Tag: Philosophical inquiry

• February 11, 2014

  Rewriting Wittgenstein’s opening ‘Remarks’

  I have returned time and again to Wittgenstein’s opening statements on method from ‘Remarks on Frazer’s Golden Bough‘: One must start out in error and convert it into truth. That is, one must reveal the source of error, otherwise hearing the truth won’t do any good. The truth cannot force its way in when something else…
• July 11, 2013

  Becoming ‘hungry for surprises’: The cultivation of lightness (Part 2)

  In Part 1, I discuss the importance of being surprised, arguing that philosophical inquiring presents us with two kinds of surprises: perplexities and illuminations. Today, I discuss the cultivation of lightness in the presence of surprise. 2. The Cultivation of Lightness One important benefit of learning the art of inquiry is that we become prepared…
• July 10, 2013

  On the importance of being surprised (Part 1)

  In the following series of posts, I’d like to say some things about the kind of genre philosophical inquiry is and about the kind of character the practice of inquiry can cultivate. First, I’ll say some things about the nature of surprises in general and about the kinds of surprises–perplexities and illuminations–that emerge during philosophical…
• October 24, 2012

  Unstucking ‘stuckness’ (2)

  Stuckness Yesterday I argued that “stuckness” is the best single word description of the ‘place’ in which many people find themselves. Specifically, I said that being stuck involves 1. being unable to go forward toward a future state of being; 2. being unable to go backward, to return to a prior state of being; 3. having the desire to move one…