Preluminary Considerations

The history of philosophy is the language that lets you talk about what is interesting. 

And if we're lucky, to avoid having to talk and think about what isn't.

In our march through this history, we'll skip over the pre-Socratics but return to them when Aristotle comes up, because he stands in relation to them somewhat in the way Einstein does to Newton, forging a new paradigm that was able to transcend the anomalies, contradictions, absurdities, and impasses of the old. 

For the most part philosophy is a more or less interesting way to be wrong, but occasionally it makes real progress. Aristotle did it, as did Aquinas. But since then? Not many. I can count them on one hand. 

At any rate, since man qua can't help indulging in philosophy, we might as well be correct. What's the alternative? To spend your whole life being wrong?

Why, yes. That is the alternative. 

Say, is there a way to be correct without God himself giving us the secret? 

To ask it is to answer it, but let's allow the question to breathe before we address it head-on.

Any other preluminary considerations before we get back on the road to nowhere? Sure, why not. Not only is this blogging, it's blogging for myself, so there are no rules. The only limit is Bob's own grandiosity and self-indulgence. So, limitless.

It is not so much that men change their ideas, as the voices change their disguises.

If you boil them all down, there are only so many ways to be wrong -- or at least interesting and amusing ways to be wrong. Most of our modern ways to be wrong are so astoundingly stupid that they scarcely merit rebuttal. 

And I needn't add that they are not only unfunny, but that they attack humor at the source. Show me a single example of genuine wit among their ranks, and I'll show you a man (for it won't be a woman) who has taken the first step toward the Red Pill.

And yet, these are precisely the philosophies that are in the driver's seat. 

Thus, I'm gratified that folks such as Christopher Rufo are on the case, because I'd hate to have to deal with staggeringly imbecilic postmodern aberrations like CRT, Whiteness Studies, Postcolonialism, Queer Theory, and other weapons of mass indoctrination, since these are all just new ways to be Marx, and he can be refuted in under a paragraph, although I'll be generous and devote a whole post to him when it's his turn in the cosmic barrel.

Within solely Marxist categories, not even Marxism is explicable.

Yes, literally. Really, it's just another boring Christian heresy. 

Marxism turns the intelligence that it touches to stone.

Yes, literally, since these rockheaded cargo cultists use transcendence to deny transcendence. 

I want to return to the claim above that none of these postmodern idiots are witty. None are funny except unintentionally. Rather, these neo-puritans are dreary, tedious, and punitive, but never funny.

This is in contrast to, say, Nietzsche, who is one of the greatest comedians of all time. Likewise, Schopenhauer got in some great zingers. Why has the quality of our current crop of nihilists deteriorated so?

It's an important question. 

Not only is comedy important, a human without humor isn't one, not really. Why can't they laugh at their own patent absurdity? 

Thus, this will no doubt be one of our ongoing themes.

As alluded to yesterday, most of the thinkers we'll be discussing have one or two Big Ideas. As such, they can be dismantled with a single sentence or two. 

Conversely, let's take Bob. What's his Big Idea? Surely he must have one. He's managed to crank out over 4,000 posts in the past 18 years, so let's have it. Give us the summary.

If I could answer that question, I would have already written the Sequel. 

And yet, it must be buried there somewhere beneath all the verbiage. 

I suppose this will be another theme of our journey: what is Bob going on about? What's his Thing? 

In other words, this will be a way to examine and justify our own beliefs, and hopefully have a good laugh in the process.

But whatever it is, it had better be funny -- maybe even the funniest gag ever.