Fragmenta Philosophica

Huh? VIII

In the UK Telegraph - derided by some of my Leftist English friends as the "Torygraph" - there appears an article (login required) about Abu Hamza, the "mad mullah of Finsbury Park," who has run afoul of American officials and is awaiting deportation to the big, bad U.S.

I sometimes wonder if journalists sneak in certain passages to amuse themselves; like the following:

"He kept his hooked hands in his pockets throughout the hearing and closed his eyes, appearing to fall asleep as evidence against him was outlined."

Nice alliteration, huh?!

god(s) in heaven?

I mentioned in a comment in a previous post that I've been revisiting Astronomy of late.

I can understand why the heavenly bodies have been associated perennially with divinity - either as (literally) gods themselves, or as exemplars of Divine handicraft. As a non-believer, I have long agreed with what I think is the common view that the Argument from (apparent) Design is the strongest "motive of credibility" for theism. The firmament, at once spectacularly beautiful and orderly, is the quintessence of a god's artisanship and artistry.

The estimated extent of the Universe is staggering, and functionally incomprehensible: 100 Billion galaxies,
comprised of 5 Billion Trillion Stars. The awe inspired by the sidereal panorama is supplemented by celestial
statistics of unfathomable magnitude.

The night sky is an apt metaphor for life or existence, methinks - the (known) Kosmos is beyond vast, as disclosed by a skywards glance ... or a penetrating gaze into the structure of things (e.g., the eye), and/or the micro-kosmoi evident all around, such as tidepools - "Russian Dolls" receding to the edge of infinity, or (in Koestler's locution) holons within holons within holons ... Man is blessed and cursed to be a zōon logon - "rational animal," the animal that has the logos (power of speech, thought) - which hungers for a comprehensive view of The Whole that
is at once always "there" and forever beyond reach.

As the old saying goes, art(ifice) imitates Nature - and, we might add, falls short by an order of magnitude, though certain genii (Mozart, Vermeer, Plato, Tolstoy) might in their own ways be worthy mimics (respectable apprentices). The impulse to reading "design" in the fabric of Nature seems irresistible.

But what would it mean to have an unorderly world? World - Kosmos - inherently implies order, systematicity. Even a fashionably 18-century-style mechanistic universe exemplifies the order of mechanism. Is this to admit, then, that - as I've heard a sagacious fellow say - if anything exists, God exists? Or rather that, since the visible order of things is the starting point to be explained, to prejudice an explanation in terms of "design" is to beg the question?

Regardless, I'm willing to hazard the (harsh) judgment that whoever doesn't feel that there's something uncanny or mysterious about existence deserves the title of "flathead."

Palette in Hand ...

Madame Philosophica has enlisted my assistance in painting the homestead (a fine shade of green) - so I'll be laying low, posting-wise, for the next day or so.

Thanks for stopping by.

Private & Public, Observer & Observed

Part of my appreciation of the private sector - the domain of initiative and accountability - isn't that it's at all Edenic, but rather that it is animated by a set of incentives and "aversions" which entail a greater measure of self-regulation than the public sector.

Hence it's not surprising to me that - ex hypothesi - the occupation of Iraq has evinced "poor planning," "mis-management," &c. I would hardly expect more from a vast bureaucracy - the military, Depts. of State and Defense, &c. - undertaking a fool's errand. A charitable onlooker, anyhow, has to acknowledge the role that chance and the irreducible human factor play in any attempt to resuscitate a gasping populace, strangled by decades of tyranny.

Though I'm willing to acknowledge that there certainly have been better-run occupations in the past, I do incline to the view that they are viewed through a somewhat nostalgic backwards glance. Had they been scrutinized as they unfolded, via an omnipresent - and markedly hostile - media (all media afford partial vistas, anyhow), they certainly would have been viewed, and might well have turned out, different(ly).

Here the observer, in the act of observation, is surely altering the experimental datum.

Breather

Thanks to anyone who's stopped by of late - just taking a quick breather.

I'll be back at it momentarily.

I'll sleep easier tonight

Aging Octopus Finds Love at Last

Homo Homini Monstrum

Nick Berg, R.I.P.

The Unwanted and the Unwonted

In the commentary on the Abu Ghraib outrages, the question has been addressed whether what transpired was isolated or systemic.

The two notions are opposed in the obvious sense of contrasting what occurs according to top-down policy/plans, vs. that which happens in spite of - sc., in defiance of - established norms of conduct.

But maybe the notions are complementary to the extent that there was a weak structure of expectation and enforcement - an enervated esprit de corps. Then the sadism would paradoxically reflect "the system," to the extent that the latter was corrupted by a kind of anarchy. The system would be riddled with isolated exceptions, unwonted and unwanted, exemplifying an inner tension akin to plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose .

But then, is that even a "system"?

HEPTAPARAPARSHINOKH

Now there's a word! If you manage to attain its signatum, save a spot for me under the banyan tree, and we can talk about it.

Huh? VII

As is the blogger's wont, I find it interesting to scour the server logs and see the "referers" [sic] (web-originators) for hits to this site.

Amongst the stranger ones of late, with multiple referrals, have been Google searches for "Rita Hayworth nude" and "Saudi nude."

Nothing much prurient here, I'm afraid - though the title of one of my posts is apparently more salacious than its content - Blogger's Temptation.

As a Software Engineer, I realize that including those very search phrases in this entry will in all likelihood increase hits to my blog - now drawing in voyeurs to .... this post.

But I shan't let such an epiphenomenon deter me - like MGM the slogan 'round here is Ars Gratia Artis. Welcome, ecdysisophiliacs.