.

And by a prudent flight and cunning save A life which valour could not, from the grave. A better buckler I can soon regain, But who can get another life again? Archilochus

Wednesday, December 6, 2023

Everybody Knows....

Excerpts from the last video:
Sensation -> Imagination -> Memory -> Intellect
1st -> Limit-object; that which can only be felt (the sentiendum)

2nd -> Limit-object; "that which can only be Imagined" (the phantasteaon)

3rd -> Limit-object; "that which can only be Remembered" (the memorandum)

4th -> Limit object; "that which can only be Thought" (the cogitandum)
All four "differences" form the idea through process of "transcendental empiricism".

This is different from the Platonic model of 'recognition'. Recognition may be defined by the harmonious exercise of all faculties upon a supposed same object: the same object may be seen, touched, remembered, imagined, or conceived.

Deleuze believes that knowledge begins in Encounter, not Recognition.

The difference in method/ approach form "quadripatite fetters under which only that which is identical, similar, analogous, or opposed can be considered "different": difference becomes an object of representation always in relation to a conceived identity, a judged analogy, and imagined opposition, or a perceived similitude.

Platonism is incapable of grasping difference itself.

"It is noteworthy that the dogmatic image, for its' part, recognizes only error as a possible misadventure of thought, and reduces everything to the form of error. This indid is the fifth postulate that we should take into account: taking error to be the sole 'negative' of thought."

So why do we err...
"Hume is here effecting a second major displacement in philosophy: for the traditional concept of error he substitutes the concept of delusion or delirium, according to which there are not false but illegitimate beliefs, illegitimate operations of the faculties, and illegitimate functionings of relations." (Desert Island)

These come from an inability to formulate a problem properly, not one of "recognition" but of "individuation".

"Individualtion as such, as it operates beneath all forms, is inseparable from a pure ground that it brings to the surface and trails with it. It is difficult to describe this ground, or the terror and attraction it excites. Turning over the ground is the most dangerous occupation, but also the most tempting in the stupefied moments of an obtuse will. For this ground, alonmg with the individual, rises toi the surface yet assumes neither form nor figure. It is there, staring at us, but without eyes. The individual distinguishes itself from it, but does not distinguish itself, continuing rather to cohabit with that which divorces itself from it."
When do we really think?
...for Plato, Sense is a hypothetical proposition -> apodictic (T/F) proposition.

If Sense = the proposition that expresses it, this gives way to an infinite regress... "given a proposition which denotes a state of affairs, one may always take its sense as that which another proposition denotes" (Logic of Sense)

To escape this paradox Deleuze uses the paradox of "Doubling". Doubling means that Sense is "no longer in a precipitation but in a suspension". To avoid redoubling, need to fix the infinite regress by fixating the proposition long enough to extract its' meaning (and fall into infinite regressions).

Formal logic -> Truth or Falsity of a proposition

Transcendental logic -> conditions of apparition of a proposition.

How do we effectuate the passage from it's logical to transcendental form?

Cogito ergo sum + Kant's missing element... "the determinable, or rather the form in which the undetermined is determinable (by the determination). This third value suffices to make logic a transcendental instance. It amounts to the discovery of Difference - no longer in the form of an empirical difference between two determinations, but in the form of a transcendental Difference between the Determination as such and what it determines; no longer in the form of an external difference which separates, but in the form of an internal Difference which establishes an a priori relation between thought and being."

It introduces "Time" because thought take time then problems must be constructed. Ideas, truths, essences must be constructed as well.
What is knowledge?
How does movement or passage translate into knowledge?

Knowledge is not a state, but a process called "Learning".

"To learn to swim is to conjugate the distinctive points of our bodies with the singular points of the objective Idea in order to form a problematic field." learning is the manner in which Thought becomes a Temporal Process.

"Learning is the true transcendental structure which unites difference to difference, dissimularity to dissimularity, without mediating between them; and introduces time into thought."

Culture is not, or should not be, a movement of normalization grounded in ideas of Identity.

"Such is the origin of the grotesque image of culture that we find in examinations and government referenda, as well as newspaper competitions (where everyone is called upon to choose according to his or her taste, on condition that this taste coincides with that of everyone else)"

Deleuze mocks the formula: "Be yourselves - it being understood that this self must be that of others"

Culture is not a movement of normalization or comformity.

"Culture(...) is an involuntary adventure, the movement of learning which links a Sensibility, a memory and then a thought, with all the cruelties and violence necessary, as Nietzsche said, precisely in order to "train a Nation of Thinkers" or to "provide a Training for the mind."
Deleuze's solution to Plato's eight postulates:
...and so the old image of thought is replaced as follows in our chart, which is also the summary of what we have so far. Thought begins not in identity but in difference. The Thinker does not have a natural affinity for the truth. On the contrary, he is forced to think because problems Force us to think. Thought does not recognize Eternal ideas, but rather it is subject to encounters. To the subordination of difference to Identity, we must begin with difference as that by which the given, is given. To error, as a product of a faulty exercise of the senses or as an extrinsic phenomenon we must oppose the imminent illusions of the Mind. To the paradoxes of Sense who must oppose nonsense. The ground with no eyes as the instance which generates sense. To the idea that problems can be mirrored in propositions, we must oppose the notion that problems must be constructed. And finally to knowledge and Method, we must oppose learning and culture. So knowledge is not a state, but a process of learning which includes things as diverse as learning Latin, learning to love, or learning to swim. This is how the image of thought becomes as Deleuze says, "a thought without image which will allow us to understand how sense can become productive so it's a creation of difference itself."

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