2007-01-11 - 12:42 a.m.
Diderot=Encyclopedie
reliable knwledge was to be the arsenal of reason
The rationalists developed a theory of progress
Darwin's theory suggested that progress was a nature fact
Read J.B. Bury, "The Idea of Progress"
Bacon, F. thought the principle end of scientific work should be to advance
human happiness
Bacon thought the goal of science should be to endow humans with new riches
Big B. called math the "humble handmaiden to invention"
The Rev. in relativity was as much a language rev. as it was for physics
J.B.S. Haldone said, "The universie is not only stranger than we think but
stranger than we can think
McLuhan asked does the medium change the message? could have F.D.R. or a
Lincoln taken the throne in a more spectacular age?
Thinking about sentences, declarations interjections as the curt, once-removed
self commentary
Modern medicine is better than witchcraft because of its discourse explosion
The quest for certainty is what derrida thought to be the most dangerous and
so that's embedded in the enlightenment tradition
Derrida calls the above, logocentrism, there is a thrill in discovering things
that appear to be universal, A Bllod circulation B I sleep and so do you
P.M. ratcheted up to the tightest (just before the snapping point) the
breaking point is Baudrillard thinking, we took the reigns and now you can
have them back! (Insurgents, Liberty University et. al)
The earth revolves around the sun..ok so what, what does that do in telling me
how to live? The isolated fact represents the condom, the urge to wrest
universal truth in the moral and social realm is the urge to take the condom
off and just go for it
Problem with P.M. uncertainty fervor is that not only is it the second orgasm
of the morning (not so stunning?) b/c physicists said the same things, only
more directly, but also it over compensates b/c the moon is not made out of
green cheese.
In Emile Rousseau urged children to read "Robinson Crusoe" and that would be
learnin' enough.
Salons were in interesting intersection for aristocrats and middle class ( an
argument against eliminating public education)
Scriberlus club was started in 1714 (Swift, Pope, Bolingbroke and Arthnobot-
the doctor for disabled geniuses
Original American schools were built to get a headstart on the devil,
education could thwart the demonic designs
Supposedly when Diderot died he said to his daughter, "The first step toward
philosophy is unbelief."
The encyclopedia was supposed to be a vehicle through which the world-view of
skeptisism could be advanced
Diderot saw information as a weapon for social change
America's first newspaper, 1690 in Boston was open about its objective, "To
combat the spirit of lying which has recently descended upon the township of
Boston"
Information glut or mythinformation, knowledge vs information- too much
information theses days, "There's got to be a better way" leads to "There's
got to be an easier way." or "go with your gut"
