tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7461948747659071092.post4579464783499582445..comments2023-09-29T02:49:02.989-07:00Comments on An Emphatic Umph: The Experience of an IdeaDaniel Coffeenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03912050391869734890noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7461948747659071092.post-36369710272812484722011-07-24T17:37:19.620-07:002011-07-24T17:37:19.620-07:00I fucking love the collaborative nature of this th...I fucking love the collaborative nature of this thing: thinking in-between is a joy.<br /><br />@ DrW: I love "points of disorientation" and that beliefs are asthmatic. Brilliant.<br /><br />@ Nathan: Excellent point — temporality and rhythm: yes yes yes.<br /><br />@ Ruby: Fucking hilarious. And a thought as a wave is interesting — not just a wave through you but a wave as distinct from a particle. Ideas are analog, not digital — I think.Daniel Coffeenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03912050391869734890noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7461948747659071092.post-86814238176307465972011-07-23T19:28:24.461-07:002011-07-23T19:28:24.461-07:00Forming an idea is exhilarating – what is more del...Forming an idea is exhilarating – what is more delightful than young children spinning wild ideas while almost high on the process? I think that delight remains, at some level, in all people whether they are gardeners, shopkeepers or academics. <br /><br />For me, ideas aren’t images but waves - I feel like an idea is passed through me rather than presented before me. Ideas make my place in the world more clear rather than make the world more clear for me. The old - and still common - phrase ‘it dawned on me’ is fantastically descriptive of the way an idea might be building through experience and then suddenly reach a point of clarity…before fading into the background – to be assimilated or discarded after further consideration and experience. Beliefs and thoughts are not separate here but entwined in a process. Academia makes a God of the process of analysing – that can be very good but also has troubles by being removed from the everyday world of experience and emerging ideas.<br /><br />The question of ideas V beliefs always makes me think of the 7thC monks who set up thinking shop on a pointy rock out in the Irish Atlantic. Supposedly there to think, how could they have gone without the belief that it would be meaningful? And once they arrive, were they not bound to find some meaning? (This question could be asked of the academic process). It's stunning to look at the wave battered rock and try to imagine how anyone lived there but, as my dad would say, what kind of fool would try to live there? The Vikings speared them in the end - not being versed in the idea of Christianity.Rubyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15087509921255997841noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7461948747659071092.post-17739412053730999252011-07-22T15:02:27.114-07:002011-07-22T15:02:27.114-07:00This is nice. I like the suggestion that we take u...This is nice. I like the suggestion that we take up the difference between ideas and beliefs in terms of aesthetic experience. Immediately, I want to say that the two modes of thought have distinct temporalities. Beliefs seem to have a certain speed, like the signal in a feedback loop which traverses the same circuit endlessly. I can feel that speed, that centripetal force, when I go on a rant. In those instances I'm not moving with ideas, I'm being propelled by the whirring action of belief which generates its own sort of exuberant energy. Ideas, on the other hand, seem to have a more geologic temporality. They emerge slowly and then suddenly. But, when I'm thinking an idea, I start to fidget in all sorts of ways: biting my fingernails, tapping my foot, chewing on a pen. So there's a sort of proliferation of quick little physical movements which accompanies the very exacting, slow moving process of thought groping toward the idea. Kind of an interesting divergence. Anyhow, there's plenty more to say on this subject. Maybe in the next post?Nathanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11699556544348585079noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7461948747659071092.post-39728630042507171102011-07-21T23:18:29.314-07:002011-07-21T23:18:29.314-07:00I really enjoyed this - it felt like an evolution ...I really enjoyed this - it felt like an evolution of a thought, which to me makes it a real idea, whatever "real" means. <br /><br />I don't mind the idea that ideas are "images" but I like the idea towards the end of the structure - ideas to me are sort of points of orientation or hopefully disorientation. <br /><br />I do this thing every semester where I write "thought - thoughtful, belief - believe and opine and opinion" on the board and try to sort out the difference. It's really tricky and I can't say that I have really made great distinctions, except it sounds good to be called thoughtful and bad to be called opinionated. And it seems like beliefs don't breathe as well as thoughts, beliefs are asthmatic in a way that thoughts aren't. <br /><br />Pleasure as always.drwatsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16184322472302989822noreply@blogger.com