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The Row Boat"Had we but world enough, and time..." *
Epiphenomena6/01/2007 11:28:30There are a lot of times when it feels pretty hard to believe that all this philosophizing and commenting on others' philosophizing is doing a whole lot of good. Or, rather: thinking about the meaning of life is the last way to learn anything about the meaning of life. This should be a common enough experience for scholars, and it helps provide us with the necessary angst to go on. But I never really think this way for long: something miraculous usually ends up getting in the way. Despite all that trying to learn, at times, I actually do. These days I'm working on a rather ridiculous book called How to Ask Questions. At the heart of it (so far), is an extensive exposition of meanings and definitions and distinctions related to what questions are. Nobody has ever suggested to me that they would find such a thing useful, so it seems to be a perfect example of academic irrelevance. In order to generate thinking on the subject, however, I've been conducting a series of interviews with friends of mine who have inspired me with their question asking. These interviews, let me tell you, have been AMAZING. They have reconnected me with far-flung friends, and in each interview, have opened the door for learning things about my friends I would have never known. I have felt importantly closer to all of them. And beyond that: these were indisputably worthwhile experiences. And that is I think how the course of things works, whether we are doing philosophy or brain surgery. Very often the greatest contributions and connections one makes come through the epiphenomena, the things that happen while one is trying to do something else. The family one raises in the course of a career, for instance. The movie Mr. Holland's Opus. By the time I finish this book, my goal is to have no need of it. To have so fully inhaled its epiphenomena, the little gifts it leaves along the side, that the book itself will be only icing on a very thick cake. |
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