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November 7-17, 2011
I've always liked the phrase
"In Search of a Method". POLAR_SARTRE
I've seen that 1963 Sartre
paperback kicking around for
most of my life.
I see it's actually based on a 1960
publication in french that might
more literally be translated as "The
Question of Method" (or "The Problem
of Method"?), a phrasing which seems
less appealing: it's more passive But possibly, "in search"
and reflective, and less engaged. isn't quite a phrase that
Sartre would have endorsed.
Actually reading the book doesn't It's a bit
really illuminate the phrase "In POLAR_SARTRE frustrating to
Search of a Method" very much. attempt a close
When the word "method" pops up study of a text in
it always takes me by surprise: what I suspect is a
"I do not like this method"-- weak translation.
Wait, we were discussing a method?
What method? For doing what?
The Methods he's after I'm still puzzling
appear to be methods for over the last
the application of Marx, section, with the
perhaps the creation of tantalyzing title
a Marxist world. "The Progressive-
Regressive Method".
Since I'm not willing As far as I can
to grant that Marx tell, the idea is
nailed everything, it you need to know
may be that Sartre's what happened before
analysis is only of you decide what
indirect interest. should happen next.
So start over with the phrase itself.
What might it mean?
What virtue does it have?
There's an air of tentativeness
Should I adopt it as a about it, a character of
flag to wave? hedging... "I don't claim to
know what I'm doing, I'm trying
to figure it out."
First:
(New ways of waffling are
Method of doing what? always exciting.)
We have a "scientific
method" that works
well enough.
What method might we
need that we don't
already have?
Often when I talk
My usual answer is that about my own "methods",
we need better mechanisms I'm looking for ways
for all of us as a whole of focusing on the
to converge on the truth task at hand, and ways
while the truth is still of breaking out of a rut
relevant. in hopes of achieving
something new.
It could be that we
need some negative Also: looking for ways of
methods, ways of keeping oneself honest...
discrediting jammers
and provacateurs before Ways of learning new things.
they can do damage.
Ways of determining truth,
Ways of living while true
to yourself.
Here's a thought:
look up techniques of
network security, error-
checking and debugging, NODAL_SELF
and try developing
analogies to human Applying a result from one
networks. domain to another, looking
for unexpected applications.
How's that for a method?
METHOD
Like Koestler's
"bisociation"?
FIRE_IN_THE_BRIG
Sartre's chapter "The Progressive-Regressive
Method" is full of kindergarten-level
puzzling over whether people create or are Maybe the real appeal
created by history, or could it be-- of biological
*both at the same time*!? determinism is
recursion makes
What else? people's heads hurt.
But better keep the gain down on "You are what
that feedback loop if you don't you are" is so
like shrieking noises. much easier to
deal with.
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