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SO_FAR

                                                      June 7, 2006

When I see a young twenty-something
getting started wrestling with          But no one seems to get
weighty issues, I'm always excited      very far with these
to see them off, and provide whatever   matters.  It's rare to
small assistance I can manage...        come to a conclusion much
                                        better than a shrug.

                                        So why send someone off
                                        on yet another doomed
                                        mission?


          The question at hand
          then is something like:

          Is there some benefit
          from partial success?

          Is there some point to
          getting part way there?

          Is there some benefit to
          wrestling once again with
          an intellectual problem        My answer, of course, is
          that the smart money           going to be "of course!".
          would bet is intractable?

             Or: is there                But this means nothing.
             some point to
             philosophy?
                                             I am reminded of the Toadkeeper,
                                             knowing he was dying of cancer,
                                             continuing to fill spiral
                                             bound notebooks with copious
                                             notes about the texts he was
                                             studying, though he knew full
                                             well nothing would ever come
                                             of it.

                                                  For intellectuals,
                                                  intellectual activity
                                                  becomes a habit, a
                                                  reflex, rather than a
                                                  reasoned response.


To sketch out some possible answers:

  o  There's always a chance.

  o  Mental exercise.

  o  Partial successes are not
     uncommon, and possibly useful.

  o  Even "failure" can be of some benefit:

     e.g. grasping the issues may be
     useful in inoculating yourself
     against another's claims to have
     completely solved the problems.

         The hesitant character of
         the Apollonian Way is not
         necessarily a drawback.

            Newtons sleep may
            get one through a
            dangerous night.



     
     
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