Posted: Apr 13, 2013 6:16 am
Reeve wrote:Some fucking idiot on JREF wrote:Perhaps what I am actually saying is that I loathe philosophizing.
I'm a firm believer that if you can't say something in a paragraph you are talking out of you ass. There is no concept so complex that a cliff note version can't be expressed to a laymen in 4 or 5 sentences (give or take). Meandering mumbo jumbo drives me bonkers. (especially when it's used to attempt to turn physics or astronomy into Jesus )
Not heard, but read obviously.
Despite the parlous literacy of the above quote, I would say that to an extent, that individual did have something resembling a point. After all, if it's possible to explain the fundamental concepts of something as abstract as string theory to a lay audience (a task that the BBC Horizon TV series succeeded in performing on more than one occasion), then it should be possible for those with genuinely robust ideas to express them, without having to resort to vast swathes of convoluted semantic sophistry.
Of course, genuine philosophers, as opposed to mere assertionists posturing as such, are capable of this. I'm reminded here of some of Kierkegaard's early existentialist work, and his succinct clarion call for the elevation of the "common man" to the "uncommon man". But he was, in this instance, simply stating a notion that most here would eminently agree with, namely, that we should be striving to educate as many as possible, stretching their minds, and encouraging them to rise intellectually above their origins. I consider myself extremely fortunate indeed, that I was possibly amongst the last to experience such resolute pursuit of education as a calling in my youth.