Schools of Thought

I have now completed 75% of my undergraduate and can almost see light at the end of the tunnel. I started studying in 1996 at the Open Universiteit of the Netherlands, where I completed my first year. I recently re-read some of the course material, as I was working on some Wikipedia articles. Reading the Dutch philosophy course notes, I realised the great difference between continental and analytical (Anglosaxon) philosophy. The Dutch material is all about hermeneutics and refers to philosophers such as Friedrich Schleieremacher and Heidegger. The Australian course is much more analytical and I am supposed to 'untangle' arguments in order to bit by bit analyse the text. There is no reference to the 'melting of horizons' of Gadamer or anything about the historicity of philosophy. Ancient philosophers are treated in exactly the same manner as contemporary texts. The rational approach is I think sometimes too simplistic. By following strict logical rules you can only describe certain truths, those that form part of the logical tree that grows from the axioms one has chosen. But, it can be argued that there are truths which do not form part of that tree, ones that can not be described by logic. The analytical philosopher would probably try to resolve this problem by introducing another axiom, so the tree covers more aspects. Kurt Gödel has shown that in number theory, it is impossible to find an axiomatic system that can derive all known truths. Although his evidence is only applicable to number theory, many have argued that it should also be applied to all other forms of axiomatic system.

Philosophy is not a science, it is not a rational program aiming to unearth eternal truth by tinking very very hard. Philosophy is an art-form, a language game to describe the world. The more I study philosophy in the analytical tradition the more I realise that I am a continental thinker. I am the wolf in the sheeps-pen.

Only if one thinks more crazy than the philosophers can you solve their problems (Wittgenstein, 1949).

Peter

The School of the Tortoise

Witgenstein's quote on the philosophy race - See my previous Blog,The Philosohy Race - has kept me thinking for a while now.

I recently received an message from a fellow slow philosopher from Oklahoma, claiming to be the slowest philosophy student on the Northern-hemisphere.

This e-mail has inspired me to establish the School of the Tortoise. This is a philosophical school without consistent ideas other than subscribing to Wittgenstein's credo.

It was Wittgenstein who thought that the slow philosopher will the 'race of philosophy', just like the tortoise beat Achilles.

Anyone caring to join this school can contact me at peter@prevos.net.

Those who are able to walk the slowest win the philosophy race, or those who reach the goal last . Luwig Wittgenstein, 1938.

Satanism

I have been writing some copy for the Dutch Wikipedia in the last few weeks. Most interesting was some work I did on articles on Satanism, specially the contemporary Satanism of Anton LaVey (Church of Satan) and Michael Aquino (Temple of Set).

I have come to respect the satanic philosophy, specially as developed by Michael Aquino. Satanism attracts a lot of attention as soon as the word is mentioned because of its connotations with Christianity. I believe, however, that it is the Christians themselves that have created Satanism. The whole concept of Satanism is nothing more than a counter reaction on Christianity. The knee-jerk reactions of Christians as soon as the subject gets mentioned shows that it has the desired effect! LaVey's Black Mass is a great example of the provocative and theatrical aspects of Satanism.

The Satanic philosophy is ant-Christian. It is the mirror image of Christianity. It does not proclaim that one should go around and whack everybody on the head and other forms of unruly behaviour. Satanism is a philosophy which embraces personal freedom and places the source of morality within ourselves, while Christianity seeks to find truth in a transcendent reality.

It was very amusing and enlightening to discuss Satanism with a Christian :)