especially there!) what you find valid, enlightening, edifying, uplifting, etc., varies by person and where there is a fair amount of weight behind an opinion there is reason for pause...

--ravi

-- Support something better than yourself: ;-) PeTA: http://www.peta.org/ GreenPeace: http://www.greenpeace.org/



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