Buber reverses an insight of conventional wisdom. When thinking of “the other” a typically empathetic view would be something like: We should regard an other (a Thou) as an alter-ego, a fellow-I. Buber would, rather, have us think of our own I as an alter-Thou.
Three related passages, all hinting at the kind of participatory knowing that enworlds (as opposed to knowing that produces mere worldview). The first is from Martin Buber’s I and Thou, the second from Amos Oz’s A Tale of Love and Darkness and the last from Bruno Latour’s Irreductions. 1. Every child that is coming into … Continue reading Chord: Participatory knowing
Some people in your life invest in relationship. You put something in, they put something in, and you become someone together with them. Both care about that relationship — your joint being, who they are with you — and they put effort into keeping it thriving over time, through calm and storm. Some people are … Continue reading Relationships
Progressivists replace all stated intentions with their own imputed ones. Progressivists are unconcerned when their enemies claim very different motives than those Progressivists claim they have. Now we’re seeing the same tendency, but reversed. When their allies clearly state the worst intentions, they ignore them. There is nothing left to say. Progressivism is mass solipsism. … Continue reading Progressivist imputations
There is a plurality of ways to be a pluralist, and pluralism is prepared to accept the pragmatic consequences of this truth by acknowledging that apparent contradictions to any given truth, even the truth of pluralism, does not imply falsehood. Pseudopluralism believes that its view on pluralism is the only valid form of pluralism, and … Continue reading Sermon on the Distributed God
When I was in fourth grade I had my first crush. “Crush” is a fitting term for it. It was too much for a ten-year-old to handle. I became entirely preoccupied with what this other person saw, felt and thought — in particular when she looked back at me. I had absolutely no idea at … Continue reading Lovesickness
Ethnomethodologically speaking, a nonconformist is a human breaching experiment. Breaching experiments violate the tacit rules of the social game. When those rules are violated players no longer know how to move around. Perplexity ensures. Nonconformists inspire perplexity, anxiety and hostility. * If we understand personalities to form and sustain itself through ethnomethods, and if we … Continue reading Nonconformism
From Cooper’s Existentialism: A Reconstruction: ‘In the end,’ writes Marcel, ‘there must be an absolute commitment’, and what ‘matters most’ is the ‘fidelity’ demanded by this commitment. This squares with his earlier rejection of commitment to principles as ‘idolatrous’, since the commitment now in view is to persons — to other people and to God. … Continue reading Freedom system
My theology is one of distributed divinity. Every person is a swarm of divine sparks of intuition seeking pluralistic unity in a self — I. Every self seeks pluralistic unity with other selves — We. And each We seeks ever greater scales of pluralistic unity — We expanding toward and beyond the bounds of universality. … Continue reading Distributed divinity
I hate to borrow techie terminology for philosophical purposes, and I hate it even more when the term has already been heavily appropriated and bastardized by non-techie types, but here it works so well I’m overriding taste. I’ve been playing with the concept of deixis as a way of accounting for differences in metaphysical conception … Continue reading Deictic stack
If someone were designing my ideal Hell (or if you prefer atheistic imagery, Room 101) put me on a team that designs by committee for a committee. You don’t even have to sentence me for eternity. A month is plenty to get my teeth gnashing, and more than a month will reduce me to the … Continue reading Room 101
1) “The personal is political”is a political belief, not a fact. 2) If I believe you hold this belief, you will not be welcome in my personal life. Martin Buber’s distinction between the social and the interhuman remains centrally important to me. Personal friendship is a function of transcending the social and entering interhuman relationship … Continue reading “The personal is political”
Susan keeps asking if there might be an upside to the wokeness convulsion our society is undergoing. She hopes it might inspire people to have conversations they might not have otherwise had and to develop real empathy. I’m pretty sure this hope is an expectation widely shared among progressives. I think the entire project is … Continue reading Susan’s hope, my hope
“I no longer know how from that I came to speak of Jesus and to say that we Jews knew him from within, in the impulses and stirrings of his Jewish being, in a way that remains inaccessible to the peoples submissive to him. ‘In a way that remains inaccessible to you’ — so I … Continue reading Gospel Pharisee
Martin Buber taught me that every person is a potential encounter with God if we are willing to relate to the other as a unique, surprising Thou (what he calls the I-Thou relationship), as opposed to an “it.”
Maybe this is true: Levinas :: Buber ::: Deleuze :: Whitehead If :: is the symbol of an analogy, ::: should be the symbol for an anomalogy. Ideally ::: would be arranged as a little hexagon made of 6 dots, to indicate that the system of analogies can crisscross at strange grid-defying angles. Levinas :: … Continue reading An anomalogy
Yesterday, talking with a friend about the current generation of youth’s terror of being awkward or inappropriate, I realized I’ve somehow managed to never write about the concept of lek on this blog, much less in connection with Buber’s social versus interhuman/interpersonal distinction. I’d imagined this linkage so vividly I assumed I’d written about it … Continue reading Lek and “the social”
Approaches to the composition of hybrid systems (systems made up of both objective and subjective elements) can be classified according to perspective. Actor-Network Theory views hybrid systems from a 3rd-person perspective, in objective terms, without emphasis on either the human or the nonhuman components that make up the system. Postphenomenology views hybrid systems from a … Continue reading Perspectives on hybrid systems
What is it about the marketing mindset that makes it feel so familiar and so unfamiliar at the same time to my designer’s view of the world? Why do designers and marketers talk past one another if they aren’t very careful? This is an important question. Marketing is close to design, and addresses many of … Continue reading Design vs marketing mindset
Well, I tried to write about my books and how I want to prune my library, and ended up writing a history of my interests. I know there are loose ends, but I am tired of writing, so blat, here it is: I used to have strict criteria for book purchases. To earn a place … Continue reading An autobibliobiography