{"id":11832,"date":"2020-03-26T23:00:24","date_gmt":"2020-03-27T03:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gornahoor.net\/?p=11832"},"modified":"2021-08-07T23:28:49","modified_gmt":"2021-08-08T03:28:49","slug":"ready-made-ideas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gornahoor.net\/?p=11832","title":{"rendered":"Readymade Ideas"},"content":{"rendered":"

L\u2019espoir d\u2019arriver tard dans un sauvage lieu. ~ Alfred de Vigny<\/strong>, La maison du berger<\/em><\/p>\n

Until now men have torn each other apart for the sake of certain dubious invisible beings that are careful not to call themselves spirits, but \u2018ideals\u2019. I think the hour has finally come for the war against these invisible enemies, and I would like to play a part in it. For years I have been aware that I was being trained in spiritual warfare, but until now I have never had this clear feeling that a great battle against these damned ghosts is at hand. I tell you, once you start clearing out all those false ideals, there\u2019s no end to it. You\u2019ve no idea what piles of humbug brazenly posing as truth you have inherited.<\/em> ~ Gustav Meyrink<\/strong>, The Green Face<\/cite><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Charles Peguy<\/strong>\u2019s Notes on Bergson and Descartes<\/cite> has recently been translated into English. He discusses Bergson\u2019s notion of the readymade in contrast to the being-made.<\/p>\n

Readymade ideas<\/h2>\n
\"Readymade<\/a><\/figure>\n

The term readymade was used by French artist Marcel Duchamp to describe the works of art made from manufactured objects. We few are not satisfied with the rearrangement of readymade ideas, like clothes \u201coff the rack\u201d. The opposite are not wholly novel ideas, which are really newly created readymade ideas, but rather a deepening understanding of ideas. As Valentin Tomberg put it, there is the \u201cremembering\u201d of old ideas which than get repeated at appropriate time, just like little Jack Horner pulling out the perfect bon mot for every occasion.<\/p>\n

The alternative is the resurrection of the idea, to make it part of your living thinking. These ideas are in process of being made since they are \u201cmade to measure\u201d. Readymade ideas are from the past and are used to compel being into a pre-existing form, much like Procrustes.<\/p>\n

Living thinking is in process.<\/p>\n

Philosophical Debate<\/h2>\n

Several years ago, I encountered a man named J on social media, who was a rabid Catholic convert, very super-correct. He was willing to debate anyone on his chosen topics in religion and politics. He \u201cunfriended\u201d me as being unworthy of his intellect. After an extended absence, J has resurfaced, only now as a nihilist, an apostate. A debate between J and J\u2019 would be a spectacle. J is fickle, \u201cLa Donna \u00e9 mobile\u201d, yet I persist.<\/p>\n

The Internet is replete with such men, who regard debate as a blood sport instead of conversation as a shared experience. They will boast about their IQ scores and the vast number of books they have read, or how much they suffered to reach their conclusions. Thinking is not just a matter of working hard. After all, who works harder than Sisyphus and how far has that gotten him?<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, they garner followers who are all too pleased to collect and repeat readymade thoughts. That is much easier than thinking along with someone. Even when I am wrong, it does not suffice to refute me; rather you must dig a little deeper, not join the mob. Peguy makes this point:<\/p>\n

To attend a philosophical debate or to participate in one with this idea that one is going to conquer or bring down one\u2019s adversary, or that one is going to see one adversary confound the\u00a0 other, is to demonstrate that one does not know what one is talking about. It witnesses to a great incapacity, baseness and barbarism. It witnesses to a great absence of culture. It demonstrates that one is not from that country.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Determination of Thinking<\/h2>\n

My second maxim was to be the most firm and the most resolute in my actions as I could be and to follow no less the most doubtful opinions once I had determined on them. ~ Rene Descartes<\/strong>, Discourse on Method<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This is his morality of thinking; once an idea has been determined to be true, the philosopher is morally obliged to follow such ideas where they lead. The determined trumps the doubtful. Determination, assurance, and resolution conquer. The vulgar work in the opposite way. They start with opinions and then seek reasons to believe them.<\/p>\n

To Walk in a Straight Line<\/h2>\n

Dante found himself in the middle of a forest.<\/p>\n

Midway upon the journey of our life
\nI found myself within a forest dark,
\nFor the straightforward pathway had been lost.<\/p>\n

Ah me! how hard a thing it is to say
\nWhat was this forest savage, rough, and stern,
\nWhich in the very thought renews the fear.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Descartes uses similar imagery in explicating his second maxim:<\/p>\n

I would be imitating travelers who find themselves lost in a forest: rather than wandering about in all directions or (even worse) staying in one place, they should keep walking as straight as they can in one direction, not turning aside for slight reasons, even if their choice of direction was a matter of mere chance in the first place; for even if this doesn\u2019t bring them to where they want to go it will at least bring them to somewhere that is probably better for them than the middle of a forest.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That is where we find ourselves, already in the midst of things, deep in the dark forest with no printed instructions. You may prefer readymade answers but<\/p>\n

A great philosophy is not one that resolves the questions once and for all, but one that poses them; that a great philosophy is not one that pronounces, but one that demands.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Sorry if that is not pleasing. Yet it is necessary to move, to walk in a straight line. That is a matter of will. The line you follow might be a matter of luck, or fortune, or perhaps even of grace.<\/p>\n

The First Maxim<\/h2>\n

We should not neglect Descartes\u2019 first maxim, if the second seems too arbitrary:<\/p>\n

The first was to obey the laws and customs of my country,\u00a0 holding\u00a0 constantly\u00a0 to\u00a0 the\u00a0 religion\u00a0 in\u00a0 which\u00a0 by God\u2019s grace I had been instructed from my childhood, and governing myself in all other matters \u2014 i.e. all the ones not settled by the law of the land or my religion \u2014 on the basis of the most moderate and least extreme opinions, the opinions commonly accepted in practice by the most sensible of the people with whom I would have to live.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Again, this is not a matter of proof but of one\u2019s will. The alternative is impiety or perhaps pride.<\/p>\n

The Great Philosophies<\/h2>\n

Peguy is undoubtedly unique in regarding Plato, Descartes, and Bergson as the world\u2019s three greatest philosophies. He explains that all great philosophy has a first moment, which is the moment of method, and a second moment, which is the moment of the metaphysical.<\/p>\n

Method<\/strong><\/p>\n